How in the world we are already at 18 months I’ll never know. This little girl, you guys. She has exploded in personality over the last 6 months and she just brings the biggest smile to my face every day… you know, when she isn’t throwing a fit over me taking a ball away.
ELLA AT EIGHTEEN MONTHS:
Weight: We had to take her to the doctor the other week (more on that in a few) and girlfriend is 26 pounds. No wonder my arms are tired!
Length: Not a clue. I should try to measure her. Maybe.
As she’s gotten older, people say more and more that she looks like me and my mom. Her eyes though continue to be 100% Chris in the shape, although they’ve changed to a bit more gray than blue.
We moved her up into the 24 month and 2T clothes (I really feel like they’re basically the same size). I need to supplement a few things in addition to the hand-me-downs, but we’re in pretty good shape clothes wise!
Our one big issue recently has been Ella’s sudden development of motion sickness. It started with a few random occurrences that we just kind of waited out, but then one week she got sick 4 out of 5 days. It was awful. Nothing had changed – the drive was the same, food was the same, routine the same, so we headed to the doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything else. Apparently, it’s fairly common for toddlers to develop motion sickness at this age. He gave us a few tips and we found a few of our own (that I’ll be detailing in a separate post), and it’s been so much better – here’s hoping those things keep working!
Ella is still a good eater, but definitely has started to love her snacks most of all. She now knows how to go into the closet and get her mini muffins (these are her absolute favorite) and hand them to us with a grunt. Other favorites are applesauce, yogurt pouches, and mac and cheese. She loves these yogurt pouches most but they’re getting a bit expensive, so I just ordered some reusable pouches to attempt to make my own yogurt pouches and save some money. We’ll see if that fools her (and I’ll report back if I like them)!
She consistently sleeps through night (thank you, sleep training). She goes down for the night between 7:45 and 8:15 and usually sleeps until 6am or so.
I have lost count of how many teeth she has at this point. I think 12 or 16? I’ll need to count them! Just like Abbie, they all basically exploded out right around her first birthday and shortly after.
She loves running after big sister and stomps her feet excitedly when they play. She’s always trying to keep up – handling going up the stairs with ease and even trying to go down them too.
In cloth diapers 95% of the time. We do use overnight disposables (usually these) in size 5 because she was soaking through her nighttime cloth diapers and it was just easier to let that go for the overnights.
Ella is getting so, so particular about what she wants. Lord help you if you take her toy away – she throws a tantrum like no kid I’ve ever seen (definitely worse than Abbie’s) and doesn’t forget. She’s obsessed with shoes and her Minnie Mouse slippers.
Nicknames: Miss Ella, Ellabella, Stinkerbelle (only I really call her that)
LIFE WITH TWO:
Most of the time, Abbie and Ella are each other’s biggest fans… except when Ella has had enough of Abbie bugging her and pushes her away! They can really play together now, which is so much fun to watch. Sometimes we’ll be watching them play together and it’s just the most amazing thing – I’m so, so thankful we were able to give them the gift of each other.
That being said, it isn’t without its challenges. Their four year age gap means that Abbie needs our attention for conversations and questions, and Ella is still at the point that she needs us to get her things and watch her a bit more carefully. There are times that both of them are yelling at once, but isn’t that the nature of parenting siblings? All in all, I’m pretty comfortable with their age gap – I do think it allows each of them to be their own person, but not so far that they can’t have a good relationship. Time will tell, I suppose.
That’s a wrap on eighteen of the best months ever. Before I know it, I’ll be writing this when she turns two!
