14 Months

Ella will be 14 months tomorrow! Be prepared for a long post full of memories…

She is as fun as ever and truly brightens our days. We love her sweet and gentle spirit, her contagious laugh and her enthusiasm for everything.

She has reached the age that she has started to mimick us. If we bark like a dog, she barks like a dog. If we dance, she dances. If we stick our our tongue, she shows us hers.

Ella can follow simple directions: “Take a drink,” “Bring me _____,” “Go find your _____.” She gets so excited when she completes each task!

She learns something new every week. Recently, she’s learned to kick a soccer ball, take her shirt off with minimal help and take off all hair bows. This week she has learned to walk backwards, shimmy her shoulders and make a real fish face!

Ella’s most common words are: “baby,” “anana (banana),” “done,” “puppy,” “momma,” “dad,” and “byebye.” She continues to babble, but has started resorting to grunting and pointing when asking for things. This has started to get a little frustrating for both Ella and momma.

She loves to walk places. Each day when she goes to school, she gets to walk from the car to her classroom and from her classroom to the car. (All while holding momma’s hand of course!) She does a great job and enjoys this time of “independence.”

Ella also loves to dance. Whenever she hears music, she stop what she's doing and then start dancing. She shakes her hips, shimmys her shoulders, stomps her feet and pats her leg. She does it all!

School is going great for Ella. Her teachers continue to say that she is a joy and a happy girl. She truly loves school and has no problem at all of letting momma leave her there. By the time the school day is over, she is definitely ready to see her momma again because she’ll run over to me and give me a big hug!

Ella loves her paci and blankies more than ever.

She is wearing 18 month clothing, size 5 shoe, size 4 diaper. Ella has recently started bring us her shoes and picking up one of her feet so we’ll put her shoes on her. Love it!

Ella hasn’t had a bottle or formula for over 2 months! However, if she sees a bottle, she asks for it. This weekend she found a doll bottle and tried drinking from it!

The outdoors is one of Ella’s favorite things. She loves getting to run around and explore, but she doesn’t necessarily like touching the ground with her hands. If she falls over, she’ll sit there until somebody helps her up. What a stinker!

Ella’s schedule typically looks like this at 14 months is…

7 am- wake up & breakfast

11 am- lunch

12 pm to 1:30 pm- nap

3 pm- afternoon snack

5:30 pm- dinner

8 pm- bedtime

**EDIT** Of course the day I mention how good Ella does at school letting me go, today was the complete opposite. She did not want me to leave her and she cried and cried as I left. Poor thing!