Mechanically Gifted

Ella got this play arch for Christmas and she loved it right away.  There is a butterfly, a rattle, a crinkly sun, and a pinwheel that all keep her amused for long periods of time.  She has always been focused on things dangling above her, but she like it especially now because she is strong enough to stretch out to grab things.  Well, now she has figured out how to work the pinwheel.  That one was tricky because you have to pull and then release the string to make it spin, not just repeatedly grab and tug. I hadn't really noticed her playing with it much, until the other day when I saw the little hand reaching up out of the monkey like it was no big deal.  Just a mechanical genius, Mom. No worries.

Matchy Matchy!

Have we shown off our matching Mommy-and-Baby hats yet?  I finished mine just recently, so now we can both wear them and be adorable.

Seriously, how cute is this girl?? I love her!

Mr Giraffe

We love Mr Giraffe. We love snuggling him, and biting him, and grabbing him by the throat to shake him around. He's the best! Giraffe lives upstairs in the bedroom, so she gets to play with him at breakfast and at bedtime.  I don't know if that makes a difference, but Ella sure loves playing with him.

Seriously, we shook him like this for about twenty minutes while I got ready one morning. I don't know what Giraffe did to deserve such treatment, but she was very determined to get him.

Baby Kisses!

What is the point of having children if you can't giggle at the instinctual reflexes that they are born with? Tongue thrust is how babies give kissies!

Happy birthday!

Like we've noticed before, babies get a lot of birthdays. Today, Ella is five months old! She is so active and alert, just looking around and taking in the world around her.  Clearly, she knows how to sit up (mostly) on her own and how to roll over -- you've all seen the videos by now.  She loves talking with us in the evenings and sometimes is just amazed by the noises she can make.  We took her out to Rita's for some ice cream; it was her birthday, you know. You've got to have ice cream on your birthday.

She got a cookie and some ice cream to celebrate.  

(She thought the ice cream was okay, but strangely cold) 

Giggles

Ella here with your deep thought for the day: Do you know how weird parents are? I mean, really know?? They do some crazy stuff, that's for sure.  I mean, just look at these videos of the crazy noises that parents make.  They are so silly, I can't contain myself! (Each video is less than a minute because of upload capacity limits, but they all should flow together.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

31 Party

 We decided to go out and be social today!  My friend was hosting a 31 Party, so Ella and I went to interact & make friends.... as well as do a little shopping.  Baby Carter was there as well, and he was a little unsure about sharing his mommy and grandmommy at first, but he did very well. Ella was a perfect doll, and everyone loves her (of course, they would!).

Learning to Share

I'm not quite sure who was more frustrated with this learning experience... Martin or Ella.  The story goes like this -- Daddy was playing with Ella, when Martin jumped up because he is a sad middle child who doesn't like to share attention.  Unfortunately for Martin, he did not warn Daddy about his arrival and ended up landing in the blanket-hammock between John's knees.  As baby pondered the new arrival, Martin slipped further and further down into the hammock abyss before finally giving up and leaving.  It was a pretty funny display of jealousy on part of a cat and confusion on part of a baby.

Ella is really noticing the cats more and more each day.  She watches them as they walk across her field of vision and can really fixate on them when they stay within focus.  I may have arranged the scene below, but Ella really did show interest in Winks as he lay beside her.  I placed Wink's tail in her hand, and Ella was very good about not pulling or chewing on him.  Nevertheless, Winks was not pleased and grew quite cranky.  Ella reached out a few more times, but Winky just wouldn't have it; he hissed at her a few times before finally walking away.  I think it'll take a while for Winky to warm up to her (i.e., when Ella starts throwing her baby food on the floor for him to clean up).

Model Baby Tummy Time

 We may have had a naked baby photo shoot this morning.  School was closed for me for inclement weather (yay! bonus day home with the baby!), and Ella and I were just taking a lazy morning.  She was part-way through a diaper change when I thought we could try one of those classy naked baby tummy time pictures.  Ignoring the fact that I don't have a professional backdrop, I think Ella is really photogenic.  You have to move fast with her, however, or she'll stop whatever cute thing you were trying to photograph and start doing something else.  But isn't that the way with babies and pets?  They change behaviors as soon as you pick up a camera?

