44 Weeks

This is what happens when I leave Ella and her Daddy alone to play...

Ella the clapping machine! She knows what "patty cake" and "itsy bitsy spider" mean. If you say patty cake, she starts clapping immediately. She's not so good at itsy bitsy spider yet, but she tries. We listen to toddler radio on Pandora a lot and there are several versions of itsy bitsy spider on there and she recognizes them all.

Ella and Avery got to play together again on Saturday. Ella just loves other kids and their toys.

Ella accidentally standing by herself. She was holding onto the handle of the freezer and I handed her the measuring cups. She let go and stood there long enough for me to grab the camera and get a picture.

Ella's messy face! We've been giving her noodles in tomato sauce for dinner. She likes it ok. I think she likes the sauce more than the noodles. It makes a big ol' mess.

Ella loves laundry. She was especially liking this load because it was her colorful little clothes. She was pulling them out of the basket as fast as she could. She also loves to go behind me and unfold the newly folded stacks.

Maggie sent her little push choo choo for Ella to play with. She likes it a lot more than the one I got for her which doesn't make any noises or sing any songs.

Tooth number four, the other front top tooth, came in Saturday. I'm surprised how much more quickly they became visible than her bottom teeth. She has another one on the top left coming. Her front two are coming in with a huge gap between them and the new one looks like it's coming in right on top of the one next to it. I'm curious to see how it all works out... She's been grinding her top and bottom teeth together, which is a bit nails-down-a-chalkboard for me. I hope she gets tired of that soon!

We tried the slide at the park for the first time this week. It went kind of like the swing- she loved it the first day and wanted to do it over and over again, but then seemed kind of scared when we did it again the next day.

Ella started giving kisses again and this time she even keeps her mouth closed sometimes. She's still not very generous with them and most of the time she just smiles and hides her face when you ask for one.

43 Weeks

Ella had lots of visitors this week. Mamaw, Aunt Susie, Grandmo, and Maggie came to visit Wednesday. We had a great time playing and then we went to Hawaiian Falls with Grandmo and Maggie. Thursday Nana, Gran, Maggie and Grandpa all came for a visit too.

Two of Ella's favorite things: her sippy cup and climbing on the couch. I don't know if she really drinks much out of her cup, but she loves carrying it around.

I got Ella this little push toy on Friday. She seems to like it.

Ella is very into her hands right now. She's alway clapping, pointing or waving. She suddenly loves patty-cake and itsy-bitsy spider. We clap for her whenever she does something good, so she has started clapping for herself. It's hilarious.

Ella figuring out her new sippy cup.

Danny and Avery and Dahlia, Alicia, and RJ came over on Friday. Ella loved playing with all the kids. She took a few steps trying to chase after Avery. RJ and Alicia were building blocks for her to knock down, which she loves of course.

Ella cut her third tooth on Friday, the top, front one on her left. The one on the right isn't far behind. She didn't really seem to have much trouble with them. She was pretty restless Tuesday and Wednesday night, I don't know if that was related to the teeth.

She's been saying Momma a lot more. It's not just "ma ma ma" anymore and she seems to associate it with me now, mainly when she wants to nurse.

Ella is still taking a few steps here and there. It's mostly when she's distracted by something she really wants and she just forgets to hold on and will stand and/or take a few steps by herself. If we try to make her do it, she gets kind of rude about it. I guess she'll do it when she feels like it!

42 Weeks

We continue to try the swings at the park. Despite the lack of smile, she really was enjoying it.

Jeff and I have been trying to teach Ella to get down off the bed, couch, etc, feet first. She figured it out the other day and got down from the bed all by herself. Then, two minutes later, she fell over for no apparent reason and busted her head on a chest. Notice the large bruise above her left eye... Poor baby! Actually, it didn't seem to bother her that much. She cried for a second when it happened but was fine as soon as I picked her.


We went to see Maggie and Aunt Carrie at Grampa and Grandmo's house today. Of the many, many pictures I have of the two girls, there are almost none where they are both looking at the camera, so I was happy to get this one, even if Ella has a flashlight in her mouth.

Jeff hates bows and refuses to let Ella wear them, so we took advantage of him not being there today!

Maggie was "camping" under the dining room chairs. Ella thought it was great fun to look for her under there.

