hellow tooth #6!

and as of 2-3 weeks ago, we're completely over baby food. Ella's eating "people's" food exclusively. at school she eats pizza, chili, pasta and broccoli, baked beans, chicken fingers and more, with the big kids. at home her favorite is Ima's spinach and broccoli pie ([recipe] [demo]), strawberries, and PBJ, all of which she eats with her little fork. and sometimes with her hands.
we're also completely off of formula and on to whole milk, which Ella drinks from a sippy cup -- all bottles are stowed away. the transition was very smooth and she never complained about not having the bottles.

oh my, she's a big girl now! when did she turn into a toddler?!?

other skills - in an arbitrary order: walking has improved, she walks long distances on her own, can turn without falling, bend over to pick up stuff and go back to standing. that said, she still prefers a finger to hold on to, it's more fun that way. she can crawl and get to anything (i still think it's funny that she started crawling only after she could walk). she really likes climbing up and down stairs (she needs our help for that) and then she sits on the last step.
Coffy says that Ella calls some of the other kids by their names. she calls scrooge ("cooge"), and occasionally she also calls a dogs "scrooge". she understands her boundaries and knows she's not allowed to do some things (like putting crayons and keys in her mouth) but she keeps testing us. she "reads" some books, for example, we have a book with a train in it and she would open it and say "too too toooo".
she woofs like a dog when ben asks her "eych osse kelavlav" (what does a doggie say). today she colored with her crayons with Peter, picked up the blue, drew some and said "BLUE". she likes taking her Pooh bear for a ride on her lion. she's very good at opening and closing all kinds of boxes, jars and bottles, and she's working on strap clips (fortunately she didn't get those figured out! we'd be in real trouble!). elevator buttons. anything with buttons. stacking blocks, rings. she knows what to do with a tooth brush and a hair brush. she plays "catch", by throwing a ball to us we throw it back to her. she paints with her crayons (did i say that?)


we recently got Ella her birthday present - a portable DVD player for the car. she LOVES watching safta dalia in the car, and we LOVE the quiet passenger in the back :)