Monday, October 24, 2011

Nine months of Ella love

Our little Ellabelle’s zeal for life is contagious. She bounces herself up and down with delight throughout the day, overjoyed to see one of her parents smile at her, watch her brother run by, or spy an interesting toy. She and Luke play more and more, though her limitless delight in him has become a little more conditional. There are times now when she seems to have had enough of his wildness and prefers to look on at his antics from our arms.

Recent Milestones

So many milestones to report since I wrote in with our girlie’s seven month stats. Just after that post she started to crawl and has since picked up speed. She’s also a fairly confident ‘cruiser’ – moving around on two legs between furniture hand-holds. If we worked with her on it, I imagine we could coax her to take a step or two, as she often stands unsupported for a few seconds. But we’re in no hurry for the hazards of walking to begin!

We have worked with Ella on waving, clapping and (air) kissing, all of which she’ll do on request if you catch her in the right mood. Her first word was ‘mommy’ and now she also says ‘daddy’. Luke taught her to raise up her arms in response to the classic question: “How big is Eleanor? So big!”

Her two front bottom teeth are fully in place and for the past two nights it’s seemed that the top two are moving in to join them. We’re starting to give her a few table foods in addition to our pureed specialties. This morning she enjoyed bits of french toast and last night we let her chew on pizza crust!

Likes/Dislikes

It’s sad to report her first big fall! Luke managed to escape any really bad tumbles until just a few months ago. But Eleanor fell out of Luke’s ride-on truck onto the concrete when we left her with a babysitter, resulting in a purple bump on her forehead, a badly scraped nose, and a Mama with separation issues!

Sibling Report

She keeps constant tabs on what Luke is up to. More and more they enjoy their own form of gentle wrestling together on the floor. Lately though its escalation to injury-levels is just as often due to Eleanor’s aggression as it is to Luke’s! She commonly grabs his hair or ear and pulls, reveling in the reaction it evokes, and the hubbub as a parent jumps in to remove Luke before he’s tempted to push her in return.

The other day another child pointed to Eleanor and declared, “baby”. Luke was quick to correct, saying, “No, that’s Eleanor!” Luke seems to enjoy his sister more and more, but he has also grown more concerned about her duplo-destuction capacity. When she starts crawling toward his creations, he tells me, “Mommy, pick Eleanor UP!”

Routine

Now that Luke’s in preschool two mornings a week, I get to savor these fleeting baby days and focus on Eleanor in his absence. Instead of tagging along on Luke’s mixer truck rides, longing to tear apart the train track he’s making, and chasing him around the house, Eleanor gets to be the center of my attention for a little bit of baby-stage geared play.

At nine months, our little girl has now visited nine states (not counting airport layover stops). They are, in order of visit: NM, NC, VA, MD, CO, NH, CA, NV, NY. If we could keep this up she will have seen them all before she reaches Kindergarten! Everywhere she goes she spreads delight with her smiles and coos. She also has her serious moments when she sticks out her bottom lip in a little bit of a pout as she studies the world around her. You are irresistible in every way, our little Ella-light!

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