15 months!

Where are the days going? Our baby girl is quickly growing into an independent toddler! No more baby here!!! Ellie is at SUCH a FUN stage right now - but I'm not gonna lie - it's a high maintenance stage as well and this Momma falls asleep at night the second her head hits the pillow! If I even make it that long! :) I'm starting to think that Ellie's nap times should be Mommy's nap times, too. Ha! :) But look at that face and it makes it all so worth it.

Our 15-month-old is quite the little lady. She loves to get dressed up and it's fun to see her look at herself in the mirror and you can tell she loves to be all dolled up! Especially when she is wearing her pink shoes!!! She LOVES them and would wear them everyday. If only they matched every outfit. Let's just say she is ALL girl!The picture above is one of Ellie as she sadly followed Daddy to the car as he left for an appointment with a student after church! Ellie is always sad when Daddy leaves, but we go out on the deck and wave goodbye to him and he always honks three times back at us to say "I Love You!"... And our little tyke's eyes light up when she hears Daddy jiggling the door when he comes home and wherever she is, she drops what she is doing and runs to greet Daddy!

This fun pic is of Ellie on her 15-month birthday holding a stuffed wombat from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Kristin! Funny story, but for some reason Joel just thought wombats were the cutest animal last Christmas, so his sister got him one! Now Ellie has taken it over and snuggles with it. She's becoming quite motherly and hugs and kisses her dollies and us all the time. It's great!
Our little princess saying "okay...enough pictures! Please HOLD ME!" :)
Yep, we're still sporting the "Pebbles" look many days. Her hair is at that stage where it looks messy if you leave it down and she is having NOTHING to do with a haircut! So we're trying this look out for a while. If she's feeling very patient, we try pigtails. :)

Here are a few other things that our little one is up to this month!

• She now has 8 teeth! Four on top and four on bottom. Her pediatrician said at her appt. last week that he thinks her molars are getting ready to come in!
• Ellie is absolutely smitten with "lights". It's the first word she says every morning when we go in to get her. We turn on the light, she points and says "light!". No matter where we go, she is always pointing out every light in the room. It's hilarious.
• Her words this month are still pretty limited, but she's got some important ones down: Da-Da, Ma-Ma, Light, Uh-Oh, Ba-Ba for bottle (which I know I need to wean her off of soon...it will be harder on me than her!) and a few random others!
• She has mastered taking CD's out of our CD player, opening drawers, zipping and unzipping anything with a zipper and then taking out all of the contents like Mommy's purse, make-up bag, backpack and her diaper bag, throwing everything in the trash, taking everything off of shelves that are in reach, you get the picture. :)
• Ellie continues to LOVE music and dances to every tune - whether on the radio, tv, someone singing or even in anticipation that there MIGHT be music. :)
• She's getting really good at giving kisses and hugs and I LOVE this!
• She had her very first Happy Meal at McDonalds this month - not sure if that is something I should brag about! Feeding my child unhealthy fast food! Ha! Like mother, like daughter I'm afraid. :)
• Ellie is loving story time at the library on Tuesday mornings and always entertains the other kids AND the teacher. Sitting still is not in her vocabulary. She is very busy and curious and doesn't like to be kept down.

It's been a fun month! I know I'll blink and another month will be gone... So here's to 15 months with our little sweetie. :)