Months 9 & 10

9 Month Stats:
Weight: 16lbs 14oz (25%)
Height: 25.75in (2%)
Head:17.50

Dearest Daughter,

This update comes far too late, but it is here now. Your 9th and 10th months of life were busy, busy, busy. In October, you took your fourth airplane ride as we traveled to Stratford to say goodbye to your namesake, Paw Paw ER Bell. While you may not remember him when you grow up, his spirit lives with you. He loved you so very much and we are so thankful that you were able to meet him on several occasions. You did great on this trip, you are a natural flyer. Your daddy did a tremendous job at the funeral and you slept through most of it all. In October, we also celebrated your first Halloween. You dressed up as a bumblebee and you were precious. At 9 months, you found your voice--and by voice I mean a blood curdling scream. It's quite a skill. At 9 months, you have four teeth. I just love how your teeth make you look so different. At 9 months, you continued crawling with superb skill and mastered walking alongside the furniture. You still love your brother and sister and you light up and flap your arms when they walk in the room. Your love of food has grown--particularly table food including sweet potatoes, ritz crackers, graham crackers, and frozen blueberries. You love to be outside and enjoy watching the world around you. The grocery store also happens to be another one of your favorite spots--probably because everyone talks to you there. And boy do you like to be the center of attention. In November, we celebrated Jen Jen's 40th birthday and traveled to Spring Branch to share in this special day. We also traveled to Stillwater for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a great time there with our cousins. You did great in the car and slept like a champ the whole trip--I was hoping this was a turn for the better in regards to sleep--but upon arrival back it home, you resumed your old ways of waking twice in the night to eat and cuddle with mom. So it's been a really busy couple of months with all of this travel.

At 10 months you are also very close to walking. You are cruising everywhere and starting to let go and take a few steps--it won't be long now. You are still a petite little one, which makes it really funny to see you starting to walk. You also love to wave these days--its a new found trick and it's super cute. Elliana Bell you are a beautiful child with a joyful disposition. 

Your brother and sister have the whole selfie thing down--you are still working on it! 

You finally went to sleep on this flight. Look at that beautiful face.

Happy Halloween little bumblebee. You enjoyed the evening.

We celebrated Jen Jens' 40th birthday in grand style. Oh how I wish you could spend more time with this beautiful lady. She loves you so very much and I love her so very much.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our family in Stillwater. It was a great time. You loved hanging out with your cousins and being properly doted on. You also slept like a champ this trip, taking long naps and sleeping through the whole night. It was amazing.

You went on your first train ride as we hopped upon the Polar Express to meet Santa. You loved it. You danced and took it all in.

 You and Mimi dressed alike at Thanksgiving. It was pretty darn cute.

You have discovered you LOVE to eat. All sorts of things. And sometimes you like to sit on top of the highchair too.

 Oh how you love bath time. Seriously, you love the water...bath water, dog water, toilet water, puddles, it doesn't matter--if there is standing water--you will find it and play in it.

You were going to be an owl for Halloween, but in true Texas fashion it was far too hot for you to wear this costume. But we had to put you in it a few days later and it was as cute as could be.

You love shopping--especially when you can lounge like this while shopping.

Months 7 & 8

 

Dearest Elliana Bell-

You are now 8 months old. It's hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. You are a very busy little girl these days and growing so very quickly. You are a beloved child, despite momma's blogging record--just look at her instagram feed or facebook posts. Your life is being documented in other ways too :). At 8 months you weigh about 16lbs--so you are still a little nugget.

At 7 months we discovered your first tooth was coming in. It didn't seem to bother you much and then suddenly you starting cutting a second tooth on the bottom. At 8 months we discovered you had a top tooth coming in. I can't imagine your wide mouthed, toothless grin now with teeth. I am sure it will be just as beautiful as before. Your sweet open mouth smile is one of my favorite things about you, especially when I haven't seen you in a while. When I come home from work or daddy brings you to eat, you greet me with the biggest smile and arm flapping. You give the same greeting to your brother and sister every morning as well.  Your hair continues to grow and every once in a while (and Gigi would swear) that we see a little red in it. Wouldn't that be fun if you were a little red head like papa ER.

This smile says it all

You continue to love momma's milk and nurse 4-5 times during the day and you continue to not take a bottle (although you might now if we tried), but you also have developed an affinity for other foods. During your 7th month of life you discovered a love of baby food pouches and starting sucking those down like a champ. You also love mum-mums and puffs because that means you can be ms. independent and feed yourself. At 8 months, we have started giving you the food we are eating cut into small pieces. Just last night you ate potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes and loved them all. You picked them up like a champ and kept stuffing them in your mouth. Guess you liked dinner:) Pretty much if you can pick it up and put it in your mouth you will--good for food, bad for legos and hair clips and all sort of other little things we have floating around our house. You are a human vacuum sadly. Just last month you put a bug in your mouth at Barnes and Noble while momma wasn't looking--sorry about that. Your sweet siblings were distracting me.

Speaking of Barnes and Noble, you love books. You love to sit in our lap (well wiggle around in our lap) while we read stories. It's one of the few times you are sort of still. You are a girl on the move. you are a speed crawler, particularly if you we call your name. When those words "Elli Bell" come out of our mouths, you acknowledge us, and then quickly crawl in the other direction. Most often you are crawling into one of your siblings' rooms to play with their toys or vacuum up any small bits and bobbles that they might have left on the floor--including paper, legos, balls, etc. You have also discovered the dogs water bowl--and boy do you love it. Nothing better than splashing around in slobbered filled water huh. Your new favorite place to play is the pantry. It's full of all sorts of fun things to get into to. Fortunately, it is enough to keep you distracted while I am cooking dinner or packing lunches or cleaning up. I imagine that you will be walking soon, as you are pulling up and cruising around the furniture like a big girl. On occasion, you will let go and stand on your own for a bit. Your sister walked at 10 months which I thought was really early, but you may beat her record.

you like to be really close to me...including when i am in the bathtub.

