We have a crawler!

After weeks of being so close to crawling, Ella is finally do it (at 9 months, 1 week old)!  I know I've been a little video crazy on the blog lately, but this is mostly for her grandparents :).  I love how clumsy she still is and that you can hear her breathing so hard - such a workout!  So glad we were able to capture her first attempts at a real crawl.  We now realized that we have a lot more baby proofing to do!

9 Months

Ella's monthly pictures are getting more difficult each month as it's harder and harder to get her to sit still - as evidenced by the following picture (putting her on her chair is no longer an option as she tries to lunge at me off of it!)...

Nine months in, nine months out!  Nine months seems like a big milestone to me as Ella has been with us for the same amount of time that she was growing inside of me.  Her doctor's appointment went great this month (no shots - yay!).  Our doctor informed us that (despite her chub) she is tall and slender for her age.  For how tall she is, she is actually a little underweight.  According to our doctor, based on the fact that she has tall parents, Ella is growing exactly like her genes were designed to do :).  Her nine month stats:

Height 29.5 inches - 95th percentile

Weight 20 pounds - 75th percentile

Head Circumference 17.5 inches - 75th percentile

Nine months also seems like such a major developmental milestone as she is doing something new almost everyday!  Her newest achievements this month include:

• Clapping
• Giving "high 5" (mostly pounding on Dad's hand when he holds it up)
• Standing unassisted for 10+ seconds before lunging into our arms
• Picking up finger foods off her highchair tray and feeding herself
• Consistently saying "mamama" over and over (makes this mama very happy!)
• Rolling from one side of the room to the other and only stopping if something gets in her way (in which case she just rolls in circles in that one spot)
• Doing the army crawl for short spurts 
• Sitting up from a laying down position
• Pulling herself up on the side of the bathtub (and protesting when mean mommy makes her sit back down)
• Getting wedged in odd places now that she's more mobile including under the bed, under the tv stand, etc.
• Telling us no if she is done eating or doesn't want something by pushing away what we're giving her and shaking her head 
• Becoming increasingly social - she will grunt, growl, smile, squeal or do whatever it takes to get a new person's attention (especially when they don't acknowledge her right away).  I think a trip to Target is her absolute favorite thing these days with new people to interact with every time!
• Having a growing fascination with balls and loves kicking and chasing after them (makes dad very happy :))

Here's what she's been up to over the last month from her perspective:

Skyping with daddy while he's out of town for work...

 Loving standing up and playing with my toys...

 Helping mom and dad with yard work and making sure Lily stays put...

 Working on my crawl...

 ...but preferring the inch worm/army crawl technique to reach what I want...

 ...and being so proud of myself when I get what I want!

 Balancing without holding onto anything - I have to concentrate real hard but I love practicing!  Usually I fall into mom or dad's arms after about 10 seconds of standing on my own...

 Spending time at the beach...

 Putting my toes in the sand for the first time...

Mom calls this my crazy hair.  She says I have been cursed/blessed with her curly hair - especially when it's wet!

Being super cuddly...

Being full of smiles and funny facial expressions...

Holding onto furniture to stand up...

The following video features some of Ella's latest tricks: dancing to music, pulling all her books off the shelf (and loving watching mom put them back), clapping, and giving high 5's...

1st Father's Day

 Ella and her dad on Father's Day

Happy 1st Father's Day to my amazing husband and Ella's daddy.  She and I are so blessed to have him in our lives - we adore you babe!  It has been so fun for me to watch Cody and Ella together.  He clearly is in love with his little girl and she has him wrapped around her finger.  I love watching her smile and see her face light up when he gets home from work, hearing him read bedtime stories to her, seeing him do her laundry and fold her little ruffled clothes, hearing him say with excitement, "Good morning pretty!" when he gets her up from her crib, and just seeing how proud he is to have her as his daughter.  When I married Cody, I knew that he would one day make an amazing father as he is a natural kid-lover, but it melts by heart to now see him with his own child.  Ella is one blessed little girl to grow up with her daddy to look up to.

On Father's Day, Ella and I let Cody sleep in until 8:30am (a rarity these days - I used to think anything before 10:30am was getting up "early" - boy how times have changed), got pastries and coffee together, and then spent the afternoon with my family at my parents house.  We had plans to go out to dinner that evening, but after eating too much at my parents house, decided just to stay in and got Thai food after Ella went to bed.  Ella very thoughtfully got her dad a new iPad for Father's Day, but unfortunately it didn't arrive until the day after Father's Day :).

 A few sweet pictures of my two loves...

 Cody and I are so blessed to each have such a wonderful father in our lives!  Ella and her Grandpa Howell on Father's Day...

 Showing Uncle Tom her walking skills...

Belly Laughs

One of the best sounds in the world to me is Ella's belly laugh.  She is at such a fun age {how is it that every stage just keeps getting better and better!?} and is so silly and smiley all the time.  Ella and I were playing and she was being really giggly - sorry the video isn't that great, I was making silly faces at her and moving my phone so she could see me.  Ella loves watching herself when I play back the video for her and cracks herself up every time.  LOVE this sweet girl!

 

Water Baby

We took advantage of a beautiful, sunny weekend and took Ella to our neighborhood pool for some swimming.  It was the first time we've used the pool since we moved into our house, but we realized how nice it will be to use it all summer!  She loved splashing in the water and kicking her feet and looked so cute in her ruffled swimsuit :).  We can't wait to start swim lessons with her this summer!

Memorial Day BBQ

My brother David and his girlfriend Emily drove up from Oregon for the weekend - it was so good to see them!  We had a delicious BBQ with salmon and ribs (thanks mom and dad!) and got to spend the afternoon with my parents, David and Emily, and my grandparents.  Ella hadn't seen her Uncle David since we were in Arizona in January so it was fun to see them together.