The Newest Addition

With the rest of my birthday money, I got a Beta fish. I have had various Betas through college and at work, but after the devastation of my work fish dying when I was around 8 months pregnant, I swore off of fish for awhile. This week I decided it was time to try again! Elena and I went to PetSmart and got all the stuff we need.

I decided to choose a name that Elena can already say--Bob. She used to say "bob" all the time, and I would say, "nobody is bob!" (Except for you, of course, Bob-bob. ;) ) So now we have our very own Bob Fish.

Whenever we come down the stairs and walk over to Bob Fish, Elena says "oh." It's so adorable! She hasn't actually said "Bob" for the fish yet, but I'm sure she'll get it!

Here is a picture of his home on the counter between the kitchen and the living room. I hope he is happy here. :)

Ten Months Old!

Our girl is just growing and growing--she is getting older so fast! While she is still a baby in so many ways, her independence and her desire to do the things we do is increasing. She is more mobile than ever, and her motor skills are improving. She understands more complex concepts, and her range of expression, with her face and with her noises, is getting larger.

--Baby E is still a bundle of energy! She loves to move, doing this and that. She has figured out that before she is strapped in to her carseat she can sit up and see a whole lot more (because I accidentally didn't strap her in during one five-minute drive! :( :( I didn't discover it until we were in the parking lot and she was standing up!), so she won't go willingly into the straps now. She also loves to take off whenever I help her stand up--even if I'm sitting down or otherwise unable to help her walk! She tries anyway. :)

--Elena has grown stronger in her mobility this month. She can crawl lightning-fast--you have to watch out if the door is open! She can also cruise faster and stand up by herself without any support. She has taken quite a few steps, but only if she's not paying attention and/or has her hands full. If she ever thinks I'm trying to get her to walk by herself, she sits right down. Her balance is improving when she stands by herself, and she loves to walk with help.


--Her motor skills have been improving, as well as her understanding of what will move and how she can find things she can't see. She knows where to find my belly button now--hopefully that won't turn into a problem! haha. And she figured out how to open the credit card flap on my wallet that closes with a snap. No more playing with the wallet in the grocery store line! She loves to put toys inside of a bucket or bowl and take them out again. She can also understand more now that some objects are used for a certain purpose, like a spoon goes into a bowl, or a pen touches a paper. She's not great at making them do what they do yet, but she's making the connections!



--Elena's favorite toys are fast becoming the interactive ones. The toys that she can make something happen, like push a button for a noise, working the hinge, or her shape sorter, are the ones she gravitates towards. Since she's been teething, she also likes chewy toys.

--This last month Elena has really grown in her love for books. She loves to have them read to her (which can be a frustrating experience because she wants to turn the pages before the words are done!), but she also loves to play with them by herself. She likes to turn the pages, turn the book upside down, bite the corners. Her favorite books feature pictures of babies--we have had a couple of baby-books from the library that she has "read" over and over. She also still likes "Goodnight, Baby."

--Elena has been exploring the world of sounds even more as a 9-month-old. In addition to "dada" and "boo" (for book), she can say "buh" for bannana and for belly button. Those are pretty much the only words she will consistently volunteer. She does, however, copy a gamut of words or noises. She loves to try to make a burp sound or a hiccup sound after she hears one. It's funny, it sounds nothing like it, haha, but she tries. She will imitate any "b" word--her all-time favorite sound to make is "buh." She tries to imitate many of the words I say, especially if they are novel, like when I said "Oh, boy!" and she loves to hear and imitate animal noises. She is really good at "neigh," and has been working hard on "moo," but she just can't get her mouth around it! (I actually discovered her love for animal sounds when I was trying to distract her in the car with a cow toy and told her that it said "moo." She was mesmerized by it, trying to copy it with her mouth. So cute!) She still loves music, and she will dance a little bit when a catchy song comes on. I think I've even heard her "singing!"

--She is eating more than ever, now. This month she adopted a sign for "all done" that we encouraged--she throws her hands up in the air. When she first learned it, she started using it in times when I would have kept feeding her before, so we had a big adjustment time with me learning to be sensitive to when she doesn't want to eat. Also during this time, she stopped eating baby cereal completely, which I had always been able to count on her eating well. So I was pretty nervous for awhile that she wasn't eating enough, but she will eat when she's hungry. She has started eating better now that I'm offering more vegetables in bigger portions. She eats Multigrain Cheerios as an alternate grain. This month we started her on a food that turned into her favorite--asparagus. She loved it from her first bite! Yogurt is also something that she will eat well.

