Bath Time with Ellasaurus

Thanks to my stylin' skills, Ella impersonated a baby dinosaur during her bath Friday night. Because we were at Grandma's house, the paparazzi found her and recorded the whole thing on film.

Little Tornado

Ella Grace realized last weekend that she can walk behind a push toy. This seems to have opened up a whole new world for her because she has been a tiny tornado all week long - wreaking havoc and creating messes where ever she goes. And she’s been going everywhere, standing on tip-toes to reach table tops, opening closet doors and trying to climb shelves, emptying cabinets and drawers. She is one busy little soul. She isn’t walking by herself yet, but she is getting mad when she has to sit down and crawl because there’s nowhere to hold on to get where she’s going.

Two more teeth have come in this week, both on the bottom, on each side of the front teeth. That’s three in three weeks. Three of the four that she is supposed to get between 10 and 14 months. I’d like for to go ahead and grow the fourth one next week and then take a break, at least until after vacation (16 days!). She slept six straight hours last night (Woohoo!). That’s how I knew the last one had broken through.

Her favorite things this week are drinking out of a straw cup (I bought her some last weekend), and pointing at everything. EVERYTHING. She points when she wants to go somewhere, look at something, show us something, when she hears Daddy/Georgia/Gypsy in another room, etc. It’s so cute, and it’s started a plethora of conversation about the names of everything. She also says, “Dat!” when she wants to show us things. For example, she hit the mother lode of young boy action figures in Uncle Joshua’s room a few days ago. She proudly adopted a few of the little men. When I got home that day, she nursed, and then promptly got off my lap, pointed and said, “Dat!” Grandmother gave her the little man she was pointing to, and she turned to me and held it up with a proud grin on her face. She was so proud of them; she had been waiting to show them to me all day long.

At church Sunday, we were in the hall outside the nursery and she could hear the kids in there playing. She crawled to the door, laid on the floor, and tried to see through the crack under the door. She did that repeatedly throughout the week, and this morning I saw a little hand sticking under the bathroom door when she figured out I was in there.

She now processes and responds to simple commands. She was in hurry to go somewhere one evening this week and I told her, “Let’s take a bath.” She detoured and went straight to the bathroom, pausing only for me to turn on the light. The same night, while playing in the tub, I told her “Give me the duck” or “Give me the frog” and she picked out the correct toy and handed it to me. It is so cool to watch her mind develop – to see her thinking and analyzing to figure out how things work. She is so much fun right now.

She will be 11 months old on Monday. I’m trying to figure out where the last year of my life went. I cannot believe how big she’s gotten. Her hair is long enough in the back now that it gets tangled. She’s so long I can hardly imagine how she fit in the co-sleeper beside our bed. I nursed her during my brother’s graduation ceremony last night (Yay for a contented, sleeping baby!), and we had trouble getting comfortable in our seat because her legs were overflowing into Aunt Becca’s lap beside us. When I look back at pictures from the day she was born, it really is hard for me to imagine her being that tiny. Time passes so quickly.

First Mother's Day

While I did get a present for Mother’s Day last year when I was pregnant, I guess this year was my first official Mother’s Day. As a mother, might I say I personally think it’s the stupidest holiday ever? (Well, stupidest after Valentine’s Day.) It’s so stupid that the woman who created it even tried to get it abolished. Ahh, that’s a rant best left unwritten.

Dave and Ella gave me new dishes for Mother’s Day. Black, square ones. I’m very excited. Until this weekend, we had been eating off of the dishes I got when I was in college. It really was time for an upgrade. Food looks really pretty on black dishes. We celebrated Saturday night with steak, asparagus, zucchini, and salad. One of the highlights of my weekend was the discovery of bottled ginger salad dressing (the kind they serve at Japanese steak houses) in the Publix produce section. The occasion called for foods that could be dipped in it. Mmmm, I love that stuff.

In addition to dishes, Ella gave me a gift of her own. A new tooth. Number five finally erupted Sunday morning on the top left, next to the front two teeth. I wish I could say we might have some relief for a few days, but I know it won’t happen because she’s working hard on number six on the bottom left. She’s so pitiful when her mouth hurts.

