Ballet smocked dress Patagonia fleece
Green polka dot two piece romper Jelly shoes
Tea blue romper Pink & white sailor romper
What a fun age! 18 months is so great. I have to say 15-17 months was really difficult. Ella Rose was trying so desperately to communicate with us, but wasn’t quite able to speak her thoughts so she would just SCREAM instead! AHHH. I wanted to scream too, it was very frustrating for both of us. I tried everything to teach her not to scream, but nothing seemed to work. Luckily, it was just a phase. Now, she is answering questions with yes and no, and it is making such a difference. She’ll say “Yeahhh” and “noooo,” it’s pretty funny. We’re so happy! Her vocabulary is exploding daily. I swear, every day she has a new word. She also loves her baby dolls so much. They’re her favorite. She pushes them around in their strollers all day long, burps them, feeds them a bottle, and rocks them. She’s so crazy about them that I bought her a little crib that she keeps next to her own crib, and before bed she puts them in there and wraps them with a blanket and tells us to “shhhhh.” It’s so adorable.
She also loves popsicles, smoothies, playing with her blocks, and is really into light switches lately. Ha! We just went to her 18 month Dr. apt and she is 21 lbs and 34 inches tall (33% for weight and 47% for height). It’s awesome to watch and see her changing. She is now saying “no more,” as well, which is huge. Her personality has just blossomed. She is the most caring, sensitive, sassy, social, chatty, willful little girl I know. We just love her soooo much.
So let me take you back to the beginning of this summer. In June we went to Cape May, NJ with my side of the family: Grancy, Bonka, Andrea, Matt, & Joshua. We had a great trip with them. We ate the best lobster/crab, enjoyed the beach, and rested, it was really nice. Ella Rose and Joshua had a blast together too, we just love how they are only 3 months apart in age.
Lobster smocked dress Smocked strawberry swimsuit
Then we were home for a couple of months in Denver. Towards the end of July, Ella Rose and I flew home to see family again. We spent a week with my side, and then we drove up to visit Elizabeth, James, & Lucy’s new home in Milwaukee. On the way up, we stopped by to see our newest family member, Isla. She’s so tiny and cute! After visiting Milwaukee, we all drove down to South Bend together for the first biannual Krueger family reunion. This was with all of Brendan’s siblings and immediate family, since we all live in different states now. This was a lot of fun! We swam, ate good food, celebrated Isla’s baptism, and went on a boat. Unfortunately towards the end of this trip, Ella Rose got a little sick and was not feeling so hot. Thank goodness we were headed back to Denver. When we got home, we had Micah (Brendan’s best friend from H.S.) stay with us for a week. That was fun company. He wanted to hang with Ella Rose and me the whole week, so we showed him the fun, trendy spots of Denver. The following week, my friend Maddie came to visit and we saw her for dinner and a concert at Red Rocks for the first time. That was such a neat venue, so beautiful! Now, we are just relaxing in Denver for the next few weeks at home. Ella Rose has grown a little bit, so we need to do some fall shopping, and her teeny tiny feet have finally started to grow too, so we need to buy her some new shoes that fit! She still loves hanging with her bestie/neighbor, Lana- and always says her name with a sing-song voice, it’s cute! We are doing music again this fall, and we might try soccer! We are excited for October, because we have some fun visitors. Liz is coming for a “girls” weekend as BK has a trip. Grancy and Bonka are road tripping out here for a week too, and then on the weekend we will be heading to Breckenridge to celebrate our birthdays. I’m excited to show my parents Breckenridge, I think they will really like it. I described it to them as a “Cape May” in the mountains. And then in Novemeber, my brother DJ and Ali (his GF) will be visiting, and we will head home to Chicago to visit families for Thanksgiving and to attend TJ & Sarah’s wedding. We are very thankful for our loving families and being able to see them so much when we live so far away. We are so very excited for this fall!