10 months milestones

Started to crawl forward on hands and knees! Yay! You are on the move. . .

Soon I’ll be too busy to blog because I’ll be chasing you around.

big girl bathtime. You love crawling back and forth very fast and are fascinated by the spout which I’ve put an elmo safety toy over. This has only made you more attracted to it.

Very fine motor control with fingers.

Eating lots & lots - will try anything. Want anything i’m eating. Will let me know if you are hungry and want something - getting very vocal.

crawling very fast and interested in everything. I let you follow me around the house. You have a running crawl.

Starting pulling yourself up to standing on the couch, chairs, me, anything you come across.

Very very busy baby.

Playing lots of tickling games, love to read stories and turn pages.

When you are trying to get to sleep at night or for a nap I’ll come in and see you reading your stories, or I’ll check on you after you are asleep and find you sleeping on books wedged here and there.


You’ve got mad professor hair! Wispy and curly, and always a little matted and fuzzy in the back.
We consigned your jumperoo, and it made me sad, but you are too big for it now. No more staying in one place for you!

Now that you can move around, you are less interested in cartoons, but we still watch certain ones in the morning.

For your upcoming birthday I’ve already started buying you gifts here and there. The first gift from Mom and Dad are your very first pair of new shoes, well two pairs actually. They are red Seewees sandals and tan Saltwater sandals from Stride Rite. Very special.

I pulled up the little alphabet puzzle foam mat from your play area because I was getting tired of putting the pieces together several times a day. You spent most of your time pulling up all the pieces then actually playing on it. This was a great idea in theory, but not in practice. I’ll save it for when you are older and we can do stretching and yoga together.

9 months Milestones

Beginning of the month:

You have started to sleep sideways in your crib. Sometimes you manage to scoot up to the very top of the crib. Every time I go in there I have to find you amongst the toys and blankets.

Today (3/10/08) I felt teeth poking through. Finally! You won’t let me see in your mouth though. You’ve been terrible cranky and crying and your sleep sometimes during the night. Those darn teeth!

You’ve started to play lots of game with us. Peek-a-boo with your blankets, bite Ella’s fingers where I make biting noises with my teeth and you laugh, throwing a toy down repeatedly and giggling when we pick it up and hand it back to you. It usually takes mom awhile to catch on to this one. Also waving your arm up and down. You used to do this while holding your lamaze toy Celeste the Sun and I would hold onto it to and we’d bounce it up and down.

You are started to feed yourself and we have cheerios and banana chunks every day. I can tell you are getting interested in trying new foods. The other day you ate noodles for the first time. Today you had chicken for the first time mixed with some yams! You are also drinking out of the sippy cup finally!

We bought you a fancy new highchair because you have outgrown your travel booster seat that we’ve been using.

I’ve noticed that you are also mimicking people around you. When I laugh or smile, so do you! It’s very delightful.

You are almost crawling, any minute now. You cannot be still for one second. Tonight for the first time you successfully pulled yourself to standing in your crib. We are in for some thrilling adventures!

You are so busy now that I can barely change your diaper. I’ve learned how to put a new diaper on while you are sitting up.

This month and at the end of last, your hair has started to get darker and longer. It’s straight with little wispy fly-aways around your ears. When I look back at your pictures I can’t believe how sparse your hair was, like a newborn baby penguin.

I’m so glad that you are giggling and laughing every day now. I finally am making you laugh and it’s usually when I’m not trying to. The other day in the bathtub the soap bottle slipped out of my hand and fell into your tub. You laughed so hard you had to lay down sideways with your cheek resting on the side of your bathtub. We played this new game for awhile longer and woke up Dad with our hysterics!

You had a doctors visit this month and weigh 19 1/2 pounds. You measured 30 inches long and can already wear toddler pants. Your legs are soooo long, just like your Dad’s. I was hoping you weighed at least 22 pounds so we can move you into your larger carseat. The infant one we are using is getting way too small.

The changes this month are coming very quickly. You are almost crawling. I’ll leave you in your play area and come back a few minutes later and mysteriously you are in different spot. You are using a combination of rolling and scooting to move around.