We had a couple of new Ella related experiences this weekend. On the way home from lunch yesterday, she pooped and fell asleep just a few minutes from the house. Because she was in desperate need of a nap, I was really dreading waking her up to change that diaper. That child slept through the diaper change – cold wipes included. I couldn’t believe it. When I put her in her bed, she popped up on her knees ready to play. Changing her diaper didn’t wake her, but laying her in the bed did? Okay then. It took some convincing, but I did get her to fall back asleep with me and we took a nice long nap (that we both needed).

After the nap, we found Dave in the basement so we played down there for a little while. She went for the garbage can (A new interest of hers that also started Sunday morning, when I got out of the shower to find her munching on Kleenex from the bathroom garbage can. I know how gross this is. Had I known that she wanted to and could get to the garbage can, it would have been out of her reach, but this was the first time she paid any attention to it at all.). Anyway, she went for the garbage can and Dave told her no. She first tried her charming smile to convince him that would be okay for her to play in the garbage (a method she’s been perfecting for about a week). When that didn’t work and he told her no again, she folded her face up, poked out her lip, squeezed out a few crocodile tears, and cried as if her heart was broken. Then she reached for me as if she had been completely traumatized. This trick didn’t work on Daddy, even though she persistently tried it twice. However, she tried it out on Grandma later in the evening and found success when Grandma gave her the jelly beans she didn’t really want in the first place. When I explained that she had just started testing this new tactic to get what she wants, and that we’ll have to be strong, Grandma promptly informed me: “I’m Grandma.” Translated, I think that means, “I can give her what she wants because I’m not the mom or dad.” This should be an interesting phase of our lives.

She’s really talking a lot - about everything. Most of it is still babble, but she will randomly throw in a real word here or there. It makes conversing with her so much fun because I’m always waiting for actual words. Sometimes she’ll mimic us when we tell her a word, and sometimes she stores it up to use later, completely out of the blue.

I almost forgot another major highlight of my weekend. I weighed again for the first time in several weeks and I’ve lost 6 more pounds. This puts me at about 18 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight. I tried on my swimsuits in preparation for vacation (which is 28 days away!), and my bikini fits! My stretch marks have faded to barely noticeable, and my pooch is shrinking by the day, so I think I’m actually going to wear that bikini this year. Before my daughter is a year old. I cannot believe it. Oh, and my husband thinks I’m hot. ;)

Have I mentioned lately that I love nursing? Babywearing helps a lot, too. Nothing tones the legs and buttocks like grocery shopping with 20 lbs. of baby hanging on you. Seriously.

Normal Hips!

We had a follow-up x-ray on the teeny hips this morning, and the doctor said we can call them normal now. : ) Hip dysplasia has a 20% chance of returning in the first five years of life, so we will need more x-rays later, but she doesn't have to have another one until she turns 2. She did great - didn't even curse anyone. X-rays are easy-peasy compared to ultrasounds. The ultrasound tech was there and she actually remembered us because of the blood-curdling screaming the last time.

Over the weekend she really started cruising the furniture like it was nothing. She was walking back and forth the length of the couch like she's been doing it forever. We've been showing her that she can walk behind her lion push-toy, but she's not quite ready for all that yet. He mostly just needs his hair done and that distracts her from all other activity.

She had a moment of looking just like her father Sunday morning when she was pretending to be awake. She was sitting up on her knees, putting on a good show when her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed into the pillows and decided to lie there for a while longer. She wasn't really ready to get up yet, she just felt like it was the thing to do since it was daylight. Just like him.

We took her to the Baron's game Friday night and she had a blast. I wasn't sure she would make it, but she did stay awake for the fireworks and she LOVED them, even when it was loud. She was bouncing up and down and cackling with excitement, and during the finale she reached her little hand up like she was trying to touch them. It was classic. There was a little boy sitting behind us that she tried to flirt with, but he wouldn't pay attention despite her efforts to climb up the bleachers to him. I gave her a taste of Dippin' Dots because she's already an ice cream addict (she comes by it honest), and after taking a moment to experience the first weird bite she decided they would do.

While I was getting ready this morning, she made the executive decision that Gypsy would let her pet her. When I looked down, Ella had Gypsy by the ear with one hand, petting her with the other. To Gypsy's credit, she sat very still until the torture was over and then she disappeared. I guess Ella got tired of the kitties running from her every time she wants to pet them.

As you can see, Ella did manage to get the flower boxes cleaned out and planted at Grandma's house.

She also tried on Grandpop's hat. I love this picture, and I cannot believe how long her hair is getting. Her bangs are so long now that I can clip them to the side in a barrette.