Happy Birthday Pop Pop!

Of course Ella didn't want to hold up the sign, but she did want to eat and play with it! Dad, hope you have a great birthday and I'm sorry we forgot to send a card...Ella really dropped the ball on that one. We'll will be home next weekend. See you soon!

42 Weeks

Ella Can Pull Herself Up

After weeks and weeks of trying, today Ella was finally able to pull herself up...And get into some trouble since she can reach the cable box now. It's getting harder by the day to keep her out of things she shouldn't be getting into!

41 Weeks

Sorry, but I had to come up with a new location for the weekly picture. For the past few weeks when I would sit her on the boppy she just cries and tries to dive head first off the couch while I'm trying to take the picture. As you can see, she prefers this setup much better!

Tubby Time

Ella is such a big girl she gets tubbies in the regular bathtub now! For the last couple of weeks she has been very active and wouldn't sit still in her little tubby, but on Sunday she actually tried to jump out of it. Since she can sit up really well Brian and I thought it was time to retire her baby tubby and give her big girl tubbies. She has a ton of bath toys to play with, so she always cries when its time to get out. Here are some pictures I just took.

9 Month Check Up

Today Ella went for her 9 month well baby check up and she is doing great! Ella is 28 in long (55 percentile) and weighs 17 lbs 15 oz (25 percentile). Her doctor is extremely pleased with her weight and the progress she has made over the past few months since her last appointment. Ella needed two vaccines today and the nurse let me video my brave little girl getting her shots to show Daddy. I thought everyone would enjoy it.

40 Weeks

New Toy

Yesterday Grammy and Pappy Rick came down to visit us and of course brought a present for Ella. We call it her Princess Rider (because it's pink and purple and came with two Little People princesses) and she loves it! Her legs aren't quite long enough to reach the ground, but she loves to sit on it and push the buttons that make sounds or play music. The pictures are from yesterday and the video is from today. Don't worry...At the end of the video she does fall off and cry, but only because she wants to get back on!

9 Months

Ella is even more active than ever, but at nine months still not consistently sleeping through the night. She'll have a couple of good nights and then a lot of bad nights. I keep telling myself she'll get there...Hopefully sooner than later! I can see her top two front teeth are just barely poking through, so I'm hoping that's the problem and we'll all be back to sleeping through the night soon enough! She's crawling much better, but it's more of an army crawl on her belly than up on her hands and knees. As seen in the pictures a few days ago, all she wants to do is stand up, but isn't able to do that on her own. Today was the first day she was able to sit up on her own from laying down. I was quite surprised when I found her sitting up in her crib after her morning and afternoon naps! Even though Mommy isn't always happy when Ella doesn't sleep through the night, Ella is always a happy baby. I hope I don't jinx myself, but she's always smiling, rarely cries during the day and just wants to play with all her toys. Ella goes for her 9 month well baby check up on April 14th and I'm looking forward to seeing how much she has grown. Here are some recent pictures.

39 Weeks

Easter

We went to NJ on Saturday for the night. We made the rounds and saw Grandma, Great Grandma Gloria, Uncle Tom, Aunt Chris, Pop Pop and Mi Mi and the kids, Uncle Isaac, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Sabrina on Saturday. On Sunday morning we hung around the house so Ella (and Grandma) could catch up on sleep...Ella doesn't sleep well away from home. In the afternoon we headed over to Aunt Jo and Uncle Blair's for dinner. Ella got a ton of nice Easter gifts and had a great time seeing the family. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

I tried getting Ella to hold up a sign that said "Happy Birthday Grandma," but she just want to play and bite it instead. Mom, have a great birthday and we'll see you tomorrow!

Sort Of Standing

I Can (sort of) Stand

Ella isn't strong enough to pull herself up, however, all she wants to do is stand! I thought the stroller would help her do that, but as you can see it gets away from her. I learned to put it in front of something so it doesn't go anywhere (as seen again in the last picture below). I'm sure she'll get the hang of it all soon enough! I'll post some videos next.