21 Weeks

This pictures is actually from last week, I just thought it was cute.

Ella refusing to go to bed, getting to watch t.v. We almost never let her watch t.v., so she can't take her eyes off of it when we do.

St. Patty's Day. The outfit is more green than it appears here...

Today. She refuses to smile for the camera any more, but she does try to grab it out of our hands.

Ella has been on a bit of a nap strike the last week or so, but what else is new? She still sleeps great at night thank goodness. She's been basically in a good mood despite the lack of sleep, you can just tell she's exhausted. She cries when we try to put her down, but as soon as we pick her up, she's fine. She still occasionally takes a long nap (like maybe three or four all week), but most of the time she wakes up after 45 minutes or so. I've tried all the tricks I know, but nothing seems to be working. This sleep thing is a pain!

She almost rolled over from her back to her tummy a few times this week. I think she could do it if she wanted to. She gets so close and then just rolls back to her back. She seems to prefer to be on her back when she's awake, so there's not as much motivation for her to roll the other way. Still, I don't think it'll be long.

She's been doing her "real" laugh more often. Most of the time she does this little squeal when she's smiley and happy, but she also has this deep giggle. I've noticed the times it's easiest to get it from her is when she's in her deliriously tired phase. Jeff finally heard her do it the other night. We were getting her ready for bed and she was way over tired, but being super wiggly. I started blowing raspberries on her tummy and tickling her and she gave us her crazy laugh. Jeff cracked up and said she sounded like a grown-up.

Her other new trick is crossing her fingers. She can do it with either hand, crossing her middle finger over her pointer finger. I have no idea why she does this, I guess it gives her some variety in chewing on her fingers. She also likes to try to put her fingers in her mouth while she's nursing, especially if she's sleepy. Obviously that doesn't work and she gets so frustrated when she has to choose.

We've had a resurgence of the high pitched squeal lately. She does it both when she's happy and when she's mad, though they sound slightly different. I think she likes to see how high she can go. It's amazing that such a little person can make so much noise!