The Orange County Fair

We took Ella for her first visit to the Orange County Fair!  I heart the fair.  It reminds me of childhood.  I want to take Ella every year.  The funny part was that she was not so sure about the animals in the petting zoo, but she LOVED all the people walking around!

Very tentative while grandma feeds a goat...





We caught big mama during feeding time...the little piglets were SO cute!

Ella watched from afar...

Gary had to milk the giant cow...

My dad and I got those giant turkey legs for dinner...

We found a booth with tons of stuffed animals, which Ella found much more appealing than the real animals!



Ella's typical stance...feet up on her stroller bar, laughing at all the people!

Applause Please...

Ella is officially clapping!  She has been slapping her hands together once at time for a while, but yesterday, she would do it 3 times in row at once...this morning, she was a clapping fool!  It's so cute!

Ella Today

• For the past 3 days, Ella has slept in until 7 a.m., and this morning we had to WAKE HER UP at 7!
• Her right top tooth cut through today, and she couldn't be happier...maybe we'll make it easily through both top and bottom teeth!  
• She tried to eat her first piece of dog food today...how nice of Rylee to share...I pulled it out of her mouth before she swallowed it, but hey, it still counts as practice with finger food, right?

Another Weekend

On Friday, Ella and I went to the pool so she could play with her friends, Kaitlyn, Ryan and Logan.  It was her first time back in the pool since Vegas, and she did fine.  She didn't seem to like it as much as she did in Vegas, but she didn't scream either so that's a success in my book. ;)

Friday night, Gary, Ella and I went to Pomodoro for dinner, and then Devon and I went to a scrapbooking party at Marlena's house...which is funny since neither Devon nor I scrapbook...we've come to the conclusion that scrapbooking does not like us.  So it turned into a wine drinking party, and it was really fun!

On Saturday, Jen, Kylen and Paige stopped by, but Ella was sleeping so she didn't even get to play with Paige!  Paigey had lots of fun with Rylee though.  Gary, Ella and I went to the main pool in the afternoon (Ella WILL turn into a water baby!), and Gary took her in both the baby pool and big pool.  We started in the baby pool with no floatie...


Some practice floating on her back...

Then a little floatie time in the big pool...

Followed by a little dunking time...

Which wasn't super successful because Ella kept trying to drink the pool water!


The rest of the weekend involved dinner at Kimera, Sunday brunch, lots of errands, walks and Ella falling on her head about 25 times (seriously, when do you need to worry about all the falling?!!).  I bought some new clothes for Ella over the weekend (she is officially in 12 month size), and I just had to get some pictures of her in the adorable new plaid shorts I got her!



Oh, and two more things...in just a day, Ella is crawling on all fours A LOT. Much more than her army crawl (so I guess I was wrong, and she IS going to crawl). Two, her hair is out.of.control. Every time she wakes up from a nap, she has major bedhead sticking out all over the place!

Update on My Little Chicken

I can't even keep up with how much Ella changes and grows everyday! I need to keep up with the blog because I certainly don't write a thing in her baby book anymore.

She is becoming more and more mobile on a daily basis. She pulls herself up on her walker and the couch and can stand there for quite a while. She is still ALWAYS on her toes when she's standing, but she will take steps if you're holding her hands. She will now do a regular crawl on all fours, but she still much prefers her army crawl and usually gets around that way. It seems like the more mobile she becomes, the happier she gets.

She's getting much better at eating finger foods and will happily eat the chunky baby foods now (with pasta, whole peas, etc). She has a much better pincer grip and seems to really like string cheese.

She is getting so much hair!  I love it!  It's totally filling in, and I'm not ALWAYS making her wear a headband like I used to. ;)

She seems to adapt to change fairly well...we were BAFFLED over bathtime because she has always loved her baths except recently when I tried to put her in her blowup duck tub (which isn't much bigger than her infant tub) in the bathtub in her bathroom. She screamed and tried to claw her way out. So then we tried putting her infant tub in the tub in our bathtub, but she screamed and cried again. Next we tried having her take a bath with Gary in our tub. Nope, still cried. Finally, we tried putting her infant tub in the kitchen sink (which is how we used to do her baths when she was a newborn), and she STILL cried! WTF? It's the SAME tub no matter where it is!!! Well, we decided to keep trying, so tonight we tried the big tub in our bathroom again (and by herself with no infant tub), and she did great! Not one tear!

