Christmas 2009

Continuing with the theme of updating the blog and never-mind-the-absence-of-chronological-order, here's Ella J's first Christmas.

Great time. Christmas Eve day with Dad's side of the family in Temple. We had a wonderful time at Nanny Zelisko's house and visited and ate and celebrated together in a very fun visit.
Onto Mansfield for Christmas Eve and morning. Grandma and Grandpa were thrilled to see Ella J and spend the holiday with her. The older Ella J gets the more fun she is for Grandma and Grandpa. Ella J and Grandma Liz really like each other and have a special bond.
Mom and Dad got to sneak away and see a movie and play games at the arcade at the mall. Air Hockey: Dad 2, Mom 0 (but I did kick his butt on our first date, multiple times).
We all got caught up on rest and absence of good, home-cooked holiday food. Dad met his yearly quota of peanut butter balls in one weekend (36).
On the way back home we stopped in Temple at Grandma Jeanie's and had a really nice visit with her and Michael and got the update on Buckholts Christmas.
Great Christmas. Definitely spent the way it should be and definitely look forward to spending many more together.
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eating? check, sitting? check, crawling? check, blogging?.. whoops

Shoot. Ella J has been doing so much lately that I figured she'd taken over the task of updating everyone on our blog. I guess that's not what she's been doing in the wee small hours of the morning when she's up messing around.
It seems like the theme of each blog recently has been "things have been busy"...but things have been busy. And, I have to admit, the thing preventing me from updating the blog recently was that I haven't updated the blog recently and would have too much to report and that the entries wouldn't be in order. Then I remembered that this is a BLOG and read by people who want to hear about Ella J and not her mom's neurotic thoughts, so on with the update.
Ella J has sprouted into a lovely little 9 month old. She sits, she crawls, she pulls up, and she gets into cat food. She has a very happy disposition when her two top front teeth that are growing in simultaneously don't get her down. They have finally popped through and boy are they cute! She's got a big ol' gap between them. (We're starting a braces savings account). She's shy about showing them, so we don't have any photos yet.
Her favorite song lately is Itsy Bitsy Spider and we think that she sings it on her own when she wakes up in the middle of the night and her boring parents won't play with her. She claps and she likes to stick her finger in people's mouths. She's super interested in basically anything that is a choking or electrical hazard.
She's started eating baby food two or three times a day. We've found some really yummy baby food and she's started actually attempting to use the spoon herself while she's eating things like roasted bananas and brown rice or carrots, apples, and mangoes.
She is so wonderful and we have so much fun together. She's such a great baby and makes all errands fun (well, most errands:) Today we're off for Ella J's first trip the farmer's market downtown while Dad installs an attic ladder in the ceiling for our stuff so Ella J can have more room to play around.

Ella J: 9 months

On the move

Ella J has left the blobby, sit in your lap, play-gently-with-a-toy-while-sitting-in-mommy's-arms-stage in the dust. She now spends every waking second trying out new moves with her body. It's pretty cool to watch a human being experiment with their center of gravity and balance as she learns how far she can push herself before....face plant!
She has so much fun scootching and climbing and rolling and pulling and bopping. She's even found new ways to move in things like her bouncey and the bath tub. She will be completely mobile soon and I have a feeling our lives will be changed forever-again!

CARROTS!!

Happy Halloween!

This is Ella J at 5pm on Halloween. She pooped out early after a big day.

Her morning started out normal enough with a bowl of cereal with dad.

Then we got ready for the baby Halloween party at our friend Anya's house.
Ella J lived it up with her buds, Gavin and Lewis at the party.
Costume change! Our little bee tolerated this for about 5 more seconds after the photo.
Happy first Halloween baby girl!

Ella J Month 6!!!

Do they make a t-shirt that says "it's my 6 month birthday and all I got was a stinkin ear infection?" Poor Ella J spent her birthday weekend at the doctor's office. She'll be just fine though.
As a matter of fact, she's pretty much back to her old self already. Except these days, there is no "old self" for Ella J. She is changing so rapidly!
In the past 2 weeks, she's mastered rolling both ways, sitting up (with a little support), pivoting around on her tummy, getting her baby booty up high in the air, picking up the remote control with her feet (just like Dad!) and screaming when she wants something (her mommy and daddy's favorite new talent ;). It is so crazy how quickly this kid changes and grows. She literally changes every day.
Along with all her recent growth, we've had to adopt a new way of thinking about her. No longer is she just a little blobby thing that will sit in her bouncy and be entertained by her goofy parents. Now she is fascinated by power cords, boxes of wipes, cell phones and pretty much anything inappropriate and/or dangerous for babies.
It's so great to be around somebody like her. She's such a great, easy going, sweet baby. She's challenged daily with not being able to control her body fully yet, but at moments, she gives some good old fashioned roller derby "rarrrh" grunts to help get her what she wants or where she wants to be.

Ella J ready for the big kid part of the stroller!

Testing out a baby backpack this weekend.

9\20\09-10\19\09 (43 photos), by ashley aretakis-fredo

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