40 Weeks

We tried the swings at the park for the first time this week. The first day we did it, she seemed to really like it. She smiled and laughed and had a good time. After about five minutes she started fussing a little and reaching for me, so I took her out and sat in the big swing and swung with her. She seemed to like that too. Since then, every morning I try putting her in the swing after I jog and she cries every time. I don't know what happened. She's fine in the big swing with me, but she does not like being in the baby swing. We'll keep trying, maybe she'll change her mind again.

Ella and Cousin Maggie at Nana's house. Ella really liked Maggie's little push toy train thing. My Mom has carpet, so it worked pretty well there. I'm afraid our wood floors might be a little too slick and the push toy would get away from her.
I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but Ella has quite the farmer's tan. I usually put her in her little swim shirt when we go to the pool and even though I always put sunscreen on her, her arms and legs have gotten a little tan. My Mom got Ella and Maggie matching bathing suits, which Ella out grew almost immediately. Maggie has out grown hers too, so it got handed down to Ella. I decided to put her in that for the rest of the season to try to even out the tan a bit.

Ella helping Daddy take out the recycle. She's pulling up on everything now and will even stand unsupported for a few seconds. Most of the time, I think she just forgets to hold on and then realizes when she starts to wobble. At the pool the other day, she was standing in the shallow water and very purposefully and slowly let go of the rock wall and stood with out holding on for about 2o or 30 seconds. Even then, she didn't fall or anything, she just slowly put her hands back on the wall.

Speaking of slick wood floors, Ella busted her lip the other day. We had gone downtown to meet Jeff for lunch and then taken her to Grandpa D's office to show her off. By the time we left she was super tired, but only got a little nap in the car on the way home. So, she was crazy baby that evening. She was like a little drunk, falling down, tripping over her own feet. Anyway, she was crawling and some how just lunged forward and face planted. She started crying really hard and I picked her up trying to calm her down. I noticed after a few seconds that there was blood dripping onto my shirt. We put an ice cube on it and that seemed to stop the bleeding and distract her. Poor baby! The swelling was gone by the next day, but it's still bruised and scabbed.

We finally found some food Ella really likes. GrandMo was eating stuffed shells and gave Ella a little bite of the ricotta and tomato sauce and she loved it. Maureen couldn't give it to her fast enough. I was worried that it might bother her stomach, but so far so good. I think something must have clicked for her because she's been eating a lot better since then and she's at least willing to try anything.

39 Weeks/ 9 Months

I promise I will stop counting her age in weeks when she turns a year old. It's just easier than thinking of a title once a week!

This is Ella imitating a puppy dog. She loves shredding napkins or paper! After she had quite a bit of it shredded, she would lay down on her tummy in the middle of all the shreds. It was hilarious.

We didn't put her in there, she climbed in herself.

Last Saturday we drove to Plano to meet up with Jeff's cousin who just moved here from Seattle. They have a 1.5 year old, Izzy. The restaurant we went to, Whiskey Cake, had coasters made out of cardboard, which Ella apparently found delicious. The pic below is us with Jeff's cousin Julie, her boyfriend Joey, and their baby Izzy.

Ella reading a book in her car seat on the long trip to and from Plano. Sally and I both sat in the backseat with her and she was really good. We had driven to Fort Worth early that day to meet my Mom, Mark, Carrie, Maggie, and Alan for lunch, so she was being a real trouper about being in the car.

Ella and Jack playing with her basket.

Friday was Ella's nine month check-up. This is her with her pedi, Dr. Sweet. Her appointment went really well. She was 18lbs 5oz (46%), 28in (72%), head circ. 17.9cm (90%). She is still trending down in her weight percentile, which Dr. Sweet reiterated would probably continue to happen until she's been walking a bit. Again her motor skills are very good for her age and her verbal skills are appropriate.

Dr. Sweet tested Ella's hemoglobin to check for anemia. She said she would recommend iron supplementation if Ella's hemoglobin was less than 10.5. It was 13, which, as Dr. Sweet said, is the hemoglobin of a man! So no iron supplements needed. I was very happy to hear this. Before Ella was born, I read that delaying cutting the cord at birth could help to prevent anemia for up to 12 months. So we didn't cut the cord until it stopped pulsing, in other words, until the blood stopped flowing on its own. I guess it worked. Because Ella is mainly breastfed still and breast milk is very low in iron, she was especially at risk for anemia.

Speaking of which, we finally found a food Ella kind of seems to like- bananas. I've given her some before and she didn't seem very interested, but this week I started offering them to her again and she's much more receptive. She still doesn't eat a lot of it, but she leans in for more with an open mouth and screeches at me if I take too long to give her a bite. She's also started wanting to drink out of my water glass. I think she spills more of it than she drinks, but she likes it. She'll even do her little "hungry cough", which is what she does to let me know she would like to nurse.

