Saturday Night Social.

On Saturday we had another party with Ellie's baby friends. They are all getting to be such a fun age, running around, talking, interacting with one another. Funny to think that a year ago they were all just a bunch of lumps, sitting next to each other and only occasionally taking notice of the other babies.

However, they way they are now sometimes feels like 10 times more work. Breaking up fights over the good toys, trying to catch them when they start climbing on stuff like a bunch of angry monkeys, trying to keep them from spilling food and drink everywhere (I caught one of the boys trying to steal my cocktail!) They are busy, busy, busy. The only real way to entertain them seemed to be sitting with a plate of fruit, feeding pieces to the various little birds.

I thought since they were all walking, it would be fun to get a picture of all of them lined up, standing. It lasted about half a second before they scattered.

Ellie was upset - she was in a very "mommy" mode on Saturday.

She continued to be upset even after everyone else was happily settled with an animal cracker.

18 months is a hard age anyways. Fun, but hard. She is constantly testing her boundaries, my patience, and the laws of gravity. Ellie has learned how to climb on things, so she crawls up on chairs, says "big girl sits!" and then refuses to sit down. She understands she shouldn't be doing it, she'll even say "kaboom, ow!" but I feel like I'm constantly after her. She will get grouchy and hit. She can be especially mean to the cats (poor Petunia in particular) and even though every day she reminds me that we don't pull Lulu's tail or bother Lulu while she eats, she tells me about said rules while breaking them. She's smart, but she's disobedient. I am trying to be consistent and firm, and we are doing 30 second time outs - she HATES being taken out of the action, and usually has her act together when she returns to the fun.