11 months

Our beautiful Ella is discovering so much about her world at this stage. Here are some of her latest discoveries:

- We just started giving Ella baths in our tub rather than her infant tub and she is in heaven as she splashes and crawls all over in the water.

-Ella is crawling quicker each day as she finds more places to explore. Today it was under our bed.

-She opens up all of the cupboards and drawers she can reach. She pulls out what she can and plays. Unfortunately she is also discovering the pain that accompanies slamming her fingers in those drawers and cupboards.

-Ella is finding more ways to move her little body. She climbs up on everything, but hasn't yet figured out how to cruise along the furniture or use her knees to successfully squat down to get something from the floor.

-She is exploring more successful ways of communicating. This doesn't mean her tantrums have stopped. She is a very dramatic and moody little princess, but she has learned a few nice ways to communicate her desires. She signs milk, eat, more, and all done (they are not all consistent though).

-Ella loves playing peek a boo. She will often go and grab a blanket or cloth and start playing with us by covering her face and quickly pulling it down to reveal her cheesy grin.

-She is branching out and eating a lot more food. I would still call her picky, but no longer impossible.

-She is starting to mimic us. The other day while I was using all of my body weight to scrub the glue spill from the floor, I noticed Ella directly at my side getting up on all fours with her bum in the air moving up and down in the same manner. Then as I moved to a sitting position she mirrored me and started wiping the clean carpet with her open hand.

-Ella continues to wave good-bye and has even blown us kisses a few times.

-She used to give us kisses, but she must have gotten tired of our overwhelming affection because now she turns away from us and only gives kisses to her dolls.