18 Weeks

These pictures sum up this week pretty well: everything in the mouth! Ella's gotten really good at picking up stuff and anything she gets her hands on goes straight to the face. The bunny is her favorite thing to chew on, but occasionally she'll give the bear a nibble too. The bear must taste or feel different because she makes a funny face when she chews on it. Our fingers and hers are also a favorite. She's always got something in her mouth if she's awake and even in her sleep sometimes.

She's enjoying her exersaucer a lot more. She's definitely not as anxious or overwhelmed when we put her in it. She turns a little in the chair and bounces some. Mostly she just plays with whatever toys happen to be in front of her. She's getting the hang of it. She smiles and wiggles and squeals most of the time she's in it. Apparently our cat Jack thinks her dangling feet are his toys. She'll jump and squeal all the sudden and I'll look underneath and Jack will wrapped around one of her feet.

She's becoming a very chatty little thing, even around people besides Mommy and Daddy. She "talks" a lot these days. She hasn't really added any new sounds, just practising the old ones, a lot. She doesn't blow bubbles as much, but she still makes lots of raspberries. She's discovered my hair lately. She'll reach up and grab it while we're playing and give it a good yank and of course, try to put it in her mouth. When I'm rocking her before she goes to sleep, a lot of times she'll reach up with one hand and twirl my hair. I much prefer that to the yanking.

This week has been a lot better than last. For the most part, she's sleeping much better. Sunday and yesterday were especially nice. Today has been a little rocky and Jeff's out of town, so of course, that makes everything more difficult. She had her four month check-up on Tuesday. Dr. Sweet said her behavior is pretty normal at this point, that she's just "expressing her opinion". Apparently her opinion is that naps are for suckers. She says she very socially advanced for her age (I'm sure she says that to all the babies!) and that she's probably having some separation anxiety. She said we just need to keep doing what we're doing.

Her stats from the check-up are: weight 15lbs 3oz, 89%; length 25in, 85%. Still a big girl, but slowing down a little. However, I'm pretty sure she's having a growth spurt right now, she's been eating a lot lately. Everything else was good, no problems. She's hitting all her developmental milestones appropriately. I didn't have a million questions this visit, so it was pretty quick.

17 Weeks

Aunt Carrie got this exersaucer for Ella for Christmas. We put it together for her last Friday. It's taking her a while to get the hang of it, but I think she likes it. Today she figured out how to spin herself around in it. She gets so serious when we put her in there, like it's all business. There's just so much to see and do, I think it'll take her a while to figure it all out.

This has been another rough week, since Tuesday anyway. I took Ella back to the park on Monday and Tuesday since she had such a good time on Sunday. Monday went fine as well, and Tuesday she was fine at the park, but lost her mind when we got home. I think I made her stay up too long (only about 2 hours) and she was just completely overtired. She cried so hard and for so long that I was in tears too and was seriously contemplating taking her to the ER. Nothing I tried would calm her down. As far as I could tell, nothing else was wrong. She finally just stopped and fell asleep. Wednesday started off fine, but by evening she was a mess again. Every time I tried to lay her down she would scream. Thursday night was pretty much the same. I don't know what's going on with her, but it is no fun. I hate it so much when she cries like that and it is extremely frustrating not being able to get her to go to sleep when I know that's what's wrong. She's fine with napping in the mornings and afternoons, but now starts crying before we even make it in the room to lay her down at night. I seriously think it took about twenty attempts over three hours to get her to bed last night.

I was also sick on Thursday. Jeff had to stay home from work to take care of Ella. I had already agreed to keep Maggie for a little while that day as well, so he had his hands full for a couple of hours. I gave him a brief run down of Ella's morning routine and went off to sleep in the guest bedroom. I woke up when I heard Ella wake up figuring she was probably hungry. When I came out, they were playing on the floor. Jeff had changed her clothes and I commented on it being a cute outfit. He said he liked it because it was one piece, but that it fit her funny in the legs. A while later I picked her up to feed her and realized her Daddy had put her outfit on backwards. I just had to laugh. Turns out it fit just fine if you put it on the right way... :-)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,
Ella

