You Had Better Appreciate These Pictures...

Did you know that it is virtually impossible to get pictures inside a 7 month old's mouth? Next, add a camera that you only half understand and a sleepy baby who doesn't think you're funny anyway... Yup, you better really appreciate these pictures. I mean it.

The whole point of all this effort to capture a moment in time in our Ellie girl's mouth? She has TEETH! That's right, it may be hard to tell in some of these pictures (last one is best, and you'll do even better clicking on them for a larger version) but here they are!


Her right tooth came through her gum Tuesday March 15, and the left tooth came through Saturday the 19th. Now they are already completely visible when she opens her mouth! (To the naked eye, not our camera...) Too bad Sunday she started acting like she might be teething on the top! Oh child...

And because you couldn't see her cute face in the toothy pictures, here are a few pictures of our girl from the last week or so. Here she is loving one of her favorite new toys - the remote!

And I snapped this picture the other day because she looked so sweet sleeping like a baby again! She's been really into her wubbanub lately - she LOVES the new giraffe wubbanub we bought her. This is also the cute new bedding we found at Target that I got her as a second set to the adorable set Grandma Reva made her.
By the way, because our girl thinks she needs to grow all at once, Tuesday the 19th she also started playing on her stomach, rolling around the floor to get things, and then Sunday the 20th she started trying to crawl a little towards toys! Oh, and she now loves to say Dadadadadadada along wither her other jibberish. Gotta love this sweet girl!

Buzz! Buzz! And Gurgle...

Enjoy Ellies great noises!

Sleep and Blankets

Ellie is a fairly good sleeper. Somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of the time she sleeps till 7:00 or later through the night. She likes to nap and hardly fights it. Lately, we could complain some about naps, but we attribute that to the joys of teething. Really, we know a number of jealous people when it comes to Ellie and sleep compared to their babies, so we won't complain.

The funny thing about Ellie is HOW she sleeps: usually covered in blankets. And what she does when she wakes up....

So, Ellie no longer sleeps like a baby with her arms up or fencing. Steve was kind enough to point this out to me last night. But, I didn't notice it so much, so I'm ok. She does like to lay on her hands still. And sometimes she ends up on a side, occasionally almost to the point of sleeping on her stomach.

But she ALWAYS has to cuddle with a blanket as she goes to sleep. This means that sometimes she sleeps like this.
Or like this.

Oftentimes you have to look to find a baby under the covers because she is has pulled all the blankets over her head to some degree. At Dad and Kerry's one time while she napped she pulled all the blankets on her and we could just see a single foot sticking out from a pile of blankets.
This always makes us smile when we go in and check on Ellie during naps and before we go to bed each night.

But, not as much as her wake-up positions. Admittedly, I don't know what position Ellie is in when she first wakes up. The same one as when she is sleeping would be my assumption. I am a firm believer in letting Ellie be when she wakes up from naps and in the morning until she needs something. I want her to be able to entertain herself and play on her own. And, I am selfish and like my sleep in the mornings.

This girl has become so active when she is awake in the crib that we even had to put a bumper in. I know, SIDS risk, but she's fallen asleep right against it once with no problem, and it beats resetting her every couple of hours and calming her down when she gets mad because her head is jammed against a hard wood slat. Or, getting woken up by angry screaming because while she was happy turning 90 degrees and kicking the crib toy or slats, she didn't want her foot stuck through the slats...

Anyway, these are just a few of the funny positions we have found her in as of late. To truly appreciate these, you have to know that when we put Ellie to bed now she gets put at the far left end of the crib feet first - so that it takes her a little longer to end up with her head jammed against the far right side...

This one is from going in to reset her one night when she didn't think she should go to bed just yet.

These are the waking up pictures.

I know, those parents who are jealous of how well Ellie sleeps are even more jealous now. This girl cracks. me. up.

Noises

Ellie has a new ability. As of just a few hours ago!

The mouthing without words she's been doing for a week or two now. She also likes to gurgle her saliva when she's laying down.

Then yesterday she taught herself to buzz/blow raspberries with her lips. Now she does it constantly! Too funny.

And tonight she suddenly started "singing" and then making repetitive noises.

See?

New Ways to Play

Ellie is hilarious. See?
Cute too, I know.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.... She also grows and develops new abilities daily. So, I thought I'd record some of the things she loves to do and new abilities when it comes to play.

First of all, Ellie is so Steve's daughter. The things she thinks are most interesting are those things she knows aren't toys for her. Namely:

- The remote control
- The ipad
- Steve's laptop
- Xbox controllers
- Our cell phones
- Mt. Dew cans
- Tonight's winner, a screwdriver Steve was holding...

Yup, I'm in trouble. Because we all know that while I will try to squash this out of her, Steve will only encourage trouble-making.

That's what happens when a rule-follower marries a line-pusher and they reproduce. One of us was bound to luck out....

Anyway, Ellie also has a few ACTUAL toys she loves right now. She is totally hooked on this rattle.

We have started playing with her sitting up on her own and we use the boppy behind her to catch her when she suddenly throws her weight. The BEST toys for upright play: the grocery toys Julie got her for Christmas. We also learned that Ellie can pick up toys and sit back up, which we had no idea!

She also plays best on her tummy with the top Steve got her for Christmas and the ball Kathy and Amanda got her.
She also loves this ball we got her. She had so much fun with a light-up ball at my parents we decided we needed to find her a cheap ball of her own. Best $3 we ever spent at Walmart. And it's not dirty, the ball turns a lighter color when it's heated up (touched or eaten - both happen about the same amount).
Oh, and we definitely continue to increase in our interest in books. She HAS to touch and hold them every night when we read stories now... I LOVE it.
Ellie also recently figured out how to actually bounce in her jumperoo. It may have something to do with the fact that we realized it was way too low for her. She's already on the highest height setting for it (the girl wore a 12 month tall outfit today for goodness sakes!) and we will probably have to get her into a johnny jumper type jumper here soon...

Yeah, Daddy is still awesome. Hope you enjoyed the laughs!

And, we bought Ellie a walker when we were in Spokane. First of all, because we finally found one we liked that was CHEAP - like us. Second of all, because when we put Ellie in the walker at Burlington just to see what she would do (what can I say, Steve IS a scientist after all) she sat there and played with the ball/egg on this dinosaur walker for a solid 5 minutes.She can actually move forward and backward in it, along with sideways - until she hits a wall or some other obstacle. Of course, she mostly moves backwards, but she does love this new toy. She is such a stander, and this feeds right into that.
So, our girl may want to get into everything she shouldn't, but we are LOVING watching her discover new games and ways to play!

PS - best toys still: her mouth for noises, her tongue, and her feet!

Oh, and here are a few FANTASTIC smiles we've gotten lately that we will share free of charge for your viewing pleasure. I hope they make you smile as well. I know I can't help but grin at this silly girl!

Told you she's cute.