Ella had her half birthday on Wednesday.
She is the happiest baby you ever did meet. She smiles all the time and laughs easily. She thinks her brother is hilarious, she particularly likes looking at herself in the mirror, and she thinks fart noises are funny. She is a charmer, smiling at everyone she meets. Walking around with her in the carrier at the grocery store, she was 90% asleep but still managed a smile for the man who couldn’t help me find cannelloni beans. She even, on occasion, manages to charm the toughest audience of all: her brother. When she turns that bright smile on him, she can make him cross the room to interact with her. Even the cat seems to like her!
She cries only when she’s hungry or sleepy. She has two crooked teeth on the bottom and they didn’t seem to cause her any trouble at all. She’ll get pretty noisy if you’re not paying attention to her for too long, but she’s happy to chill out and watch for a while. She’s a great, calm observer, but there’s a little gleam in her eye that makes me suspect there’s some scheming going on in there.
She sits up for short periods– a skill she’s been working on since three months. She rolled over front to back a bunch of times around four months, but I haven’t seen her do that in a while. (Does that matter?) She rolled over back to front and cried around 3:00 a.m. one night last week, but apparently she learned her lesson, because she hasn’t done that again!
She sleeps easily at night. We put her down around 7:00 and she cries for a minute or two and then goes to sleep. (No sleep training was required, thank goodness, because I couldn’t have handled it!) Occasionally she still gets up for a few ounces in the night, but mostly she’ll sleep till 5:00 or, the past week or so, past 6:00 (and yesterday until 7:30!) She only takes naplets during the day– two to three half hour deals, though not infrequently she wakes fully refreshed after three to five minutes, which is basically fine.
Her eyes are blue blue blue and what little hair she has is light. In certain lights, it looks positively golden, which is a shock for her brown-eyed brunette parents. She’s got adorable, huge, apple red cheeks. Her checkup is next week and I’m eager to see if she remains above the 97th percentile for height, which is what I’ve come to expect from my children!
She’s our miracle baby in every way, and I just can’t believe how lucky we are.
Thanks for sharing. I’m glad things are going so well.
She sounds like a dream. What a sweet baby. It’s a wonderful age, with the best yet to come. I LOVE 10 months-13 months. The pulling up and the zombie walking are my favorite.
So wonderful! And such a loving post!