Happy Halloween!

We found this monkey in our living room, digging through our Halloween candy.
She kept grabbing the Skittles and trying to put them in her mouth. I think she has a sweet tooth.
Love that monkey face!
My favorite part of the costume was definitely the banana sewn into the pocket.
Mommy and Monkey on the swing.
She's been pulling up and standing on her own a lot lately.
Somebody loves her daddy!
I needed to carry the laundry basket and Ellis to the washing machine. My solution: put Ellis in the basket.
Ellis snuggling with Jack.

Well, Ellis's first Halloween was a big hit. We chose a monkey costume for her because when she was born she was COVERED in hair, and we nicknamed her monkey because of it. The name stuck as she began to climb up onus, pull up, crawl around, etc. so the costume seemed like a logical choice. I loved it! And although Ellis is too young for candy, she did seem intrigued by walking around our neighborhood (after her normal bedtime) to talk to people.

The other pictures are just a few random pics that I took yesterday. I think the one of her in the laundry basket is too cute! Oh, and the one with Vimal and her is sweet as well. She definitely loves her daddy. She gets so excited when he comes home from work. (Actually, we both get pretty excited.)

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. More soon...

These are a few of her favorite things...

Peas and Brown Rice! Not sure how she eats that stuff, but she seems to like it.
"Sign and Sing" class. We usually sing "...there are bubbles in the air, in the air." But, we changed it to "there are bubbles in her hair, in her hair."
Ellis hanging out with Jack.
Checking herself out in the mirror.

Here are just a few pictures of Ellis with her favorite things. First off, peas and brown rice. I hate peas, always have. I'm not sure how she eats that, but she really likes. Second favorite thing is bubbles. She gets so excited when the teacher gets them out during our class. In fact, right before I got my camera out to take this picture she had a bubble resting on her nose! It was too adorable but, alas, I was too slow to capture it. I still think the ones in her hair are pretty cute too. Next is a picture of Ellis with Jack. Jack is a donkey that my dad gave Ellis when she was about two weeks old. When she was younger, she stared at him for hours and hours, and now it's apparent that he's her favorite stuffed animal. And the last picture is pretty self explanatory. She likes to check herself out in the mirror. Could be a problem in the future, but it's still cute for now.

Finally, I'm posting a video of Ellis feeding herself some sweet potato fries. We got them at Whole Foods (Vimal actually found them) and Ellis LOVES them. When I feed them to her, she sort of hums while chewing. She does this with Veggie Booty, wheat pita, Cheerios and these. I love it because I used to do that when I was a kid too. Enjoy...

Where has the time gone?

Dressed up in her Halloween wear. I can't wait until Friday when I get to put her in her real costume.
"This part is a little confusing, but I'll figure it out."
"Don't worry mommy, I'll do the calculations here and then you're guaranteed an A in Chemistry."
I mean, seriously, could this face be any better?
We call this winter look "the pink marshmallow girl."

Today Vimal and I switched out our summer clothes for our winter ones. For those of you who don't live in a condo, or in the northeast for that matter, it's a bi-annual tradition that I loathe. Twice a year we go through our seasonal clothing and put the last season's clothes in the basement and bring up our clothes for the season to come. I hate it because it's time consuming and always manages to eat up an entire weekend day. Anyways, this time I found a lot of my maternity clothes from last winter in my box of "winter wear" and it made me realize how fast the time has gone. Ellis is nine months old now. She's changing everyday. And I don't want her to! Right now I'm her hero. She smiles or laughs when I come into the room. I mean, what teenager that you know does that? None. That's your answer. So, today I slowly put my summer clothes in the box. And where before I might have wished for the cold and dreary Boston winter to pass so that I could get back to summer, I don't this time. Because the next time I switch out my winter clothes for my summer ones, Ellis will be even older. And I don't want to wish away even a day of her life...

Crawling...

Not that any of you were doubting me but, just in case, here is a video of Ellis crawling. She only loves paper. She bypasses both her toys and heads straight for the bright orange paper that I was taunting her with.

Some insight into my little girl's personality...

