7 Months Old - Florida and Crawling

My little girl is now 7 Months Old. I just can't believe it!!!
This past weekend we took Ella Kate to the beach. Dave had a business meeting in Dothan on Friday which is only about 2 hours from my in laws condo in PC beach. Mom came into town and mom, myself, and Ella Kate all drove down to PCB on Thursday afternoon. Dave arrived on Friday evening and we all had a great time. The weather was wonderful - in the upper 60's/low 70's during the day. Since the pool was heated Ella Kate got to go swimming for the very first time. She absolutely loved it!! The pool was a big hit but she wasn't quite so sure about the ocean and beach. I sat her down on the sand several times and sprinkled it over her toes. She would seem interested for a second but only about a second before she wanted me to pick her up.

She also started officially crawling this past weekend. She had been sitting on her knees and rocking for sometime now but in the past as she got near what she was trying to reach should we fall on her stomach and reach her hands out until she got what she wanted. Now she can pretty much crawl right to it. She is probaly not going to win any crawling races just yet but nevertheless she can crawl. She is also starting to pull up more. She can't pull up to a standing position yet but she can definately pull up to a kneeling position.

She is liking more and more different kinds of foods these days. Dave and I stopped by Ryan's on the way home from PCB and she ate chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and bread. She was quite a little piggy. In fact the only thing that slowed her eating down that day was b/c she is so nosy and was turned half way around in the high chair most of the time watching other people. :) I have also started giving her Cheerios and she took to those instantly. I wonder what it is about Cheerios that babies and adults love. Quite a little recipe they came up with.

Miss Priss crawling to her fishing pole. She is obsessed with her fishing pole. Dave may have a new fishing buddy pretty soon. Poor Dave - it must be tough having a daughter and wife that are expert fisherwomen. :)

Smiling as I am chasing her down trying to dress her.

Dave, me, and Ella Kate out to dinner in PCB.

Dave and Ella Kate checking out the ocean.

Mom and Ella Kate both sporting their sun glasses.

Ella Kate loving the swimming pool.

Sweet smile. We had so much fun swimming.

She just naturally kicked her leggs out and floated on her tummy. I am going to enroll her in swimming lessons this Spring. I think they start in March. I am so excited!!! Dave has been making fun of my poor swimming skills for years now. Maybe I will try to pay close attention in Ella Kate's classes. Goodness knows poor Wanda did the best she could trying to teach me :)

Miss Priss sporting her new sunglasses and playing with her new pool float in the condo.

Miss Priss perplexed...

She thinks anyone whom plays Peek a Boo with her is absolutely hilarious!!! And LeLe she loves loves loves the red palm tree pillow in the beach condo.

Lunch with Carrie Beth and Cayden

Today Ella Kate and I met Carrie Beth and Cayden at La Madeline for lunch. Ella Kate is so interested in other kids so she loved Cayden. I found a little fishing pole bath toy that was given to us at one of our showers and it has become one of Ella Kate's new beloved toys. She took it along to lunch with us and it entertained her so that Carrie Beth and I could actually eat. I hate that the pictures I am attaching show sweet little Cayden crying b/c he really was so good the entire time and only cried of course when it was picture time. I think it is so funny how Ella Kate is just looking up staring at Carrie Beth.

After lunch with Carrie Beth I went by my office to pick up a new battery for my laptop that one of my co-workers had ordered for me. Ella Kate loved seeing everyone at work and was quite the little flirt. I currently go into the office for full days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while Dave's mom (LeLe) keeps Ella Kate and the other days I am home with my little angel. I feel so very lucky to be able to have the work arrangement that I do. It is nice to get out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and go in the office to challenge my brain while I know that Ella Kate is in loving and safe hands with LeLe. I find that I actually look forward to going into the office and on the days that I do not work I really look forward to just spending time with Miss Priss.

