35 Weeks

Ella is into everything! One of her favorite things is the water bowl. We probably pull her away from it ten times a day. There's no where to put it that she can't get to it but La Roo can. So we just have to watch her. Fortunately it's not so much a safety issue as just a mess issue.

Ella and Maggie playing on Father's Day. Maggie is definitely warming up to Ella. Every time we would pick her up Maggie would say "That's my cousin! Put her down." It was really cute. And of course, Ella is just crazy about her.

I ordered baby gates to put up to keep her in the living room/kitchen area, but they haven't come yet. So for now, I just let her explore and follow her closely when she heads into the other rooms. She stood outside the office doors and banged on them and yelled at Lilly for a good ten or fifteen minutes when she discovered her in there.

We're continuing to try new foods. This is her trying cantaloupe for the first time. She seemed to like it about as much as anything else, so not a lot. She did eat some of it though. It's a good thing she still nurses so well, she's obviously not missing any meals.

When I'm in the kitchen and I want Ella to stay where I can see her, I open this cabinet and let her play with everything. It's mostly her stuff, bowls, bottles, pacifiers, etc. It keeps her very entertained, out of trouble, and in my sight.

Ella's bottom front two teeth are really starting to push up on her gums. For about a week now you can clearly feel them. I can't tell if they're hurting her but it's hard to imagine that it's not uncomfortable. For the first time she's interested in her teething ring, as long as it's cold anyway. She slept horribly Saturday night and seemed cranky and uncomfortable all day Sunday. I finally broke down Sunday night and gave her some ibuprofen. It was her first time to ever have any medicine besides the eye ointment and vitamin K shot at birth. I was really anxious giving it to her, but it seemed to help and she slept better that night. I just wish I knew for sure if she's hurting or not. If she is, I have no problem giving her medicine, but if she's not, I don't want to medicate her for no reason...

We've been taking her to the little water park near our house. We spend most of our time in the lazy river. There's a "beach" end of it where it's very shallow. I sit with her in that area and she crawls all around. Sometimes she takes off crawling out toward the deeper part. Eventually I grab her and pull her back, but I wonder how far she would go if I let her. If there are any other babies or little kids around, she goes after them. I take her around the "river" part of it to try to practice her swim stuff, but she doesn't seem to like that as much.

Ella is quite a little drummer. She has started banging on anything she can- her legs, the floor, her bongos, whatever! Any time I turn music on or start singing to her, she starts banging her little hands. Also if I clap or bang my hands, she gets going too. It's so cute. I swear sometimes she copies the rhythm or number of beats that I do, but it might be a coincidence.

It's busy, busy around here! She is definitely keeping me on my toes.

Father's Day

34 Weeks

Ella is now a fully mobile baby! She's pulling up on anything and everything she can, and she's cruising along. She'll even let go for a second or two, but she's pretty wobbly. I've spent a lot of time redirecting her and rearranging things this week. We're still not really fully baby-proofed, but we're getting closer. Even if I baby-proof everything as much as possible, there's still a lot of ways she can get hurt since she's not very steady on her feet. I'm trying to find a balance between giving her the freedom to explore, but being close enough to keep her from busting her head.

Her whole style of playing has changed this week. She used to sit right by me and I would pretty much constantly interact with her. Now she'll crawl away, play for a while and then come back and crawl in my lap for a few minutes and then go again. There's also a lot of me running after her and bringing her back to her toys and safer areas. We can't leave her unattended for a minute unless she's asleep or in her highchair. It's crazy how fast things change! I thought it would be a more gradual process, but she is up and running.

Last Day in Galveston/Back Home

Ella is pulling up big time now. She will try to do it on just about anything, but of course, some things are easier than others. She's starting to take a few steps while holding on as well. She's still pretty wobbly on her feet, but she's getting much better. She pulled up on our couch at home with a little difficulty at first, but then she did it four or five times in a row with no problem. Occasionally she'll just let go, which is a bit frightening for me. We're going to have to stay close to her at all times until she gets a little more steady on her feet! Also baby-proofing is on the agenda for this week.