Ellis and I went apple picking today. We almost didn't get to go because it's Tuesday, the day Vimal has the car for work, and I didn't want to ask any of my friends to pick me up or take me home. But, I really wanted to go so I finally asked. Of course I was immediately met with offers for a ride, so I put Ellis in the backseat of Kate's car (with her daughter Claire) and we drove off. It was nearing Ellis' naptime, but it wasn't naptime for Claire so a few minutes into the drive Claire started crying. Kate asked me to give Claire a "teething biscuit" so I handed it back to Claire and this seemed to satisfy her. However, a few minutes later, Claire started crying again and I went digging in her carseat for the lost biscuit. When I couldn't find it, Kate gave me another one to give to Claire and this seemed to remedy the solution once again. But a few minutes later Claire started crying again and Kate suggested we forget the teething biscuit and give Claire her pacifier. This seemed to do the trick for the rest of the ride so we were all happy in the car.

This whole time I couldn't see Ellis because she was behind me and Claire was in the middle seat. But Ellis was totally quiet and I could see that her feet weren't moving so I guessed that she must be sleeping. I have to admit that I was proud of my little one, glowing inside about how perfectly behaved she was in someone else's car. I'm sure my head swelled up a few sizes during the thirty minute drive. Finally we arrived at the apple orchard. Kate and I got out and, while I'm walking around the car, I notice that Ellis is awake, WIDE AWAKE, and double fisting BOTH of Claire's teething biscuits. I'm not sure if Claire passed them over, or if Ellis grabbed them, but her mouth was COVERED in brown cookie juice, her shirt was soaked with drool, and she had a look of guilty excitement on her face that was absolutely hilarious. And me, well in some twisted way, I was more proud of Ellis than ever. She's a resourceful little thing, and I don't think she'll ever not go out and get exactly what she wants. I love that about her! She's stubborn and willful and.........all mine! Of course, eventually, I'll have to reign it in but for now I just chuckle and enjoy every moment of her.


She was chewing on the evidence when I snapped this picture.
I can't help but think that she looks smug in this picture, with the biscuit still tightly grasped in her hand.
Poor Claire didn't stand a chance.
View of the apple trees in the orchard. What a gorgeous fall day!
Mommy and Ellis in front of a McIntosh apple tree.
Love this picture of Ellis gently feeling the apple tree.

Crawling, Clapping, and Splashing

Ellis was laughing and shaking the scale like it was a ride. So funny! Still having a blast on the scale. She's fully supporting herself on her legs and pulling up by herself...OH NO! Not the best resolution pic, but I like the way she's laughing at me. Well, Ellis is officially crawling and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why I wanted her to be able to. Life has certainly gotten more hectic. I can't turn around from her to type an email or dash into the other room because she is never where I last left her. But, she loves the mobility, so I know it's a good thing. Anyways, the pictures are from her nine month doctor's appointment. She weighed in at 16lbs, 8ozs (23rd percentile) and was 29 inches long (80th percentile). The pediatrician is happy with her growth and development. She is always the happiest baby in the pediatrician's office (probably because it's a well visit and she isn't sick) and all the nurses love to play with her...until the shots come. Luckily at nine months there are no vaccines, but she did have to have a flu shot so that part wasn't any fun.


This video is from a class we take every week called "Sign and Sing". You can probably guess what the point of the class is. Ellis has started clapping when she gets excited and after the song is over she starts clapping. I think it's adorable. And, if you are wondering why she's sitting on the other side of the room, it's because she crawled over there by herself.

This is a video of Ellis splashing in her tub. I moved her little tub into the big bathtub just in time. This video is only 50 seconds long, but she splashed around for about 10 minutes before tiring of it.

Trying to crawl...

She's got the motion down. Now she just needs to get some forward momentum.
Her left leg always slides under her which trips her up a bit.
I'm not sure what she did here, but she definitely looks guilty.
Vimal was playing peek-a-boo with her and she was laughing her head off.
She found herself in the mirror, scooted over, and started playing with the baby in the mirror...Too cute!
This morning I turned around and Ellis was gnawing on her diaper bag.
Then, she looked at me like "What?".
After I looked away, she started rustling through it until she found something she could chew on.
And she proceeded to chew on her shoe for the next ten minutes.

Vimal and I have been getting tons of pictures and videos of Ellis trying to crawl because we'd love for everyone to get to see it right when it happens. In the meantime, though, we have ended up with lots of similar shots of Ellis in mid-stride. Here are just a few of them. Enjoy. And I promise to post a crawling video just as soon as we get one!

Erin

She's definitely trying to tell us something...

Here is a video post of Ellis talking up a storm. The last couple of days she's been blabbering on and on non-stop. It's really quite fun to hear her little voice. Although, at this rate, I'm starting to get concerned that she's going to talk my ear off as soon as she possibly can. I guess she IS just like her daddy!

P.S. Sorry that it gets a little shaky at times. I was trying to balance on one arm while taking this video.