My Little Wiggle Worm

I wanted to take a minute to jot down some of the cute things that Ella Kate has been doing recently. For starters, she makes me feel like the most important person in the world when she reaches out for me to hold her. But she definitely has my number b/c when I put her down for naps she immediately starts crying and holding her arms out to me. It takes all that I have not to pick her back up but I know that I have to leave her there b/c she will fall asleep within mins if I disappear. She loves to pick things up and put them on top of her head. This makes her so very proud of herself :) While she can't crawl yet she can move in just about any direction she wants to. Recently she has been going from sitting up to her tummy back to sitting up again. She loves our remote controls, blackberry, and laptops. Of all the bazillions of toys she has she would give them all up at a chance to hold and chew on the remote controls. She also desperately wants to play with my laptop. She has her own toy laptop however when I give her the toy laptop she immediately closes the top down and heads for my "real" laptop. Oh she definately knows the difference between the real one and toy one.

She laughs out loud and thinks it is hilarious when her Daddy and I "goose" her. There have been nights where we just all lay on the floor and play "gooser". Dave and I love watching her laugh!!! It is amazing to us how coordinated she is becoming lately. Tonight when I was giving her a bottle I was just watching her little hands and how she was moving them around. It is like she figures out something new she can do with her hands every second.

As you can tell from some of my postings I often refer to her as Miss Prissy Pants and Dave usually calls her Prissers. It is funny to me how the nicknames just came naturally but oh how fitting they are. She is a wonderful sleeper at night which we are so thankful for. Part of her nap and nighttime ritual lately is to lay on her tummy, pull the bumper pads down as far as she can and pier out of her crib just waiting on us to come back. Dave and I always laugh as we watch her through the monitor scoping the room waiting for us to come rescue her. She always makes me nervous how she sleeps b/c she literally rams her head against the corner of the bed as far as she can and sits on her knees. That is her sleeping position. It sounds so uncomfortable to me but everytime I move her while she is asleep it is not 5 mins before she is back in her crazy position.

She also loves her baths. In her stocking this year over at LeLe and PaPa John's was a floating soap holder and you would think it was made of pure gold b/c she loves it. I fill her little duck bath tub up with lots of toys including rubber duckies, etc. but she goes right for the floating soap holder everytime. And if she drops it out of the duck bath tub I really have to watch her b/c it is like she is diving for it to get it back.

I know I am forgetting other cute things she does but I am really enjoying her at this stage and I do not want to forget all of the sweet things that she does that make me and her dad smile. We are so lucky and thankful to have such a sweet and healthy little girl. Her little personality has really started to develop and I am loving it!!

Dinner with Friends and The 7 Mile Run

Well we did it!!! Dave, Ella Kate, Sally, JoJo, and I ran a full 7 miles this afternoon. Ella Kate was a little angel in her jogging stroller. It is now official Dave and I are signing up for the ING half marathon to be held at the end of March. I am a little nervous but also very excited. Dave has made a weekly schedule of required runs and I think as long as we stick to it we should be just fine. So the training and soarness continues....

On Saturday night we had Matt, Jessica, Sarah, and Joey over for one of Dave's "Good Eats" dinners. There is a show on TV called "Good Eats" that Dave is slightly obsessed with. Our DVR is full of episodes of good eats :) However he has cooked several of the menu items and they have all been great!!! On Saturday night it was a meat roulade with sauteed mushrooms. Pretty impressive. Matt and Jessica's little girl Sarah also came over for dinner and she was a little angel. She is only 18 months but she sat in one of our dining room chairs and ate salad, steak, and mushrooms just like an adult. She was so well behaved and absolutely loved Sally and JoJo. I bet she laughed for almost an hour straight while Sally and JoJo ran around licking her.

Ella Kate was exhausted by Saturday night as I had taken her to lunch with me and the girls (ML & Priya) earlier and she had totally missed her afternoon nap. She was sound asleep by around 7:30pm which was nice for Dave and I as Kenneth and Emmy came over and Joey hung around after dinner so Dave and I had a fun hanging out with everyone downstairs. I of course had my monitor turned up almost to the max just in case little Miss Priss might have needed me.

Miss Prissy Pants has not decided to break loose and crawl yet. I am so excited to see her start crawling although I know she is going to be mighty hard to keep up with. She is a complete wiggle worm now and laughs and babbles at herself all the time. I often put her in her bouncer and let the dogs come inside to entertain her and oh she just loves it. She thinks the dogs are hilarious and bounces as high as she possibly can all while babbling of course. She is doing much better with her eating. She has never been a really big eater but lately she is starting to take more interest. She loves saltine crackers and the little gerber graduate star shaped snacks. Although her top favorite thing is the little teething biscuits!!!

