Amy's Adventures: Ella {45 Weeks}

This week has been a little chilly for mid-August, so we haven't been to the pool this week. We've taken plenty of walks and trips to the park, and we even explored a new park with our friend Carrie who just moved here from Minnesota!

I have realized in the past week just how many things Ella is learning. She is such a smart little girl, and she picks up on new things all the time. She knows how to give a hug when we ask for one [seriously, the best!]. She knows how to jump [well, bounce up & down] when we say it. She knows that when we say up, she puts her arms up to be picked up. And once in a while she'll even say up ut when she wants picked up! Oh, and to make my life easier, she has learned that when getting dressed or post-diaper change, pants! means to put her feet up in the air so I can put her pants back on. It's so much easier than her rolling around during a diaper change like she had been since discovering she was so mobile.

she figured out how to play with a new toy!

and she even watched curious george for a few minutes!

She has been extra snuggly lately, and she snuggles with pillows or her favorite stuffed animals when she finds them laying around. We have given her a puppy stuffed animal blanket [super cute little guy, made by a good friend of mine] to sleep with in her crib. We figure it's a good way for her to start getting used to blankets and pillows without putting much in there, and once in a while we'll find her snuggling him while she sleeps! It's too cute.

Stairs have gotten better in the last week. She has even gone down the entire flight twice! We still watch her really closely, but she's getting more confident.

We're trying to get her used to wearing shoes, since she's getting so close to taking her first steps! As you may have noticed, she's almost always barefoot. If we put shoes or socks on her, they're off within minutes. We finally found a pair of shoes that she can't get off [and are easy enough to put on her]. And they're soft-soled, so she doesn't seem to mind wearing them quite so much. Hard or rubber soled shoes seem to be very difficult and awkward for her to stand in, so maybe we're onto something! Who cares if she wears goofy watermelon shoes with a dress?!

i think this was last weekend, but here's a fun picture from when mike took ella on a walk around campus

This weekend was a pretty fun one. We took an impromptu day trip to a cave with our friends Chris and Carrie [who moved here from minnesota recently]. It was a walking guided tour that took about an our, and Ella did great! Mike carried her in the Baby Bjorn, and she seemed to enjoy it.

And the real whopper of the weekend?? Ella's first haircut! Wahhh!! Ok, so approximately 7,000 people have told us how crazy Ella's hair is, and we realize the girl has a lot of it. And maybe it goes every-which-way. But seriously, it's our little baby's hair! Then again, the mullet was a little much. It was halfway down her back, and now that she's starting to have some curl, it was a little disheveled. So we put it off for many weeks, but we finally got rid of Ella's mullet. After Mike's haircut from the family barber [yours truly], Ella took a seat. One quick chop and it was gone! It ended up being a little shorter than I had hoped, but it had to be done quickly or she would end up with half a mullet. But alas, it will grow, and she looks much more put together now. So--First haircut is in the books. I guess this means our baby is growing up!