So, we made it home. I'm happy to be home, but I could have stayed another week or two. I miss the ocean breeze and the hammock already! The return trip went ok. We left Galveston right at nap time this morning. Ella slept about 25 minutes of the hour and a half drive, which was pretty worthless. She was good at the airport, people even commented about how she didn't make a peep. I told them to just wait for the flight, and I was right. She did fine on take off, got a little screechy and cried a few times during the flight, and got pretty upset during the landing. I think her ears were hurting, but I couldn't get her to nurse for more than a few seconds, so there wasn't much else I could do for her. As soon as the plane was on the ground, she was ok.

I was worried Ella would have a hard time crawling on the wood floors after being on carpet for the last week, but she did fine.

I think she's trying to get a little bite of the baby in the mirror.

Galveston Day 7

Our last day at the beach the seaweed was awful! So much of it had washed up on shore, Jeff had to dig a path for us to get out to the water and it had filled back in completely by the time we came back in 20 or so minutes later. The water was filled with it too. Ella did pretty well in the water despite pretty big waves and getting splashed in the face a few times. Unfortunately the seaweed was covering the good sand that Ella liked to play in. We sat her on the beach back behind the seaweed, but it was too dry and packed down for her to get her little fingers into it. She still managed to get pretty sandy though.

We had a nice last evening. Mark's brother and his girlfriend Chris drove down from Houston and we all went to dinner. Jeff cooked dinner for us all every night we were there, so he was ready for a break. We went to a really good restaurant on the bay side. It wasn't as good as Jeff's cooking, but it was close.

Galveston Day 6

We wanted to take Ella and Maggie on a Duck Tour of Galveston yesterday, but the time we were shooting for was sold out when we got there. We bought tickets for a later tour, which ended up being nap time for both girls. Carrie stayed at home with the kiddos and Mom, Mark, Jeff, and I went on the Duck Tour. It was ok, but I'm glad it worked out that Maggie and Ella didn't come, I don't think they would have liked it at all. Ella woke up early from her nap while we were gone and was pretty tired by the time we got back. We had planned to take her to the beach during that time, but she was not in a good mood for it, so no beach yesterday. We ended up playing with Maggie on the floor and outside on the deck a lot instead.

33 Weeks

This has been a week of milestones for sure! Ella really got the hang of going from sitting up to all fours and back again with ease. She started doing the four-point crawl and has pretty much mastered that. She also started pulling up to standing, although she's not doing it consistently. I've been teaching her the sign for milk since she was about six months old. I noticed a few weeks ago that she was kind of doing it, but I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or what. This week, I know for sure that's what she's doing and she's doing it correctly. It's been a big week!

Galveston Day 5

Ella was pretty grouchy yesterday after her poor night of sleep. She would play for a little, then start fussing and she wouldn't tolerated anyone else holding her but me. She went to bed early and had a pretty good night, so hopefully today will be better.

Galveston Day 4

Ella has really started to get the hang of crawling. She still alternates between the army crawl and the four-point crawl, but I think she's figuring out the four-point crawl is easier. We checked another milestone of the list yesterday as well. When she and I got back from the beach, I took her in the shower with me. I got her all cleaned up, but she would let me set her down so I could get clean. I had left a big towel on the floor just outside the shower, so I set her down out there so I could finish up. I was checking on her every few seconds, and the last time I opened the door, she had crawled over to the side of the bathtub and pulled herself up to standing. I can't believe she figured that out so fast, I thought it would be a while still before she started pulling all the way up. She did it again this morning, but I missed it.

She had been doing really great with the sleeping, once we got her to sleep anyway, but last night was pretty bad. She woke up about 10:30 and didn't go back to sleep until some time after 1. Then she woke up again and 3:30 and 5:30. Between 10:30 and 1, she had two huge blow-out diapers, so I guess that's what was waking her up. All three of us are dragging a bit today.

Galveston Day 3

Yesterday morning was overcast and rainy, so we spent the morning playing inside. When Ella (finally) went down for her morning nap, Jeff and I went and drove around the island for a while and then went to lunch. After she woke up from her second nap, the rain had cleared, so we went out to the beach. It was a really nice day. There was a good breeze and it wasn't very hot. Because of the storms, the water was pretty choppy and Ella did not like the waves. We tried for a few minutes to take her back out into the water, but she wasn't having it. So we went back up to the beach and played in the sand just where the tide was coming it. She loved this. She kept picking up handfuls of sand and just staring at it running through her fingers. She also seemed to be able to get really good traction on the sand because she was crawling all over the place.