Our Sweet little angel! She is just so perfect and has the sweetest most innocent little smile!

Ella Kate and little Sarah. You can see that Ella Kate loves other kids. She wants to "pet" them however sometimes she is a little rough. We are still working on that and sharing.

Dave and his new buddy, Sarah. They both had fun laughing at Sally and JoJo.

Just a pretty picture of our backyard.

6 Month Checkup

This morning Ella Kate and I went to see Dr. Clements for her 6 month checkup. Poor little thing had to get 4 shots and one oral vacine. She did so good. She of course screamed while they were giving her the shots but as soon as I picked her up and hugged her afterwards she was my sweet little smiling Ella Kate again. She weighed in today at 15.4 pounds and 28 1/4 inches long. She is still in the 50% percentile for weight and the 98% percentile for height. I just can't believe how long she is.

First Trip to the Zoo + some other cute random pics

On Saturday Dave and I took Ella Kate on her first trip to the zoo. The day started out kinda rainy and I was so afraid that the weather was not going to hold for us. Luckily by the time we got there the drizzling rain had all cleared up and it was just a little foggy. It actually ended up being the perfect day to be at the zoo b/c it was not crowded at all and we got front row viewing of all the animals including the feeding of the gorillas and arangutans. Ella Kate enjoyed looking at the animals but I think she liked looking at the other kids the most.

This morning, Sunday, we went to church and Ella Kate was a little angel and even got complimented on her good behavior from others sitting near us. She is good at being quiet during church but being still is a whole different subject. Dave and I could not help but laugh a couple of times b/c she swirms and wiggles and whatever we are doing or holding she wants. First she wanted the song book, then she wanted the poor mans jacket that was sitting in front of us. Afterwards at lunch she wanted Dave's coke and one time when I was not looking somehow managed to pick up an entire bowl. Thank goodness Dave caught her before she sent it sailing across the restaurant. You can't turn your head even for a second with her these days. This afternoon we all took a nap which was nice and then went for a jog on the mountain with the dogs and Ella Kate in the jogging stroller. Well it was a little more than a jog. Dave and I have been talking a little more about running the ING half marathon coming up in about 3-4 months. Therefore we ran for over an hour straight today. I was pretty proud of myself as when we started out I was not sure if I could do it as I have a long way to go getting back in shape. But I made it!!!! I still have a long way to go before being able to run the half marathon but today did give me some confidence. Dave and I have worked out a training schedule for weekly runs so I will let you know in a couple of weeks if it looks like we are going to be able to do it.

Developmental update. Miss Priss has not started crawling yet but boy is she trying. She lays on her stomach and lifts her arms pulling her upper body off the floor then she will lay face down and hold her little bottom and back legs up in a crawling position but she just can't put it all together quite yet. I try to put toys just out of her reach to try and encourage her to crawl but she is a smart little thing and knows that if she rolls over a couple of times she can get to just about anything she wants. I am sure the crawling will come soon but for now I am just enjoying watching her try. She is starting to talk more and more these days and her new favorite is BaBaBa. I hate to say it but I am pretty sure on a couple of different occasions that I have heard a DaDa. I am still really pushing for MaMa as the DaDa has not been quite clear enough yet to give Dave the victory :) Ella Kate is very coordinated with her hands. If she wants something she has no problem grabbing it and putting it directly in her mouth. Dave loves to make her laugh with his ever famous "gooser" tickling routine and she thinks it is hilarious. It is so fun to watch her laugh.

Ella Kate watching the pigs and goats at the petting zoo area of the Atlanta Zoo.

The Arangatun
The Gorillas
Ella Kate's sweet smile!! Having fun with Mommy and Daddy at the zoo.

Daddy and Ella Kate watching the elephants being fed

This is a perfect picture of Miss Nosy/Wiggle Worm. I sat her in her carrier for no more than 2 mins while I fixed her bottle one morning. As you can see it would not have taken her to much longer to wiggle her way out of that carrier. I guess she just wanted to watch me make her bottle.

Ella Kate and Daddy playing their favorite game together -- Airplane.