22 months.

Cue Frankie Valli: "Bye bye baby, baby goodbye; Bye bye baby don't make me cry."

It would seem our baby girl is gone.  She is all toddler now, all the time.  Mind you, as I prepped this blog, I just had to go upstairs and rock her back to sleep (because 45 min is NOT a nap).  Yes, Pete and I miss our baby girl, her big chubby cheeks and bald head, we miss being able to take still photographs of her and do ANYTHING without chasing her hither and yon.  That being said, Ellie is at the absolute coolest, funniest, most amazing developmental stage right now. Her speech has really taken off in the last two months.  This from someone who knows a thing or two about speech.  Here's the thing, though:  I studied typical development in school, but all I've ever worked with is atypical (it's how I have a job, yo) - so to see all the things I had to learn in school actually happening in the proper sequence at the proper chronological age is nothing short of amazing!  One day, all Ellie could say was, "sock."  About two weeks later, it was "mommy sock,"  "ellie sock," "daddy sock," (agent + object - wouldn't Dr. Capilouto be proud?!?), two weeks after that it was "mommy gray socks," "ellie red socks," "daddy white socks" - grammatical morphemes practically leaping off the page!!  (Michelle + Tara, I know you know what I'm talking about.)  Then, on February 17th, it was, "No Daddy, No push it cart."  Her first 5-word phrase!!  She pretty much hasn't looked back since then.

In her 21st and 22nd months Ellie also mastered her colors and the ability to count to ten.  (I'm working on catching these skills on video, but we've had a few witnesses.)  On February 13th, Pete was taking her to school and turned his back while he left the car door open.  When he turned back around, Ellie had climbed up into the car and into her seat on her own!  Ellie has developed her personality as well, so we can't just get dressed in the morning anymore - she wants to pick her clothes, socks, and, most especially, her shoes.  I am having little success explaining to her that usually little girls don't wear running shoes with cable knit tights and a dress, so if you see us out and about and Ellie has on an odd assortment of clothes, you can assume she chose her outfit.

Ellie is pretty good with names.  She's very proud of herself when she remembers someone's name.  Case in point:  Construction started today on our basement office/built-ins (yay!).  The name of the project manager is Mike.  He has been to our house a few times now for the proposal, some measurements, contract signing, etc.  So ALL MORNING anytime Ellie heard the door open or saw Mike go out to his truck for more wood or heard a noise from the basement she said, "Mike! Mike? Mike!!"  Luckily, Mike has a son who is a year or so older than Ellie, so he gets a kick out of her.

Ellie has also assigned Pete a color.  Not surprisingly, it is orange.  "Daddy utch" is about how it comes out.  It used to only apply to orange crayons, markers, and chalk.  Every time we were coloring, she would pick out the orange and bring it to Pete.  Now when we go to the grocery store and we see actual oranges, or grapefruits, or pretzels with an orange box, they each get labeled, "Daddy utch."  Yes Ellie, your daddy is orange, the rest of the world just calls it red. :-)

We go to the YMCA every Saturday morning for swim class.  She loves it even more than she did last year.  We have to be very careful not to mention swim class until it is time to put on her swimsuit and leave the house.  Otherwise all we hear is "swim class?  Owen?  swim class!" and she finds her swimsuit and tries to put it on over her head.  Unfortunately, Owen does NOT like swim class as much as last year, so he did not get in a boat with Ellie.  Maybe this week.



Being Ellie's mom is the most exhausting and frustrating task I've ever attempted, but it is also the most fun and rewarding.  I'm so glad she's the babe we got, because she's the best and our absolute favorite.

The world is her trampoline.