Tranquil Ella

Toy... check.
Fingers... check.

Once you get all the elements together, it's hard not to relax.

Girl in a Hat

What is it about babies and hats that is so cute?

Must keep repeating to myself... Ella is not a dress-up-doll... she is not a Barbie...

Happy Feets

I still haven't gotten the quintessential baby foot photo. However, this will do just fine for now. One day, these sweet little feet will make me say things like "No feet on the couch, young lady!" At least for now she can do no wrong.

p.s. - Ella is officially 4 months old today.

I can't even begin to think of a caption for this one

There are things you can learn from your older cousins...

The Land of Mixed Blessings

So you all know how I posted before about Ella rolling over, and us being all excited about it. And really, it is exciting... I love seeing her do new stuff.

However.

Now Ella just loves to roll over. Pretty much anywhere she is. Including on the changing table.

'nuff said.

Ella doing pushups

Face to face with cuteness

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin...

We now have complete rollover... Yay Ella!

Ella rolled all the way over for the first time in her Mom's presence at the doctor's office yesterday. (I'm told that first rolls often happen on the table at the doc's office.)

Then later that evening, Ella was on her back and I was playing with her. I got up to wash my hands, and when I got back, she was on her tummy.

Yes, it seems the Ella Sneakiness Factor is increasing.

Flying Baby

To the untrained eye, there seems nothing special about the above picture. Until one notices that the cute sleeping baby is in an airplane.

While I don't think this counts as a developmental milestone, I think it counts as Ella's introduction to the jet set.

How did it go, you ask?

Splendidly.

Nary a squawk to be heard. (Okay, there were a couple, but it didn't last for more than a second or two).

Somehow Ella figured out what she needed to do in this occasion... namely, charm the flight attendants with her 800-watt smile, nurse a bit at takeoff and landing, and then sack out on mom and dad for the duration of the (4, count them, 4!) flights.

Bravo, I say. Bravo.

from hand to hand (to mouth)

I haven't quite worked out which is funnier... the Mom-supplied pacifier or the very colorful snap bead Miss America sash.

Anyway, Ella hit another development milestone this weekend... the hand to hand transfer! Apparently, it's a milestone when a baby can pass an object from one hand to another. I wasn't there to witness it, but a trustworthy source says she saw it happen. And moms don't lie about these things, do they? I mean, I have my journalistic integrity to maintain here.

Ella is becoming, well, more Ella. She's more alert, cheerful, talkative. She continues to practice her rolling over (I'm expecting at least back handsprings by the next summer olympics), is now comfortable sitting in someone's lap, and will engage you in conversation when you are changing her diaper. She is oh so very cool.

Make 'em Laugh....

Ah, the vibrating frog cube. It gets 'em every time.



So yes... Ella laughed today! What a wonderful sound. Not exactly a belly laugh... more sort of a tentative giggle.

Of course you all realize that this will begin the period where Mom and Dad start acting like complete buffoons in order to get her to laugh.

It takes two, maybe three...

Fingers, that is.

Consider the Hand; Consider the Foot

Ella's hand has started to be a Thing of Interest.



...and so has her foot.



I take this as a sign that she's just about ready to start playing video games.

Sweater Season

It's been unseasonably cool this week. One of the benefits of this is that one gets to see one's daughter in sweaters and other cute apparel.

10 straight hours of perfect baby Zs

So here's another auspicious occasion: On September 1st, Ella slept through the night. It hasn't happened again since then, but it's still something to celebrate nonetheless. I could almost see little, perfectly-formed Zs floating up from her, like in cartoons.

For the record, her sleep schedule hasn't been that much of an issue; she generally wakes up twice a night, eats, and then goes pretty much right back to sleep. On the other hand, I'm not often the one who must get out of bed and feed her (lacking the proper equipment), so I'm not totally qualified to comment on the impact of her longer sleeping hours.

Another little surprise of fatherhood: I never realized watching someone sleep could be so much fun.

Roll (almost all the way) Over Beethoven

Okay, so posting this bit is a little premature, but it's still exciting, so I'll post it anyway: I was playing with Ella on the floor in the morning (morning is the time when she tends to break out any new tricks... my suspicion is that she secretly practices at night while we're sleeping), doing our usual Ella Plays On Her Back thing, when she suddenly decides to roll over. Boom. Of course, she was all nonchalant about it, but in my world this is a big event. The skeptics among you might remind me that she didn't get all the way over. However, she did make it more than half the way over and stayed there.

Yay Ella!