18 Months!

I just wrote a post for 17 months but so much has happened in only a matter of weeks that I urged myself to write everything down before I forget :) Ella had her 18 month doctor's appointment on 12/12/12 and is now done with all of her shots until Kindergarten, yay! She is still above 100th percentile in height at 34.5- 35" tall (she was squirming) and over the 92nd percentile in weight at 26.6 pounds. Ella has been learning new words every single day, her favorite of course being, "NOOO!". I am really hoping that this is just a phase, hahahaha! She can identify all of our family members and loves repeating her favorite colors "boo" (blue) and "wello" (yellow). There is a song that I used to sing with my class that we listen to in the car that reviews all of the letter sounds. If I say "apple, apple" she will say "/a/ /a/ /a/." She can only repeat a few sounds but it's pretty fun to do! She also knows how to count to 3, but only because she gets more timeouts than I would like to admit. She's still my little rockstar sleeper going down from 6:30pm- 6:30am. The doctor was very proud of me for that one :) When I'm not working, Ella will nap from 10:00am-12:30pm and then, if we are home, she will often go down again around 3ish, crazy! Once she gets that first block of sleep, I don't have to revolve my schedule around her naps :)

We all know those moms that feel the need to exaggerate their baby's abilities or glorify certain aspects of parenting, often making their experiences appear unrealistic and unattainable. I'm really lucky to have many friends who are totally honest and who I can laugh about everything with. Parenting is absolutely the best job in the entire world, but it is also the hardest! My child definitely has her difficult moments :) Little Ms. Ella can turn into little Ms. Trouble, especially after 4pm. I wake up to this little sweet pea and by the time the afternoon rolls around, I'm staring at the clock waiting to see how much longer before I can get her ready for bed. Then, of course, the second you put them down you miss them. Go figure! Any early evening activities or play-dates have to be prepped for in advance. I have now survived extreme tantrums in public (oh my gosh, am I really that person with the screaming child?!) That being said, she did surprise me over the holidays when we had some late parties and she was able to keep it together, some nights even past 9 o'clock! I guess it's kind of a hit or miss.

We have had so much fun over our holiday break and had many play-dates! We went to Disneyland with Madelyn & Marissa, had lunch with Julian, dinner with Presley, visited with twins Molly & Ellie and their mommy Amy, and even got to play with the Hallenbeck's little ones Jack & Haylie! We visited Irvine Park, Zoomars Petting Zoo, and drove to Mt. High to go tubing. And all while my mother-in-law was staying with me :) Ella loved the snow, so much that she did everything she could to stay outside. I was shocked that the cold didn't bother her and even more shocked that she passed the height requirement for tubing (36 inches)! Thank goodness for her boots and beanie which gave her an extra boost :) After all that she wouldn't even go down the hill, but I will say that they were going to make her go in her own tube. Um, really, she is 18 months old!

Christmas morning was absolutely priceless! It was everything I wanted for Ella and she had so much fun ripping open all of the presents. I really think that next year I want to give her one present each day because she was so overwhelmed, she couldn't possibly appreciate everything. I have such a generous family that we really don't need to buy her anything. I'm excited for her to understand Santa next year, the only thing she understands now is that he says, "ho, ho, ho!". Her giant Escalade and trucks kept her busy for hours and she walked around all day feeding her Itty Bitty Baby and playing with her Sesame Street characters.

As I get ready to go back to work, I'm excited to be on a consistent schedule again and see everyone at school! My friend and I are teaching after-school clubs 4 days a week which will be really fun and keep us plenty busy. I'm going to sign Ella up for My Gym again since they have an evening class! Fun, fun, fun!