CRAWLING...and a really LONG update

Ellie is now NINE months old. I can't believe how fast she is growing. She is now 28.75 inches long and 18 lbs 10 oz. She has so much personality and it is so fun to watch her learn and explore. Around 7 months she started scooting. That progressed to getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth. From there she started the backward crawl. It was really quite cute to see her frustration when she wanted to go forward and could only move back. At 8 1/2 months she discovered first gear and forward she went. MY WORLD changed to say the least. She is getting faster at crawling and is into EVERYTHING! Her curiosity and new found mobility have opened up a whole new world to her and she is loving it. From the DVD player (her absolute favorite) to pulling books off shelves, discovering the open dishwasher or fridge to cords and wires she is exploring everything she can. One of my favorite moments in her beginning days of crawling was when she crawled right into the bathroom while I was showering, pulled back the curtain and looked at me with a curious expression...half wondering why I had left her alone, the other half amazed at all the water.

With this mobility has come an independent nature that is proving to be a bit challenging for me. From not holding still for diaper changes and getting dressed to not cuddling up and falling asleep in my arms she is showing me that she just wants to be go go going. The saddest part for me is the lack of snuggles. I feel like sometimes I wrestle her in my arms to get her to hold still and lay down for naps....so the wrestling has ended and I just put her in her crib and walk away. She falls asleep on her own (thankfully) I just miss the cuddles. She will play, moan, whimper, etc for a bit before she decides she's tired and falls asleep. When she makes that decision rather than laying down from her sitting position she just bends in half...pretty funny and cute but it looks terribly uncomfortable. Notice her foot in her face!

Over Easter we took a trip to San Jose and San Francisco. (stay tuned for that post) Ellie did AMAZINGLY well! Her first plane ride was GREAT! I couldn't have been more pleased about how well she did. While in CA she was quite fussy. When we first got there she pulled at her ear a bit and I thought to myself 'I hope she doesn't have an ear infection...I'm out of town and can't get an antibiotic'. She had some fevers off and on and took longer naps than usual. I attributed all these symptoms to the goodness of teething thanks to the white mark on her gum line I discovered. We found out last week at her 9 month check up she has an ear infection...and she'd likely had it since CA! A double whammy....teething and an ear infection. So despite the fussiness on our vacation, when you consider the teething, ear infection, new environment and site seeing from her parents Ellie was AMAZING for the trip!!! Thanks to good old amoxicillin Ellie is feeling much better...and her tooth has broken through and you can now feel it...THE FIRST TOOTH!

OK...prepare yourself for LOTS of pictures to try and sum up the last 2 months

March 28th Ellie went to her first Jazz game. We were lucky enough to be in a suite and it made all the difference with bringing a child to the game. (we wouldn't have taken her otherwise) It wasn't as noisy and I could feed her and change her when necessary right in the suite! VERY FUN! Too bad the Jazz lost :-(

Ellie LOVES Baby Signing Time. Here she is watching it...she smiles and waves her arms and hands trying to do the signs. Now that she's mobile she doesn't sit down and watch the entire show like she use to, but she still loves to watch it. Her first sign was dog...she LOVES dogs. She had a hay day at my parents house the other day with 2 dogs running around...she was crawling all over the place following them and couldn't get enough of them. She loved to grab their wagging tails. The only other sign I've seen her do is hat.

April 8th Ellie woke up with her first BED HEAD!!! Her hair is getting longer but not really thicker...but I was delighted at the cuteness of her crazy little hairs

Learning the crawl and only scooting backward was frustrating for this little lady. El would get stuck under our bed, her crib, wedged in between the couches, under the table as you see here...she'd back into everything and get stuck.

Trying to go forward...getting closer to crawling

"I'm SOOOOOOOO happy!!! I figured out how to move forward and I'm cruising ALL OVER the place!!!"

"I love the stairs. I'll use the first stair to pull myself up to my knees. Once on my knees I use the second stair to pull myself up to my feet. That's as far as I've gotten. I really wish I could go up these things....especially when I see my dad go upstairs. "

"I found the quilt rack and all the quilts....that was pretty fun!" (mom was too slow to get the picture when I was playing inside the quilts)

Ellie LOVES the DVD player. The combination of buttons and lights is too tempting for her. When she watches Signing Time she'll crawl over to the DVD player to play with the lights and buttons. In her fetish for pushing buttons she'll switch the DVD playing. After she pushes buttons she looks at the TV and watches how the show changes. When she heads toward the DVD player I do the sign for STOP and try to teach her it isn't something to play with. She gives me the cutest little grin and her eyes look like they are saying 'yeah right mom, I want to play with this so I'm going to'. It is amazing to me that at NINE months she knows what she wants ans if she doesn't get it she gets upset and will cry. I certainly didn't anticipate the need to start disciplining this early!

