15 Months and Walking

Helping Mommy and Daddy fold laundry on their bed on a Sunday morning

Grandma and Ella reading

Alex gets his first hair cut (there was not much there to cut but was getting a little shaggy so we decided a trim was in order). He has no idea what is coming at this point.

He's beginning to think he may not like this - even though he is busy staring at the handsome fellow in the mirror

Just a trim to the curls in the back and we are all done!

Grandma came for a visit and we all took a picture after church on Sunday morning

Helen enjoying the sun and warm day

Ella is ready for the pool to get filled up

Alex and his signature walk with his hands straight up in the air

Helen's signature walk is with her arms tucked in close to her chest

No one has the heart to tell Ella how little she is so she keeps on trying to carry about things that are bigger than she is - and usually succeeds!

Ella figured out how to climb up on the picnic table

The back deck is all done and they love being able to play outside on it

Of course, monkey see, monkey do and now Helen has to try it too

Alex and Mommy at the beach

Helen playing in the sand

While Ella was repulsed by the sand at first, she has come to like it

Helen

Alex has a blast playing at the beach

Everyone loves crawling around and checking everything out

15 months

Ella tries to sneak away with Jule's ball before she notices

Helen is so proud of herself -she stacked all three blocks by herself!


We had to have our back deck replaced. Alex was fascinated with watching the guys work.

Ella managed to crawl on top of this little table - and then got stuck and could not figure out how to get down. She has not climbed up there again.

Watching the deck get fixed is fun for everyone - including the guys doing the work. I'm not sure who had more fun - the kids watching the guys or the guys watching the kids. One of them said to me "You sure can tell their personalities even from out here. That little one keep looking at me like I'm not doing this right."

Relaxing on the couch with our stuffed animals

Ella snuggles up with Jule

Alex is hedging his bets and sits equally in between Indi and Jule

Mommy, Ella, and Helen

There are so many fun things that happen every week and I try to remember them all to write about them here but then when I sit down, I cannot remember them all! Ella is "singing" and "dancing" now. I'll ask her to "sing" and she starts singing some unidentifiable melody. But in her world, she thinks she is singing one of the many songs we always sing. And when she hears music she will bend her knees and bounce up and down - her version of dancing.

I also realized how much they can understand now even if they cannot talk. Yesterday I saw Ella had something in her mouth and more to myself than to her I said, "Ella, what do you have in your mouth?" So she reaches in her mouth, pulls out whatever it was, and hands it to me. I could not believe it. Not to mention that that is a much easier way to get something out of her mouth than prying open her lips and fishing it out. I guess we need to be pretty careful what we say in front of them because they are soaking everything up.

Alex and Helen are taking more and more steps. They will stand by themselves and can probably take 7 or 8 steps at a time. Hopefully it will not be too long before they are walking on their own. People always comment that life will be so crazy when they are all walking. But I don't think it will be too bad. In some ways, it is actually easier when they can walk instead of crawl. It is much less dirty for one thing. And now, I can carry Alex and Helen and have Ella walk along next to me. They are pretty good about listening too. The other night I was downstairs changing Ella into her pajamas. When I finished, I set her down and told her to go upstairs. I did something for a minute and then expected to go find Ella and figure out where she was so she could go to bed. Lo and behold, she was halfway up the stairs - just like I had told her to! So it is kind of nice having them be mobile on their own. Now, don't think I'm crazy or anything and I'll take them to the mall and let them go free. But at least at home it's nice that they have more mobility.

We've been teaching them sign language and they have quite a few signs down. This week Ella mastered "walk" and they all know "please" now. "More" is a popular one and Alex's first sign was "milk." They mostly just sign when they hear the word. But every now and then I will see them sign in an effort to tell me what they want. The other day I put Helen in her chair for lunch and she started signing "more." So of course I had to give her more food!

Last weekend a marathon went through our neighborhood so we went out to volunteer at the water stop. Before the runners came through, we brought the kids out to see all the neighbors. I let Ella walk around a little and she walked right up to a group of teenage girls and held out her arms to be picked up. Then she let them carry her around for about 15 minutes and was as happy as could be. It is so funny how she does not seem to be concerned at all about where her parents are and whether we are still there. I guess she figures she will be OK no matter what. Alex also entertained himself by flirting with this same group of girls. He got them to walk him around for quite awhile.

Their table manners are significantly improving. We've gotten them to stop throwing their cups on the floor and instead hand them to us when they are done. And instead of throwing food on the floor, I let them give food back to me that they don't want. Of course this means that I have to be paying attention to take the food - otherwise it goes on the floor because I was not quick enough. And Helen loves dangling her food over the side of her tray and just grinning at me to see what I will do. She'll pull it back over her tray, then dangle it again just to get the reaction. She thinks it is hilarious as she taunts me with her food. But at least they are all eating the same stuff we eat now and the battles over the sippy cups have ended.

