Ella is 21 Months

 I am so behind on posting, but our super crazy monkey is now 21 months old as of June 15th. She definitely keeps us on our our toes and makes us laugh every day. She is a daredevil and has absolutely no fear at this age. Last weekend we went to our neighbors house for a BBQ and on the boat for Father's Day and all she wanted to do was be in the water the whole time. She jumped off the side of the pool at our neighbor's house into her daddy's arms and almost jumped off the diving board there. Later in the evening when we had finished swimming and dressed her, we had to watch her closely to be sure she didn't jump in fully clothed. Boy, was that exhausting!

She likes to color in the pages of her coloring book and is always thrilled when we go out if the restaurant has a children's menu that she can color on. She is so much like Jeff in how she likes to take things apart and try to put them back together. She also loves to be out and about and waves to all the new people she sees as she sits in her stroller. It's almost as if she thinks she is in a beauty pageant or something, or maybe she is just overly friendly. She does scowl at the shifty-looking people, however. 

She has some new language, she says: shhhh, kiss, what's that?, up, oh, uh-oh, yes, no, mama, dada, hi, sorry, bye-bye. She still talks in baby babble most of the time but with inflection and tone which is quite funny. She totally knows what she's saying, we just don't always understand what she says. 

This week she has either her first cold or just a runny nose from her eye teeth that are coming through. We aren't sure which because it doesn't seem to slow her down at all. She does take longer naps though and that is such a blessing so I have time to play with Nicholas and get the rest of my household chores done. 

We have to regularly put her in time-outs now. She's has started becoming naughty-getting into things she knows are off limits-like the pantry, and time-outs seem to be the only thing that work. She sits down for 1-3 minutes and then has to say "sorry" when she gets up and give hugs and kisses to whomever she wronged. Some days I feel like she sits in time-out a lot, so I try to redirect her energy to playing with a toy, coloring a picture, running around in the backyard, and the like. I am sure it is frustrating to be at an age where she understands so much, but cannot express herself effectively. It makes me look forward to age two!

We love our cute little munchkin so much!! Happy 21 months baby girl!!