Tomorrow Ella and I are going to the pool with some friends, and it will be the first time she's gone in the pool since Vegas so we'll see how THAT goes.

Little Chicken Baby Boutique Launch Party

Julie hosted a launch party for LCBB (thanks Jurie, you're the best!), and it was a huge success!  Thank you so much to everyone who came over and supported my new venture...it means SO much to me.

Favors


Diaper/Wipes Clutches

Changing Pads

Hair Clips & Headbands



Burp Cloths & Bibs



Flowers, Food & People

Weekend Haps

I didn't really do anything except sew and run a few errands...I did have a SUPER fun Girl's Night Out with Devon, Sarah, Molly and Deanna at Opah on Friday.  Asian Pear Martini, Pineapple Breeze martini, spinach artichoke crab dip, french fries and prosciutto wrapped shrimp...enough said.

Ella spent A LOT of time with daddy.  I feel like I hardly spent any time with her all weekend. :(  I can't wait until next Sunday when I can finally breathe again!

On Saturday, Ella and Gary went to "Fan Fest" at the Anaheim Convention Center to start off All-Star Week.  They met up with Julie, Ryan and Olivia...but of course, I was sewing.

On Sunday Gary went to the Celebrity Soft Ball Game with Ryan so E got to show me over and over her new favorite thing...getting up to a sitting position by herself.  She is also now trying to pull herself up, but she hasn't quite figured it out (and yes, she was roaming around pantless because, well, I was just too tired to put them back on after changing her diaper).

By the way, despite the fact that she has stuffed animals and a doll, her new favorite thing is a "Bob the Builder" stuffed doll that my parents bought Gary before Ella was born...do I have a tomboy on my hands???  We think it's because it reminds her of daddy and grandpa. :)

Oh, and do they make a high chair with a straight jacket?

9 Months Old

Ella is 9 months old today!  She also had her 9 month well visit today (which also included 2 shots).  Her stats are as follows:

Height: 28 inches (70th percentile, although online says 74th percentile, and it's 85th percentile adjusted...I'm telling you, we have a super model on our hands!)
Weight: 19 pounds (55th percentile)
Head: 43.5 cm (40th percentile)

Dr. Abelowitz was so happy with her progress, and he said she is perfectly proportioned!  At least one of us is. ;)

She is eating four 6 oz. bottles a day.  She eats oatmeal at 8:00 a.m., an entire Gerber puree at 12 p.m. and another puree (about 1/2 container) at about 4:30 p.m.  She isn't really into finger foods, but we're trying.  She will eat puffs, but she hasn't quite mastered the pincer grip yet.  When I try bananas, she smooshes them in her hand, drops them and laughs as Rylee eats them.  The doctor said to try cheese and pasta, but I'm soooo scared of her choking!  She LOVES her purees...I swear I'm going to have a 5 year old eating all pureed food!  We are giving her water in her sippy cup once in a while- she is a champ at holding it while laying down but again hasn't mastered drinking from it while sitting up.  Sometimes she does but more often she sips it backwards or chews on the handles.

She is in a size 3 diaper and 6-12 month clothes.  She can wear 9 month size or 12 month size, but 6 month size is pushing it.  I'm starting to buy all 12 month or 12-18 month since she is getting so big!

She is babbling, screeching and yelling up a storm!  She's rarely quiet except when we aren't at home, when she becomes very observant and serious.  Rylee can still make her crack up by just walking by, but she is often quite serious.

 She has become VERY independent (where did she get that from?)...she will let you know when she doesn't like something or when she's bored, and you can forget about cuddling with her- she'll push off your chest when you're holding her until she is facing forward to see everything around her!  I think she is going to be quite a handful...and I can't wait!  I have met my match!

She started waving (at herself) recently and does it all the time!  For some reason, she was in a very good mood at the doctor's office and would not stop waving and 'talking' to Abelowitz...maybe she was flirting...he is good looking! ;)  I think she's going to be boy crazy (again, where does she get this stuff from?)...she loves the boys!  We were at Crate and Barrel the other day, and she was going gaga over a cute little 7 month old boy.

She still army crawls (very quickly) with one arm bent and one arm straight out.  She loves getting around this way and even though she gets on all fours and rocks, she doesn't seem at all interested in crawling that way...she did take a couple 'steps' backwards this morning, but then went immediately down to her army crawl again.  This week she started being able to get herself up into a sitting position by herself.

She is really our everything, and I just cannot resist this gorgeous face...