It's Been a While!

Life has been a little busy these days. My aunt and grandmother just headed home to MN. It was so great to have them here and for them to see Ella for the first time. Now I'm looking forward to the pace slowing down a bit and just being able to enjoy and savor this fall!Our little Ella has been exploding with new things and it is such a joy to watch her personality emerge more and more each day. Some of her new things are:

~Pointing at EVERYTHING and saying, "Dat?" It's so neat to see how inquisitive she is. She'll point and say "dat?" and when I figure out what it is she's pointing at and go tell her what it is she puts her hand down, examines said object and goes onto something else. She also points and things she wants, like toys or food and it's so neat to see her purposefully communicating with us!

~Feeding Others. She'll pick something up and hold it out to you and grin from ear to ear and giggle when you swoop in and eat it.

~Showing you things. She holds things out with pride just to show you like, "Look what I found ma! A leaf! Isn't it great!?"
~Waving! She doesn't do it all the time, nor does she do it "on command" but she does it quite a bit and when she so chooses. So cute!

~Initiating Peekaboo on her own! Yesterday was the first time she did it. I gave her some pants to play with while I changed her. She put them up over her eyes and just waited. When I figured out what she was doing I said, "Where's Ella?" and she whipped them down with the hugest grin and I said "peekaboo". This then went on for quite some time to her delight!

~Getting up onto her hands and knees from her belly. I sense that greater mobility and decreased daily productivity are in our near future. I guess I didn't walk until I was 13 months old. I'd really be okay with that. The longer I don't have to chase her everywhere the better!

~Dancin'. Well it's more like wiggling. There are quite a few toys she has that make music. She knows how to get them to do it. So she'll push the button or spin the wheel or whatever and when the music starts she gives a little smile and wiggle. You can see it a little on this video. ADORABLE! (PS: The video gets boring after 1:10 so just watch 'till then!)