Elena loves to self-feed even non-finger foods. We stopped the two-spoon method at the beginning of the month due to all the dropping and throwing that was driving me crazy, but now sometimes we use it again because she can actually scrape or dip some food out of the bowl with the spoon and put it into her mouth by herself. We need the second spoon, though, because she gets distracted and it would take forever for her to do it all herself, so Mom supplements what she can do herself. :) Her favored and most effective method, though, is using her fingers to scoop thick foods like sweet potatoes or yogurt and suck them off her fingers. Her tooth hasn't really affected her eating yet, since she only has the one little nub. :)

So, I edited that last picture because it was all washed out, but I wanted to show you the original--you can see her eye color really well because of all the light in the photo. My brown-eyed girl. :)

--This month her separation anxiety has been worse than ever. She would rather experience all these new and exciting things with Mommy or Daddy, and she has made that very clear! But, one thing that has helped is her blankie. She's been sleeping with a blankie for a couple of months, and it has definitely turned into a luvie. When she holds her ladybug blankie she feels more confident and comfortable.
Another funny fact with her separation anxiety is a definite gender preference--if it's not Mommy, she pretty much only likes guys to hold her. Poor grandmas!

--She is sleeping well through the night, though at the end of the month teething caused her to wake up in the early morning sometimes. She takes two naps, usually a total of 2.5-3 hours of napping, with 11-12 hours of night sleep.

--I think that maybe Elena's hair will start to curl when it gets longer--it does a little curl at the back of her head when it's humid out. :)

Waiting Patiently

Here is Elena waiting for the doctor at her ten-month check-up. She says "Thank you," for waiting until her mom posts her ten-month update!

Playing with Ruthie

Today we were supposed to go to the park, but it was wet, so Ruthie and Jacki came here to play instead. Elena and Ruthie enjoyed it, I think! I took some pictures of the girls playing.

A little kiss. hehe

It's too bad this is blurry--they're both smiling!

Ruthie was making the kazoo noise into the whistle, hehe.

Little helper! Elena was actually drinking it, too. :)

Don't know what this face is--she was making some noises, so it must have been that.
Here you can see her banging together. :)

A Tooth!

It's a big day here--Elena has her first tooth! All her practicing with Mommy's old toothbrush and the toothpaste is now going to pay off. :) The tooth that came in is the bottom right... I suppose we expect to see the other bottom tooth soon.

She's been fussy last night and this morning, but it didn't seem too too out of the ordinary. I actually took her to the pediatrician yesterday (we walked in, so it took forever! And I was freaking out because we had to sit in the "sick" waiting room. Thank the Lord, we were the only ones in there. I was still nervous about her touching anything--I Lysoled all the toys!) because her cough from Anderson was still hanging on and she'd developed a runny nose. Now the runny nose makes sense--I've heard that it's a teething symptom. And she's been chewing on her hands and everything in sight for months now. So it took me totally by surprise!

This morning she was extra fussy, so I put her down for a nap early. She slept two hours (yay for me!) and woke up in an ok mood. But when I laid her down on the changing table she kept grabbing at her mouth. Then she had her fingers in her mouth and cried, like something hurt. Then she started trying to touch my teeth and pulling on my lip. So the thought occured to me, I wonder if she's teething. It was a fleeting thought, not a solid flash of insight, haha, but I'm glad I had it! I pulled her lips back and was looking at her gums when I saw a little bit of white. I felt her bottom gums, and there it was! A sharp little tooth top!

She's been touching it and sucking on it all day long! She has bit her finger a couple of times, I think, and she's been rather unsettled by the whole thing. It is a big change--a hard, sharp thing in her mouth where it's always been soft and smooth. It's cute how she's so interested in Andrew's and my teeth right now. Like she needs the reassurance that it's normal to have teeth.

I'm excited for my girl, for the adventures with food that she can have with teeth, and for this step towards being a big girl. It's a little sad, though--she's been my toothless wonder for so long, with her gummy little smile. I'll miss it a little bit. But it will be fun to have a snaggletooth for a little while, then a full smile of teeth. :)

Little (Almost) Walker

Elena loves walking around with our help--so much that she gets excited when I get her shoes out. :) She always wants to stand--when I set her down on the ground, she is reluctant to sit down. She is getting more brave about taking steps, too. Yesterday I stood her up a step or two away from me while I was sitting on the ground, and a couple of times when I let go she took the step and grabbed my neck. It was so sweet. :)

Today Andrew and I took a video of her walking with my help out in front of our townhouse. This is the video, followed by a few stills that I captured from the video. She is so cute when she walks, so determined and adventurous! :)

9 Months!

Our little Elena is nine months old! And she has been for a while now (guilty expression). We've had a crazy end of the month, being away visiting Andrew's family, so I'm just getting around to the monthly baby update.

