13 months old today!

Ella is getting smarter by the minute! This weekend she learned 2 new words. We took her to BJ’s (a wholesale food store) and were looking at a new Elmo video. Being the mom that I am, and wanting to instill a sense of independence in Ella, I held up all 4 Elmo videos and let her choose which one she wanted. She chose Elmo sings Country (that’s my girl). I handed her the video to look at and hold on to while we were in the store and she started saying “Mo” over and over again. She knows her buddy Elmo. She always waves at him when Elmo’s world starts, and she waves at Mr. Noodle. He is definitely her favorite Sesame Street character, so I am very happy that she has learned to say his name. This will go well with “Cookie” for Cookie Monster, which also happens to sound a lot like doggie, so it could be possible that she is just calling Cookie Monster doggie.

Last night we had a wonderful dinner at the home of our friends Casey and Christy. Little Ginny is just a couple of months younger than Ella, so we like getting them together to play. While we were there we were giving Ella strawberries, her favorite, and when she was done with one she would say “more.” It was so cute. She would draw out the “M” sound and was having a bit of trouble with the “R” (which is a hard letter to say), but we knew what she meant.

Our smart baby has also recently figured out how to work puzzles. She has a few of those wooden puzzles with pictures on them and she loves taking the pieces out and putting them back on. She doesn’t quite grasp the concept of fitting it into the slot, but she knows it’s supposed to go on there and she usually gets it in the same general area of the matching picture. Sometimes after she puts it back she’ll clap for herself. She has also learned several of her important body parts including nose, mouth, eyes and tummy.

As you can see, Ella is doing so well. She is doing better with her eating adult food, but that’s probably our biggest obstacle right now. She eats a lot of oatmeal and baby food, and she loves cheerios, strawberries and cheese, but I want her to start eating more adult food. She really has a hard time chewing meat. I guess I just have to wait it out and she’ll figure it out when she’s ready. All in all, she's a sweet and happy little girl!