Grass, dirt, pavement, sand and hills won’t stop Ellie. She is walking everywhere now, has greater balance on her feet and can walk sideways around objects on the floor (usually her toys that she has dropped). The only time she crawls is when she is going down stairs. Which now is not a slow step by step process, she just sticks her belly out, pushes hard and will slide down two or three stairs at a time. 
Mum went out to get some curtains for the house and left me in charge of Ellie and the house. I was trying to get a few tasks accomplished to impress her. How hard could it be! Mum returned and to my surprise her first words were “What a mess”. I thought how strange, it’s just Ellie’s folded laundry in the television room. I left Ellie in the kitchen and went to look at what Mum was talking about. There was the nicely folder laundry scattered all over the floor. Then Ellie came into the room with a new snack cup and part of the packaging that clearly was ripped. It was not my day.
Ellie is really enjoying the new spaces in the house. At the top of the stairs, we have set up a book shelf with some of Ellie’s books and toys. She enjoys quite time up there playing and reading. Her favorites are the two Lift and Look books (pictured), The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and At the Petting Zoo with Teddy Bear.
As I was emptying the dishwasher Ellie came over to offer her assistance. She decided that she was thirsty and pulled her Sippy cup top out, walked over to the steps and sat down to drink her water. It is amazing what she has figured out.
Victoria and I were working hard to unpack and organize the house (Victoria doing the bulk of the work). A few days earlier I had placed the final boxes in our carport and today was the day to finally get to them. Ellie decided to help by going through the boxes to find interesting things. This ended quickly as she got bored. Then she noticed a bag of white rocks and brought a few of them over to us. As she went back to the bag to get more white rocks she discovered the dirt in the old herb planter from our first house. The dirt and rocks kept her attention long enough to make mess. 
Ellie has been walking for about 2 and half weeks now. It started with one and two steps, and then in a very short time she was walking across the room. Now she walks from one side of the house to the other. This last weekend she learned how to walk on the grass and also up hill, but hasn’t figured out how to go down hill yet.
With Ellie you never know what she is trying to accomplish. This picture was taken on moving day at our new house in the hallway looking into Ellie’s room. We tried to get her room set up first so she could get settled.
Ellie didn’t find this hiding place by herself. She did open the cabinet door and peek inside. Then I had the great idea of helping her in, once I had my camera in hand. It was a good thing Mum was sleeping in!
Last week Ellie went for her first hair cut. Up to this point Mum has been trimming Ellie’s hair. We both decided it was time to trim and shape her hair since it has been out of control lately. 