I think you will skip crawling, at least forward on your hands and knees. I think really soon you will be able to stand on your own. You do move across a room, just by scooting, rolling, and flipping around. You also are lurching forward on your hands and knees and rocking.

You’ve started staying up much later, and usually finally go to sleep around 9pm. By this time you are very tired and cranky. You flop around like a little fish in your crib getting tangled in blankets and toys. After a few crying spells you put your hands behind your head and throw yourself back on the pillow. Then you are up and down again for another 20 minutes or so before you finally pass out from exhaustion.

You are still of course growing out of all your clothes.

You have been helping out in the garden – eating leaves and other plants, oh my!

End of the month:

You are starting to run, not walk, in your walker. Boy are we in for it. I think you’ll be a runner.

You are now pulling yourself up to standing in your crib and play yard and no longer prefer to sit still at all.

Not long away are the days where we will have to make sure every thing is put away and out of sight that we do not want you to get into. You are already investigating everything.

You have begun blowing spit bubbles. This is an impressive skill!

Every time you are surprised or experience something new you open your mouth in a perfect little “o”. It is the gosh darn the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.

You are still flicking your wrists and bouncing in your seat when you get excited.

You only want to feed yourself now and are making big messes. I am now regularly finding bits of broccoli and noodles in your diaper and clothes when I change you.

I’m worried that you are watching too much tv, and I’m not spending enough time with you. I’ve had a very busy month and will soon be done with my part-time job so we can be together more.

We had fun times this month visiting with friends and interacting with other babies. It’s fun to watch you share toys. You aren’t at the stage where you cry when someone takes something away, you just seem like you are wondering what’s going on.

Now whenever you cry and fuss you say “ma maahh, mah”. Hmmmm, I wonder if this will be a trend?

You are starting to cuddle into my shoulder for comforting when you get upset about something. I love this, but it only lasts for two seconds, and then you are off being busy again.

8 Month Milestones

This month has gone by really fast and you are getting stronger and heavier.

You’ve changed your sleeping schedule and have started staying up really late, sometimes until 10pm. By end of this month you started to fall asleep by 8:30-9pm.

You get very upset when I leave the room, before you would play in your crib and be fine. Now, only if you are exhausted do you fall right to sleep. This is the marking of an important milestone and shows you are now more aware and conscious of your surroundings and the people around you.

This month I’ve decided to blog about A Day in the Life of Ella Mae. 

Daily schedule

Wake up between 7-8am

Change diaper and come into bed with mom and watch cartoons.

Fall asleep for another hour.

Around 9 am dad comes home and scoops you up. Checks you diaper. Gives you a bottle and some baby food (bananas or vegetable medley)

Mom sleeps for a while longer or goes to work.

You have many adventures with Dad for the next 4-5 hours including:

Bouncer time

Walker time

Watching cartoons – especially Sesame Street, Barney, and SpongeBob.

Eating a zwieback cracker or two (if Dinah makes off with the first).

Sometimes running an errand.

Taking a short nap, or just rolling around in your playard for awhile.

Eating more food and having another bottle.

By the time mom gets home around 1-2pm you are usually trying to take a nap in your playard while Dad dozes on the couch.

Dad stumbles off to bed and Mom scoops you up. You are usually a little bit sour, with remnants of zwieback in your nose and the creases of your neck. Mom cleans you up and we get dressed (you are usually still in pajamas unless you ran an errand with Dad).

If you haven’t eaten for the 2^nd time, Mom feeds you and we play with toys on our high chair.

Then we have a bottle and watch cartoons, and maybe read an animals sounds story or play with your workbench that makes noises. Sometimes we watch Baby Einstein and sometimes we turn the tv off and listen to music.

You enjoy singing songs while motoring around in your walker.

 

Usually once a day, while in your walker or booster seat, I give you celery or jicama to chew on. When I’m not looking you share your food with Dinah and she takes off with it. Then you begin fussing because you have nothing, and I’ve got to get another piece for you to chew on, after scolding Dinah of course.

