{monthdate} 23 months

I'm I can't believe that in one short month my sweet girl will be TWO!!! How did that happen??

I am seriously just loving this age right now. Ellie is turning into such a big girl and she is so much fun to hang out with everyday. 

We have kinda run into a little bit of the tantrum city already but they really aren't that bad. They tend to go away when we have a little distraction for her and are good to go once she starts giggling. Oh how I love that sound. I am sure that she gets upset at the usual toddler stuff, aka when she is told "no". Sometimes it's in the car when she asks for milk and we don't have any and others it's because she is doing something she isn't allowed to do.  Otherwise she is a happy, sweet, loving girl who is constantly giving hugs and kisses to us. I just love it when she runs up to me and give my legs a big huge squeeze. 

We have also entered into a little bit of stranger danger too. If someone comes on a little too strong she shies away and burries her head in my shoulder. Then takes a little time to warm up. I'm hoping it's just a stage because I love her outgoing friendly demeanor. 

Ellie is a daredevil and has been for a long time. I'm convinced she is determined to give me a heart attack with her wild ways. She is a climber, runs everywhere, and tries to hang on everything. Thankfully when she falls down she just gets right back up and tries it again, I'm sure this will be a very good character trait for when she gets older and is faced with hardships. 

Vocab has boomed this month. She is a little parrot at repeats so many words and also will point to things and identify them correctly. It blows my mind!! I don't think I can keep up with all her words now but I just love her little voice. Today she said "all done" instead of "ahhll" so I think she is starting to make connections. Her favorite pet of ours is Annabelle or "Ahbo" one of our goats and would prefer for her to tuck her in at night!!  She can now say all of our animals names and knows which is which. I can't remember if I wrote it down last month but she was saying "beebee car" and I thought she meant baby car but she is actually saying beep beep car. She has also started to verbally ask for milk "mus" and can put sentences together like: "more mus pees mama". It's just the best. I am so proud of her and I think her ability to communicate with us so well has really helped in the "tantrum" department (cross my fingers). 

Food is hit and miss. Some days she is all over something and the other she won't even look at it. Girlfriend is still a huge fan of the veggies: broccoli, carrots, peas, beans, and corn. Fruit she likes are basically apples and strawberries but only like a bite of each, she loves blueberries but they always make her butt red so we go sparingly with them.  Bread and rice are usually good bets as is mac'n'cheese. She likes ground meat and her favorite kind is sausage found on pizza - occasionally I can trick her with other meats saying is sausage but I think she is on to me. Ellie has finally discovered the world of treats and loves cookies (peanut butter ones from Safeway to be exact) and ice cream - vanilla. 

Sleep has continued to be a bit of a struggle. Nap time is usually pretty easy but she ends up in our bed most nights. It's a habit we are starting to change - though she has us pretty well trained. We're still working on finding a happy medium and are trying to at least keep her in her room through the night, but we aren't very consistent with it. She tends to go down pretty well without a fight its just the sleeping through the night that's our challenge. 

We've been under the weather the past week or so and I finally took Ellie into the doctor. Turns out she has conjunctivitis and a double ear infection. I knew about the conjunctivitis since I could see it but never would have guessed the double ear infection, baby girl hasn't complained at all (but that might have something to do with her nightime wake ups...)

Sweet Ellie Faith you bring so much joy to my life. Thank you for being the sweet and awesome little girl with such a great attitude. I love you to the moon and back a thousand times!! 

♥ Ashley

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