Ella's 10 Month Update

Another month has flown by! I can't believe we're going to be back in FL in 6 weeks. I am thrilled to get Ella down there for good so she can start wearing less clothes and we can start doing more things outside, like swimming! Ella is still infatuated with water, probably even more now than ever before. She loves taking baths and she loves crawling into the bathroom and pulling herself up on the tub to see if there's any water in it. We definitely have to be very careful with her! Thankfully we're going to have a brand new YMCA in our development in Tallahassee and I plan on getting her into swimming lessons ASAP.

As for other things, I'm sure she is officially over the 20 lb mark by now. She is eating well and enjoying trying new solids. I've been letting her try more and more kinds of foods since she has 5 teeth now, but some of her favorites are still the kinds of food that she doesn't need to chew on. As I was saying earlier, she is cruising around the place like she owns it and would love to just crawl around all day long if I let her. I will be very happy when we have a bigger area at our next house for her to be adventurous in, but I'm sure she'll be walking by then. She is getting so steady on her feet and loves to pull herself up on things and then let go to see how long she can stand up by herself. Thankfully she mastered the proper way to fall on her butt.
Her hair has gotten long and it looks like I can actually start doing things with it now, but every time I put a barrett in it falls out or she pulls it out and tries to eat it. So, nevermind. But, I'm thinking about getting her hair cut soon. It needs some shaping.

As for words, she's still saying 'mama' and 'dada', but she's started saying 'da' when she sees dogs. I purposely stopped saying our dogs names to her so she would learn that they're dogs first, so now she says 'da' whenever she sees any dog, so apparently it worked.
Ella is also enjoying meeting other kids. She's been like this for the longest time, but now that she has been around them more, she is just so tickled to be able to watch them or touch them, or 'talk' to them. She has a friend at the gym who she gets to play with in the nursery and it helps a lot because she doesn't realize I'm not there.

She is about to celebrate her first Easter and I'm looking forward to when she's old enough to dye eggs with me and have Easter egg hunts. But, for now, she has baby Easter gifts to enjoy that are overflowing in a cute Easter basket. Until next time, we hope all of you have a wonderful Easter, too.

It's Great To Be A Florida Gator!

WooHoo! UF kicked UCLA's butt last night! For those of you who may not have watched the game (sinners!), the Gators won their first National Championship in basketball last night. It was a great game (if you're a Gator fan) and was pretty much over by halftime. I would've loved to be able to be in Gainesville and watching it in the O'Connell Center with the rest of teh Gator Nation, but it was still a sweet moment watching it on my couch in front of the big screen. And hopefully this is just the beginning to our winning ways in all sports...can anyone say National Championship in Jan '07?