Ella is 8 months old today!

The last month has been busy, with lots of changes and growing for Ella. She's been continuing to enjoy eating new foods, and has been gaining weight like a champ. It's getting difficult to carry her around in her infant seat, and we're probably going to have to transition to convertible car seats sometime very soon.

Ella is now a crawler! She went from rocking back and forth on her knees last month to now crawling pretty quickly across a room. There were a couple of weeks where she was doing "the worm", as we like to call it, pulling herself around just with her arms. For the past week, she's had the crawl down pat, and has more nooks and crannies in the house to explore everyday. It makes me realize that I need to Swiffer a little more often than I do already. Griffin's toys are always motivation for her to explore other parts of a room, and she has no hesitation to put his toys in her mouth - gross!

Ella also has gotten her two top front teeth, so now has a total of four! It looks so cute, and so different than she did just a little over a month ago with her gummy grin.

She loves making really loud squeals now, particularly when she is "talking" to her stuffed animals. She'll also make the most bizarre clicking sounds with her mouth, or blow on the back of her hand - anything to express herself!

Ella also has just started to wave hello and goodbye to us, which is absolutely adorable.

Ella had her first Thanksgiving this year, although turkey was not on her menu.

But, along with her first Thanksgiving, was her first experience of snow. It snowed in the middle of the day on Thanksgiving, and she loved it!

She just really seems to have transformed to a little girl lately sometimes. I look at her and have a hard time connecting who she is now, to who she was eight months ago. Every day is so much fun with Miss Ella.

Beautiful Smile

As promised, here is a picture of Ella's first two teeth. She has the prettiest smile!

Ella is 7 months old today!

I feel like a broken record every time I write one of these posts, but I just can't believe how much Ella has changed in the last month, last week, and even how much she changes from day to day.

She's getting ready to crawl, and we're expecting to adorn our house with a myriad of baby gates and other lovely baby safety items very soon. She can pull herself up onto her hands and knees and rock back and forth, as if to launch herself forward into a crawl.

Sometimes she does launch herself forward but without moving her hands, so she does a little face plant on the floor.

Just yesterday she started pulling herself up on her hands, but has decided to skip the knees and go right for her feet. She makes a little plank on the floor - presumably very good for her abs and other core muscles. We're sure that she's going to love Yoga. Sometimes she has very talkative days (see the video Happy Feet below), and sometimes she's more of an observer. She babbles ma-ma (but not to me), ba-ba, pa, ha, and loves to screech like an owl or hawk, or some other bird of prey.

She now has her second tooth on the bottom to accompany the first - it looks so adorable. I've somehow been entirely unable to capture their cuteness on camera, but I will post when I do. We love our little girl so much, and can't wait to see what new tricks she has up her sleeve in the next few months and years to come.

Happy Feet

This video makes me laugh every time I see it. It's of Ella enjoying her jumperoo. She really gets into it now, instead of just bouncing lightly, she really jumps and dances around. When I took this video, the sun was reflecting off of the mirror on the jumperoo, and she could see the reflected light on the ceiling move every time she moved. She LOVED it! She's making the funniest sounds with her voice. Every day it's a new noise she likes to practice, this time it was sounding like, and jumping around like a little monkey.

Happy Halloween!

Back to the Apple Orchard with our little Pumpkin

On Sunday we went back to the same apple orchard as last time, but this time we actually picked some apples. We took a hayride out to the apple trees. Ella liked picking up the hay and trying to eat it. The weather was great, and Ella even got to taste a little bit of apple juice on one of the apples. She loved it! We got some apple cider and cider doughnuts too - so delicious!

Ella cut her first tooth yesterday. She didn't seem to be in too much pain from it, and hasn't been drooling a lot, but certainly hasn't slept well over the past few days. You can barely see the tooth, but can certainly feel it with your finger - it's really sharp! Here she is, chomping down on her dolly, just a couple of days before the tiny razor popped up in her mouth.

