I had a super fun time at the beach on vacation. I had more fun learning how to go in and out of doors without crawling. Mom made me wear a dorky hat but at least my bald head didn't get sunburned. I'm still more tan than her and she slathers me with 50 sunscreen.

The Things I've Learned

I have learned how to do the following in the past few weeks:

• shake my head yes or no to tell you what I want
• pull at my dress or shorts to tell you that I have poopy pants
• use sign language to say "more and please"
• stomp on carpenter ants (we came back from vacation with a little problem)
• grow 6 more teeth

Next week I plan to learn how to ride a bike, change the oil in my mom's car and teach calculus at the community college.

I'm almost 1

I turn one-year-old pretty soon and things have been going well. I've sprouted 6 teeth, yell "Ella" like mom and dad do and began to walk about a week ago. I don't know what's the big deal. I can crawl faster to places I need to get to.
I can give kisses... when I want to.
I can give hugs... when I want to.
I yell alot.
I like to test dad on how far he'll let me go. Wires look tasty, I don't understand what the big deal is about me tasting them.
Dad keeps telling me 'no' and mom is letting me eat real people food which makes daddy very nervous.
I love my big sister. She makes me laugh. She is a great big sister because I know I will learn things from her.
I love school. I have lots of friends. Not so hot on the sharing thing but I'm learning.
I can point at things.
We went to the animal park and I loved the animals until that chicken bit me. That wasn't much fun but I ate some of his relatives later so it all evened out in the end.
Words:
Ella
Night Night = pacifier
Duh = dog
Tee = cat
mama = mom
duh-duh = dad