10 months

I think 9-10 months is my favorite age so far. Ella is developing so much of a personality, and I am loving getting to know her better. She pretty much smiles all the time - unless she's tired, then you have to work quite hard for just a little smirk. In general, she is a very happy baby. Even when she has refused to take her nap, or is way past her bedtime ... as long as she is entertained she is happy!

Ella is crawling now. She started by 'scootching' (ie pulling with her fingers and pushing with her toes) around 8 months, then it progressed to the army crawl, and now full on crawling. Her favorite motivation is all her daddy's cords, remotes and cell phones! We tried giving her an old remote and cell phone to play with, real ones mind you, but she is too smart for that. She knows which one's we use, and that is what she wants. I can line up three remotes on the floor in front of her and she will go for the one we use.

Music is one of Ella's favorite things. She'll 'dance', bobbing her head and moving her body whenever she hears it. She will turn her head to the TV when music comes on. And when she hear's Nate singing around the house she loves to sing along!

Ella's newest tricks include clapping and giving high fives. Neither of which she likes to do on command. But she is so proud of herself when she claps. She just grins from ear to ear with her new cheesy grin.

Eating is another favorite of Ella's. She is eating just about everything now. Her favorite food is whatever we are eating. Even if she has already eaten supper until she was full, if she sees us eating she wants to try that too! She loves to feed herself the best. The other night she sat in her high chair for 45 minutes feeding herself and was perfectly content. She can drink from a regular cup (if I hold it), and even from a straw! But she is just now learning how to hold her own bottle, and still working on holding a sippy cup.

Still no teeth in sight.

Ella is extremely social. She engages people by smiling and talking everywhere we go. She gets especially excited when she sees other kids and babies. When we are at home, she always wants us within eye sight and will occasionally just look over and grin at us from across the room.

She is loving the freedom that crawling is allowing her to discover new things. But she is also developing a little stubborn streak (which she most definitely gets from me!) She has definitely learned to speak her mind when we don't allow her to do something that she wants to do - like playing with the outlet, or sucking on a cord that is plugged in.

On almost a daily basis, either Nate or I make a comment on how amazing Ella is. We are truly just in awe of her, and completely obsessed with her! I can't believe the gift that God has blessed us with by being her parents. Obviously we are biased, but we definitely think we have the cutest baby in the whole wide world!