17 months

Really? Has it been 17 whole months - Catherine Ellis is growing up before our very eyes! Happy 17 months sweet girl!

17 months - September 9, 2010

Here is what Catherine Ellis is up to at 17 months, plus one to grow on:

• she is developing her own tastes - some mornings she really cares which shoes she wears to school! So fun to see her turn into her own little person with her own little opinions.
• She's officially drinking all of her liquids (milk, water, juice) from cups with straws or from 18 month sippy cups that have the straw. We are probably bad parents, but we still let her have her bottle at bedtime - we plan to cut this out by 18 months - it doesn't put her to sleep but she sure loves it!
• She can identify the following body parts: eyes, ears, nose, head (and hair), bellybutton and belly. She can identify on herself and others.
• she sits at the table to eat - and in a big girl chair - this is mostly school but she's starting to do it at home
• loves all the foods Mommy and Daddy eat - fish, steamed veggies, potatoes - still not a huge fan of broccoli
• new words: stop, ears, eyes, open, off, sit down, go, beep beep
• can identify family members in photos - she's working on this at school and often walks around the house pointing to Mama, Dada, Meme, Emma, Cain, Pop, Gan Gan - the rest of the family is coming soon - promise:)
• she walks very well now - not near as wobbly - and oftentimes runs to the next activity which is hysterical because it's wobbly!
• She LOVES LOVES LOVES shoes - seriously - this is totally her Daddy - Mommy doesn't care a thing about shoes. She's helping Dada put his boots on now - she is making sure he does it correctly (wonder which parent she gets this from???)
• she is a creature of habit - in the mornings we have to turn off the monitor and the sound machine in the same order as Mommy and Daddy have turned off all these months. She knows breakfast time, snack time, lunch time and dinner time - this child doesn't miss a meal.
• pappie - oh sweet pappie! She actually has grown to give it up before we even get her out of the bed at nap time or in the morning - praise!! Maybe it won't be so hard to get rid of in a few months. Fingers crossed
• she loves her blanket from Aunt Michelle Meacham and her cat from Aunt Sara and Uncle Daniel. She has slept with both since she was a newborn, but just now has realized she is attached and must have them in order to go to sleep. She asks for them if we don't get them out of the crib for her.
• she reads books to herself - it's precious baby language that we love.
• she is cutting her 2 year old molars - this child almost has every single tooth in her mouth. Only missing 2 at this point.
• she can sing - her favorite song now is row, row, row your boat - she can only sing the first three words row, row, row, but it's great and even sounds like the song.
• she points to what she wants - very clear about what she needs/wants
• she can sign milk and more - they are learning sign language at school and she has caught on well.
• she can go up and down steps - crawling, not stepping up and down by herself and slide down the toddler slide at school by herself and climb back up to go down again!

As you can see she's growing, growing, growing! We are thankful each and every day for the blessing that we have! What a joy she is to us! The thing I'll remember most from this age is how much fun she is - she's learning something new every day, she's happy almost all of the time, she loves school, loves her friends, loves to travel - I just keep thinking does it really get any better than this? I know it does and we can't wait!