Ella chasing the little toy train. She loves that thing!

Ella riding Grandmo's pony.

Grandpa and the girls.

Ella has been standing more this week and even took a few falling steps. Today she did it for real. I was trying to show Carrie and Maureen how she could stand and Maureen held her hands out to her and she took three steps right into her arms! I couldn't believe it. She did a few more little steps after that, but then she didn't want to play that game any more and got fussy about it. Now I know for sure that she can do it, it's just if she wants to.

Ella has also started trying to imitate sounds. She does it with all kinds of things, and you can really only tell because she gets the intonation right, but the two "words" I hear most often are "meow" and "bite". Neither one actually sounds like the real word, but I know that's what she's trying to say. When she's eating I'll ask her if she wants a bite and she'll say "bi" and lean forward with her mouth open. Or I ask her what the kitty cat says and she does this little squeaky "mmm" sound.

She's been screaming or screeching a lot too. This is not so fun. It's mostly when she's trying to get our attention, but really it can be for any reason at all. We were at Hawaiian Falls the other day and she was playing with a one year old little boy. I don't know which one started it, but they got into a screaming competition. I'm happy to report he won. My ears are still ringing...

Ella has been turning the pages in her books. She still needs a little help, otherwise it's pretty much just open and close, but if you get the page started for her, she can do the rest. She has a few touch and feel books, which she loves. Any time we read a book, she's pointing and running her fingers over the page. I think she's looking for those different textures.

41 Weeks

Ella started waving a while back, but it was only every now and then and I don't think she was really doing it on purpose. Now it's a pretty deliberate thing. She's better at waving bye than hi. She waves goodbye to her Daddy every morning. She also points a lot. When we're walking in the park, she likes to point at people as they walk by. She's been dancing a lot more too. Some times to music, sometimes not. She'll get her little head going, it's so funny. She likes for us to do it back when she's doing it. She'll sway and bobb her head for a second and then stop and look at us, then we do it and she smiles and does it some more.

Ella and Brooke playing at dinner club last week. Mahlia gave Ella that little toy, which Ella was only interested in for a few days before the novelty wore off. With Brooke in it, it suddenly became more interesting. We weren't fast enough to get a picture, but at one point, they were both chewing on the bird at the same time. Gross, but cute.

Ella started using the sippy cup by herself this week. She's really good at picking it up and getting it up to her mouth. Sometimes she just chews on the spout or the side or whatever, but she can get a drink if she wants to. About half the time she takes a drink, she spits it right back out, which was funny the first few times...

I was trying to get a picture of Ella waving, but it's easier said than done. She's been eating so much better. She's inconsistent about what she likes. At first she seemed to really like bananas, but now I can't get her to eat them. Still, she usually eats at least a little bit two or three times a day which is a huge improvement. We usually put a few things down to let her practice feeding herself and then we feed her the rest.

One day this week, I pulled all the chairs from the kitchen table into the living room and made a circle with them. Ella loved it. They were close enough that she could get to the next one with out letting go of the last one. I put a favorite toy on each chair to give her some incentive to check it out. She was really moving, going around and around the circle.

Ella still can't make up her mind whether or not she likes to swing at the park. Most days she doesn't, but then some days she seems to enjoy it, for a few minutes anyway. I've been letting her play on the play ground equipment a little. It's really for bigger kids, but we're there so early in the morning, there's usually no other kids there. Unfortunately, she picks up every little thing she finds on the ground and most things go to her mouth sooner or later, so I don't like to let her crawl around much.

I read that most babies can learn to climb stairs between nine and twelve months. She's always trying to climb everything, so I figured she would be able to do it. Wednesday we went to see Ella's Grandma at her house, where there are stairs, and let her give it a try. She made it about half way up pretty easily and then decided that was far enough.

This is World Breastfeeding Week, so I figured I should say something about it. I realized after reading back over my blog that I talked about what a hard time I had with it in the beginning, but never really followed up. It was hard the first few weeks, although in retrospect I think a lot of it was just me stressing and not being sure about what I was doing. Honestly, I think I have had a much easier time with breastfeeding than a lot of women, and by the time Ella was a month old, we had it down. I'm so grateful that it's gone well and that she is still breastfeeding. It's definitely one of the best parts of parenthood so far.