Ella is 6 months old today!

Wow! Six months old today! The time has absolutely flown by, and we're enjoying our little girl so much. She has become very social lately, and smiles at pretty much anyone who wants to give her attention. Since last month, she's become a pro at rolling over, and has also been sitting up with very little or no assistance. Last week we got a highchair for her, and have been letting her play in there with spoons, bibs, bowls and cups in preparation for her first meal of Real Food. She's been really curious lately while we're eating or drinking, and always wants to take a sip out of our cups, and so we let her pretend. She had her first try at rice cereal yesterday morning, and seemed to like it. I can't believe that she's already to this stage. Soon she'll be on to bananas, avocado, and sweet potatoes. I'm planning to make most of her food - I guess we'll see how long that lasts. We're hoping she'll be an adventurous eater. So far, she is off to a good start.

Ella has her six month checkup at the Pediatrician on Wednesday, so we'll update with the stats. She always seems to grow more than we expect, so who knows, maybe she'll even be up to 18 lbs!

Half-way to one year old!

Is this what I'm supposed to do with my bib?

Ella helping Daddy with the spoon. Rice cereal everywhere!

A trip to the apple orchard

Yesterday we went to a local apple orchard to pick apples. When we got there, it was about an hour before their closing time, so instead of taking the wagon ride out to the Honey Crisp apple trees to do our own picking, we bought a peck of pre-picked apples and enjoyed their wildflower garden.

Ella loved inspecting the flowers, oh-so-carefully, before gripping onto them and attempting to rip them from their roots. We had the most perfect weather, which we've welcomed greatly after the incredibly hot summer weather we've experienced over the past couple of months. We plan to go back in October for some pumpkin picking!

She's on a Roll

Ella first rolled over about a month ago, but we never actually saw her doing it. She would be on her tummy when we went in to her room in the morning, after putting her to bed on her back. She likes to sleep on her side, and will easily roll to her side in front of us, but never will roll all the way. This morning, I watched her roll from her back to her tummy, and then almost immediately after from her tummy to her back. I got another roll on video soon after. Here it is:

She now loves practicing her new trick while she's in her crib going down for a nap. She rolls from her back to her tummy, but has more trouble rolling to her back. She only wants to sleep on her back though, so she'll cry like crazy, like "who the heck put me on my tummy?! It's nap time, and I want to be on my back! Help!".

Ella is 5 months old today!

Wow, another month has gone by, and Ella is now 5 months old. Amazing how quickly time flies with a little one. Ella is doing great - she's more and more smiley by the day, and really loves to use her voice. She coos and likes to squeal loudly, attracting a lot of attention when we're out. She really likes to sit up (with some help), and especially loves to stand (with support). Ella loves playing with stuffed animals now, and is also enjoying her new jumperoo. And of course, everything goes in the mouth. No teeth are popping up quite yet, but lots of drooling. We're still enjoying that cute toothless grin.

This past week Ella started at daycare. It's located at Jamus's work, so he can go by on his lunch break to spend time with her, which is really nice. It's been a little bit of an adjustment (and will continue to be) for her napping, but hopefully this will only get better. She didn't have any stranger anxiety, which I was particularly worried about. In fact, she went right to them with a big smile on her face. Each day, they send Ella home with a "report" on what activities they did, and how her mood is, etc. This is nice for us to read so we can know what she's doing, and how she's adapting. We're sure she'll soon be making lots of new friends at school!

31

Happy birthday to Jamus, who is 31 years old today! I am so lucky to be your wife, and Ella is just as lucky to have such a great daddy. We love you!!!

Summer Vacation

Last week was our summer vacation. It started out with a visit from my friend Kim, who had yet to meet Ella. Kim brought Ella her very first Red Sox hat! We're very excited for her to wear it, and cheer on our favorite team!

That Friday night, our friends Sarah and Wes, and their baby London came down for dinner.

