Daddy's Girl

Humming and dancing and spinning in circles

1// This is a regular activity, turning in endless circles

2// Dancing (I could die with how cute her little bum-shaking is and how they both start bouncing at the exact same time-- oh man I love it!)

3// Causing chaos in the tub-- she likes the tub the most when it has no water in it because it is much better for making noises that way.

4// Climbing stairs because she's a little girl and no longer a baby

5// Talking and wash-cloth-waving

*Note how Ella is almost always humming and babbling, when she isn't verbally making noise, she's making noise with the toys around her.

This is real life, that is exactly how it is every single day.

Toys

So in a couple of months Ella is turning one... let's just not think about that right now.

But it made me start thinking about what I should get Ella for her birthday

 and I was looking around online for ideas and what it kind of resulted in, was me finding lots of toys that I could make for Ella, not for her birthday, but just as everyday toys.

Recently I've had a brand new handmade toy to introduce to her every morning because they are just so easy to make (like seriously, 5 minutes or less, no joke) and the supplies are things just lying around your home.

 I filled these little easter eggs with fish crackers, fruit puffs, cheerios and other dry cereals so that when you shake them they make cool noises-- and Ella LOVES noises. 

They are also the perfect size for Ella's little hands. 

Occasionally Ella is able to break them open and she gets so excited by the treat inside.

 Lids.

Ella thinks they are the most wonderful thing.

I threw some lids in a milk carton that I had cut holes in.

What the baby is supposed to do is drop the lids in and pull them out, but what Ella likes to do is stick her arm in there and wave her arm around and all the lids go flying in the carton so it makes the most gloriously chaotic noise.
She also likes to crawl around the house with a lid in hand, I have no idea why, but she loves it!

And fabric squares that you pull out of the wipes bin.
She doesn't love this as much as I was hoping she would.
She loves to pull her wipes out but I guess fabric squares aren't as fun because it doesn't result in your momma exclaiming, "Oh Ella! You pulled all your wipes out again? Why?!"

Ella has been playing with these ring pops inside their wrappers since she was five months old and she still loves them.

She likes them because the wrapper makes such a great crinkly noise
Any candy with a crinkly wrapper is awesome, as long as it doesn't pop open too easily.

Also, empty pop bottles are the best.
She chases them around the house, flailing her arms, and they go bouncing and flying and make all sorts of cool noises.
The best is when she corners them in the corner and just flails and giggles and is loving life and her pop bottles.

Oh, and dry noodles in a tupperware-- one of her favorite rattles. 

And then there's the empty water bottle with the dyed water and floating shapes and sparkles and beads, just tape that lid down so she can't get it off.

This one doesn't make cool enough noises, though, so it isn't as loved right now.

 

The ideas for the toys came from here, here, and here. 

They have more ideas that look so awesome, I just haven't gotten around to making them yet.

So anyway, what I kind of want to get Ella for her birthday, that can't be easily replaced by a homemade toy, is this tricycle:

It is made so that it can hold a 1-year-old and you can push them around with that handle.

But then the handle can come off so it can be just a normal trike that she rides when she is two and three, so it grows with them for several years-- cool huh?

It's kind of way fun to look at toys and try and find the good ones.

I told you to stop growing like 10 months ago, so stop growing already

 

You guys, my baby is turning into a little girl and it makes me so excited and so sad at the same time!

She's going to be 10 months old in less than a week!

What?!

We just got home from the hospital with her newborn little self in our arms like yesterday!

A few things about Ella as an almost-10-month-old:

One

Ella is always humming. 

Always. 

I didn't realize this until Adam's family came to visit and they pointed out that she never stops making noise. 

This can be a problem when we are in the middle of Sunday school and Ella is loudly humming and the teacher is trying to talk loud enough to be heard over her.
She also never stops moving.
Never.
She always has someplace she needs to be going quickly.

Two

Still loving her ice cream. 

We went to a frozen yogurt place and I was holding Ella and Adam was getting samples of all the flavors and he would come over to give me and Ella tastes and Ella was practically leaping out of my arms with her mouth wide open so that she could get some of the sample. 

And then when we were sitting and eating, I would give her tastes of my yogurt, but if I wasn't going fast enough, she would reach up and grab my arm that had the spoon in it, and yank it down with all her might to bring the spoon down to her mouth.

Three

She is currently going from being a scoocher to a crawler. 

She can slowly crawl on her knees.
But when she wants to get somewhere fast, she drops down to her belly and scoots there.

Four

Can go up stairs very quickly.
This is a problem.

Five

Loves babies her age. 

She has a little friend named Harper and the last time they got together, Ella started giggling her little head off as soon as she saw Harper. 

Harper would wave at Ella or babble something and Ella would literally throw back her head and laugh. 

She would not stop giggling at Harper's jokes. 

And they were holding hands, we all almost died with how cute it was. 

