Baby Steps

Ella took FOUR WHOLE INDEPENDENT STEPS tonight. She looked a bit shocked as she fell over and Rob and I broke into applause. We then tried getting her to walk between us encouraging her with copious claps. After a couple of rounds she caught on... to the clapping part. If she reached on of us and we didn't IMMEDIATELY start applauding then she would start, continuing until both of us joined in. At that point she would stop and grin at each of us. This continued even when she CRAWLED between us. By the end of the night she would clap at the completion of anything. While I was trying to get her down for the night she repeatedly pulled her bottle out and applauded. It was hard not to break out laughing especially when she would look up at me, with bottle in hand, and grin.


Cruising

Great new toy...

We got a couple of great new toys for Ella's birthday. Notice I said we? I do mean WE! Some play music that makes me want to hurl myself off the top of Diamond Head. Today we got an infantino Baby Beach Band set. It was from Jenny, Eric and their five month old twins. They understand that keeping the noise and chaos to a minimum is a good thing. Ella was especially fond of the clam shakers and lobster maraca. Apparently Velcro tastes good!

Daddy's Khakis

Last week Ella and I attended a pinning ceremony for new chiefs on the Battleship Missouri Memorial. Afterwards we took some pictures with Dad under the guns. It was rather hard to get her to focus on the camera. She was more interested in trying to grab all the bright and shiny things on Dad's uniform.

Happy 1st Birthday!! (A.K.A. requisite Cake on Face entry)

Can you believe it? One already! And what a year it's been.




















Ella's vocabulary is all of two words, Gidget and Jakey. "Jakey" seems to cover both dogs and "Gidget" any living nonhuman. That includes birds, strange dogs and even the occasional (yes, nonliving) airplane. Last week someone asked where Gidget was and she pointed to the the cat. Today I asked her where Daddy was, she looked over her shoulder at Rob and then turned to me with this look that said "I'm not here for your amusement, if you don't know who your husband is then it's not my problem." Apparently Gidget is the only member of the household worthy of a point.

She's quite adept at crawling. If I make any move to chase her she moves double time. Climbing the stairs seems to be her favorite activity. As for the walking, she isn't quite there yet. Earlier last week I promised her a car for her 16th birthday if she would walk before her 1st. You know I won't let her forget that one! She has become quite proficient at pushing a chair and a little push cart around. I think it's just a matter of time, and not very much of it at that.

The one thing my VERY easy child doesn't do well is sleep. Night time sleep is from 8:30-7:30, usually waking once for a bottle but occasionally twice. Last night Ella decided she needed to be up at 2am. I eventually ended up asleep on her floor with her crawling around on me for a 1/2 hour. When I dumped the little charmer back in her crib she started screeching every time I tried to leave the room. My answer was to curl up on the floor where she could see me and doze off. I think that's the first time in over a month we've had a night like that though.

One of her favorite activities consists of her taking a book off one of her shelves, opening it, babbling as she turns the pages, dropping it, then moving on to the next one. She'll almost empty all her shelves before she gets bored. Sometimes I'll catch her lying on her back with an open book (often upside down) at arms length "talking" away.

Crate Training

Ella isn't yet housebroken so I had a brainstorm. I figured if it worked for the dogs it would work for her! Right?





She said another word today while she was peering over the bed at Jake, who I often call Jakey. She leaned over me, hanging off the edge of the bed as I held onto her feet, reached for Jake and said "Jakey." She still says Gidget whenever she sees an animal be it bird, cat or small dog.

And the Parent of the Year Award goes to...

Earlier today Ella and I were iChatting with my parents and brother. She crawled off and within 30 seconds had gotten awfully quiet. I rounded the corner of the kitchen to this...


The door was closed, I promise. I now know it needs to be locked as well.

Good thing there wasn't a cleaver in there!

The only difference between a man and a boy is the cost of their toys but...

What about an almost toddler? Breathe easy, this is an old laptop that doesn't work so well anymore. Actually, I would guess it now doesn't work at all.