We also had our friends Leti and James, and their baby Finn, visiting from Virginia.

It was fun to see Finn, who is almost 1 year old, and to imagine that Ella will be sitting, crawling, and walking within the year. I think Finn was smitten with Ella, and she seemed to be playing hard-to-get.

We've given them the celebrity couple name "EllaFinn". While the Hansens were here, we went to a local winery, and got a great Reisling and a White Sangria. It was almost like living in California again, being near Napa...almost. EllaFinn also had their first dinner date, but Ella slept pretty much through the entire thing. Finn just was not keeping her attention!

Sunday we made the trip up to NH. It took 8.5 hours to get there - much longer than the typical 5.5 hours! We hit some torrential downpours in NY and CT. And, of course, we had to stop a few times to feed and change Ella. Ella tolerated the trip pretty well for about the first 6 hours, and then was definitely ready to be done with our travel. We were exhausted by the time we got there, but glad to be back.

The week started off cool and rainy in NH, but we welcomed the weather as we've been used to high 90's and high humidity all summer.

We had a great time visiting with family, and we certainly ate well - all of our favorites (homemade Spaghetti, Lasagna, La Caretta, blueberry oatmeal pancakes, lobster, the list goes on and on)!

The weather got much nicer towards the middle and end of the week, and we got to go for a nice walk around Dorrs pond. Ella got to see all of her grandparents, Aunt Mary, her uncles, cousins, a great-grandmother, and lots of other extended family members. It was a week full of fun visits!

We took a visit up to Maine, and Ella "met" her first lobster, and also had her first trip to the beach. We dipped her feet in the water, and she didn't seem to mind it at all.

On our trip back to PA last Sunday, we got into a fender-bender. We were stopping in Lowell, MA to get lunch, and while stopped on the road, someone rear-ended us. Luckily we were all unharmed (Griffin included, even though he didn't have a safety belt on), but it was certainly a scary thing to experience. I was terrified that Ella might be hurt. Ella slept through the entire ordeal! We were so relieved that we were all safe.

Griffin's stand-up routine

Jamus and I have been trying everything since Ella's first giggles to get her to laugh again. She just plain does not find us funny!

Today, Jamus picked up Griffin from the groomer's on his way home from work. Once they got home, Griffin was very anxious to get outside to play. While we were upstairs waiting for Jamus to change out of his work clothes, Griffin was making some whining noises. Jamus noticed that Ella was interested in Griffin's vocalizations. He picked her up, and brought her over towards Griffin. Griffin kept whining, and then let out a high-pitched bark, and Ella startled. We both thought that she was going to cry. Instead she let out a fit of giggles! She must find this new "skinny" Griffin very funny! Apparently we're not as funny as we thought we were or Griffin's barking is hilarious to a 4 month old. Every time we got Griffin to bark, she would let out more laughs. It was so cute. After recording this video, we played it back, and Ella watched. Every time Griffin barked on the video, she would let out even more laughs. Those giggles are music to our ears!

Ella is 4 months old today!

Ella had her four month check-up at the doctor's office today. She weighed 14 pounds, 1.2 ounces and was 25 3/4 inches long! She's been growing out of a lot of her clothes - mostly in the length (93rd percentile in height).

We think she has started the process of teething. She has been pretty fussy over the past few days, and loves to chomp down on our fingers now, instead of sucking on them like she used to do. We got her some teething toys, and she concentrates hard while working them in her mouth. We asked the Pediatrician about it, and she said that most babies this age want to gnaw on everything, so I guess we'll know for sure when little teeth start popping up.

This morning when I went in to get Ella from her crib, she was flipped over onto her tummy! I always put her on her back, and lately, she has started rolling onto her side to sleep. She has never rolled over completely until this morning. Jamus and I both missed it! She was also turned around 180 degrees from where I put her. We have no idea how she scoots around in there, but she is always in a different spot from where we left her!