Why did I not record them interacting? 

I don't know! 

I am so upset that I didn't.

Six

Thinks that playing in the tub when it doesn't have water in it is the greatest thing ever.

This is due to the fact that when you have lots of plastic toys in the tub and then you frantically wave your arms around, all the toys go flying and make the most fantastic noise as they clatter against the bottom and sides of the tub.

She thinks that making loud noises is absolutely wonderful.

Seven

I get such a thrill out of feeding Ella new foods and seeing what she thinks of them.

She especially loves meat and rice.
But she screams bloody murder when we wash her off after meals.

Eight

She puts her wide open mouth up against our face or shoulder and breathes really hard or tries to nibble us, while also squeezing us with all her might to give us kisses.

Nine
She doesn't especially love books, except for her furry animal books that she can feel and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (seen above)
I don't know what it is about that book, but she will sit in my lap for a long time as I read that book to her over and over again.
Thanks, Jordyn, for that book!

Ten
Best part of the day is when Adam gets home from work and Ella has just woken up from her nap and we all lay on the floor or the bed and Ella crawls all over us and gives us kisses and we make funny faces and noises at her and she giggles her little head off and just looks at both of us with such a happy face.

Moses Supposes

Happy 100th birthday, Gene Kelly!

Adam has class tonight so Ella and I will probably be watching American in Paris and Singin' in the Rain.

Funny face in the window

Love her.

Three years ago today I married her dada and she suddenly became part of my future.

I'm so glad that that cute-faced boy asked me to marry him, and that he and she are mine!

The two of them make me the happiest I've ever been in my whole life
(and that's saying something, since I've had a very happy life).

Little kid clothes of cuteness

You guys.

I stumbled on a Pinterest board with the most wonderful pins of kids clothes and I practically repinned half the board because they are out-of-this-world adorable and then I did a little happy dance as I looked back over them all, like this girl:

 

Making skinny jeans

I tried out this tutorial I found on Pinterest on how to make flare jeans into skinny jeans and I love how it turned out!

 I made these jeans (that I already owned) into skinny jeans and I made another pair of jeans (that I also already owned) into straight-leg jeans and now I feel like I have two new pairs of jeans and it cost absolutely nothing! 

To make it even better it was super fast and easy.

The tutorial is here.

Baby shoes

I started a ladies group where we get together once a week and do fun things and visit and chat with each other.

This past week was our first get-together and we did crafty things.

We made baby shoes and covered-button earrings.

Look at how cute those little shoes are!

Ella gets blisters on her little toes from dragging them all over the floor, so these are perfect to protect her toes.

Here is the link for the shoes that Ella is wearing.

And here is the link for the brown shoes pictured above that my mom made when Ella was born (they take a little bit longer, but are still easy and so very cute).

And here is the link for the covered-button earrings.

Tutorial: How to become an eating champ-- by Ella

Hey Guys.

Did you know that if eating were an olympic event I would probably win a gold medal?

Well, I would. 

Because I'm an eating champ.

So today I thought I would teach you some really useful eating techniques so that you can be an eating champ too.

First, you need to start off your meal with some stretching. 

This is very important because sometimes there is a noodle or a piece of meat that is very far away from you and you need to be able to reach far enough to get it.

See?

It's a good thing I stretched, or else I wouldn't have been able to get that noodle I really wanted.

Also, you need to work on your vocal chords and make sure that you can make loud yelling and screeching noises.

This is useful for when you run out of food or if you want a new kind of food, you can just use your vocal chords and yell really loud so your mom will get you more food.

Sometimes it helps if you work on your facial expressions so that you can tell your mom through your face things like, "Mom, this food is gross."

The face I'm making above says, "Mom, I'm done. Take this away."

See? It worked.

She took my food away like I wanted.

So, now onto cleaning yourself off after a meal.

If you are like me, you probably get food all over your tummy and legs.

I especially like to store food in between my thighs and my diaper so that my mom has to pull it all out.

Sometimes while she's pulling it out, I just reach down and grab another handful from where it's stored between my legs and diaper and eat more while she's cleaning me. 

It's like saving a little snack for later.

You also need to clean your feet.

Sometimes you drop the wash cloth, and that's okay.

Just pick it up again (as you can see, those stretches really are very important).

And if you want, you can also wave your washcloth around and make water fly everywhere, that is a fun thing to do and your mom will love it.

One final tip:

When you leave a restaurant, make sure that they know that you were there.

This is important.

Always leave a trail to mark where you've been.

It's especially helpful if you spit out the foods you didn't like on the floor so that the people at the restaurant know what foods don't taste so good at their restaurant.

Above, I spit out the broccoli and the carrots and tomatoes, because they didn't taste very good.

The restaurant people will love you more if you do this.

Well, those are all my tips for right now.

If you work on doing those things, you too can be an eating champ.

Love, Ella