If it’s a nice day we’ll sit outside for awhile and you play with the grass and try to eat the leaves.

Usually once a day we run an errand – grocery shopping, diapers and other baby essentials or a trip to the baby consignment store. I take food with me and you sometimes eat while we are out.

We are normally home by 6pm and you are ready to eat again. You are also tired and finally just fell asleep in the car about 2 minutes before we were home. You of course wake up when I try to smoothly lift your carseat out of the car and into the house.

I typically run to the bathroom very quickly because I haven’t gone all day, and then run back to get you out of your carseat before you get really cranky with me.

We have another bottle and eat a little more food if you want it.

Then we check your diaper, put on pajamas, and depending on how tired you are we either go back into the living room to play with toys for awhile or I put you in your crib to play with your special toys that live there.

Sometimes you take a nap in the playard – I think you are comforted by having me and Dinah around. Then you wake up about an hour later very cranky and I quickly move you to your crib where you fuss a little and then fall fast asleep.

In your crib you have your very special blankets that smell sweet, your special down filled pillow from Grandma Robn with a blue Star Wars pillowcase, your favorite animal sounds book, your favorite counting book (for chewing on), your taggy book, your tiny stuffed giraffe, puppy that barks, Winnie the pook, hawaii fish from Grandma Janine, and a stuffed monkey that you Dad felt you had to have from the consignment store. I set everything up just so that you can reach it and you must handle everything and move it to a new place in your crib before you can fall asleep.

If you are very tired you’ll go right to sleep, but if you are not extremely tired then you’ll fuss when I leave the room and want me to stay with you. I’ll lay you down, then you’ll smile and situp, and we’ll do this for awhile. Eventually you are tired enough to sleep.

No matter what, you must have a blanket up around your face and touching your face. This and a pacifier are the two must-have items for you to fall asleep. As soon as the pacifier is in and the blanket is to touching your face the hands go behind the head and you start bouncing your butt up and down and moving your head side to side under the blanket. All of this so you can get in the right and most comfortable spot, where you sleep until morning.

Goodnight Ella Mae it was a very busy day!

You are a content, happy, and very busy baby all day long, with only a few cranky moments (especially right after you wake up from a nap). You love seeing other people and smile and show your dimples and everyone also remarks how beautiful and alert you are.

Love,

Mom

PS. Here is one of mine and Grandma Robn’s favorite pictures of the month! Look at those long panky toes!

7 month milestones

Mom was very busy this month with work and am very behind in blogging.

Big Girl bathtime – this month you have a new bathtub and are playing with toys while you soak. I never liked the baby bathtub anyways, you were constantly slipping down into the tub and getting water in your ears. Your new tub is inflatable and sits inside the big bathtub. You can situp and play with toys in the water. You love it, and get upset when we take you out. You always need to take a toy with you, or we have a situation.

Every day you are getting even prettier. It’s hard for me to imagine you being any more beautiful than you are, but it keeps happening!

You are growing in leaps and bounds and are now wearing size 4 diapers!

Grandma Janine weighed you and you are already 21-22 lbs.

You are starting to lurch forward onto your stomach, but no crawling motions.

Your favorite foods this month are potatoes, homemade vegetable medley, and peaches mixed with banana rice cereal.

You can move forward in your walker and are walking all around the house already getting into stuff. You like to play with cell phone and battery charger cords and are becoming interested in the outlets.

You can pull yourself almost to standing in your crib and we had to lower the mattress.

You are enjoying cartoons more and more – Handy Manny, The Wiggles, Sponge Bob, Sesame Street, Higglytown heroes and some new baby Einstein videos.

We have some new books – all animals sounds and textures. Still your favorite thing.