First Park Visit

We took Ella to the park for the first time yesterday. The weather was so nice, we just had to get her out of the house for a while. I think she liked it. Marie and Mahlia and Grandpa, Grandmo, and Maggie all met us there. Ella was happy being walked around in the carrier and happy being held on laps. She liked looking all around and I think all the little kids were fascinating her. The only thing she wasn't fond of was the very loud train that passed by a few times. We stayed out there about two hours and she only started to get a little fussy right at the very end. She fell asleep almost as soon as we got her in the car seat. When we got home, I nursed her for a few minutes and she promptly fell asleep again for almost four hours! We couldn't believe. I think I will be taking her to the park often.

16 Weeks

Ella has discovered her ears this week, first her left then her right. Now that she's found them, she can't leave them alone. Even when she's drifting off to sleep, I'll see her reach up and start playing with her ear. Sometimes she misses her ears and lands on the back of her head, which is apparently equally entertaining and she likes to feel her hair there. Her ability to grasp and hold things has gotten so much better. It's funny though, I think she has a harder time doing it when she looks at the object rather than just going by feel. I guess her hand-eye coordination isn't that great yet.

She's been rolling over after pretty much every nap and sometimes in the middle of them. We call it the game-over move because we pretty much have to go get her. She won't go back to sleep once she's flipped to her back. Sometimes we can rock her for a few minutes and put her back down to sleep, but most of the time she'll have no part of that. Every time I go in to get her now, she's so happy to see me. She gives me the biggest gummy grins and starts waving her arms and kicking her legs and squealing. It makes my day.

When she wakes up in the morning (which has been getting earlier and earlier...), she doesn't cry or fuss any more, she just squirms and tries real hard to catch my eye. When I do look at her, she gives me her huge, happy smiles like she just can't wait to start the day. I loosen her swaddle and she starts stretching and cooing and looking all around for a good 20 or 30 minutes. Every few minutes she'll roll on her side and look at me and smile and squeal, like she forgot I was there and is so happy to see me again. She's so cute I almost forget that the sun is just barely starting to come up...

A few days ago I was changing her clothes and for the life of me, I could not get the snaps done on the new outfit. I was getting so frustrated. I started giving the PJs a piece of my mind, but in a sing-song voice so Ella wouldn't think I was mad at her. Well, she thought that was the funniest thing she had ever heard. The extent of her laughing so far is just the squeals she lets out with her smiles, but this exchange got some real giggles from her. I hadn't even realized that I hadn't heard her really, truly laugh before until I heard that laugh. She sounded like such a big girl. She hasn't done it again since then, I guess nothing has struck her as funny as Mommy cussing her pajamas.

15 Weeks

Snow Day!



Ella didn't really appreciate the snow very much. We got her all bundled up, which she was already upset about, and then being out in the cold was just adding insult to injury. I guess either the cold wind or the brightness of the sun on the snow was bothering her because she pretty much refused to open her eyes.

Thank goodness Jeff ended up getting a snow day today. Ella had us up all night last night. I think we probably ended up only getting about four hours of sleep. I don't know what was wrong with her, I think she just wanted to be up and playing. It was no fun. I think it was probably the hardest night we've had with her ever. Little stinker! She has been napping during the day a lot better, like a long 3 hour nap in the morning and another one in the afternoon. I hope that's not why she's not sleeping at night...

She's been sitting in her bumbo this week and sitting up with very little support from us. She also rolled over on her mat once this week, usually she just rolls when she's in bed. She started blowing bubbles which is cute, but kind of messy. She does this thing sometimes when she's falling asleep where she "talks" quite loudly, just mumbling away. She sounds like she's airing her grievances. It's so funny. It's hard not to laugh at her when she does it. She also started putting things in her mouth this week. If she gets a grip on something, she does her best to bring it up to her mouth. She's not always successful, but she tries. She's been chewing on her hands a lot too, which has been a little confusing for me because that used to be her early hunger cue. Now she does it all the time, so I'm never sure if she wants to eat or what. Fortunately she's gotten a lot more patient about waiting a minute or two to eat once she decides she's hungry. She rarely cries to eat any more.