Little Elena is turning into big Elena! At the beginning of the month she didn't want to walk, even with help. She was content with cruising and would pull her hands away when I tried to hold on to them above her head to help her walk. Now, though, she loves walking! She gladly takes advantage of the help, which I give until my lower back can't take it anymore. :) We have walked all around the house and we've started to explore outside as well. She can stand for longer periods of time without holding on to anything (30 seconds or so), she can stand up without support sometimes, and she has even taken a step on her own! Just a little one, and it was this week, so technically it should go in next month's update. :) But she's definitely on her way to walking. When she stands up with her little shoes on, we can see the little girl that she is starting to become. It's crazy--scary and exciting--to see our little one growing up.

Since we started and ended this month with travel, things have been anything but normal for Elena. She has visited both sides of the family and spent a lot of time traveling, in the car and on planes. She has been a trooper, though. On the car rides she slept a lot and was pretty content, and on the plane, as long as Mommy wasn't trying to get her to go to sleep, she was active but happy. What a blessing to have such a good little traveler!

One thing we learned this month is that Elena is a beach bunny. She loves the water and has no fear of the waves! Each time we've gone she has crawled right out towards the waves as soon as she hits the water. She learned to sit up when a wave was coming, though, after getting salt water up her nose a time or two!

At the beach with our playgroup buddies, 7/23

She still loves water in all forms--baths, washing hands in the sink, pools, rain. She is outgrowing her ducky bathtub, sadly, and soon she will graduate to the big tub.

She is eating more at a time now, and we are giving her a greater variety of food. She is still picky sometimes, deciding that she doesn't want to eat and throwing the spoon as far as she can. We use the two spoon system, letting her hold one to distract her while we stick the other one in her mouth with the food on it. As long as she's not bored, she can shovel down the food! She still loves bananas and avacados, she likes green beans and cereal. She does not like apples or applesauce--the first few times she gagged! She likes to pick up peas with her fingers, and she is now getting bored of her puffs. I guess they are not substantial enough for her now? Who knows. :) She likes to shake the puffs can, though!

Elena is becoming more advanced in her toy-playing. She tires quickly of simple toys, though she will spend some time throwing them out of a basket. :) She likes her shape blocks, mainly to bang together and throw out of the bucket. She loves books. She will say "boo," (sounds like buh) especially for Goodnight, Baby, which is her favorite book. She loves to play with the cardboard pieces attached by ribbons, pulling them out of their slots in the book and turning it over and over. Turning the pages of a book is still her favorite part, but she does listen to the story sometimes. :) She has a book from Michelle that is electronic, and she loves to turn the pages to hear it talk. She still loves her jingle bell toy! She also likes to suck on Mommy's bathroom things--like the nozzle to her pump lotion (yuck!) or the toothpaste tube.

Reading Goodnight, Baby

Elena loves to play with non-toys--like her brush.

Playing with a big-girl toy

She said her first word this month. She has been consistently saying "dada" unprompted. She loves her dad! "Boo" came second, accompanied by a lunge over the side of the chair, where we keep the books. This girl knows what she wants!

One thing our girl hates--getting her nails cut. She has never liked it, but now that she is more expressive of her opinion, we really hear it when we try to clip them! The only thing that distracts her is when Daddy holds her so that she can play in the sink water while Mommy clips them from behind.

Another development this month--Elena will not tolerate hair bows anymore. When I put a headband on, if she is extremely distracted, it will last as long as she doesn't realize it's there. But if she feels me putting it on, or if I adjust the headband, it's off in a moment! Here are some pictures to illustrate. :)

Off it comes!

Elena has been showing signs of being a "blankie girl" for awhile, and when she wears an outfit with a skirt, she holds on to it and rubs it as an added element to the self-soothing of sucking her thumb. It's so sweet.

Sad that Mommy's making her sit on the chair for all these pictures!

A few more pictures of our adorable baby girl, and that's all she wrote. :)

Click on this picture for a good look at her beautiful long eyelashes and her growing hair.

I just love these yummy leg rolls!