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.