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.