Love,
Mom

Pregnancy memory

Today I used Dreft to wash clothes because we ran out of our other laundry detergent. It’s the first time I’ve used it since before you were born. I washed all your clothes and blankets in Dreft to keep myself busy in the last month or two of my pregnancy. Every day I would smell the freshly washed and folded tiny clothes and sort out my favorite blankets, and imagine you in them. Today that smell made a little tug at my heart, remembering thinking and dreaming about what you would be like, look like, feel like, smell like. Remembering how different life was then, before the Ella Mae. It seems like a lifetime ago. While you were in my womb, I was in my own “womb” preparing for motherhood. Eating right, drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, feeling anxious, reading tons about babies, feeling you kick and poke with your toes right under my left ribs. Now, I can’t even imagine what life would be like without my Ella Pella Girl. My heart is full.

Love,
Mom

6 month milestones

You are now 7 months old, and your 12 months clothes fit perfectly! Long toes and legs, just like your Dad.

It’s been a very exciting month! The biggest new development is that you can now sit up all by yourself, which you prefer to do while laying on your back. Your stomach is very strong. This has made bedtime a little more challenging because you are like a little spring, we lay you down and you spring back up. When you are really tired you throw yourself back on your pillow with your hands behind your head, and usually a few seconds later are sitting up again.

Also new for this month is eating lots of rice cereal, especially the banana flavored kind. You are already showing preferences for certain tastes. You will eat a whole bowl of the rice cereal, but I can’t interest you in peas, green beans, or sweet potatoes. You take a few bites and then become very interested in the walls and the ceiling.

We got you a walker for Christmas, which you are almost too tall for. I think you enjoy it and are learning how to move forward. It helps you to stand up and I am already imagining you running around the house. Soon I think you will be too heavy for your bouncer, when you are in it you jump so forcefully I think you are going to go through the floor!

You are grabbing and reaching for everything now and your hands are in constant motion. You have figured out that you can turn pages in books and now are more interested in helping me turn pages than hearing the story. I have a few small board books just your size that you nibble on and play with in your crib.

This month we have learned a few more things that make you laugh. I discover them by accident. When you see something new you usually giggle really hard the first time, and then the next time I try it you don’t laugh. The sock monkey makes you giggle and we play kissing games with it. Also, I stack your stuffed baby einstein blocks and you knock them over and seem to get a big kick out of this. Your dad makes monkey sounds which you like very much and pretends that his finger is a bee making buzzing noises and tickles your stomach. This cracks you up. Since I have discovered how good baby laughter is for the soul we are on a mission to find ways to make you laugh. I have discovered also, that you have a very ticklish butt. When I am changing your diaper and pinch your naked cheeks I can usually get a few giggles out of you.

This month your Grandma Marty died, and we are very sad. We will make sure to tell you lots of stories about her so you will know her. She loved you very much. You look almost exactly like her as a baby, so we’ll wait and see how much you resemble her when you are older. She was a gorgeous lady. A picture of her holding you was in her obituary and we will save this for your memories book. I am sad that she didn’t get to spend your first Christmas with you, but she painted you a beautiful portrait of you as a newborn baby sleeping. You will have this forever, it’s breathtaking!

Love,
Mom

First Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful first Christmas, and even your Dad wasn’t Mr. Scrooge!

We took our first family photo at Sears and gave these as Christmas presents. They turned out so well and I think I’m starting to get the bug to do more. You are very photogenic, just like your Dad, and the photographer barely had to try to get you to smile.

We visited Grandma Robn in Mariposa, whose birthday is also Christmas Day. We ate good food and got many special new presents. Your favorites are a new pair of eeyore robeez shoes to wear and a homemade baby quilt that is soft and luxurious. Grandma fed you all sorts of new things, and you ate a bunch of mashed potatoes. She also discovered that a little shot glass is just the perfect size for you to drink out of without spilling, so this is your new cup.

Your uncle Bret is home from the military for Christmas and he visited with your Aunt Kristen and Grandma Janine. Grandma gave you really cool new toys that sing and light-up which you really love. Your favorite is a green frog stuffed animals that teaches shapes and colors and sings to you. Grandma Janine & Grandma Mario also gave us a new camera that takes videos. We are so thrilled! We have already taken several videos of you an put them on youtube.

Your aunt Sherry made your the softest crocheted blanket which you sleep with every night. You love to run your fingers through it.

First Christmas Photo Album