18 months

elenora is a year and a half old now! we celebrated by meeting e. and penelope at the park and eating (organic) chocolate cupcakes.

on wednesday we had her 18 month check-up. she is now 26 lbs, 32 and 1/2 inches. the nurse and doctor both commented on how verbal she is. and she wasn't even really showing off all her tricks. the doctor says she's doing "2-year-old stuff" and made a comment about "checking her into harvard." he said that at 18 month checkups he usually asks parents if their kids say 10 words yet.

10. jeez.

elenora understands the concept of "almost." i was changing her diaper yesterday and we were almost done and she said "almost." and i kind of looked at her and said "almost done?" and she said "yeah." i couldn't believe she'd really said that. then at dinner last night her soup was almost all gone and she said "almost done."

during tubby time last night ella was holding susie, a little plastic girl by playschool that i had when i was a kid. susie has a green dress on, but otherwise she looks exactly like another playschool girl we named becca who has a red dress. so i asked her "who looks like susie?" and she said "becca." (i've never asked her that kind of a question before...she just figured out what it meant...isn't that bright?!) and then i asked her "who looks like bill-bob?" (bill-bob is another playschool figure) and she said "george." george looks exactly like bill-bob except that his features are darker.

she now says the word "dorable" for "adorable."

yesterday morning i took ella to appleton farms and we met up with s. and aurora for a walk. we came across a cow in the path who was just munching on grass. ella and i walked towards it and when we were a few feet away it suddenly startled and bolted ten feet away from us. elenora started laughing and laughing. then on our way back, aurora kept taking her hat and throwing it on the ground, and ella thought that was so funny. all day she was talking about how we surprised the cow and how aurora was throwing her hat and how it was funny.

here are some of her relaxed sayings: "nope," "yup," "yeah," "okay."

momby dropped something and said "oops" the other day and ella thought that was hilarious. and sometimes i say "oopsidaisy." so elenora has started saying "oopy" when she drops something. so cute.

she knows "big" from "little." i can ask her "which is the biggest?" or "which is the smallest/littlest?" and she will correctly answer. she also knows her "right" from her "left." i often sing the hokey-pokey while getting her dressed for bed, so i think that is how she knows. but the other night i hadn't sung the song and i randomly asked her "which is your right ear?" and she pointed to her right ear! and then i said "and which ear is your left ear?" and she pointed to the other one. i've never sung "put your right ear in..." so she has figured that out herself.

there are many words that ella now says clear as a bell so that anybody would know what she's saying. these include but are not limited to: "elbow," "coffee," "puppy," "norma," "cup," "milk," "book," "duck," "soup" ...

she knows all shapes. all colors.

ella understands that "back" means the back of something, or it can mean putting something back.

today j. and i are going to look at a few more houses. there are two that i've seen listings for that really have caught my interest. but this really still seems pretty far-fetched. we're gaining a lot of knowledge, though.