Another thing I talked to Dr. Sweet about for a long time was Ella's sleep. I haven't written about it here in a long time mainly because I'm tired of complaining about it, but also because I realize that it's just kind of hard and adjusting my attitude about it is probably more likely to be beneficial than trying to "fix" Ella. In some ways it's a lot better. She's gotten into a pretty predictable routine and although the times vary a bit from day to day, the pattern is pretty much the same. She's also sleeping better and longer for her naps. The trade off for this is that I lay down with her for naps. It's not so bad, some times I sleep too and if I can't, I listen to my audiobook or whatever. She will sleep by herself for a few hours (usually...) at night, so that's been nice too. The thing I was concerned about is that she's been really restless at night lately. Most of the time she just kind of squirms around and I can pat her back or hold her to me and she'll settle back down. At least once a week though, she's been waking up and staying awake for two, three, or four hours. This is no fun! Dr. Sweet told me what I pretty much already suspected from reading up on it, it's just developmental. She's so busy and developing so many new physical skills during the day, it's hard for her body and brain to "turn off" at night. I think Dr. Sweet thought I would be disappointed that she didn't have a solution, but I'm really ok with "it's normal and it will pass".

Since I've been laying down with Ella for naps, I haven't been able to work out in a while, which I hate. So this week I started taking her to the park first thing in the morning and jogging on the trail. It's been great. We go pretty early, like 6:30 or 7, so it's not too hot or crowded yet. She seems to enjoy or at least tolerated being in her stroller and taking it all in and I'm so happy to be getting some exercise.

We went to Hawaiian Falls a couple of times this week as well. Ella really has no fear of the water. She'll be crawling around in the shallow end and just take off for deeper waters. I stand right over her so I can grab her, but she'll just keep going, even after her hands and knees can't really touch any more. She starts kind of doggy paddling. Inevitably, she ends up getting a face full of water at some point, which is when I pick her up. She coughs a few times and then squirms to be put back down and takes off again.

Ella is starting to recognize and remember the names of things. She's known kitty for a while. I ask her where the kitty is and she looks around until she finds one, which never takes too long... She's started doing it with other things too. When I hear Jeff get home from work, I'll start asking her "Where's Daddy?" and she looks toward the hallway where he comes in. She also figured out bunny this week too. Most of the time she just looks for it when I ask her where bunny is, but sometimes she'll go get it and hand it to me.

Ella is so squirmy and active and into everything, it's crazy! Trying to change her diaper has become a full contact sport. As soon as the dirty diaper is off, she's flipped over and crawling away. I have to grab her and drag her back to get the clean one on. The whole time I was talking to Dr. Sweet Ella was crawling all over her, pulling on her coat, her stethoscope, her glasses, sticking her fingers in Dr. Sweet's mouth, turning her face to the side so she could see her earrings. Dr. Sweet was so patient, that's why I love her!

38 Weeks

Jeff and Ella watching the US Women's soccer game last Sunday. Ella got to wear her 4th of July outfit again since it was red, white, and blue. She clapped for the first time during the game. I guess she was really excited. She also started giving kisses. I've been asking her for a while to give me a kiss and then I give her a kiss. This time I asked her for a kiss and she leaned in open mouth, tongue sticking out and gave me a kiss! She did it a few more times and later Marie told her to give Mahlia's doll a kiss and she did. She's pretty stingy with her kisses, but she does it when she feels like it.

Mahlia and Avery came over to play and eat Sunday afternoon. Ella did her best to keep up with the "walkers". She wants to walk so bad! If I hold her hands she can walk really well, and of course if there's something, anything she can cruise along, she does fine.

Lately Ella has started wanting to play on the couch. She bounces up and down and crawls all over the place. She gets so excited and waves her hands and claps. We've been trying to teach her to get down feet first. So far she hasn't quite figured that out, so we have to watch her like hawks to make sure she doesn't crawl off face first.

Ella walked up to Charlie and grabbed him by the ears and pulled his head to her mouth. Charlie is usually a scratcher, so I was worried he was going to get her, but he was pretty tolerant. I finally had to go make her let go so he could run away.

Ella at Hawaiian Falls. We usually spend our time in the lazy river, but I didn't want to mess with sunscreen or her hat and sunglasses, so this day we stayed in the covered splash area. If she were just a little older, I think this area would be perfect. There are always lots of babies and toddlers there. The only thing that's bad about it is the concrete is pretty rough. I think it hurts her knees to crawl around on it.

This was her solution to that problem. She put her feet flat on the ground and crab crawled sideways. There was another little girl there with a big cup that for some reason Ella decided she just had to have. Where ever the little girl went Ella would follow her and try to get that cup. As soon as Ella got close to her the little girl would pick up the cup and move somewhere else. Ella never did get the cup. I finally just had to distract her and run when it was time to go.

