Not So Little Any More

Wasn't that long ago that little Ms Ella was a tiny baby. Last night, given the 9pm hour and the 80+ degree weather out side, many of the neighbors of our new little neighborhood street were out milling about, some ooh'ing and ahh'ing over the latest new addition to the street, a baby boy born just a few days earlier. It struck me that not only was the new, not quite so bouncing baby boy so small, but that our own most recent edition wasn't so small any longer.

Princess Ella is now fourteen months old. I know, in other postings I went on about how I really disliked the parental use of a number of months to indicate the age of their child, but fourteen months is much easier to type then ('ok, take the number of months in a year, what month was she born again, wait, that's not right... carry the one... no, there are twelve not ten months in a year... recalculate...') One Year and Two months. So, while it is easier to type, when asked I still respond 'A year and a couple of months' or 'A little over a year' - less actual math to perform in my head that way and I don't have to look like a super geek carring my pocket sized abacus around on my hip like a cell phone.

But getting back on track - Ella is really moving along, literally. She crawls faster then most other babies I've seen, not that I've seen a large number of babies seemingly hopped up on the latest major league baseball performance enhancing drug, but she seems to move pretty quickly, even without sports beat reporters chasing her. Ella actually prefers to be the one doing the chasing. She'll try and chase her older brother Aidan around the house, scampering as fast as a one year old on four appendages is able to do so - hands slapping on the floor, butt seemingly detached from the rest of her body as it adjusts right to left with each knee being thrust forward in an ever faster attempt propel her forward and keep up. All the while squealing with glee at the fun she is having.

Ella's seemingly always happy, well, at least most of the time. Did I mention cute as a bug?, at least any of those bugs depicted by Pixar - not necessarily any of your garden-variety bugs that you might find in, well, your garden. Ella enjoys playing on slides, and with water, but not really needing to actually be in the water, just to the side where she can reach in and splash around is fine with her. She's a bit dainty that way.

Ella also seems to be taking to boating at this early age. The noise doesn't seem to bother her, the rocking and bouncing doesn't seem to bother her, sleeping on the boat doesn't seem to bother her. She just seems to take it all in stride.

I wish I had some speech progress to report, however there really isn't any yet. She communicates with a few hand motions and various, random screeches and grunts which gets her message across, but certainly can't be counted as an actual language other then her own.

Overall Ella's a pretty cute, happy, fast crawling little girl who, while not yet really talking, is making strides towards standing independently, walking while holding on to someone's hands, and every once and a while tries to take her own single step for little girl kind.

Wasted Time?

Poor little Ms Ella has been sick the past couple of days. Emptying the contents of her walnut sized stomach multiple times per day. It's amazing how much can come out of such a small stomach - yuck!. Needless to day, Ella hasn't been her normal, full of energy, wanting to chase her brother around all over the house self. She's been pretty quiet for the most part.

Today is a holiday for me so I had the luxury of staying home. Being a wet and rainy day, the 28th of the last 29 days - apparently a record for Seattle which, in itself is hard to believe - there really wasn't much to do outside so, for a good part of the morning, sat on the couch with little Ms Ella. We played a little bit, gently bouncing around on my knee like a rubber balloon stuffed with sand until she had enough and immediatly fell asleep on my chest for the next couple of hours with her mouth open just enough to let just the tip of her pink tongue poke out to fill up the space.

Wasted time? If so, it was the best wasted time I've had for a long while.

Mobility

Since the last Ella blog entry Ella’s become quite mobile and grown into a fun, cute, entertaining little baby girl. She hasn’t produced any new teeth so she seems a bit lopsided when she opens her mouth showing her three lower, front teeth, but I’m sure she is working hard on some more. Her hair has gown in quite a bit more so she doesn’t look like a fuzzy que ball any longer and she’s developed her own personality along with a vast awareness of the world around her.

A week or so ago she’d discovered the concept of forward mobility by performing the baby army crawl; reaching out in front of her, hoisting herself up on her elbows, then falling forward on her arms pulling herself forward in 4 inch increments, her feet trying to help propel her forward, sometimes succeeding, other times not. So, combined with her her ability to roll around all over the floor in either direction, she can now move forward, making it that much easier to pester her brother Aidan by moving over to him and trying to touch him, something he’s not all that fond of. It also allows her to entertain herself by moving from one toy to chew on to the next providing 30-minute chucks of entertainment and relaxation value for her parents.

Ella also has, on loan to her thankful parents from her daytime nanny, a little baby scooter – something akin to a lunar rover with four independently turnable wheels and a baby seat in the middle of it allowing Ella’s feet to hit the ground and provide independent leg action. This is her favorite and most used baby item as it allows her to move herself all over the lower level of the house – made that much easier as the floors are all wood. She just scoots herself around following anyone she wants, trying to keep up. Brother Aidan will play with her by running down the hallway to the front door, and Ella will spin her little feet as fast as possible, propelling her baby landing craft down the hallway after him. Many times bumping into one wall or the other, where she immediately adjusts course and continues on to her destination. Upon reaching her brother, Aidan will then run back down the hallway to the alternate end and wait for Ella to get herself turned around and sets off back down the hallway after him.

Ella does not like baby food. Hard to believe given the every so appetizing nature of the multi puréed assortment of vegetables and fruit mush available. She prefers fresh bananas, graham crackers, and baby bread sticks. That all being stated, she has started to accept the Gerber mac and cheese mush which is a victory in itself. She has also developed a taste for the Crystal Light lemonade product. I’ll have to admit right off that this is my fault, I gave her a taste by dipping my finger into the liquid then sticking it into her mouth. She, within seconds, moved to drinking it out of my glass. When she wanted more, she would crane her neck forward, head tilted back and little, pink tongue spilling out over her three front teeth and lower lip, waiting for me to place the cup back in her mouth so she could get more of the best liquid modern chemistry has to offer. Heck, it looks like she’s already in training to pledge a Cougar sorority. I say Cougar only because I’m sure it’s would be more fun to imbibe in her favorite beverage after her school has won a football game and it doesn’t look like the home town team will be doing that anytime soon. Of course, what would I know, it’s not like my alma matter is known for it’s gridiron winning ways, but she’s certainly welcome to go there if she so chooses