21 months!

It's amazing how much Ella's changing and learning these days.  Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds...she's definitely in the midst of a language explosion.   The other day, Jon and I tried to count up how many words she can say with recognition -- we stopped when we got to around 50.

She's definitely becoming much more independent too.  She wants to do everything herself, or at least try it.  She's usually pretty good about asking for help if she's having trouble with something.

Bedtime has started to become a bit of a drama lately.  Once she's actually IN bed and the door is shut, everything's fine, but getting there is a chore, and much screaming and crying ensues on a nightly basis. 

Unrelated to her now being 21 months, but something I wanted to share anyway, are these precious rain boots that I got for her the other day.  I'd been looking for some for awhile, but wasn't crazy about anything I'd run across.  They're a little big for her yet (she's got TEENSY feet), but they're cute enough that I'll actually be excited for the next rainy day :)

She liked them so much, that she didn't want to take them off when we came back inside...and this is a kid who, once we come in the house, sits down just on the other side of the threshold to take off her shoes.  That is, if they didn't get taken off in the car.  She's like her mama that way -- she'd rather be barefoot.