Splish, Splash

Ellie has always really enjoyed her bath. She tolerates the washing part because she knows the playing part comes next:

Singing in the tub:

Some serious splashing occurs:

Notice the plastic bucket in her right hand. That is her favorite bath "toy."

No, this was not posed.

Yes, this is what typically happens when we get Ellie in the bath.

Lots of Stuff

Ellie has been very entertaining this week. From the "talking" mentioned in the previous post to her trying desperately to crawl, she has been quite a handful!

Ellie also had her first "play date" at our house. The neighbors asked us to watch their daughter, Anya, who is two while mom and big brother went on a preschool field trip. Ellie had a fun time playing, though she has definitely developed a sense of "MINE!" She did not like when Anya, who also has a well developed sense of "MINE!" would take something she was playing with. Ellie would look at her and scream!

During bath time Ellie has discovered the bucket we use to rinse off her head. She holds onto the bucket and pushes it under water, watching it fill up. She has even put one of her toys in it and taken it back out again. This is very fun to watch. It is also fun for Ellie... until bath time is over and mean old Mama takes it away... then the screaming begins (remember her newly developed sense of "MINE").

Ellie has a new favorite toy. It is called freezer paper. She loves to crinkle it, and the great part about it is that the paper is plastic lined, so she can't break off little pieces and chew on them. I know, this probably makes me a bad parent. At least we have moved on from letting her play with sandwich bags...

Finally, I took a picture of (almost) all of the kiddos that live on our alley. These are the munchkins Ellie plays with each evening while we all wait for the daddies to get home from work. If all these kids end up staying in the neighborhood this will be a great shot for them to look at when they all get to high school!

Singing!

Freezer paper...

I want to crawl!!!!

Ellie and Anya

11 of the 12 "alley kids"

Language Explosion

Ellie has been "talking" a mile a minute the last few days. She says "mamamamamama" a lot, and yells "Mama!!!" when she wants milk or to be held and comforted. She has also started saying the following sounds: /b/, /y/, /rrrr/ (yes, the girl can roll her r's!), and the long /i/ sound. She says something that sounds a little bit like "hi," but it comes out "yi". She yelled "yiiiiiii!" all through the grocery store yesterday. People kept laughing at her. Getting groceries goes much slower when everyone wants to stop and talk to your baby! (But... it is much better than hurrying through the store because your baby is wailing!)

Seven Months Old

Yesterday Ellie turned seven months old! It seems like she does something new each day. She has really started looking more like a little girl and less like a baby this month. We haven't weighed her recently, but she seems to be growing in leaps and bounds. Over the weekend she said "mama" on three different occasions. They were all when she was upset and wanted to be picked up or nursed. It may have been coincidental, or she may just be playing with consonant and vowel sounds, but I am going to assume she has said her first word!

How Ellie has changed over the past month:

• Ellie now has two teeth - both bottom front teeth have popped through the gum line.
• Ellie is down to three wakings at night (trust me, this is HUGE). If you have a baby younger than Ellie that sleeps, count your blessings!
• Ellie has dropped her evening nap. She now naps only twice a day (roughly 9:30-10:30am and 2-3pm)
• Ellie can stand up on her own in her bathtub, so we have to pay very close attention.
• No crawling yet, but lots of scooting and pivoting on her tummy. It won't be long now.
• Ellie had meat for the first time and seemed to enjoy it. We backed off though because it gave her a bit of an unsettled tummy.
• Ellie has added corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe to the list of foods she has tried. We haven't found anything she doesn't like. At first she wasn't keen on carrots, but now she gobbles them up.
• Ellie makes lots of sounds. She has been experimenting recently with very high pitched squeaking and humming. She also makes a lot of consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel patterns. She makes the /m/ sound, /h/ sound, and sometimes the /d/ sound.
• When she gets bored or frustrated she rocks and sticks her bottom lip out and blows air forcefully through her nose. It is adorable!
  

Events of the past month:

• Ellie has gone swimming twice. She didn't enjoy the outdoor pool much, but a couple of weeks later she really had fun at the indoor pool.
• Ellie went on two hikes, riding on Daddy's back in the carrier. She enjoyed herself both times and was a really good baby in the car on the way to the trail and back. After the second hike she was very tired and only woke up twice during the night.
• Teeth!

Now a few pictures:

Mama trying to get a peek at the teeth:

Blurry look at the two teeth:

Lots of Seconds

Over the past week and a half Ellie has experienced several things for the second time.

We took her to another city pool, this one inside, and she really enjoyed it! That was quite a relief for me since I would like to enroll her in "Mommy and Me" swimming at the rec center, and didn't want to spend the money to have her cry the whole time.

Last week Ellie got her second tooth. Now she has both bottom center teeth, though neither one is completely in yet. She still hasn't let me snap a picture of those pearly whites, but once she does I will post it!

Over the weekend we took Ellie on her second hike. We went to the same area as we did two weeks ago but on a different trail. We were able to do about 5 miles (round-trip) and would have gone further but the clouds moved in. Though we have a rain cover for the carrier, we didn't want Ellie to get scared by the rain or thunder. We are still being very careful to make sure that hiking is only a "fun" experience for her!

Sorry there aren't any new pictures. I will try to get some up in the next day or two.