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...