15 months, really really late

As noted above I am really late getting this posted, I realize she is now 16 months not 15, but it is what it is. Little miss is getting big weighing 18 pounds 14 ounces (1%), I hae no idea how big her head is as it was incorrectly measured, but my guess is around the 45% mark, and her height is 28 inches (4%). Eight teeth all in the front, still no molars through. She is still not walking although she is close. She cruises furniture and walks with little assistance. Saying she is a climber is an understatement. She climbs everything. She can climb (by herself) up her slide and once at the top can get her feet underneath her. I am constantly reminding her to sit on her bum and have decided that at this point it may just be best to get a recording of me saying it and hit play every time she is in the tub, a shopping cart, on the slide etc. etc.

Can identify her: hair, teeth, tongue, toes, feet, belly, bum, mouth, and of course she can idenify (and VERY frequently does) Mommies boobies.

Ella has always loved animals. Her favorite is our kitty Ollie. She refers to him as our "meow". She also loves the dogs. In general she is pretty nice to the animals. She likes to give them loves by laying her head on them and patting them while saying awwww. She has recently come a long way with large animals like cows and horses. We frequent the local farm where she will now ride ponies and hand feed goats. She will tell you a cow says "mmmm", a duck says " quack", and if you ask her what a horse says she giggles and turns her head back and forth occasionally she will also spit raspberries to imitate them.

Favorite song is "If your happy and you know it" however she only allows you to clap your hands. She just recently started accepting stomp your feet also. The other songs she likes are "Old Mcdonald" with cow and duck only, "Head, shoulders knees and toes",  "5 little speckled frogs", and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". Our car rides are often an awful sounding mash-up of all of these songs to keep her from screaming.

Ella is becoming quite the little Mommy. She loves caring for her baby dolls. She feeds them (while saying num-num-num), she kisses them, loves the, and wraps them up in her blankets.

My kid loves carbohydrates. Who can blame her? She loves chicken noodle soup, noodles of any kind, pancakes, waffles, & pretzels. Ell is also quite the dairy queen and loves yogurt (strawberry banana is her favorite) and string cheese. She clearly has hollow legs and frequently want to eat constantly. She is still on formula and drinks about 22 (give or take) ounces a day. She doesn't care for juice.

One year ago...

Last July 29th I was handed my 4 pound 11 ounce bundle of sweetness and was actually allowed to leave with her! We drove straight to the airport and got on the next plane to Utah. It was incredibly stressfull, but all I wanted was my baby home. Of couse in retrospect this feeling makes me laugh because little did I know in the comming days how many times I would sit and cry wishing we were back in Tampa!

Speech development

*I HAVE HAD THIS SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR ALMOST 2 WEEKSWAITING TO UPLOAD A VIDEO FOR IT. IN THIS AMONT OF TIME THINGS HAVE CHANGED EVEN BEYOND THIS, SO I FIGURED I BETTER POST IT ANYWAY!!


At 12 months babies are expected to have 1-2 words to be considered "on task". While Ella has always demonstrated understanding of words her actual language skills have been considerably delayed. It is important to remember she never actually passed a hearing test until she was 5 months old.
And today Ella says...
baba (bottle)
bubu (by-bye) While waving
bubu (bubbles) and yes they sound very similar!
Mama (Mom)
cock (Clock)
pup-pup (her dogs)
Papa (her grandpa)
?possibly kit (kitty)?
Ella
yeah and claps
ha (hat)
hi (while waving)

I'm pretty pleased! Even though many of these sound pretty much the same she clearly knows what she is talking about and gestures along with her words. She also has a "sign" for more (even though it is NOT the ASL sign).

Paper towels.

Learned a valuable lesson. I was cleaning last night, got sidetracked and ended up setting down a roll of paper towels in Ella's room. This morning I knew she was awake even though she hadn't made much noise and I went in to get her only to find...

A crib full of paper towels! LOL 
FYI she wasn't crying because I beat her or yelled at her relentlessly, she didn't understand why I left to get the camera without getting her out! Funny girl.

another now and then...

New pictures...again!

Yes I have Ella's pictures taken somewhat excessively, but in my defense this was a re-shoot from last month when she did nothing but cry!
*Just as an FYI (as I am frequently asked) We use fotofly and fotoflyaway exclusively. They are beyond fabulous!

stat update

Ella finally had her 1 year appointment this week. Her doctor assured me that not only is she doing well but thriving. She is smart is in the normal range with her peers for intellectual and physical development. *as an odd but interesting side note he told me that because she is black her synapses develop faster and continue to fire at a faster rate than her Caucasian peer. That is why black people tend to excel in sports* He assured me that although I have concerns about some of her behavior she is normal. :)

head circumference is 44 cm, from 17.8 at birth. This is the 27th percentile.
height took a huge jump to 27 1/4 inches, from 12 and is now on the chart at 5%
weight is 17 pounds 11 ounces, from 1 pound 11 ounces at birth and is 3%

Her height is the best news. She has visibly had a growth spurt in length and I am now hoping that HGH (human growth hormones) are going to be not needed!