Forty-Three Weeks Old

Man, time flies. I swear I had only missed blogging last week, but apparently it's been two weeks...oh my!

Ella still isn't crawling but she certainly has the backward scoot down along with the combat roll. She can find her way around a room pretty easily...I can't imagine what it's going to be like once she is actually crawling! Ella is getting stronger and stronger as she can now support herself while standing at her nursery rhyme cube too. Yikes...our baby is growing SO fast!

Ella has also figured out how to not only take things out but now put objects in. She will 'deposit' balls into the mouth of one of her toys as well as place balls through a hole in another one of her toys. Ella will also sit next to her toy basket and one by one take a toy out, play with it, put it down, and choose another toy. You can tell when Ella is working hard as her little tongue will stick out...they say that's a sign of genius, right?!?

Speaking of her little tongue, from day one she has enjoyed playing with her tongue. In the hospital she would often stick it out like a lizard. Then she had this phase where she would use it as a windshield wiper on her chin (which resulted in a chapped chin). Ella also enjoys grabbing it. But her latest trick is turning it completely over (upside down?) in her mouth. Go ahead and try it...neither Todd nor I can do it...can you?

Ella has also been putting her arms up in the air more and more when she wants us to pick her up. I think it's one of those really cute things babies do...maybe because it makes you feel so loved and wanted.

Furthermore, Ella enjoys playing with and dancing to her Leap Frog table top which plays music whenever she opens or moves something. In fact, Ella is becoming a little dancer. She will groove to almost any music!

For as happy and smiley of a baby Ella has been, she's never been one to really laugh. You know, that belly laugh we all love to hear from babies. However, within the past month or so it has become increasingly easier to get her to laugh. The easiest time is when she is super tired, just a bounce up in the air or getting close to her face will send her laughing.

Ella has gotten a third tooth but it's not one of her upper central incisors. Her upper left side incisor has broken through. I'm having a small fear that Ella will get all her teeth except her two front teeth...ha ha ha!

Ella is also consistently sleeping 8-11 hours now...finally!! On average she will sleep from about 7:15pm to 6:00am. She still has her nights when she wakes up at odd times (12:15am, 1:30am) but we are getting better at leaving her to cry it out - especially when we go in and she is ready to play once she sees us. My rule of thumb is that if she wakes before 3:00am, we let her cry it out. Anything past 3:00am I will feed her. However, the mornings she sleeps until 6:00am means that after I feed Ella she is up for the day which translates to no more sleeping in. Therefore, I sometimes don't mind waking up at 4:00 or 5:00am to feed Ella because then it means she will go back to sleep until at least 7:30 or 8:00am! But then again, finally getting 7-8 hours of consecutive sleep is nice too!

This past weekend Todd and I moved Ella into a new room. This was prompted by the fact that it was time to lower her crib. Since we've been talking about moving her to the other room, we decided to take this opportunity to do it. I was unsure because it is the room at the top of the stairs and next to the guest bathroom - I didn't want her to be disturbed while sleeping. But I am SO glad we did it!! First, the furniture fits much better in the new room. It's no bigger than the other room but the placement of the closet frees a whole wall. And it's just got good Fung Shui. I never understood what that really meant until I was sitting in the rocker in the new room - it's very calming...weird but true!

In the meantime, I have applied to work part time next year through a job share with another teacher at my school. The way we have proposed is for each of us to work every other week, but not a traditional week. For example, on my week I would work Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then have off Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. This would work great for many reasons in kindergarten! Although job sharing is currently being done in many other area school districts like Orchard Park, North Tonawanda, and Ken-Ton it has yet to be done at the elementary level in Clarence. We expect to hear by March 1st from our Superintendent. If it is not approved maybe it is a sign I should take another year off???

Although I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day (shouldn't we be showing each other every day how much we love him/her), have a great holiday weekend!! I'm not sure what Todd is more excited for...the dinner we're going to be making together on Saturday, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, or his day off on Monday!?!?