Ella {46 Weeks}

We're still working on getting settled into the new house, but we're having plenty of fun in the process! We're taking plenty of walks and trips to the park, and we even took a fun day trip to Williamsport, PA to watch the Little League World Series on Saturday. 

Ella is staring to become quite a big girl! She eats puffs and yogurt bites whole (we used to have to break them into tiny pieces or she would choke on them), and she (mostly) knows to eat them one at a time and to chew them before swallowing. We're working our way to more table food slowly, which will be great.

This week Ella had a third tooth start coming through! It's on the top, but it's not a front tooth. It's the one just to the right of where her front tooth will be, so maybe the rest will be joining this one soon, otherwise she'll have a fang just in time for Halloween! It's been a little rough with this tooth cutting through, we can tell it's been uncomfortable for her. But ice cubes and occasional Tylenol seem to help. She still doesn't care for teethers much.

That's about it for this week. Stay tuned next week for a fun recap of our upcoming trip to the Midwest!

Weekend Adventure: Indian Caverns

Mike, Ella and I took an impromptu trip to the Indian Caverns with Chris and Carrie, some friends from Minnesota who just moved here. Here are a few photos from our trek through the cave!

Mike and Ella by the teepee outside the cave

There were some sluice boxes outside the cave so you could see some of the gemstones they found in the cave.

Mike and Ella navigating the cave!

It's kind of hard to see, but this was an open area within the cave. They say that the Indians held council meetings in this room, and there's a tombstone of a chief whose skeleton they found buried in this room.

Fun family adventure!

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!

Mike's friend James stopped over for a bit, so we put him to work. 

To keep Ella occupied, we gave her a carrot to chew on. It worked!

Ahhhhh! I figured I had a very limited window of cutting opportunity. So I grabbed the mullet.., and...

CHOPPED!! It's gone! :'(

[yes, of course we saved it for the baby book]

It ended up being a little shorter than I had planned, but I actually think it turned out great. 

Ella {44 Weeks}

This week has been more of the same. Trying to unpack and get organized... but mostly playing defense against Ella and her constant attempts to break into discover things around the house. So far we've only had minor injuries.

As you can see, still no baby gate. We wanted to find one that was secure enough at the top of the stairs for a tall, adventurous girl, and we're waiting for it to be delivered in the coming days.

This is how the unpacking usually goes:  Ella finds an open box, throws its contents all over the room, then proceeds to play with a toy. I guess she's helping, at least, right?

We've  been taking many unpacking breaks to play at the park...

and in the back yard...

and in the kitchen cupboards...

and of course the pool!

The first of the injuries came when we were babyproofing the kitchen. Mike was drilling into the hardwood cabinets, and he got some wood dust/chips in his eye. It was quite the ordeal, which required a phone call to Doctor Joe. Luckily, babyproofing resumed today and is now finished.

The second injury came while the babyproofing was on hold [due to the eye incident]. Ella was playing in the kitchen cupboards as she had been, but the fun finally caught up to her. As you can see in the picture, her index finger got pinched [i believe she lifted a casserole dish, then dropped it on her finger in the cupboard]. Her finger was bloody, her fingernail was purple, and her screams were atrocious. After some cold water, Tylenol, snuggles, and a nap, it seems to be ok. 

The furniture store has really cool strollers for really cool kids! Ella loved driving this thing through the store. 

Every night ends with brushed teeth!

We had another breakthrough this week:  Ella decided one day that she loves baby puffs! They are little flower-shaped pieces kind of like Cheerios, but they dissolve in your mouth. I guess that's what pediatricians recommend starting with, so that they learn to feed themselves but they don't choke on whatever doesn't get chewed well. So now, a couple times a day she has puffs and yogurt bites, which are dime-sized bits of freeze-dried yogurt and fruit that also dissolve in your mouth. She's still getting the hang of it, but she's catching on and she loves it!

Ella {10 Months}

That's right, this girl is TEN months old!

• she can walk along furniture
• she stands on her own for about 5 seconds
• she can crawl up an entire flight of stairs
• she has two teeth
• she loves bath time, walks, and playing peekaboo
• she likes clapping her hands, doing So big!, and waving goodbye
• she has flown on 13 flights
• she has visited eight states

Ella {43 Weeks}

This week we've been finishing up the move, and working on getting settled. Once we unpacked our bags from the trip, we spent a couple days cleaning the old house. Now we're focused on unpacking our new house. Of course that's easier said than done with a nearly-10-month-old in the house. She's so curious about all boxes and of course the new territory, so I spend most of my time playing defense! But we're really enjoying being back in our own beds and getting back into a routine. 

There's a small park just a couple houses down from us, so we've been going there every day.

Ella isn't big enough for most of the park, but we make due!

On Friday night, the Pegula Ice Arena hosted a Country Skate Night for the PSU students, so Mike was working late. Ella and I stopped by to say hello, and she helped Dana [mike's assistant] with the audio!

And Ella got a new wagon! She just loves taking walks in it around our new neighborhood.

As far as eating goes, Ella has been trying a few new things. She's tried some new fruits & veggies, and a few new combinations. She seems to be open to eating more things than before, and she even ate green beans & peas! We're just starting on State 3 foods too, which are more coarse and textured. She still doesn't really like baby puffs or anything solid like that, but we'll keep trying.

Sleeping isn't back to "normal" [whatever that is] since we got home. She's wanting to eat during the night, which she hadn't done before our trip. I think maybe she's going through a growth spurt, because nearly all of her clothes that fit three weeks ago are too small now!

She's happy. She's growing. Life is good!