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!
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