Happy 18 Month Birthday Elly!

My baby girl is not so baby anymore! She turned 18 months old yesterday.  I seem to recall that I was impatient for the boys to reach this age, that it felt like newborn to toddlerhood took a long time.  But with numero tres, its flying by. She popped out, I blinked and now she's on her way to college.  Okay, well maybe not quite, but some days it feels that way.

So 18 months...yeah, I'm not going to lie, she's a handful this one.  A gorgeous, adorable, cuddly handful.  She's just so loud.  And she knows what she wants.  Don't get in her way or it will get even louder.  Elly's no pushover, that's for sure.  She can dish it out.  Owen and Will very occasionally think they want to rumble with her, get swatted in the face and beat a hasty retreat.  We're currently working on "hands are for hugging, not for hitting".  Wish us luck.

But there's also a lot of laughter in the house, thanks to this little joker.  If Elliot sees that she's got an audience she will milk it for all she's worth.   And the cuddles, oh my!  I love the way Elly grabs a book from her bookshelf at bedtime, yells at me until I sit down with her and then snuggles in for a read.  So lovely to rest my chin on the top of her little blonde mop.  Such sweet little kisses that go "mwah!"

We love our Ellybelly more and more everyday and I think everyone in the house would agree with me - even battered big brothers - when I say that she is our darling girl.  Our loud darling girl.