Ella, 7 months

Her favorite toy, the black and white piece is great for chewing.

This is how she sits in the bouncer. It's the best position for crazy bouncing!

Look at those gorgeous eyelashes!! So jealous!! She has the bluest eyes. At this point she may be the only one to get my blue eyes.

Ella is such a character. She is our little kangaroo. She loves to jump and jump. Mostly she likes to lay in her bouncer and get that thing bouncing so hard that her head lifts off the back and sometimes the back leaves the floor. She loves it!!!!! She could spend hours in there. Over a month ago we stopped bouncing her and Henry to sleep at night because we didn't want them to become dependent on it. Now, however, she can still bounce herself to sleep...and does. There will be times where she will wake up a little and get herself bouncing for even a few seconds back to sleep. If you try to stop her from bouncing she will not only use her legs for bouncing but will arch up to use her whole body. It's crazy!!! Not only does she bounce during play and night but now she is interrupting bottles with her bouncing. Her motto is, "Let's get moving, people!!!" I told Shawn that we ought to watch out that she doesn't some how get her legs around the boys, she's got such strong legs she's bound to squeeze the life out of them.

Ella loves to eat but is SO messy. Food all over her face and hands. There is a special trick to it as well, you have to get the spoon back and behind her tongue. She loves all of her food. Never turns it down. Never turns away. I think she would just eat and eat. Eventually though she makes little effort to swallow and the food runs out of her mouth. She has no favorite food. On Thursday she finally cut her first tooth. I think that there has been some drool but nothing horribly noticeable, thus the use of the word "think." She didn't sleep as well as normal. Nothing horrible, she awoke once ate 70ml of her bottle and went back to sleep. When I tried to put her in her crib she wouldn't sleep so she spent the night in her bouncer. I slept on the couch and she didn't wake again til we awoke her for the next bottle. I can live with that.

Ella has come full circle. In the first few months she was the BIG smiler. No matter what you did you were rewarded with a huge smile. Then she stopped smiling as much and as easily. She instead wore a steady frown, even in sleep. Now she is once again our biggest and easiest smiler. Nothing in particular causes these gigantic grins. She also gets to laughing the easiest. Click your tongue or even hint that you are going to tickle and she starts giggling. LOVE it!!! Ella is more of a yeller then a talker. Not mad yelling just she likes to be loud. Lately she's also developed a love of making noises like tongue clicking or blowing bubbles.

She's about to blow bubbles.

I feel bad for Ella in that she typical never has a first, first. However, this weekend she has a first before the boys: first to visit the ER. Poor thing, not the first you especially want. All of the kids have been battling colds, except Ella developed croup with hers. Not the worst symptom or problem you could have but it sure sounds awful and can lead to difficulty breathing because of the swelling of your voice box. We were in IA and she started developing stridor. We were heading home early because of a winter storm, so once home I took her straight to the ER. It was a short visit, they got us in and out, for once. She didn't look like a little girl who was ill. HUGE smiles, lots of jumping and excitement, to the point that both the doctor and nurse wanted to know if she's "always this happy?" They administered some steroids to reduce the swelling and by 10 or 11pm she was sounding so much better.

This is what croup looks like. She's so sick looking!!!