17 Months

I can't believe our little lady is 17 months old. Crazy that it has almost been a year and a half since we were blessed by our little angel. Since I haven't done an update in the last few months - here is what our little lady is up to...

- She is weighing in at 22 lbs and is 30 inches long

- She is in 12 month clothing and some 18 month clothing

- She is still a super picky eater and hasn't finished another jar of baby food since the first one she finished. We just haven't found that one thing she really really likes. Although, she will try anything at least once - which is good. She is still fed with the feeding tube.

- She is super active and goes goes goes all day long - with the exception of an hour long nap around noon.

- Her favorite thing to do is either read her books or play with her sign language flash cards.

- She is so super smart - she knows over 70 signs and will verbalize most of the words she signs.

- She loves to play the "where's game." She will sign "where" and we will ask her where something is (in sign language and saying it). We play it ALL DAY LONG. I run out of things I know the signs for! The easiest things to ask "where" are her body parts - she pretty much knows everything from her head to her toes.

- She recognizes same objects - she looks at a picture of a bear and will point to the bear toys in her room...pretty much anything she knows the sign for - she will put two and two together

- When she is playing with her sign language flash cards - she recognizes both the sign and the picture - so if the card is flipped over to show the sign you can ask her "where is the ____?" and she will find the flash card either way - with the picture facing up or with the sign facing up.

- we are working on recognizing the colors, letters and numbers....I know she will figure it out soon!

- She is pulling up on everything and will walk assisted all over the place. I heard a loud bang the other day when I was getting ready for church - I walked into the hallway and there was Elle - cruising up and down the hallway banging on the wall as she went up and down the hallway. We practice walking between two surfaces everyday - she can now take about 4 steps before falling. I know she will figure out this whole walking/balancing thing in the near future!

- She is starting to get a little attitude. If she is playing with something and you say it's time to put it up - she will hide the toy from you. She hides a lot of things - another one of her favorite games to play. If you take whatever it is away from her - be prepared for an all out hissy fit - complete with leg stomps and hands flailing around in the air. Most of the time she puts her hands on her cheeks and just cries the biggest alligator tears ever.

- She is still uber active with therapies and goes to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy as well as gym class and pretty soon we will be starting music class!

- She loves to sing and sign "Jesus Loves Me" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." We have crosses on some of the walls in our home and she will crawl up to them and point and sign "Jesus." Melts my heart every time.

She is such a fun little girl. I laugh all day long at what she does. Everyday she learns something new and it is so exciting for both of us. We are so blessed by our little Elle Belle!