 This picture below (in the purple pajamas) is from another morning, but I still love it.  There's a few seconds at the start of tummy time where she is just serene and beautiful, and I love her little face!  She has the most adorable, smooshable cheeks!  Call me a biased momma, but I don't care.  My baby is adorable.

Growing Big & Strong

Admittedly, we haven't been doing tummy time with Ella as much as we probably should be, but we have been making up for it (hopefully) with practicing her sits.  She has gotten really stable now!  She's a little more wobbly in her chair on her own, but she can still handle it.

Well, after the holidays we are getting back on track with tummy time, and, boy, has she grown! She can rock several minutes of tummy time without crying at all!! And she has learned that she can just put her head down when she gets tired. Don't ask me why that wasn't intuitive, but when she was smaller, she would just keep holding her head up and cry. Being able to think, "Hey, I'm tired, let me just put my head down and rest" is a big step for a baby.

Side note: look at the baby jeans! There are even little pockets on the back! I don't know what she needs pockets for, but they are there in case she ever needs to carry something.

Anyway, with the resurgence of tummy time, the inevitable has happened: rolling over! She has rolled over before, but it always had a little assist or was just a spazzy accident.  Not anymore! You put her on her stomach, and boop! There she goes!  We finally were able to get a little video of her doing it with the new Christmas camcorder.

And yes, getting evidence of her doing something on film is close to impossible.  I swear, she can be doing (insert cute action or noise here) all day long at the top of her lungs, but pull out a camera of any kind-- phone, real camera, camcorder-- and she instantly stops what she was doing. So frustrating!!  I think I'm going to need to hide nanny-cams around the house just to get photographic proof that my baby does things besides sleep and eat.   :(

Finally Christmas!

Well, the holidays are officially over now, and Ella had a very busy first Christmas from start to finish.  We were able to all get out right away after Thanksgiving to take our card photograph (yes, I am determined to be the lady who sends out picture Christmas cards each year).  Since there would be the three of us to arrange for the photo this time, we enlisted the aunties' help so we could focus on posing.  Overall, Ella was not sure about the wind.  We took a handful of pictures, but she didn't seem to be relaxing out of her "oh, God, why is my hair blowing? What is this tingling sensation?" facial expression, so we called it a day and bribed the aunties with Thai food.

Ella would help me move the bear on our Advent calendar throughout the month, and then came the big day!  Ella had both grandmas to spoil her rotten all weekend.  She didn't seem to mind the extra attention at all.  She did really well with the Christmas events, even when we moved on to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a second round of presents.  (She was a little fussy at bedtime because her routine was off, but overall, it wasn't a complete meltdown.)

 Opening presents is serious business!  And of course, everything has to go in the mouth right away.  "Put it in my mouth!"  She's gotta test out the new toys to see if Santa should take them back or not, don't you know

Ella greatly enjoyed reading with Grandma Mary.  Soon she'll be getting the hang of it on her own.

There were lots of holiday hi-jinks before the family got settled on presents.  Tigger is a rascally creature that she really wanted to eat! Ella doesn't have her own stocking yet, but I promise she'll have one by next Christmas. (I've already started looking at a few knitted designs.)  Daddy and Aunt Jess are always  good for a laugh, too.

 Auntie Lara sent Ella her sweet penguin Christmas pajamas and hat.  Gotta be festive when you are opening presents!

 All kinds of toys arrived this Christmas!  Ella was enchanted by the singing / light-up flowers for a long time while the adults opened their gifts.  Overall, it was a very long day, visiting with two aunties and all of the grandparents, but Ella handled it like a trooper.

Once the hubbub of the holidays died down a little, we had to get her four-month picture with her growth chart.  She is learning to sit up so much on her own, and she LOVES grabbing at her feet.  Chatting with people and wiggling are still some of her favorite things to do.

Family seflie time!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everybody! We didn't stay up to see the ball drop, but we definitely woke up with a party mood! Happy baby is ready for 2015!!