Some Faves

Here are a few of my favorite things about Ella recently:

• She loves trying to pick up two things at once in the same hand.  Usually her paci and a ball.  She then tries to crawl around while holding on to both of them.
• Her face when Matt comes home.  I just need to video it soon.  As soon as she hears the garage door, no matter what we're doing, she stops and smiles huge and watches for him to come in.  Once he comes in, she smiles even bigger and looks at me as if to say, "Do you see him?  He's here!"  Every time.  Love it.
• Anytime we hear a dog bark outside, she imitates it.  So cute.
• She loves to snuggle with me when she gets up from a nap.
• She's starting to dance:)  We need to work on more moves though.
• She wants to pick out her own book for her bedtime story.  If I try to read another one, she'll shut it until I let her go to the bookshelf and pick one out.  I love this for two reasons: 1) She loves reading and 2) She's a girl who knows what she wants (some may call this picky, I call it wise).  

Napping

Just a quick post to do a little venting.  My biggest struggle as a mother has been with napping.  Ella is getting close to being a year and I still feel like she is a horrible napper.  Perhaps this is my fault, but I like to think that she has FOMO (as my Aunt Carol calls it), Fear Of Missing Out.  Allow me to take you on a brief journey of our napping adventures.

• From birth to through the first few months, Ella would only nap in the swing, in her carseat, or right on our chests.  As close to us as humanly possible was where she would take her longest naps.  As sweet as it was, I finally got to the point that if I wanted to get anything done, I had to remove my leach.
• Around 3 months, as we were transitioning to daycare, I began trying to get her to nap in her crib (took a while for that, though she was already sleeping in it at night).  She would nap on her own on our bed if she fell asleep snuggled next to me.  Then I would hold my breath and sneak away.
• By 4 months she was napping in her crib but we would have to rock her to sleep for at least 10 minutes and then lay her down.  At daycare, she wasn't napping at all as they wouldn't rock them to sleep. 
• Soon we got to the point that she was consistently taking four 30 minute naps a day.  Boy was I enjoying all that free time! (hear my sarcasm).  Soon we went down to two 30 min. naps a day.
• I had many people say to me, "Well, if that works for you, then great."  Heck no that didn't work for me!  We tried crying it out multiple times.  Girlfriend just sucked at napping.  She was, however, consistently sleeping through the night.
• In January, so around 8 months, she was still taking a 30 min. nap in the morning and for her afternoon nap, she would wake up after 30 minutes but I could usually get her back to sleep for another hour or so.  That is how it was for the last couple of months.  I had been debating trying to get rid of the morning nap (the whopping 30 min. one) with the hopes of lengthening the afternoon one and then suddenly she began sleeping for an hour and a half during her morning nap without waking up!  It was crazy!  She did this for a whole week.  Then, of course, her afternoon nap was shorter, but I was loving the long stretch.  
• Of course, today she slept for 30 min. this morning and would not go back to sleep.  She's having her afternoon nap now and I would put money on her waking up by the 30 min. mark.  Sigh.
• I really felt like once she started crawling she would be tuckered out more.  Now I'm hoping for walking to wear her out, that and playing outside more.

 Gotta go!  I've got 20 minutes left to get everything done that I can before she wakes up!

Spring is in the air/10 Months

I know I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but I was so excited to pick out a spring background for the blog!  Matt just told me this morning that one of our tulips is starting to sprout.  I'm so excited for spring!!!  I realize it will now likely snow next week.  Here's why I can't wait for spring:

• With the warmer weather, we can walk and play outside more, which makes Ella nap better in the afternoon and makes Mom all around more happy.
• We can swing outside more, which makes Ella nap better in the afternoon and makes Mom all around more happy.
• We can play outside more and I might actually get some sun/vitamin D, which makes Mom all around more happy...get the point?
• I'm excited to see what flowers come back up and maybe actually do some gardening now that I'm not a freak about having Ella outside.  That said, I really hate bugs and will likely give up all gardening once the first spider comes close to me or her.
• Grilling!  Momma loves when Daddy grills.  It makes mealtime much easier for me.
• Easter is coming!  I can't wait to dress little miss up in some adorable, frilly outfit complete with hat and shoes and the whole bit.
• Ella is nearing 1 year.  While this also makes me want to cry, it's exciting.  I feel like 1 year is such a milestone and opens up lots of new horizons.

That said, she just turned 10 months this past Sunday.  We got a few good pics in.  She's not all about staying still for the camera anymore.  We'll just have to get more creative and quicker at taking action shots.  In the last week of her life, Ella has had a couple new firsts.  She threw her first fit.  I thought this didn't happen until well into her second year.  Apparently girls are advanced in the fit throwing category.  I don't know; I can't relate (Ruth oughta get a kick out of that one).  We were having lunch at the mall with friends and she was so excited to be surrounded by other kids (ie, screaming uncontrollably-in a happy but extremely loud way) that she decided she didn't want to go back into her stroller.  She was shrieking (now not in a happy way) and arching her back and drawing lots of fun stares from strangers.  Awesome.  She's also started doing this really fun back arch EVERY time I try to put her in her high chair now.  I LOVE IT!!!

