15 months.

Oh 15th month.  What a busy one you were.  We arrived home from Cape Cod just before Ellie turned 14 months old, and three weeks later, after two more first birthday parties, a trip to a different pool, and some very hot days, we left town again to visit the other side of my family in Florida.  Now we have gotten back into our regular pace of things.  But, again, just for a short amount of time.  

We don't have any travel plans in our future but a big change is on the horizon for the Crawfords:  on Monday Ellie will start day school.  It will only be three days a week, but it is time for me to start my work as a speech-language pathologist.  It is also time for Ellie to start interacting with her peers in a setting that is geared toward the under-24-month-crowd.  (Ellie loves running around our local Starbucks offering my keys and/or sunglasses to all the strangers enjoying their brew, but that fun really only lasts for a little while, and Mom & Me Pilates is another great activity, but it is only 60 min, once a week.)

Last week it seemed as though Ellie knew there was a big change on the horizon.  She naps twice a day and usually wakes from both naps chatting and eager to get out of her crib and back downstairs to play.  Three of the last ten days, Ellie has needed to be held for a little bit after she has woken up from her afternoon nap.  By the time we got back downstairs on Tuesday a whole hour had passed!  I was so happy for that time.  The two of us, sitting together on her glider, me rubbing her back and taking it all in:  her sweet smell, her fine hair, the way she still tucks her legs under her body when she's trying to sleep.  I will miss all of our afternoons together, but am so glad (and lucky!) to have been able to be home with her for the first 15 months of her life.

Ellie's cute outfit for the day only lasted through her morning nap. so she was wearing this by the time we went to her 15-month well-check.  

At 15 months to the day, Ellie weighed 21.5 lbs (34%) and was 31 inches tall (68%).

I think Ellie looks like our friend Sylvia in this picture :)

She really doesn't sit much these days, and certainly can't be posed.

In her 15th month, Ellie's speech has continued to expand.  It now includes words such as yes, eat, open, down, up, push, kiss, duck, fish, teeth, bath, Pippa, and, of course, turtle.  'Turtle' is really the only two syllable sound she reliably says with both syllables.  (baby is often only /bei/ with her pointing to a picture of a baby).  If you ask Ellie to 'dance dance dance' she will stomp her feet on the floor and give you a big grin.  Probably the biggest - and maybe not best - development this month came just as we arrived home from Florida - I blame the cousins - If Ellie does not want to do something now, she will vigorously shake her head from side to side to indicate 'no'. (Cloudy?!?!?)

I'll wrap up with a cute video of Ellie showing some of her receptive vocab: