Chatterbox

Oh, Ellie is closing in on 16 months and I'm continually flabbergasted by how fast time is flying. We fall more in love with Ellie by the week.
Currently she is entertaining us immensely with chattering and squeeling. We've taken a few videos, but you should know she freezes a bit in the spotlight. So, her real life personality is even more wild!
She has also taken the hand grabbing to a new level. Just about any time we aren't paying attention to her she grabs our hand and drags us to a preferred location where we can more adequately lavish her with attention. Favorite places to drag us are into her tent, into her room, and to back door to go outside.
Speaking of her room, one of her favorite things is to drag us to her iPod speakers and start slapping her knees to the beat of her favorite song from music class. (OK, maybe it's not exactly to the beat.) I then sing the "Hello Song" and include the names of all of the stuffed animals and other material objects she presents me.
We spent a few days in Austin to celebrate Alissa's wedding and visit family and friends. You should have seen Ellie party! She stayed up as late as the occasion warranted and woke up rearin' to go the next morning. She took power naps like a seasoned traveler. She ate very unhealthy food that made Mom cringe. Then, the day after the wedding she started to show signs of exhaustion. There was her first true fit. Then there was a long nap. Then she didn't want to eat. Then she spiked a high fever and scared Mama to death. We hightailed it back to Dallas leaving our family, friends, and social engagements in the dust. Ellie's fever disappeared as quickly as it arrived, but I was left with a fussy child for a full week. Tate's workload in Law School just about doubled during this time as well.
Let's just say the whole experience left me very happy that Ellie is the well-adjusted sweetie that she is. I am so grateful that we are able to provide her stability, routine, comfort, and safety.
Other fun things: she can climb up and slide down small playscapes all by herself, she is still waking up a lot in the middle of the night, but she is now giving me super sweet smiles, she can really run well, she nods her head yes and no very decisively, regardless of whether or not she really knows the answer, and she can throw like a real kid.
There's so much more, but it is impossible to write it all. The most important thing is that she is happy and healthy and we are delighted beyond belief that we get to watch her grow up.