Ella is 14 Months Old!

Ella turned 14 months last Thursday, March 5. I'm over a week late but wanted to put up a 14 month update! So, in honor of Ella's 14 months as my wonderful little babydoll, here are 14 facts about Ella this month.

1. All of a sudden Ella's hair is growing very quickly and it's getting curly in the back. It's so funny because the front is still very straight and almost in her eyes if I don't sweep it to the side, but the back is definitely curly. It's like she has Steve's super-straight hair up front and my curly hair in the back – here is a good side profile of her ‘do.



And here she is reaching for her hairbrush


Got it!


2. Ella is VERY helpful when I am doing chores around the house. Her favorite thing is to stand in front of the dryer and I pass all the wet clothes to her and she pushes them into the dryer. I say things like "shirt" and give her a shirt, and she replies to each one with some type of noise back (although I've yet to hear her say 'shirt' or 'pillowcase'...maybe she'll surprise me one of these days!)
She also really enjoys the dishwasher being open, trying to pull things out of the dishwasher, and all activity surrounding the dishwasher. I've found the best thing to do is give her her own little set of dishes to 'wash' while I work on mine.

Here she is washing dishes, and a video of her hard work




Such a big helper!

3. Ella’s eating has become increasingly picky this month and we’re working hard to try to give her a good variety of veggies, fruits and meats but it is not proving to be too easy. We did discover (by accident) that she’s more receptive to eating veggies if she can pull them out of a bowl herself. We were out to dinner a few weeks ago and got her green beans and they came in a bowl. Steve was giving them to her but she was desperate to get to the bowl and ended up eating more than she’s ever eaten at one time, because she loved pulling them out of the bowl – who would’ve thought? So since then we’ve successfully given her cantaloupe and even lima beans! It’s definitely an uphill battle though - she also enjoys feeding Sammy while she’s eating, so we pretty much can’t even let Sammy be in the house while she is eating because he is attracted to her like a magnet.

Here is a delicious sweet potato covered face after a particularly yummy meal!


4. It’s amazing how happy just seeing Ella makes me. I can wake up in the morning and feel tired or stressed about what’s waiting for me when I get to work, but as soon as I walk in to Ella’s room and see that sweet little face I feel so happy. She is always sitting up in her crib, never standing, and gets so excited when we walk in – sometimes she claps or she starts tossing her toys in the air or just otherwise acts very excited. It’s amazing that every new day is so special to her and so cool to see just how excited she is for each new day. Her happiness is contagious and she is like a guaranteed happy-mood-maker.

Here is a totally adorable first-photo-of the morning


5. Even when she is wearing shoes, Ella seems to think that whatever is attached to her feet is just a toy for her to play with. So, even though she starts every day with a pair of socks on her feet, they quickly disappear and almost every car trip ends with us putting her socks (or socks and shoes) back on those little feet! Her feet are just soooo precious and here they are in my favorite pose, when she crosses them at the ankle like a dainty little lady!



6. Ella’s love of peekaboo in all forms seems to grow by the day – she’ll hide behind anything she can get her hands on, including curtains and drapes, and loves “surprising” us by reappearing from behind whatever she has. Here she is playing peekaboo with her shoebox, and her little eye peeking out.





7. Another of Ella’s favorite things is her reflection, and likes to see what happens when SHE makes a move, what does the girl in the mirror do?

Almost every single night after dinner she will play in front of the back door while we clean up and here she is one night having fun with her friend in the window.



8. Ella is now able to stand up on her own from a seated position, and will stand up for up over a minute at a time but isn’t motivated to do much more than that. We try to encourage her to take a step toward us, but she immediately squats and will crawl to us instead. So at this point I’m guessing she’s still a month or so away from walking. She can walk with our help, but as you can see from this video and her hysterical laughter, she seems to think that walking is more of a game than a mode of transportation.



Also, she is climbing a lot more lately and made it into her toy box today for the first time. Once she made it in there, she rocked back and forth like she was in a little boat.


9. Still just the 2 teeth…I am beginning to question whether there are actually any other teeth in there! We brush them every day, as well as her gums on top since there are no teeth there yet, so that whenever she finally has a mouth full of teeth she’ll be used to the routine. She doesn’t mind the tooth brushing and especially likes it if she can look at herself in the mirror while we’re brushing.

Here's a good tooth-shot


10. She’s still facing backwards in the carseat – we put her on the scale last week and it said she was 19.5 lbs so she’s SO CLOSE. We both think she’s going to love facing forward, she talks and yells nonstop in the car and I think it’ll be a lot more fun for when she can see us without having to crane her neck all around to see us.

11. Ella finally has some interest in books! We’ve read to her all along, starting when she was a newborn, but she is just in the last few weeks actually seem to almost follow along (although usually with her foot) and right now her favorite is “Poor Polly Pig” and she actually laughs at the drawings on several of the pages. She’ll even point at things on the page and try to flip some pages.

12. Ella LOVES going for walks in her stroller. She reaches out for her stroller and loves being pushed around the neighborhood. She is so curious and inquisitive and seems study everything that we come across. She has the cutest face when she’s confused about something and she gets really still and her eyes open wide and she just slowly moves them back and forth. I love all her facial expressions and that is one of my favorite ones.

13. My favorite part of the entire day is putting Ella to bed. I sit in the rocker with her and she rests her head on my shoulder and curls up her whole body against me. I rock her for a while and just enjoy the quiet time with her. She’s so active and busy all the time and usually doesn’t want to sit still so it’s nice to have at least a few minutes of each day to snuggle with her. If I get really lucky she’ll rub my arm while she’s laying there…it’s like a little gift!

14. Some of Ella’s new tricks this month are flipping the light switch on and off, opening cabinets, pulling the CD out of her CD player, recording shows for us on the DVR (accidentally!), throwing a ball, being able to squat and stand up, and constantly narrating whatever she is doing. She’ll say whole ‘sentences’ at a time that although they don’t make sense to us, she definitely has real meaning behind them and will talk with inflection and emotion in her voice. She says “hi” and “hey” all the time and I really don’t think there is any sweeter sound than her little voice saying “hi.” When we take her out places she says “hi” to lots of people that she sees.

She has such a range of emotions and will yell and scream with excitement (especially if the dogs are involved), get angry if you don’t give her something that she wants and she will clench her hands into fists, scrunch her face up and yell at us (to no avail), laugh uncontrollably and be so silly, and then has times of just being the snuggliest little bunny on the planet. It’s just amazing to watch her turn into a little person.

So here's to a wonderful 14 months with our little angel!