18 months!

Today Elsie is 18 months old! My little Thumbelina is growing up so fast!

This is what has been going on in the last month:

• We celebrated Elsie's One Year Home from the Hospital Anniversary! So exciting. I clearly remember the day she came home. Signing paperwork at the hospital, packing up all of her belongings, the signs and balloons that greeted us when we got home. Setting up a baby station of sorts in the living room, since that was where her huge oxygen concentrator machine was located, and trying not to trip over all of her tubes and cords. Feeling so happy to have my family together at last. It has been quite the year, baby!
• Elsie took her first steps!!! She took two or three steps toward Clayton and we were so excited. Then she didn't do it again for a few weeks, the little stinker. But during this last week, she has been taking a few steps unassisted here and there, and is standing alone for longer and longer periods of time. We are confident that, although we have been saying it for several months now, we will definitely and for sure have a walking baby in our home very soon. Way to go, Els!
• Elsie's vocabulary has picked up a few new words. She's still saying mama or mommy, and Clayton swears that he had her saying daddy, but I've never heard her say it, despite numerous attempts to get her to say it. Her most frequent word and most easily understood word is uh oh. She can also say baby, ball (balloon), "lolo" for hello, and can sort of say bye bye. Most exciting of all, Elsie can totally say Evje's name. It's so adorable (For those of you who are new here or don't remember, Evje's name is Norwegian; the "j" sounds like a "y", so her name is pronounced "ehv-ya" or "eh-vee-ya"). Elsie's pronunciation, which is really surprisingly good, sounds like "eh-bee-ya". Seriously, it's the cutest thing ever. I love the bond that my sweet girls share as sisters. Sisters are so amazing.
• Elsie's making slow but steady progress drinking liquids. She prefers to drink water, but has also tried milk, apple juice, and Sprite, among other things. She still spits out a lot of the liquid that goes in, but is swallowing more and more. She kinda stopped liking her honey bear straw cup, but will drink out of a sippy cup, water bottle, or an open cup. It's pretty exciting. She still is not swallowing any foods but we're working on it. 
• Last month, I talked about Elsie's stranger anxiety issues, which I'm happy to say have been getting better. We've been fortunate during the last week or two to be able to spend lots of time with various extended family members, and she is much more comfortable with everyone. She still prefers to be with me or Clayton, I mean, we're like her coolest parents ever so she thinks we are completely awesome, but is doing much better with other people playing with her or even holding her. Hooray.
• Got her third tooth! This one came out on the top. Three cute little toothies! 
• I'm pretty sure that she's getting a cold right now, so I'm really dreading the next week or two of Vomit-ville that I'm predicting will be upon us, but we'll see. Hopefully it will be very mild and won't last for long.

Elsie has made lots of exciting progress during the last month. Her personality is coming out more and more. She is such a fun little girl and we love having her in our family. We are so blessed!