Well, our camera is on the fritz (it likes to conveniently drain our batteries right before any photo opp), but thankfully our video camera is not. So only videos for you all this time.
Ellie is now 9 months old! It is fun to watch her personality come out more... she continues to be a happy, calm, gentle, sweet girl. She is starting to be more aware now of mom and dad in a room full of people. Nonetheless, Ellie continues to love meeting and smiling at new people after about a 1 minute stare-down of checking them out.
She is really enjoying solids and I'm (Amy) having lots of fun filling up our fridge/freezer weekly with new blenderized concoctions for her to eat up. This weeks menu features a banana-peach blend that she has mixed with oatmeal for breakfast and for dinner/lunch she has her choice of broccoli-tofu or brown rice-spinach-black beans. Her pincer grasp is getting more and more refined which means we have to vacuum WAY more often because she picks up every little fuzz on the carpet. She can also bring her sippy cup up to her mouth, although she continues to prefer us holding a glass to her mouth and her slurping it up.
Last week she had her first trip in the swimming pool with friends Alli and Aurelia. We thought she'd love it since she enjoys her bath time so much, but she was a bit overwhelmed by the bigness of it all. She was like a little monkey the whole time, holding onto my neck. But she did start to smile after a while :) We'll keep trying- it's a great "out of the house" activity for us. From 3-4pm on weekdays it's "happy hr swim" which is $2 per person over age 1 :) and the pool is fabulous- it has a nice big shallow end with a soft bottom and little fountains for the kids to play in that shoot out of the pool.
Here's some clips of her latest skills:
Ellie's approximation of "So Big"
Ellie enjoying some "Baby Einstein Classical Tunes"
Ellie on all fours
Ellie is getting closer and closer to crawling. She is really quite efficient at cruising across the room now to get to her favorite things-- our TV cabinet, the shoe rack, or the long black laptop cord. She regularly rocks back and forth like this. And will sometimes do downward dog pose (where she lifts her bottom way up in the air and forms a triangle with her body) and also likes to lay on her side and strike a little pose. Some of our friends suggested we make a "Yoga Time with Ellie" video. Maybe :)
Ellie chowing down on some broccoli chicken blend- one of her favorites for sure!
A pre-bedtime tickle attack, courtesy of daddy.
If you're happy and your know it, surprise!
Ellie started clapping this last week. This first clip was taken on Tuesday and in this one she's copying me while I clap. The next one taken on Thursday, I just started singing the song and she clapped on her own! She even adds her own surprise ending. It was very exciting developmentally for me to see! :) It's her first really clear coordinated motor movement associated with a word/phrase!! Babies are so cool!!
With Modeling
Without Modeling
And in the other Lowe family news, David and I are starting to house hunt! We're very very excited :) After hearing from multiple multiple people that "now's a good time to buy" we decided to look into it, and lo and behold found out that now would be a good time for us. We're looking in the North Seattle/Shoreline area and would appreciate your prayers. We're in a great spot right now, in that there's really no time pressure on us- if we find something soon, great, and if not, that's okay too. But I do secretly hope to be in a house before her 1st birthday ;) and in time to do planting for summer fruits and veggies :)
