Eleven Months

This age is the BEST!! Gosh, I just love her so much now. This past month has been really great. Ella has been healthy and happy and things are just going so well. She is so incredibly fun, and i love watching her see and experience new things--the look on her face is priceless. Ella is curious and very interested in the world around her, always wants to see whats going on, who's that new person, what are they up to, whats that noise, etc.

Yep things are wonderful right now. Life is good:) I love this sweet little girl and I love being her mom! 

At 11 Months Ella:

- waves! It's adorable, sometimes she'll even mimic me and say hi!

- pulls herself up to standing all over the place, and can take a couple of steps holding onto furniture

-will say yay while clapping, and if i just say yay, she'll start clapping--she knows they go together!

- LOVES eggs. Seriously loves them. I made 4 scrambled eggs for breakfast the other day and maybe ate one eggs worth of them and she ate the rest along with banana and some puffs. She's getting a little better about eating solid food, although she still normally doesn't eat a ton.(Unless I give her eggs/strawberries, which now that I think about is kinda funny, because my very first pregnancy craving was for a quiche:))

- Still not a very independent player, likes to be where I am, and usually wants to be in the middle of whatever I'm doing. And will always follow me from room to room around the apartment.

- Still wakes up 1-2 times a night

- Will hold something over her face and wait for me to say where's Ella? and then pull it down and I'll say there she is and then she'll laugh and put it over her face again

- still loves to be read to and will sometimes "read" her books on her own, will flip the pages, look at the pictures and babble

- has gotten very good at opening and closing doors, and cupboards

- Is just the cutest, sweetest, funnest 11 month-old around:)

The weather here in Galveston is finally starting to cool down and has been so nice lately,
 perfect for crawling around at the beach!

Ella and Grandpa Jenson
My dad was able to visit for a couple days during general conference, Ella loved having her favorite playmate down for a visit!

Grandpa and Grandma Poulsen sent Ella this cute book for her first Halloween!

I was trying to take 11 month pictures of Ella with my camera but she was way too interested in my camera and wouldn't stop trying to crawl after it and grab it, so I finally just handed it to her and took pictures of her with my iphone while she played with my camera:/

We went to a fun halloween/caramel apple party last weekend.
Me and Kyle dressed up as tourists, complete with sunscreen on our noses

She loves Cosmo, her Halloween bucket and her pumpkin book!

Standing girl!!

So sweet:)

10 Months

I took 60 of these pictures and almost every. single. one. was a blurry mess. She just kept moving.
I don't know how people get good photos at this age!! gah!

This past month was the month of being sick. and not sleeping. it was rough. Ella had a couple colds,  allergies, a fever, "teething syndromme" according to the doctor, and an ear infection, and then an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and broke out in a rash/hives everywhere.

It was sad. There was an entire week where she was so sick, she wouldn't eat any solid food, wouldn't crawl, didn't want to play, didn't sleep well, she just wanted to be held while she cried.  Thankfully this week she finally seems to be all better and back to feeling like herself!

Also, at the beginning of the month she finally learned how to get up from a lying down position and WOULD NOT lay down to go to sleep. Every time we'd lay her back in her crib she would immediately sit up, it was like she just couldn't help it. Even though she was so so tired, she just had to sit up and then she would just sit there in her crib and bawl because she was tired. The first night she was literally up until 4:30 in the morning before she finally passed out, and then she was up for the day at 7:30. Her eyes were so tired and red and puffy, but when i tried to put her down for her nap it was the same story she would just instantly sit up. I finally just tied one of her swaddling blankets across her chest to both sides of the crib so she couldn't sit up and she was finally able to nap. Once, I started doing that she started sleeping normally again, until she realized that if she just wiggled up she could get out from underneath the blanket. So we invested in a SafeTSleep strap. LIFESAVER!!! Judge me all you want for using it, but it works, Ella sleeps great with it, she doesn't seem to mind it, and she goes down for bedtime and naps usually without any fussing at all. And the last 2 nights Ella has slept thru the night!!! For the first time ever! Hopefully she keeps it up.

At 10 Months Ella:

-is apparently allergic to Penicillin

-LOVES strawberries. By far her favorite food to date. 

-has just started pulling her self up to standing, but can't cruise yet.

-Dances! It's so cute, she's does this side to side head wiggle thing and gets the upper body involved sometimes...this is such a fun age!

-Is finally starting to hold her own bottle during feedings. sometimes. but a lot of times she'll still take it out her mouth and play with/shake it/get milk everywhere

-Has to see what I'm up to at all times. If I ever try to do anything in the kitchen or anything that looks remotely interesting to her like trying to eat my lunch she'll crawl to my legs and try to climb up me and bawl until I pick her up. Which means all cooking and most eating/really everything is done during nap times and after she's in bed.

-Says mama a lot, and most of the time it seems to be directed at me, not always though--does that count as a word?

-Also she really likes to crawl under tables and chairs, but has trouble running into them a lot and her hitting her head, you'd think at some point she'd learn but it doesn't seem to be getting much better.

-Is so sweet, and fun, and curious, and I just love being her mom!:)

Ella and My mom

At Clementine's First Birthday Party!

Me, Ella, Alexis, and Trisha--
somehow I missed getting a picture with the birthday girl!:(

We gave her a lemon. haha

We were matching!

My friend Kim took these cute Fall pictures of Ella and Clementine. But this was in the midst of Ella being sick so she wasn't very happy and it was really difficult to get a smile from her that day, so Kim didn't have a lot to work with. I still think we got a few good ones:)

Love their matching cat outfits!