Houston We Have a Tooth

It's official: Ella's first pearly white is starting to break through. When you rub your finger along her lower front gums you feel a distinct sharp sliver on the left side.

Even though there has been a whitish spot there for some time (see picture below), this is a bit of a surprise. There hasn't been a lot of chewing, no more than usual. Nor a ton of drooling, again no more than usual. No severe crankiness, crying, fever, or red and swollen gums.

HA!!! 8 hours later . . . major clingy-cranky-fussiness today.

Let the biting commence!

Coiffure

Here is Ella with her first official hairdo. She was quite cooperative. Stay tuned, Grandma has gotten out a little baby-sized curler . . .




Now she's practicing her runway pout.

Ella loves literature

The person who invented board books deserves a medal.

Merry Christmas!

We here at the Daily Ella wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year full of toy boxes to chew on.

Ella's Revenge

Though the caption of this photo could be something like "Let's see how YOU like it when someone messes with your face," it's actually a bit of a tender moment between mother and baby.

It does feel a bit less tender when she really gets a grip on your lip, however.

Hey, You, Get Off Of My Cloud

Gams

Well it's not fruit that's making those legs so chubby. Ella does not like fruit. She loves carrots, squash, green beans and peas, but turns away from bananas, peaches and applesauce. (I never knew a mouth could get so small!) Now we're talking baby-food bananas and baby-food peaches so she may do better with the real stuff. We'll see . . .

Baby elf

North Pole must be missing a helper...

O Christmas Tree

Though Ella's too young to understand about Christmas, Santa, and the lot, she has become a connoisseur of Christmas lights.

Michelin Baby

Um . . . Grandpa, I can't move my arms. And where did my hands go?

Gobble Gobble!

Okay, Thanksgiving has long since passed, but we *had* to put this one up.

The sticklers for photojournalistic integrity in our audience would probably want me to add the disclaimer that this wasn't actually taken on Thanksgiving day, or even in November. This is a re-enactment for the scrapbook.

Not only is this re-enacting Thanksgiving, but also re-enacting the first time Ella wore shoes.

Bring on the green!

Springing past squash (right on!), sweet potatoes (eh, not so much), carrots (I do believe I'll have more, please), the next stop was green beans (which also met with approval from our small tester).

Next stop: Doritos!

Sunday Special: Better baths through sitting

Being able to sit opens up a whole new world of bathing possibilities.


For example, there are more toys to play with.


And sometimes, when the toys are wound up, they come to you.

Editor's note: Those are sweet little baby toes in the bottom of the last picture.

The Joy of Everyday Things

A tupperware bowl holds more intrigue than a Mozart-playing dragon.

An empty cereal box and a tub of formula make better drums than, well, drums.

Tags are the tastiest bits on toys.

(This has been a guest posting by Mommy)

Baby Sitter

Lately Ella has gotten pretty good at sitting on her own. Yes, there are still a few topples here and there, but I'm amazed at her progress; learning to balance seems like it would be pretty hard.

I'm convinced that she's a genius.

Attack of the Yellow Vegetables

As you can see, the first experiment with squash met with mixed success.

Ella has since taken to gobbling it down.

Feeding Ella solid food is a little tricky--it's not like you're spooning this stuff into a wide-open mouth, like a baby bird. In fact, it's a little bit more like fighting a boss monster in a video game. You know the one, where the giant monster is waving its head menacingly at you, and there is a tiny little window of opportunity where the small vulnerable bit is exposed. In this case, it's the sweet little baby's mouth.

Dad has yet to really acquire the knack, but he'll learn.

Six Months Doctors' Appointment

So Ella is now just over 6 months old,
one ounce shy of 17 pounds,
and twenty six and one half inches long
(she won't be "x inches tall" until she is upright most of the time)

She also got a flu shot and various other pokings and proddings.

Furthermore, she rolled completely over yesterday. However, to my knowledge she hasn't repeated this feat since, so it remains in the "could be a fluke" category.