Friday, February 13, 2009

Ella Valentine now 11 months old!!

Max circa 1973 / Ella circa 2009

Ella just turned 11 months old and it's an exciting time around here. She took her first steps a few weeks ago and now she's busy toddling all around the house. If she needs to get somewhere FAST (like trying to catch the cat or escape a diaper change) she will still crawl, but other than that she's pretty determined to get around on her own two feet. Don't even think of trying to help her - she still hates to have her hands held and she continues to be a very independent little person. She's also very affectionate, smothering us with kisses and hugs and cuddles, making our hearts melt regularly.


Ella recently enjoyed her first overnight with Daddy-only, while I escaped for a mini spa vacation to celebrate my mom's birthday. She and Max and Aunt Eliza had a ton of fun visiting Little Farm up in Tilden park, where a happy, wide-mouthed Ella got her whole face covered in cow slobber.


Ella at Little Farm Feeding the Sheep

Ella is very social and she loves nothing more then getting out and about, seeing people and making friends. She has begun pointing at EVERYTHING, saying "DAH" loudly as she does so....wanting to know the names and function of all that she sees. She also loves to eat, and we are often amazed at the quantities she can pack away in that little body. Fruit is her favorite, especially berries and kiwi, followed by bread, cheese and meatballs. A steady stream of cheerios gets us through almost any car ride. She hates having her face wiped after meals, so by the end of the day, Ella is generally covered in a mish-mash of breakfast, lunch and dinner - ready for her bath with daddy.


She's just gradutated from sitting in a laundry basket that we placed within the bathtub to keep her confined, and now she has the whole big tub to splish and splash and dance to the tunes Max plays her from his IPhone. Her repetoire of dance moves continues to increase!




See you next month when we celebrate the big 1 year!!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Ella turns 10 months old!




Ella is 10 months old and getting sweeter and lovey-er by the minute. She recently learned how to give kisses and now she attacks us with her big drooly mouth wide open! She's also begun to get her groove on, clapping and bouncing to the music. When she makes sounds on her toy keyboard, her face lights up and she waves her hands in the air as though conducting her own orchestra. She also adores her stuffed animals and loves to jump them when they're not looking, smother them with her whole body and kiss them on their noses. Our cat Parsley gets the same treatment but her response is a little less predictable!


X-Mas eve on Snake Rd.

We had a great time over the holidays with Grammy Dinah out visiting from Maryland. We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house and Dinah taught me how to stuff my first bird. We celebrated New Years on the beach with Tom and Linda and Amy and Ella discovered her Italian Fancher heritage by devouring a plate of Linda's meatballs with great gusto!

New Year's in Pajaro Dunes

We started the New Year's off with Ella's first real sickness....a good noisy case of croup. She sounded like a barking seal for several nights and we gave her constant steam baths to try and ease her swollen airways. Poor little thing....check out the photos of her right after one of Max's crazy steam treatments.

Steamy Bathroom Cures Croupy Cough

It looks like our girl will be walking in the next couple of weeks which is exciting and a little sad because the crawling is just so cute. She can cruise the furniture easily now and will stand awhile without support if her attention is on something else.

Happy New Years everyone! We are excited about the days ahead and feeling so grateful for our family and friends and all that we have in these crazy times.