Her other first was walking without our help.  No, you didn't just hear me say she's walking (praise the Lord!), but she did manage to do it by herself while pushing one of those walking toys.  We were at her bf Wyatt's house and she just had to show off for him.  Of course, the next day Daddy went out to buy her her own walking toy.  I'll post video when I get it off of Matt's phone.  Very exciting.  My baby is becoming such a big girl.  Tear.  Here are Princess Fussy Butt's 10 month pics:   (like the nickname?  she only gets it while she's fussing, which is not right now.  She's napping.  I think I just jinxed myself.)

Ella loves...

Just wanted to share a quick list of some of Ella's loves and not so much:

Ella currently LOVES:

• DOGS!!!  How did this happen?  Is this really my child?  Was there some sort of mix-up at the hospital?  Oh yeah, nevermind, I've seen her thighs... she's mine.  Yes, it's true.  She absolutely loves dogs, big ones.  Nothing makes her quite as happy right now.  She squeals with delight and has no fear when they lick her face or bark near her.  Sigh.  Why me?
• Food.  Also reinforces the fact that she is my child.  Specifically, anything she can feed herself.  I really believe she would eat until she gets sick, that's how much she loves feeding herself.  The messiness has begun.  I don't love it.
• Climbing stairs.  Girlfriend is just so dang proud of what a big girl she is and just can't help but want to show it off whenever she can.  She does great with us standing right behind her and does it all by herself.  She also likes to get to almost the top and stop and lean back and look around.  What a little daredevil!  We've finally installed a gate (see dislikes below).
• Eating carpet fibers.  Weird, I know.  Does this mean she's deficient in some nutrient, like fiber?  She likes to pull them off the edge of the carpet that we put down to keep her from hitting her head.  I think it's time to put the area rug back.
• Standing.  More specifically, pulling herself up on anything and everything, even if it isn't strong enough to hold her weight.  As soon as she does, she turns around to see us and smile and wave.  So proud of herself.  This turning usually makes her fall.  But she gets right back up to do it again.
• People.  Specifically, strangers who catch her eye when we're out and about.  No stranger danger for her yet.  She'll smile, wave, and yell at anyone who will look her way.  
• Playing peek-a-boo.
• Reading books.  Again, I guess she really is my daughter.  Loves turning the pages when we read to her.
• Cuddling with Mommy and Daddy.  I think she would be content touching us 24 hours a day if we let her.  Sometimes sweet, sometimes dreadfully annoying.  I think I'll go back and read this when she's 16 and won't cuddle unless we pay her.  Then I'll cry.

Ella doesn't really love:

• The gate.  How dare we block her from going up those stairs whenever she wants!
• Getting her diaper changed.  It has become a full on war and I'm now at the point of having to do it on the ground with one leg holding her down.  
• Having the carpet fibers taken out of her mouth.
• Napping.  Stink.
• When we leave the room.  Again with the touching 24/7.
• Little dogs.  Not sure if she just doesn't like them or if she doesn't notice them.

All in all, she is awesome.  She's so much fun right now.  Crawling everywhere and curious about everything.  She's also becoming very vocal.  Saying dada and bababababa and every once a while, something like mama.  We're just so, so in love with our little girl.

Some fun videos

Here are a few videos from my phone.  She's always good for a laugh.

Quite the babbling baby lately

Early stages of crawling

We think she may become a dentist.

Loves drinking

Silly noises

If not a dentist, she may become a singer.  Anytime I sing, she sings along.  Too sweet.

8 Month Pics

We decided to get one more use out of Ella's lovely Christmas dress (thanks Grandma!).  Check out our cutie's photo shoot below.

And unto us...

Merry Christmas!
What?  It's over a month since Christmas?  Let's just pretend that it's December 26th instead of January and that I'm super quick at getting things up on this blog.  We spent two glorious, surprisingly cold weeks in Kentuckiana for Ella's first Christmas.  We had a great time and it was so fun to be around our family so much.  Ella really enjoyed the wrapping paper, more so than the gifts.  Matt got a sweet new lens from his sweet little wife, as you can see in the Christmas Day pics below.
One day I'll get some fun videos on here.  It just takes a bit of time to load them.

Ella, Samuel, and Rachel

Ella and cousin Samantha

Cousin Sara

Mommy and Uncle Dustin (do they look alike?)

Grammy and Ella's sweet thighs

Grammy, Alan, and Ella