Funny/mean pics

The dogs have regressed recently and started treating Ellie's toys as their own. All of us (Ellie included, or especially) have had to remind them to leave those stuffed animals alone! I couldn't resist snapping a picture of Radar caught in the act the other day, though. This monkey he was playing with has magnets in the hands and feet, so when I yelled at him to put it down he couldn't. It was stuck to the tags on his collar!
And Brian caught this attractive shot of Ellie the other morning. She often asks for "more" right after we set crackers or other food right in front of her. We explain that she has to eat what she has first... so then she'll shove it all in as quickly as possible and repeat her request. Tricky girl!

Throwing

Here's a fun one to start the week: Ellie practicing throws with her daddy. She's pretty good at it, despite her need in this video to run the ball all the way back to Brian!

New 'do

As requested, here's a couple more pictures showing off Ellie's stylish new hairdo. The bangs are so cute (not that I'm biased...)
And she still rocks the pony tails most days, but it's nice when the front stuff comes out that it's not all hanging in her eyes. Oh, and she was most interested in eating the sidewalk chalk I bought for us to play with the other day. Oh well.

18 month stats

Just got back from Ellie's 18-month check-up... which is a few weeks overdue. Doc gave her great reviews! We decided to switch from Dr. Miller to Dr. Woods in the same office, mostly because Dr. Miller is so busy that it's been hard to get into see her for sick appointments. Ellie has seen Dr. Woods more often in the last six months anyway, so we felt like she actually has a better baseline on Ellie's health at this point. Plus, Dr. Miller's friendliness (while a good quality in theory) caused her to get so behind on appointments that we would wind up waiting for an hour or more at every appointment. I was thrilled to be in and out of the office today in less than 45 minutes.
Ellie weighs 24 lbs, 8 oz, which keeps her on the 50th percentile growth line that she's been on for awhile now. She is 32.75 inches tall, which is in the 75th percentile. I knew she seemed tall!
I asked about turning her car seat around, since she often seems so scrunched up especially on long car trips... but was told that the latest studies still recommend backward facing until 2 years old. Not what Brian and I wanted to hear, but we also respect the science... I guess.
We did get the green light to give her peanut butter. It's been the only remaining forbidden food from her diet. We're pretty sure she'll love it since she chows down whenever we give her almond butter. Plus, it'll be nice to have another protein option for meal times.
Other than that, Dr. Woods said she seems to be developing great. I'm feeling much better about her verbal skills. As Brian kept reminding me, she seems to branch out in these spurts. She's picked up some new words in just the past week, and it's become clear how much of what we say she understands. If we ask if she's ready for bath, she'll grab my finger and pull me to the bottom of the stairs ready to go up to the bathroom. If I offer her options for dinner, she'll say "uh-uh" through several until she hears the one she wants and laughs in agreement. She knows which objects to retrieve if we ask for them, points to many body parts when asked, makes the motions for "row, row your boat" and other songs.... etc. Basically, she's our brilliant little baby and I am feeling more chill :)

Frustrated much?

This is Ellie's reaction recently when her games/projects don't go according to plan...



I'm trying to work with her on the concept of patience and "try again," but it's definitely an uphill battle.

Playing around

These are a few weeks old, but some fun ones of Ellie enjoying life. She likes to put anything and everything in Muzzy's dog crate. Here it's her babies... but we often find the dog food dishes, blocks, bones and cups. Good thing Muzzy's a small dog because it can get crowded!
And here we had to teach Ellie the "no feet on the counter" rule. We learned not to let her use a glass plate... but unfortunately not until after she broke this one from Haley and Dusty's set. Oops.

Ready for Brian's return

Don't get me wrong, Ellie and I have had a lot of fun the past five days... but I'm ready to return to a two-parent household. I've said to a couple friends this week, "I don't know how single parents do this." Honestly. This has been an exhausting week as the sole caregiver, compounded by the fact that I was finishing up a monster assignment at work. I definitely relaxed my standards around the house during Brian's absence. Case in point: when Ellie unrolled the entire role of TP from our bathroom on Thursday... I did not spend the extra time haphazardly re-rolling it onto the cardboard thingy. I wadded it all up on the counter and proceeded to use it from there, as needed. (Sorry for the TMI ;)
Another small example of the unexpected tumult of being the only parent arose when we ran out of dog food on Thursday morning. That's right, we actually have three "kids" in this household. And Radar and Muzzy weren't keen on the idea of a crash diet. Instead of making Brian stop on his way home from work, Ellie and I had to set off to Sams Club. We had fun doing cart rides around the store and getting free yogurt samples. But when it came time to wrestle the 50-pound bag of dog food into the cart... and later out of the cart and into the car, it was less enjoyable. Ellie enjoyed the show while I strained and almost split the bag open in the middle of the parking lot. But we managed!
A couple other gems:

• As I carried in 10 grocery bags on Saturday, I let Ellie roam for a minute in the backyard. When I came back outside, I found her on her hands and knees in the grass, literally shoving handfuls of mud into her mouth. I'm hoping and choosing to believe it was super-clean mud. Even after wiping her mouth out, she had dirt stuck in her teeth. Brian's question to me after this story was: "Did you get any pictures?" No, sorry.
• Also enjoyable was when she flipped her bowl of cheerios with milk on the dining room table so she could smack her hands into the mess. There was milk everywhere, including in the cracks of the table. I'm sure my mom and siblings are horrified, even from afar.

In addition to her antics, Ellie and I covered a lot of ground the past few days. Grocery shopping for the week, getting her haircut, shopping (i.e. running around) at Wal-Mart, drawing with sidewalk chalk, playing at the park, covering a combined 12+ miles of running (her in the stroller, me pushing), shopping and playing at the mall, and some yet-to-be-determined fun this afternoon when she wakes up from nap.
As you can tell, Ellie is back to her fireball self this weekend. The lab tests haven't turned up any signs of infection, it sounds like Ellie is officially in the clear. And I'm officially ready to hand her off to her dad when he returns tonight. Well, until she runs toward me with her arms outstretched reaching for a hug and then forcing a wet kiss on me. I'm never too tired or stressed for that.