Two!

Somehow, two years have quickly passed by since our darling Ella joined our family.  I can't remember life without her...what joy this little one has added to our family.  We enjoyed celebrating her birthday with just us on her actual birthday and then with extended family the following weekend.  We also had her two-year-old well check which confirmed her suspected better than average height (90th percentile).  Her favorite parts of her birthday were blowing out candles, eating cake and singing happy birthday (and continuing almost every day since).  It was a great few days of celebrating our "baby"!  

blessed.

This past weekend, we had Ella baptized at our church.  We were so thankful to share the time with our family who support us, love us and pray for us.  We also have two very dear family members who have promised to pray for Ella and for us as we guide her through this life for as long as we have with her.  More than anything, we pray she chooses to follow Jesus and lives a life for Him.  We are so blessed!

18 month stats

Miss Ella turned 18 months last Sunday and went in for her 18-month check-up this week.  She was healthy and growing just as she should be!  Here are her stats: length is 32.5" (75th percentile) and weight is 26 pounds (80th percentile).  The doc said she's a big girl!  But the biggest news of all is that she is cutting her FIRST teeth--finally!  And of course, since she's been doing things her own way since the beginning, it's not the bottom teeth, but the top!  

splish splash

A few weeks back, I bought a slip 'n slide for the girls to use this summer.  They all love it!  It's nice because the kiddie pool is usually too cold to swim in....even on the hottest days.  I usually forget to fill it in the morning and have it sit out all day to warm up, so the slip 'n slide is a fun way for the girls to cool off without freezing.  Even Ella likes to splash in the little pools of water from it.  Miriam and Abbie have also been taking swimming lessons this week, so they are getting lots of time in the water!

First day of summer and 17 months old

Our darling Ella turned 17 months old on the first day of summer.  Here are some recent pictures my parents took of her when she stayed with them a few weeks ago.  These 17 months have flown by!

On two feet {& playing at the park}

Ella is finally walking!  She has been for a few weeks now...but this comes after taking her first steps three months ago.  She definitely took her time with it.  It's been much easier to be outside, too.  I think she has realized walking is better than scooting!

So here we were last weekend at a park...only one shows her up and walking, but the others are fun too.

Ella in the coupe

Ella's tracks

I took Ella and Abbie to the park this morning and they both enjoyed finally being able to be outside! They are both still recovering from colds, so I think the fresh air helps all of us. Ella still hasn't decided to start walking, but I think has begun to realize that scooting is even more difficult to get around outside on the grass, driveway and sand. I am hoping being outdoors motivates her to walk! The park was covered with sand today, so after she made her way toward the slide, I looked down and saw that she left her very own set of scooting tracks....

Bless her heart

We have been fighting through more illness in our home yet again. I feel like we've seen it all this year. Miriam has another ear infection, and I suspect Ella may too. She didn't sleep all that well due to congestion and coughing last night (and maybe ears), so I set her on our bed this morning while I was drying my hair. I looked over at her a few minutes later, and this is what I saw...

our latest accomplishments.

...and by "our", I mean the children.

Miriam:
Reading. I love this so much. I feel like she's had the fundamentals for reading for awhile--even before Kindergarten--but her confidence has really helped her get that extra push to actually read on her own. She still struggles with confidence a bit...sometimes I give her a book we own and I know she can read it but she thinks she can't and then won't try. But any of the books she brings home from school that her teacher says she can read, she will. It's been really fun (especially as a former elementary teacher) to watch her learn this. One of my favorite milestones so far!

Abbie:
Puzzles, potty training and painting. That pretty much sums it all up! Abbie is wanting to everything like her big sister, so she is learning much along the way. She always surprises me with how well she can do puzzles, and she loves to do them, too. Potty training...well, that has been in the works for awhile now, but she does almost everything on her own. That helps me a lot, too! And painting...she asks me to do this all the time. So we do it as often as we can!

Ella:
Walking and talking. This little girl has taken her sweet time with walking. She is a master scooter (I will post a video sometime soon of that), so I feel like the normal transition from crawling to walking isn't quite there for her. She definitively could be fully walking if she wanted to, but she often just plops down and scoots along. But everywhere I take her, people repeatedly comment on how they just love watching her scoot! I just want her up and walking so I can take her outside. Scooting on the muddy grass will not do wonders for my massive laundry load! And talking...I think "bye" was her official first word. She is so used to saying it each morning to Matt and Miriam when they leave for the day. It comes out as, "daaa!" and she always waves, too. She's working on "hi" and pretty much signs her other "words."

It's so fun watching them all grow up in their own stages!