bigger and better

I can definitely see why everyone says 6 months is a magical age.  Over the last month Ella has become an incredible baby.  My neighbor had her first baby 5 weeks ago and as I've watched her go through all of the adjustments and hormone changes, I am so grateful to be done with that phase.  It was SO hard for me.  No one ever could have prepared me for all of that.  Ella would scream for periods of at least 3 hours every day along with the typical newborn fussiness.  Starting at about 2 and a half months life started to get lots easier.  By 3 or 4 months I felt like a real person and Ella was getting lots happier.  Now I would definitely say that Ella is an easy baby.  I love it.  She plays well by herself and is just generally a happy girl.  She has started babbling and loves to talk during church or while everyone else seems to be having a conversation.  Once she gets going she progressively gets louder and louder.  We think it is absolutely adorable. Gustavo particularly loves it because she is always happily yelling, "dadadada."  Sometimes it sounds like she says "hi dad."  Ella is also sitting up now.  She's getting quite good, but her dramatic side comes out every time she falls over because she screams and screams until we give her a little love.  She does the same thing if she even slightly bumps into anything while rolling over.  Still no crawling though... I guess I have a little more time before we have to baby proof the house.  

In Florida Ella became quite a mama's girl.  I thought it was just because she was out of her element, but it has continued.  Honestly I don't mind it, but I do feel bad that she isn't always as happy with everyone else.  On Monday I had lots of plans to get things done, but Ella cried and cried the second I put her down.  She was fine when I held her, but it made it very difficult to get things done.  I hoped that I hadn't jinxed myself by saying she had become such an incredible and easy little girl.  Tuesday when I got home from work I noticed a little white spot on her bottom gum and sure enough it is her first tooth!  I can tell it is bothering her because she has had a harder time sleeping and is more irritable.   Every little milestone is very exciting though.  

It is getting much harder to take Ella's picture because she is such a busy girl.  She wouldn't even really look at me because she was so interested in her shoes.  You can see her very focused look while studying the shoes in the middle picture. Hopefully you can see her beautiful blue eyes, just like Daddy's.  It is hard to tell in these pictures, but her new hair is very blonde.  I just laugh because she is going to be a Gonzalez with blonde hair and blue eyes.  I'm sure here hair will go brown eventually, but it is very light for now.  She continues to grow, both up and out.  Her brand new 6-12 month jeans are very tight on her belly and she is quite a few inches taller than the other babies her age that are in the ward.  Everyone comments on how big she is (don't worry Ella, they say how cute you are right after!)