Ellen at 14 Months

Ellen is now 14 1/2 months old. Here are a few things for me to remember:

1. A few months ago I was playing the piano for a musical number in church. When it was over and I was headed back to my seat, Ellen screamed with joy to see me coming back to her. It was pretty cute and probably half the congregation heard her do it and were smiling about it.

2. Ellen is walking! Just in the last 4 days she has spent more time walking than crawling. If she wants to go fast, she'll still crawl sometimes, but she is realizing that walking is a lot better. She walks with her hands in front of her (like a zombie) or held up and to the side as she goes. She is also very pleased with the fact that she is walking and loves all the attention she gets when she does.

3. Ellen has also started climbing things.  She'll climb up onto kid sized chairs and smaller ledges, and she thinks it's quite fun.

4. She finally learned how to go down the stairs yesterday! We've been working on it for a long time and she's always thought it was just a game, but she finally figured it out. She still makes me a little nervous when she does, but now I don't have to worry quite so much. It also means I can't trap her on one floor very easily anymore.

5. Ellen has 8 teeth, 4 of which have come in during the last month. Two of her bottom teeth are barely poking through, but they are there.

6. She's getting picky about what she eats. If it is green, she won't touch it. Cheese and kdiney beans are some of her favorites.

7. She is still in 9 month clothes. I probably will need to bump her into 12 month clothes soon, but the 9 month stuff mostly fits her. I'm guessing she weighs between 17 and 17.5 lbs.

8. Ellen is loud! She screams all the time-when she's happy, angry, hungry, full, tired, bored, and playing. We've been working with her to not scream all the time, but it sometimes feels like a losing battle. Church is always interesting. Almost everytime we're around someone we don't spend lots of time with, we get comments about her capacity to make noise.

9. She will sign "all done" and "more" to us while eating. Okay, she will sometimes sign them to us if she's not too busy screaming at us.

10. Ellen laughs a lot and is usually happy. She likes to play peek-a-boo, she likes it when Summer plays with her, and she loves it when Anders plays with her. Every morning, I get her up, nurse her, and then she immediately looks for Anders (who's usually in bed next to me) to go play with him.

11. Ellen will give kisses! They are the adorable, open mouthed, slobbery type of kisses, made with a "oooo-ah" (like a muah) sound.  We love them!

12. Ellen usually sleeps on her stomach with her bum in the air. It's pretty adorable.

13. She still sucks her left thumb and now she plays with her hair with he right hand. She has no blanket or animal that she cuddles with, just her hair.

14. Ellen will wave to people wherever we go.

This was Ellen's first time "playing" out in the snow. She wasn't too sure about the whole thing....