I don't know if I mentioned this in another post, but we are covered up in baby gates! Ella's trapped in the living room/kitchen/breakfast room area and she can't get to the t.v. or fireplace. It's nice being able to just let her crawl around and not have to worry about her getting hurt or getting into something she shouldn't.

Her second tooth came in on Tuesday. It's the other bottom tooth. If it bothered her, she didn't show it. I knew it couldn't be too far behind the first one, but she didn't show any of the signs she did with the first one. The first one is just now visible when she smiles or laughs. I don't feel any more under her gums right now, so maybe we'll have a little break before the next one...

37 Weeks

We finally got Ella's little pool from Uncle Steve blown up (which was no easy task!) and she seemed to like it. It was just the right size for her, and I got in with her too when I got too hot to just sit with my feet in. We took all her bath toys and put them in there and she had fun crawling around chasing them. She wanted to pull up on the sides, but they were slippery and not very sturdy, so she ended up dunking herself a few times. This didn't seem to phase her at all. It was a nice alternative to braving the crowds at Hawaiian Falls.

Ella and Aubry at Kevin's 30th Birthday party. For some reason, Ella was afraid of Kevin and Amanda's basset, Maggie. I've never seen her be afraid of dogs before and Maggie wasn't getting in her face or being aggressive or anything. She seemed to warm up to her a bit the longer we were there, but mostly she just avoided her.

Ella and Cousin Maggie playing on Sunday.

Maggie wanted to hold HER friend/cousin! Ella wasn't as into it.

Jeff was outside mowing Sunday afternoon and Ella could see him when he was in the backyard. She kept crawling over to the window and banging on the glass and fussing. She loves her Daddy and she hates it when she can see him but he's not paying attention to her.

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Dietzman on Monday. We all went to lunch at Rio Mambos. We gave Ella some avocados, which she mostly just squished in her hands. She did enjoy chewing on some limes and lemons though. This week I gave her some watermelon which she liked about as much as anything else, which is to say, not very much.

We had dinner club at Marie and Mahlia's house Monday night. All five baby girls were there and it was kind of crazy. They're all a little young to really play together, but they show varying degrees of interest in each other. Ella was very happy playing with all the new toys. Mahlia has a little chair which was pushed up against the coffee table. Ella figured out how to use the chair to climb up onto the coffee table. Since then she's been using whatever she can to try to crawl up onto higher things. Mostly this means using my legs to climb up on the couch. I can't believe she's figured that out already!

Tuesday I was folding the laundry on the other side of the half wall in our living room. Ella was walking along the couch and after a few minutes she started to get fussy. At first I tried to just talk to her to calm her down, but it escalated into crying so I went back around to get her. That's when I realized that somehow she had gotten into her basket that her blocks are usually in and she couldn't get back out. Because she was leaning on the couch and the basket was underneath her, I couldn't see it from the other side of the half wall. Poor baby, I'm sure that was not comfortable on her feet.

Ella's been showing a lot more interest in her books. At bedtime I read her a book or two while she's nursing and she actually sits relatively still and listens and looks instead of trying to grab the book out of my hand. I got all of her books out of her toy box and she's been going through them. She can even turn the pages now.

She's started to sway or bounce to music. We have music on all the time and I'm not sure why some songs seem to catch her attention while she tunes most of it out. Me singing seems to be the thing that gets her going the most often. She still does her patting/banging thing as well, often at the same time as the swaying or bouncing. Very cute!

I started brushing her gums around six months. I got a little soft plastic toothbrush that goes on my finger with bristles on one side and little nubbies on the other. Every morning I brush her "teeth" after I do mine. She's very accommodating and rarely fights me about it. In fact, as soon as she sees me coming with the brush on my finger, she leans her head back and opens her mouth. She makes a funny face at me like she's not sure what I'm doing. I hope she continues to be so good about it.

Tooth!

We finally have a tooth. The front bottom two have been really pushing up the last few days, but the one on her right broke through today. She will barely let me feel and I have to try to catch a peek when she's smiling or laughing, so there was no way I could get a picture. It's just barely poking out anyway, I imagine it'll be a bit longer before it's really visible. I hope the other one comes through soon... She was drooling and gnawing a lot yesterday and had some trouble sleeping the night before last, but over all she's handling it very well. The frozen washcloth seems to really help. One down, nineteen to go!

36 Weeks

This picture was supposed to be of Ella's crazy hair when she woke up that morning, but it didn't come out that well. We moved that little end table to the corner between the two couches so she could pull up on it, but it wouldn't move. One of her favorite things to do it pull off the little corner pieces. Unfortunately, she then drops them and they end up under the couches. Three of the four are currently MIA.

Ella and her Uncle Thomas last Sunday morning.

Our friends Mikki and Brian and their baby Vera came to visit us last Sunday as well. The girls were very interested in each other at first, but then the novelty wore off and they kind of ignored each other after that. They were pretty cute together though.

Ella "helping" me balance my check book Friday morning.