Despite my protests, Ella turned 11 months old

About Ella's little-girl self:

Says "nigh nigh" when we say goodnight to her.

Waves hi and bye when she feels like it. At Costco the other day she waved at every single person that walked by and said, "Ay. Ay. Ay." (hey) in her little alto voice as she waved. 

She has two different waves, one looks like she is doing an heil hitler sorta thing and she also does a backwards wave, where she waves at herself.

Says "Mmmmmm!" when I give a food she likes, like oatmeal or fruit or ice cream. 

And if she especially loves it, she says "nom nom nom" with each bite. 

I've never heard anyone actually say that before.

Says "Ayyyyyyy" and claps her hands whenever the word "Yay" is even slightly mentioned or when she feels like she deserves applause for something, like when she reaches the top of the stairs.

Says "Ah-dun" (all done) after I say it and also when she has decided that she's had enough of her car seat. 

Smacks her lips when you give her a kiss and imitates noises you make.

I really think that sometimes after I say something to her she repeats what I just said back to me because her babbling sounds so much like what I said to her.

Has the best cheese grin! And has 8 teeth with several more just about to break through.

When she is especially happy, she does this funny thing where lays down on her stomach, lays her head down on the floor, puts her hands down to her sides and bounces her bum up and down in the air.

Hums with music.

Eats just about anything. But her favorites are blueberries and raspberries, frozen or fresh.

Still sleeps 13-15 hours straight each night and naps twice a day for 1 1/2- 2 hours. 

As soon as we walk into her closet where she sleeps and start singing "You Are My Sunshine" she sticks that left thumb of hers in her mouth and goes right to sleep.

So curious about her world, she could explore all day. 

She loves finding new things and people-watching is her favorite thing ever! 

At the airport the other day, we were waiting for our plane and I had laid her down in the stroller and draped her blanket over it so that she wouldn't be distracted by all the people walking around the airport and hopefully she would fall asleep. After about 10 minutes of silence I peeked into the stroller, expecting to see her fast asleep, but instead I found that she had pulled herself up to a sitting position and was peeking through the blanket, just silently watching people, so content.

It's fun going places with her because people always break into smiles when they see her and stop to talk to us.

We meet the most interesting people because of Ella, it's so fun!