Samantha has evidently decided that Ella is a pony. She tries to throw one leg over her back and says "Ride Ella" while she does it. If Ella is lying down on the floor Sam will straddler her back and sit on her. Ella, for her part, exhibits extraordinary patience -- usually she just looks back over her shoulder and licks Samantha's face.

She's started saying "Please" but only intermittently, as in "Lap please" when she wants to climb into your lap. Lap is another new word, as are snuggle, tea, and coffee. Somehow she's figured out that cups from the local bakery (Carberry's) contain coffee, and that the big thermal serving carafe is for "hot coffee". How she figured that one out I'll never know.

Samantha completely cracked my up the other day. She'd dropped her pacifier on the floor someplace and decided a little while longer that she wanted it. She looked me and Amy and said "Gabba! Gabba!". Amy reminded her that she'd dropped it on the floor, and she toddled off from room to room looking for it. When she spotted it on the floor of our bedroom she exclaimed with glee "Ah! Gabba!" Then she picked it up, looked at it for a minute, and said "Hi, Gabba!" before sticking it into her mouth. I wish I'd had the video camera at the time -- it was just priceless.

It's also pretty adorable when she looks up into the sky as airplanes fly overhead and says "Hug plane!", and then "Bye bye plane" as the sound of the airplane fades off into the distance.