It is hard to believe they are 15 months old now. I think back to a year ago when they were 3 months old and it seems like so much longer than a year ago. I guess that's good because most days it feels like time is flying by!

She drinks!!

Seriously, how cute it Ella?

Ella looks like she got into a fight with her spaghetti....and lost

Alex is just happy he has a full belly

Helen had a good time too

Climbing the stairs for nap time (no more three trips up and down the stairs!)

Alex hanging out in his chair

Sweet Helen

She drinks!! Last Monday we got rid of the bottles and went to sippy cups. Helen and Alex took a day or two to adjust but then were fine. Ella refused to drink from hers. She refused to drink milk out of her sippy cup but then would go in the play room and guzzle water out of one. Grandma, in her infinite wisdom, suggested just giving her a regular cup. After 6 days of a sippy cup strike, I gave her a cup and she took it and drained the whole thing. When I then put a spill proof top on it, she was fine with it and would drink it that way too. I have no idea why that made a difference but she is now as happy as can be with her cup. I'm sure she thinks she "won" this battle though.

I promise they usually look happier than this.

Could Helen be any cuter?

Ella only looks bald here because the girls have started wearing clips in their hair. It's not easy getting a clip to stay in when there is not a whole lot to work with but mommy is optimistic that someday we will even graduate to ponytail holders!

The girls were playing with the magnets on the side of the fridge and Ella is trying to run away with a few

Helen is happy to stand there and put them all back in order. Alex comes along and throws them all on the floor - Helen picks them back up and puts them where they belong. There is a whole lot of her mommy running around in that girl!

I bought these really cute Valentine's t-shirts at Old Navy thinking how precious it would be to get a picture of the three of them. This was as good as it got. Not exactly what I had in mind but it was almost impossible just to keep them all on the couch at the same time!

I thought Ella was never going to drink out of that cup. I don't know how much milk we wasted for a week trying to get her to drink it. I will be glad when she can talk so she can just tell me that she wanted the grown up cup to drink her milk instead of me trying dozens of different things to guess what was going to make her drink it. Thank goodness we cleared that hurdle though - now they are all drinking regular milk - it is so much cheaper than the formula!

Helen and Alex are taking more steps. They can go 5 or 6 steps now without falling. Probably won't be too long before all three are toddling around. It is so cute to watch them walk - it is funny to see how easily Ella walks around when she is so tiny and looks like she should still be crawling. Alex finally figured out how to clap the other day. So now when I say clap clap clap, he actually claps! Small progress but it is good.

I can really see their brains soaking up so much information. I have to be careful about what I say and do now because they are starting to imitate little mannerisms that I did not even realize I do. When Helen coughs, she pats her chest. Probably because that's exactly what I do when I cough!

The time outs are being met with mixed results. The other day Alex and Helen landed in the time out pack-n-play at the same time. Well, to them it was time for a wrestling match. So they were rolling around wrestling and having a great time. Not exactly a meaningful time out but at least they were getting along and having fun!

The fun never ends and while they are getting more curious and more into things, they are also listening more too. The other morning I walked downstairs with both of the girls. I put Ella down and told her to walk to her chair. I carried Helen in and after I had strapped her in I turned around and there was Ella standing right by her chair waiting for me. Who knew they would actually listen to me?? I better enjoy it while I can :)

Ella is a walking machine now - she is walking around like an old pro

How many babies can we fit on the dumptruck?

Alex and Ella "help" fold laundry

Ella likes trying things on to see how they look

Helen gets creative with figuring out how to reach the TV and VCR

Attack of slimy Ella with food smeared all over her face and in her hair!

Alex chills out in the new coolest place to be - up in the chair

Helen and Ella are pretty happy to be in the big chair too

Helen is SO BIG!! (either that or she is celebrating a touchdown - we are not sure which one)

Alex has to figure out how to think outside of the box

Precious Ella

Helen plays with the castle

It has been a week of changes and new things. Some are adjusting better than others. On Monday we said goodbye to bottles for good. It took about a day for Alex and Helen to adjust to a sippy cup. Ella is still on strike. She refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup and will not let the cup come near her while she is in her highchair. But as soon as she gets done eating, she goes in the playroom and guzzles a whole cup of water. I think she figures that as long as she does not drink it when we want her to drink it, she is winning. It will be interesting to see how long her strike lasts before realizes the bottles are never coming back.

But Ella is walking around like a champ. Very little wobbling and no more "Franken-baby." She is sure and steady on her feet. Alex is still trying to take some wobbly steps. Helen is great at standing. The other day she did take a few steps. But she would only inch her feet along where she knew she would not risk falling. For every ounce of devil may care that Ella has, Helen has equal parts caution and planning. Should be very interesting to see how these Felix and Oscar personalities develop as they get older.

We also started doing time outs this week. It took a few times of them doing stuff they were not supposed to (i.e. pulling all the tiles up off the floor - Alex's personal favorite) for them to figure out what is going on. Let's hope we've made out point and don't have to keep rotating everyone through the time out pack and play all day!