Did I speak too soon?

I may have jinxed myself. I was so excited yesterday about the miracle-working sleep sack. Thrilled my sweet little girl was finally taking some great, much needed naps. Today was a whole different story. Two 30 minute naps all day long. Maybe it was just an off day. With little sleep comes crankiness. Come on sleep sack! Work your magic!

Happy 10 month birthday!

Munchkin turned 10 months old on Friday. The 10 months have truly flown by. Dave and I often talk about how much more enriched and fulfilling our lives are with her in it. It's strange thinking about our lives before her. She has brought so much happiness to our lives. And she seems to just have this way about her that makes complete strangers smile. Especially in church. She loves looking at all the people and "talking" in church. She's recently starting shrieking a LOT. I was nervous she'd start shrieking at inappropriate times during church. Luckily she didn't. And we always seem to have someone talk to us after mass about her. This past week it was the woman and her young daughter who told us how adorable Ella is. Ella was smiling and "talking" to them through the entire mass. The week before it was an older gentleman who came up and told us what a wonderful, sweet little girl we have. She had been entertaining everyone at mass that week. It's touching how she effects people enough to cause them to come up to us, complete strangers, and tell us how sweet she is. I hope she'll always keep this sweet disposition and always have this way of making people smile.

Happy 10 months sweet angel!

As you can see, taking her monthly pictures has gotten a bit more challenging. I'm forced to tape the sign to the wall, otherwise she'll eat it. I also must give her a small toy to entertain her, otherwise she crawls off. :)

Sweet baby!

Walking around with daddy.

Doesn't she look so pretty?

Friday was also a little bit of a difficult day for me. Someone I admire, respect, and love passed away. Fr. Joseph O. Schell, SJ was my favorite priest at JCU. I was able to develop a special bond with him, often stopping by his office to talk. He called me "Urchin" (for a reason I never understood:)) and always made me feel better when I was having a tough day. He had a very special way about him. I was lucky enough to talk to him a week before he died. I had found out through my sister that he wasn't doing well, so I gave him a call. It was a difficult phone call, as he didn't sound quite like himself. I'm thankful I got the chance to say goodbye. In true Fr. Schell fashion, he told me he appreciated my phone call, and that it had been a pleasure and privilege to have known me. He also said, as he always did, that he keeps me and my family in his prayers. Fr. Schell will be missed. I pray he continues to watch over and pray for us from Heaven.

Thank you God, for this!

As most of you know, Ella's always been a terrible napper. The longest she ever really naps for is 45 minutes, but more typically, it's 30ish minutes. And, now that she's crawling all over and wanting to walk everywhere, all the time, mama is quite tired and is in need of some breaks in the day! Well, here is my godsend, the sleep sack. Ella always sleeps in one at night, and sleeps 11 hours. I didn't really think about putting her in it for naps. My mom actually suggested it to me. This past week, Ella has been particularly cranky (frustration learning to pull up on everything, crawl, walk, AND tooth #8 coming in), so I thought, what the heck! Let's give it a try. WOW. I'm amazed at the wonders of this thing. The first day I tried it, she slept for 2hrs and 45mins. I was actually starting to worry about her at the 1hr mark. I kept checking on her, as this never happens. I thought, maybe it was just a fluke. The next day I put her in it again for naptime. 2hrs this time. It continued like this for the past 2 days. I'm so thankful! Ella's getting some apparently much needed sleep, and I'm getting a little bit of a break, which makes me a much more patient mommy, much better able to handle the whining and fussing that was Ella this week. Thank you sleep sack!

Here are some pics from the past week.

Getting into everything...


Picking out some good books to read.

Touching and smelling the tulips in our front yard.

Sitting pretty on the driveway after a walk.

When Ella doesn't nap

Let me start by saying, Ella has been whiny and crabby the past couple days. No fun! Well, I think I've discovered the reason.

I put Ella down for a much needed nap late this morning. I listened to her mobile finish playing the beethoven 15 minutes later, then it restarted. Hmmm. How'd that happen? Keep in mind, Ella is almost 10 months old and yes, she still had her mobile on her crib. She's been such a content little thing, that she has never worried us that she would reach up and grab it and hurt herself. She's content to lie on her back and talk to herself until we come get her. Content just sitting and playing with her toys within reach. Content. Today, all that changed. Here's what we found when we entered Ella's room--when she was supposed to be napping.

Yep! That's Ella's banging her mobile buttons turning the music on and off!

Yeah, I've finally gotten bored of laying on my back and want to explore! This is a first for me!

Crawling over to the side and trying to pull herself up...

There are those strange looking animals that I love to watch! Look! I grabbed his foot!

Trying to get out...

Getting frustrated that she can't quite get herself up...

Well, I can't quite do it yet, but I'm determined now! In a couple days, I will be standing and walking all over my crib!

I just want to eat her up. My content little sweetie is now more determined than ever. She now has the desire to move. We sit her down on the floor to play with toys, go to the kitchen for a quick second only to come back and find her off crawling around. I'm so proud of her. She's been crawling all over the place today trying to pull herself up on chairs, tables, couches... she's getting there!

