Getting to be such a big girl...

Our baby milestone of the week - little Ella has successfully moved up to her "big girl" room, wow!, what?... aka, she's now sleeping in the official 'nursery' and not in the pack-n-play by mom & dad's bedside, sigh, we miss her already... We had thought six months would be a good time for her to go sleep in her big crib and that she would be sleeping through the night by then anyway (hah!). Well, she's still getting up at 3 am and then sometimes 6 am too, but I need the exercise anyway, right? - Let me explain, our house's interesting floorplan puts our bedroom on the first floor, and hers on the second, so I'm sure you can imagine that the long walk across the living room and up the stairs at 3 am is sooooo refreshing : ) (Especially when you arrive crib-side only to discover those noises you heard on the baby monitor were not the baby waking up after all, look, she's perfectly asleep, aah, too bad I'm not anymore, tee hee hee). Overall, the little princess seems to be adjusting quite well to the big-girl life in her very own nursery. And while I'm glad we're finally using the room I so painstakingly decorated and created for her, it was definitely strange to move all her stuff out of our bedroom, and all her clothes out of my closet and drawers. Our days are the same as ever but at night sometimes I miss having to be quiet as I crawl into bed or the lovely scent of stinky diapers that used to waft out of our bathroom : )

Little Ella has also gotten her second tooth this week, yay! She still seems to be doing amazingly well on the fussiness scale as far as teething goes and we're soooooo proud of her for it. She's also still enjoying a multitude of new solid foods and she's working ever harder every day at crawling (this week she even tried a new trick by getting up on her hands and toes, though I'm not sure how that helped get her moving at all, I think she was just trying out some of the yoga and pilates she saw on my exercise video). Every day, what new sillyness and fun, can't wait for tomorrow, or even when she wakes up from the nap she's having right now...

Here she is lounging around in her roomy big-girl crib...




Here's the new hands and toes yoga thing of hers, pretty cute, huh?...





Then, taking a break from all that exercise...





And here she is just looking so astoundingly beautiful, I can't believe she's mine...

Rock 'n' Roll Baby

Rockin' and rollin', that's what the little one's been up to this week, check out her new tummy play - up on her knees and ready to go!!




So she started pulling up on hands and knees like this, just this week, and then she goes rock, rock, rock, rock, flop! - forward on her tummy. Then some rolling and scooching ensues and let me tell you, with the rock-flop-roll-and scooch combo, she can cover quite a bit of ground! We understand this is a definite precursor to crawling so we are frantically scrambling around the house installing outlet plug covers and discovering what possibly edible objects might be found at the 1-foot-and-below level. And although she's definitely good at this new rock-n-flop she doesn't seem that focused on it yet and is still quite happy lounging and rolling around on a play blanket on the ground. By the way, mama is sooooo thankful that you aren't insistent on cruising just yet, please feel free to take your time on this little one, we know that after crawling comes walking... AND running..., aah, lions and tigers and bears, oh my : )

And her first little tooth is coming in more and more each day and I think she's as puzzled with it's presence as we are with her lack of fussing about it. She chews on her toys with a renewed sense of vigor, gnawing away with pleasure with her new little tool. Hopefully we'll capture a shot of the new chopper one of these days, but she still sticks her tongue out a little when she smiles so the little pearl is hidden from view. I'm sure a fabulously goofy toothy grin will be visible soon - we can hardly wait!

Thursday morning giggles

HAPPY HALF-BIRTHDAY BABY!

Today is our little princess' 6-month birthday, wow! We can't believe you've been here a half year already, and we already can't imagine a life without you, or even remember our life before you were here. Though it seems impossible, we love you and our new precious family more and more each day. We are so thankful for every moment that we get to share together and we thank god everyday for little miracles in the shape of beautiful baby girls.

Havin' a bad hair day and lovin' it!

Okay, mean mama, I know, but Ella had this totally hysterical 'duck-wing' hair thing going on ALL DAY yesterday so I just had to take a picture! In addition, she had a huge red baby-zit on her upper lip to go with the funky hair...



...and she still looks cute! Could I have that power please? Bad hair and zits and everybody just loves you, you have got it soooo good baby.

Amidst her absolute adorableness, Ella has also proven to be quite a tough cookie, for we discovered while playing with her last night, as she playfully gummed on our fingers while reading a book, that OUCH!, there was something sharp in baby's gums! Her first tooth has broken through without even the slightest whimper from her - wow, baby, you definitely got daddy's genes 'cause mama needed massive amounts of epidurals during labor and you apparently can cut entire teeth through your gums while hanging out all weekend at INCREDIBLY LOUD AND DISTURBING baseball games (see previous post about our baseball weekend), I am soooooooooo impressed. You take the cake, honey, you really do. Forget all those baby books with their 'fever, drooling & diarhea' horror stories of teething, you just march to the beat of your own drum, don't you little one? I swear, every day you continue to amaze me as you cruise through each month's milestones with absolute glee. You are a truly amazing little human being & we just love you to bits.

p.s. - so if you can cut teeth as easy as taking a poop, I'm figuring we'll just breeze through those terrible twos and you will be an incredibly sublime and peaceful teenager, right?... Right?..... Well, I can dream, can't I... : )

The littlest baseball fan

So, lovely little Ella attended her first major league baseball games this weekend, woo-hoo! She did astoundingly well with the massive amounts of people, lights, & noise, and even seemed to enjoy herself a little - take a look...







As NY Mets fans in Texas, we don't get to see much of our favorite team even on tv, so when they come to Houston to play the Astros we make the three-hour trek just to catch a glimpse of them, even when they're having another so-so season. We lucked out this time because while they lost on Saturday, they had a great win on Sunday, a very fun & exciting game, thanks guys! I caught a few fun shots of the players too, here's an awesome 'at bat' shot, you can even see the pitch sliding in...





And here's my accidental capture of the true spirit of baseball, can you see?...





Take a closer look at the 'gentleman' on the right...



Yes, I do believe I caught an action shot of ball-scratching, fantastic, isn't it? Just brings out the sportsman in all of us. Anyway, a great weekend all-in-all, a quick fun little getaway, nothing like baseball and hot-dogs & ice cream at the ball park!