Jamus MacGuire, DVM, DACLAM

Congratulations are in order for Jamus, who passed his board examination! This is a major relief for Jamus, and for all of us, that he won't have to study for that test anymore. He's been studying, literally, for the past few years. He is now board certified by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine - a truly remarkable accomplishment. Now we can all enjoy life as a family without pressure looming over Jamus to study, or feeling guilty about not studying! Jamus's office was decorated with lots of balloons on Monday.

We're all SO proud!!!

Daddy's Home!

Ella has become so aware of her surroundings lately. She is always interested in what Griffin is doing. She loves watching him, and definitely responds to his barking. She also has, as you'll see in the video, started sucking on her fingers and hands a lot. She drools a ton! I haven't felt any teeth below the surface of her gums, and she doesn't seem to be in any pain.

Here is a cute video of her on her tummy playing, and her reaction to Jamus coming home from work.

Ella in the pool

We've been having a really hot summer. Most days, it's been too hot to take Ella outside. Here are a few pictures of her in her baby pool from a couple of weeks ago. Griffin loved the pool. He kept licking the water off of the sides of the pool, and off of Ella. He especially loves licking water off of her face. She does a good job at tolerating his antics.

Ella's First Giggles!

Ella had her very first giggles this morning. I was able to catch some of them on video (unfortunately it's a little out of focus). Jamus and I have been trying like crazy to get her to laugh over the past couple of weeks. Finally! Apparently she finds her own feet funny.

Connecticut College

Here is a picture of us with friends from Conn. Too bad we didn't use the gorgeous Long Island sound as a background! It was great to see everyone, and so nice to be back on campus, even if only for a little while. We were so glad you could all meet Ella (and Griffin)! Congratulations Charlie and Tiffany!

Cool Shades

Ella has a new pair of sunglasses. Her little peepers are now protected from the sun's harmful UV light. If you ask me, she looks very fashion-forward in her retro Baby Banz! She wore them for our entire walk today. I was very surprised that she didn't try to rip them off of her face, or even cry at all about it. Mommy is very happy about Ella's new fashion accessory!

Ella is 3 months old today!

Ella is growing up so fast! She is getting much bigger, and no longer seems like a little peanut to us anymore. She is really developing a personality, and we get to know more and more about her every day. She has been really interested in her hands lately - she likes to suck on them, but hasn't really found a finger or a thumb, just likes to suck on the back or side of her hand, slobbering everywhere. Ella has become increasingly aware of Griffin, and likes to watch him walking around while she's in her swing, or while he's running around in the yard. She's starting to enjoy playing with toys - shaking rattles and grabbing onto stuffed animals. Sometimes she lets out the loudest and highest pitched squeals that I think only Griffin can really hear them. This weekend Ella and I (and Griffin) went to New Hampshire, while Jamus was in Charlie and Tiffany's wedding in Connecticut. Ella did fabulously in the car both ways - slept almost the entire time. We were worried that a 6 hour car ride would be a bit much for her, but she did great with Griffin by her side. Ella got to visit her Mimi, Uncle Chris, Uncle Andrew, Papa, Grammy, Auntie Mary, Uncle Todd, and Cousins Ava and Jack (and a cousin on the way!).

Ava and Jack sang songs to Ella, and she absolutely loved it! She also made her first trip to La Carreta, her mommy's favorite restaurant! On our way back today, we got to meet up with some friends who went to the wedding, and Ella got to meet everyone. We got to visit our alma mater, Connecticut College, hopefully where Ella will be attending in 18 years! We'd love a little camel!

Finally some smiles on camera!

Ella has been extremely camera shy. Whenever we get the camera out to take pictures, she looks at it cautiously and with great concern. This has made it really difficult to catch smiles on camera.

This is her typical "concerned look" that we typically catch on camera.

She is almost always in a great mood when she wakes up, so we've been able to catch some smiles while she's in her crib.

I love this one - she looks like a happy T-Rex!

Going for a ride in the stroller.

Happy girl!