Galveston Day 2

Maggie apparently provided the motivation Ella needed to start crawling for real. Yesterday morning Ella finally did the four-point crawl while trying to chase after Maggie. She's still not doing it consistently, when she really wants to get going, she drops back to the army crawl. She did great in the ocean. She loved it! She got a few splashes in the face, but it didn't seem to bother her.

Galveston Day 1

Ella ended up taking a two and a half hour nap yesterday morning, which was a great start to the day. I'm thinking about letting her move in with Uncle Thomas for a while since she seems to sleep so well there! After she woke up, we went to visit our friends Nick and Alex and their baby Lane. Ella wanted to play with him so bad, but he was a little overwhelmed with her.

Lane and Ella are kind of kindred souls when it comes to sleeping (or lack there of), so it was nice to commiserate with other parents in a similar situation.

This little guy has not been run over, he was just sunning himself on the back porch. It was super cute.

Unfortunately, Ella had to catch her second nap in the car. She'll only sleep about 30 minutes in the car, but that's just long enough to mess up the rest of her nap schedule. She was a crazy baby by the time I got her to bed last night.

Jeff and Ella swinging in the hammock outside our beach house. Ella was very amused with the hammock. She got her first mosquito bite right after that picture, on her head. I think I might have killed it before it got her because there wasn't a spot or anything. The mosquitoes are pretty awful here. We're going to have to stay sprayed down to keep them away.

Ella is enjoying the carpet in our beach house. It's a lot easier for her to get around. I had a little bit of a hard time getting her to sleep last night, she was so over-tired and just being in a weird place. But I did get her down in the pack-play-in about 7:45 and she slept in there until about midnight when I took her to bed with us. She was a little restless off and on during the night, but she slept pretty well until about 6:45 this morning. That's actually a little later than usual, so that was nice.

First Airplane Ride

Ella did great on her first airplane trip. If her ears bothered her at all, she didn't show it. I nursed her on take off, but she wouldn't nurse on landing. She was a squirmy, screechy monkey the whole time, but no crying. The lady sitting next to us was quiet, but very nice. She took the picture of us. Ella kept trying to grab her book and her bracelet and watch and the lady was very patient with her. She also kept hitting her with the airplane menu thing that I was letting her play with. Ella made lots of friends in the airport while we were waiting. It's funny how many strangers want to talk to you when you have a baby. When we landed, Jeff met us just outside of security. We were walking to the parking garage and an older man stopped us and said he had been watching Ella since the airport in Dallas. He said she reminded him of his grand-baby who he was missing and he thought about "borrowing" Ella for a few minutes, but decided that maybe wasn't such a good idea. It sounds kind of creepy, but he was actually very nice.

So far, Ella's doing very well being away from home. She hasn't had a good nap since Thursday morning, which is no fun at all, but she's sleeping well at night, so that helps. We couldn't get her to nap at Thomas' at all yesterday, but she took two short naps in the car which was enough to take the edge off. Actually, she's been in a great mood, even though you can tell she's tired. She took to Thomas right away this time, which was nice since she gave him a hard time the last time he saw her. She loved, loved, loved Nisha! Nisha sat on the floor with her to play and Ella was trying to crawl up into her lap. I don't think I've really seen her do that with anyone else but me.

I was a little worried about how she would do at night sleeping in a different bed. Also, because we have a king at home and Jeff and I don't usually do well just the two of us in a smaller bed, we had planned for Jeff to sleep on an air mattress. But that didn't work out and I felt sorry for him sleeping on the floor, so we all three squeezed into Thomas' bed. It was cozy, but we all slept fine. Poor Thomas slept on the couch even though he had to get up at the crack of dawn to be at the hospital. Such a good host!

This morning Ella decided that she'd had enough Mommy and cried every time Jeff got out of her sight. It actually took me a few minutes to realize that's what she was fussing/crying about. She's never done that before. Jeff got her down for a nap about 45 minutes ago. We're holding our breath and crossing our fingers for a good nap to start the day!