The fridge...another one of Ellie's favorites. Usually we get in and out pretty quick and the door closes before Ellie gets there but occasionally Ellie is fast enough to get in, or we just let her have a moment of blissful exploration.

This explains why the inside of my windows are as dirty as the outside!!! :-)

Ellie LOVES to crawl over to the door and look outside. She LOVES being outside and if she can't be outside....looking outside is the next best thing.

The other night El's cousin Kaylee came over. They both had a ball playing outside.

Ellie has been introduced to grass several times...but I couldn't resist how cute her chubby feet and little toes were in the grass!

Not long after she started crawling she would takes steps on her own with this walker. That didn't last for too long...now she acts as if she's a bit scared of taking steps (maybe because she's fallen down a few times). She will still stand and hold onto the walker but only steps if we help her feet and legs move. She mostly she just plays with all the fun things on the front.

BEHOLD the washing machine!!! Ellie LOVES the washing machine. She'll look up at the buttons and lights when I turn it on...but mostly she is mesmerized by the water and spinning motion. She truly loves to sit and watch the washer. This is a common sight at out house.

And what kid doesn't have fun in a laundry basket?? Add a Subway card (something that doesn't dissolve when slobbered on) and Ellie was entertained and occupied for quite some time :-)

The benefit to ear infections and teething.....SNUGGLING!! Ellie was soooo cuddley when she was feeling crummy. It was great to go back to the 'newborn' days and have her snuggle up on our chest. Here she was taking a nice nap with daddy. The following day she curled up on my chest and slept for an hour and 20 minutes!!!! Yeah...the ear infection certainly took away my 30 minute cat napper. It was lovely!

Other fun things about Ellie:

- She has a fetish with cups...any container really. She loves to put things inside of containers.

- She is a natural little fish! The Easter Bunny brought her swimming lessons for her first Easter present. We go to a mom/baby swim class at Swim Kids in Holladay once a week and she LOVES it! Most kids cry their first time...and even several times after that. The instructor and other moms all mentioned how surprised they were El didn't cry and that she did so well on her first day. THe instructor called her "a natural". From day one she was submerged under the water and practiced floating on her back. Since then she continues to do those among the other fun things we do in the class and she enjoys it all. It is also fun to see her have some socail time with other kids. She smiles at and tries to grab the other kids while we're swimming together in the pool. She splashes and kicks and has a good old time. My only regret is that I haven't been able to capture her smiles, splashes and excitment on camera. I'm in the water with her so I can't take pictures....one day I'll bring someone along to take pictures. Plus she looks SOOOOOOOOOOO cute in the swimming suite she got for Easter from her grams so we will definitely get a picture of that!

- She loves her bath just as much as her swimming class. She splashes and kicks and has a grand time playing in the bath.

-We got to go ahead from the Dr to start giving her more finger foods...even dairy which I thought was off limits until 1 year. So besides the vanilla waffers, grahm crackers, ritz crackers, carrot sticks, celery sticks and pretzles she'd been given to knaw on while teething she has now tried string cheese, bread, yogurt, pizza, mandarine oranges, ICE CREAM, strawberries...and I think that's it. Maybe some other things I'm forgetting but you get the idea. The other night when she had some of daddy's ice cream she couldn't get enough! She is a very good eater (knock on wood) and seems to eat just about anything we give her.

- I love her chubby little hands and feet. I can't get enough of their cuteness!

- I love the way she bounces her legs up and down while she's laying in my lap and drinking her bottle. Even when she's eating in her chair she bounces her legs! It is adorable.

- I love how she sticks her little tounge out when she in concentrating on something. I'll try to snap a picture of that.

- She has a good arm and has dicovered how to throw balls. She loves to watch them bounce and roll. I love to watch her play. Her curiosity and way of exploring things never gets old to me.

-She loves to turn the pages when we read books. I love to watch how her little fingers grab things.

- Ellie notices small details and will fixate on them. For example one Sunday at church she was standing on the pew facing the people behind us (being a cute little ham) Then she noticed a little fuzz on the fabric part of the pew. Her little fingers kept trying to pick it up...she didn't care about anything other than the fuzz...she just wanted to pick it up and figure out what it was.

- She LOVES music and has rhythm...she will bounce to a beat and 'dance' when she hears music. It is awfully cute!

OH HOW I LOVE MY LITTLE GIRL!!!!!