Ellie @ 10 months

This post is a few days late due to our Vacation to Arizona, so here it is now while she's technically 11 months now (what!?) these pictures and happenings are from her 10 month old days.

Ellie is showing us more and more who she really is. I feel like this month especially. She's as sweet and mellow as ever, but theres some sass deep down inside. And boy, is she an adventurous little one. Austin and I were talking while the girls were playing with some friends in the backyard, I can't remember how it got brought about, but I said something like "Ellie is such a watcher". Austin then disagreed. I was wrong because Ellie is a doer if there ever was one. She's brave and not afraid to fall and get dirty. Maisie was always so cautious and while she's a ham, it took a lot to push her to come out of her shell to try new things, mostly physically (learning to walk, climb, jump). Maisie would get on a stage and sing her heart out without hesitation, but climbing up stairs or getting down from a high spot? No way... at least not until recently. So it's so funny to see that there spiritedness is so different. 

Maisie: high energy, social butterfly, performer, cautious and hilarious.

Ellie: mellow, go with the flow, quiet, adventurous and brave. 

They are complimentary to each other and it makes me so excited seeing how they will help shape each other and become better because of it.

Anyway, back to Ellie can you believe she's going to be ONE in less than a month!?

likes:

The kitchen, but more specifically the dishwasher or water dispenser:

Pointing at things.

Trying to put her fingers in our mouths. She especially loves doing it to Maisie because Maisie will actually open her mouth for her. She even tries to forcibly stick her finger in my mouth when I'm nursing her, which makes me laugh and so she wins.

Food... finally! yayyyyyy! She will pretty much eat anything we give her now, she mostly likes real food I.E whatever we are eating, but she has also come around to purees. Mostly fruit mixes, but hey I'll take it!

Hiding in the bathroom and trying to climb into the tub, she tries to hoist her little leg over the side, but she's still too short. I can't tell you how many times we have found her like this:

Music of any sort, she loves to enthusiastically bounce up and down, shake her head and stomp her little feet.

Exploring outside the more dirt, sticks and leaves the better she likes it:

Dogs- Maisie even at this age, was terrified of dogs. 

Where there are dogs there is a water dish and where there is a water dish, there is Ellie.

Being held. She still likes to cuddle a lot which I am totally fine with :)

Swimming. She loves being in the water, trying to drink the water and float around in her floaty. If Maisie or her cousins push her around the pool the better:

Birds of any sort, but especially the pigeons that have decided to make their home in the rafters above our porch and deck. If only we liked them as much as she does, but we don't... so they are about to meet their demise if they don't choose to relocate soon. 

Sitting in the stroller without being in her carseat:

dislikes:

hot cars

More than 2 minutes of wrestling with Maisie.

Diaper changes (still).

Too many hugs, kisses, back pats from Maisie. Ellie is pretty vocal when she's not in the mood for playing, but Maisie is persistent so this leads to Ellie screaming dramatically until someone rescues her or she manages to escape her big sister's grasp.

activities:

First trip to Arizona where she finally met her Nana and Papa (my parents) hence all the swimming and how we discovered that she likes dogs and hates getting into ovens hot cars.

Loves the song "the wheels on the bus" but the wiper part is her favorite, she happily swishes her arms and shakes her head. She also does the arm movement and head shake if we say "P U" as in she has a stinky diaper, but she scrunches her nose and squints her eyes. It's really cute.

She's calmed down on her walking a lot, I was convinced that she was going to be full on walking soon, but I think she realizes that she gets around a lot faster by crawling because she will start taking a few steps and then will purposely fall and crawl to her desired destination.

Falling asleep on us. She will just crawl over and lay in our laps and fall asleep. Even with maisie running around or with the tv on. It's pretty surprising and its making me wonder if its contributed by the following:

1)The warmer weather and our lack of ac? It does get toasty.

2)That I am failing to see her tired cues? Probably.

3)She prefers to cuddle over being alone in her crib? I mean, who can blame her for that one?

Regardless, I love it. Maisie was always so particular where she slept and couldnt have any distractions because she always wanted to be apart of the action. Ellie showed early signs of this too, mainly because Maisie would make her excited to play, but I think the novelty of it is starting to wear... or it could be that Maisie really likes forcing Ellie to wear something, go somewhere or wrestle past her limit... sooo maybe Ellie is sleeping on me for refuge. haha

Asleep on Daddy:

Asleep on Mommy:

More sleeping pictures because who doesn't love a sleeping babe?

sleeping at Nana & Papa's:

sleeping at the hotel:

We all just love Ellie to pieces. She's our little buggy, bah-bah (Maisie has called her that since we first brought her home from the hospital) and muffin. We're so glad she is apart of our family.