open letter to Ellie at 15 months and 2 days

Ellie,

I am 2 days late in posting this due to the fact that we were at the beach. You got your first taste of being in the ocean. Really, your first taste. The water got on your face and you were licking your lips for quite a while. I'm assuming it was all the salt. Yum!

You would go around the hotel and say mama, daddy, gampa, yaya. Over and over. Too bad gampa and yaya weren't actually there. I asked you if you wanted to go home and you again said gampa and yaya. Is this a sign that you spend too much time over at your grandparents house? Or is it just that you like them more?
You can now say your name, something like this - ey ye.
You still LOVE Sesame Street. In addition to saying all of our names, you sometimes like to add in Ernie, Elmo and Cookie as if they are in the room.
You now know what the tiger, lion and bear say - pretty much the same thing - roar.
You put your hand up to your mouth and make noises when we ask you what Cookie monster does.
You now give real kisses. No more of the open mouth thing. Now we get the real thing with the smacking noise. You also give good hugs and you blow kisses as well.
You went on your first carousel ride and you kept saying moo for the animals - again, we need to work on that one.

You will take a bath and once all the water is gone, you look at yourself in the faucet, stand up, wave goodbye and walk the length of the bathtub and turn around and do it all over again. By the time you finally get out of the bathtub, you don't need a towel anymore - you are completely dry.
You sing along to the abc's in your own language but you know the tune. You also sing the part of "now I know". You also count somewhat. I say one and you say two. And then I say the rest up to seven and you finish with eight. Today though, you did chime in and gave me a six after five. Smart kid!
I can tell you to get in bed and you will walk over and climb right into your bed. The problem is getting you to stay there! We love it when you walk into our room in the morning and announce "hi". Although we do like it better at 7 then say 2 a.m.
It seems your mongolian spots are getting worse. Still only on your back but it freaks me out to put you in a swimming suit. I'm afraid I'm going to have CPS knocking on my door from some concerned parent. Hopefully those will disappear before preschool!
You are a joy to have around and you make us laugh everyday. Even on the bad days when you don't enough sleep. Sleep my dear, sleep. One day you will want all the sleep you can get!

Love you pretty girl,
Mama