Though Ella's first desire remains to WALK! And she's getting braver. Here she is coming to get her mommy one handed! Oh boy, how long before she's actually walking all on her own!?!? :)

Daffodils

It was gorgeous today! Around 70 degrees! Ella and I got out for a nice long walk, then enjoyed smelling the flowers in the yard. (Well, one of us did.) Ella wasn't sure what to think about the daffodils. She looked a little freaked out by them, but eventually warmed up to them a little. I have to remember that all these things are brand new to Ella and she's experiencing them all for the very first time. :)

I am not happy about being out here...

I'm so over the flowers. Can we go in now?

The grass looks interesting...

Well, ok... I'll give it a try and touch the flower.

She's such a cautious baby!

Always on the move

Ella's new thing is to walk. Everywhere. All the time. It's exhausting. She cruises on furniture, but she prefers to walk around with me holding onto her hands. We did this all day long today. All around the living room. Around the kitchen and laundry room. The guest room, our bedroom, her bedroom, the bathrooms. I'm beat! She's no longer all that content to sit and play with her toys or even stand at her tables. She wants to move. So she really needs to figure out this walking thing soon, otherwise mommy's going to become a hunchback!

Here she is giving mommy a little bit of a break. ;)


And back...

But really, how could I say no to this face??

She eats everything

Who is this baby?? She is seriously a great eater. (So unlike both her mommy and daddy.) She eats everything we put in front of her. She might make a face at first, but she eats it! Today she tried cottage cheese for the first time....and as a finger food!! She really enjoyed it (no disgusted faces at all) and couldn't get enough. After that, she wore cottage cheese for the rest of the day until her much needed bath tonight.

She's become so easy. Never thought I'd say that!






Yum!

She crawls!!

Ella crawling from Susan on Vimeo.

We have a crawler!?

Could it be!? Ella's always loved to stand and she's sort of seemed to have skipped over crawling altogether. Well, hubby and I didn't want it skipped so we've been working with her on it. It's been hard as she just wants to walk!! She's progressed more on her walking; she now walks around her tables, back and forth between and around the tables and to the couch and chair. Today she was shimmying down the couch--moving pretty fast too, I might add! But anyway. Tonight she crawled about three feet. We are so proud of her! Her preference is still much stronger to walk than be on all fours, but at least we now know that she can crawl! And, she'll just become better and better at it in the coming days.

And she's off!



As a side note: Mellow Ella has always been content in her crib to just lay on her back and play with her toes. Her new thing now is turning all over the place. I place her one way in the crib and she ends up turned 90 degrees (or more) with her feet up against the crib. It's pretty cute. She's finally getting the desire to move around. Finally getting bored of her toes and ready to get on the move!

Sunshine

My little sunshine was in such a good mood today. She was so sweet and such fun!! The weather was gorgeous and we went for a nice long walk. We even stopped at the playground and went down the slides and sat by the "pond" and watched the geese. She wasn't sure what to make of either the slide or the geese.

Here she is at the beginning of our walk.

Happy to be outside and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Sitting by the pond... and checking out her surroundings.

Mom, what are those gross creatures??

All tuckered out on our way home.


Ella is starting to give me slobbery, wet kisses. They are the best!! I can't get enough of her little kisses. I think she and I must have laughed all day. We had such a great day together. I absolutely love days like these. She has her 5th tooth on its way in and despite that, she was in the best mood. :)

Mmm..biter biscuit!

Ella had her first biter biscuit today and.....it got rave reviews!






Can I have another mommy??

Doctor's appt.

Ella had her 9 month checkup today. Poor thing freaked out when the nurse measured her and weighed her though. She's not too keen about strangers touching her! As soon as I picked her up the crying magically stopped and she was completely calm. :)
Here are her stats!
Length: 28 1/2 in (75th%)
Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (25th%)
Head circumference: 17 1/2 in (75th%)

Everything looks great!
I was a little concerned about her weight gain (only up 10 oz in 3 months), but the dr assured me that most breastfed babies drop off a bit around this time and that it is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. We talked about how she's not crawling and basically has no interest, but again, he said there was nothing to worry about as she is cruising around. She just may skip crawling altogether! I told the dr Ella seems to be a pretty relaxed, mellow baby - more like her daddy than me! - and he agreed that she is more mellow than most babies her age that he sees (he didn't comment about me being high strung ;)). I try to encourage her to crawl by putting her toys just out of reach. She'll reach hard for them for a little bit but then seems to take the attitude of "Hmm, they're too far away. Oh well. I'll find something else to play with." :)

Sadly, our pediatrician (this is pediatrician #3) whom I really, really, really like is moving at the end of June. We had to make an appt for Ella's 12 month checkup with a new dr. Hopefully we'll like her just as much.

The day was a quick one as Ella only took a 30 min nap and a 15 min nap. Yes that's right. 15 mins after falling asleep she was ready to get up! But of course, she fell asleep on the way to and from the doctor's. She's asleep now though. ;)

Sooo.. I'll update with new pictures soon!