Ella is seriously just a little sweetheart. I know she has known Nate and me from day one, but she now shows it with a big smile upon seeing either of us. And when Ella smiles, her whole body smiles - from the scrunching of her toes to the waving of her arms.
We have settled into a fairly great routine, going to bed around 10pm and sleeping through the night until 6am. She then eats and goes back to sleep for a couple more hours. Typically around 11am she goes down for a good two hour nap. The remainder of the day is a pattern of eat, play, sleep!
Ella loves to chat. She will just go on and on telling you all about 'it' to whomever will listen. It is seriously one of my favorite things in the world. She is at her happiest in the morning when she wakes up for the day. On days I am lucky enough to stay home, we will just lay in bed and chat for as long as we want!
I am convinced that Ella is going to be a soccer player. Anytime she is on her back, her legs are up in the air kicking. When she eats, she loves to push off against things (the chair, your hands, whatever) with her feet. All this exercise has paid off too! She is quite adept at standing, and is no longer interested in sitting.
Ella is still not the biggest fan of tummy time, but she's accepting it more and more. She can hold her head up like a champ. Ever the over achiever, she makes it even harder on herself by attempting to hold both her head AND her feet up at the same time - balancing on her tummy. What a goof.
Her pacifier seems to be her first true love. Whether it's in her mouth, or looped in her fingers, she likes to have it close by at all times. She also seems to enjoy sucking on the pacifier ribbon as much as the pacifier itself! When it falls out (which it does often), she will sometimes get lucky enough to get it back in her mouth herself - but most of the time we are compelled to come to her rescue.
She is simply our little doll. We fall more and more in love with her everyday. And as little bits and pieces of her personality begin to appear, I get more and more excited to see who my daughter will become. The past three months have been the most difficult, challenging, life-altering, wonderful and rewarding of my life. And I wouldn't change any of it for the world.
