Ella is 13 months old today!

Ella has become so much more comfortable on her feet in the past couple of weeks. She can easily walk across a room, or across our backyard without falling.She still does a little bit of the "Frankenstein" walk, but is starting to bend her knees more to really pick those feet up off of the ground.

If you saw the video below, you know that she can say "woof" when asked what a dog says, and she can also really YELL it too! She must have been having a conversation with the neighbor's dog the other day, shouting "WOOF" over at him. She's knows how to say "quack" for a duck. She can say "yeah", but always says it three times, because that's how it is in a song she listens to. She also knows how to say "NO", but usually only says it if she's doing something she shouldn't be doing, not quite at the point where she says "no" to us. She just found her belly button, and thinks it's strange and funny.

We (finally) installed a baby gate at the top of the stairs, so now I don't have to be constantly chasing her around (thank goodness, that was tiring!), and she has a little bit more freedom to explore, which she loves.

In the morning she'll wander off with Griffin for a while, and they'll play, and then come back with a toy to show us. They are really best friends - so cute! Now that the weather is nice, we've been spending a lot of time outdoors, either in our yard, or going for walks or bike rides. Ella got a bike seat that is attached to Jay's bike, and she has so much fun. She wears her sunglasses and helmet without trying to pull them off. She especially loves that her helmet has bunnies all over it. When we're in the yard, she loves to pick at the grass and clover, or she'll find leaves to try to feed to Griffin. He always humors her and grabs the leaves, then spits them out.

Woof woof!