At 7.5 months you gave me my first interrupted night of sleep--it was amazing, but only a one time thing. You have been doing better sleeping though, waking only once a night for a little snack and then going right back to sleep (although the last two nights, you have gone back to 2-3 times a night). We are trying to be more consistent about putting you down for naps in your bed (yes the one in our closet) so that you get used to sleeping in there more. It seems to be working better for you. You are ready for bed at 7:30pm almost every night and are very vocal about that. You generally sleep till about 7am. You still take 2-3 naps a day (one in the morning, one after lunch, and if you can, one around 5:30pm).

On September 11 you were also dedicated at church. In was a beautiful celebration of God's love for you and his love for us as your family. Mimi, Gigi, Clayton, and many of your friends and family came to celebrate this special day with us. Together our church family committed to raising you with God's guidance. Then that afternoon, we got to celebrate your brother and sister's birthdays. It was a grand celebration all around.

Sweet sisters in their baby dedication dress.

In the past few months you have tried  a few new things...You enjoyed your first swim in the water slide out back. We put it up for brother and sisters' birthdays and you had a blast.  You had your first swing in the baby swing out back--also a big hit.

 You are a true joy. Full of so much life. We are blessed by your presence in our lives.

  

Checking out bubba's halloween mask. It didn't scare you.

my sweet smiley girl

a little morning cuddle--just the girls

beautiful girl, so photogenic.

Months 5 & 6

Dear Girl-
Your momma is so sorry that I am delayed in posting updates about your life to the blog. You and your siblings keep us very busy these days--we wouldn't change it for the world, but it does make it hard to keep the blog going. Fortunately, there is facebook--which I seem to be able to update more easily :).

 

6 Month Stats
Weight: 15lb 4 oz (25%)
Height: 24.68(5%)
Head:  (75%)

You celebrated your five month birthday on June 31. Your daddy was gone to Egypt, Israel and Jordan at that time and your Gigi was here staying with us. While daddy was gone, we all took a little trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. It was a ton of fun and completely exhausting. You took the best naps of your life while we were there--probably because it was hot and really loud in the waterpark. When daddy returned we quickly packed the car and headed to Red River, NM for vacation. Okay, well we sent daddy and your brother and sister in the car and you and I hopped on a plane to Denver. When we were there we got to see Mimi and PawPaw Lynn's new house. After a day in Denver we headed to New Mexico. You loved New Mexico--mainly because you love being outside. We spent our days lounging in the hammock or hiking up the mountains. You were a trooper on our hike. I put you in the carrier on my back and you had a great time looking out at all the scenery. You were so comfortable that you took two great naps while on my back. You enjoyed getting to hang out with your cousins as well.

When we returned home you quickly found a new trick and starting sitting up on your own. It didn't take you long to master that skill and pretty quickly after that you started getting up on all fours. And then we knew we were in for it. Just about two weeks after learning to sit up on your own you also starting crawling, well worming on your own. You wormed for about a week and then you were full on crawling. At just over 6 months you are crawling!! What in the world. Your bubba didn't start crawling until 10 months, your sister crawled at 8 months. And you, you are just an overachiever. Perhaps its because you are petite--a good two lbs smaller than your sister was at this point and a about the same size your brother was. Or perhaps its just because you want to keep up with those two siblings of yours.


 





Speaking of siblings--you are well loved sister. Your brother and sister can often be found fighting over who gets to hold you or sit next to you or play with you. And, of course, you love it. Your brother and sister bring you such great joy. You continue to light up when you see them. You are such a very happy girl!! Seriously, you have  the greatest open mouth smile. When you smile your sweet blue eyes sparkle. You love life. You really do. You are probably our happiest baby. Perhaps this is because you are a wee bit spoiled. As in, you get held all the time and you still sleep with mom or dad most of the time. You still love being worn in the baby carrier and still take naps in it occasionally. If you are fussy a quick trip outside is all that is needed to help you regain your sweet and happy disposition.

You are still not a great sleeper--but I blame myself for that. You go to bed still about 7:30pm, but you are generally up between 11-1. At which point, I just put you in the bed with me. Then you proceed to snack throughout the night while I try to sleep :). Frankly, I am just too lazy to get back up and put you in your pack-n-play in the closet. Yes, sweet girl, you sleep in our closet. You don't have your own room, no you don't have a nursery. You just have a spot in our room. And despite the many sleepless nights your mom had over this reality, you seem no worse for the wear. You don't seem to care or notice. Matter of fact, you got have a sweet gig--getting to sleep with your momma every night. Lest you think it's just your momma who spoils you, let me tell you about your daddy. You see every afternoon between 1:30-2, your daddy takes you upstairs for a nap. By nap I mean a 2-3 our coma. You nuzzle right up to his chest and sleep like a rock for several hours. So yes my dear girl you are a bit spoiled--but we wouldn't have it any other day. You see your daddy and I have learned just how quickly these sweet days will pass.

You also started eating solid foods just before you turned 6 months. You didn't know what to think of them at first and promptly pushed it all out with your tongue. But you have gotten much better over the last few weeks. So far, there is nothing that we have found that you don't like. You love to grab at our food and watch our forks go from the plate to our mouths. I am confident once you have some teeth (which you are showing no signs of this far), that you will be ready to eat what the rest of us are eating. You are still a talker. When you are in Sunday School with us, you try to out talk your daddy when he is teaching. The louder he gets, the louder you get. It's really quite funny.

You are a busy little nugget and we love you so very much.  You have helped to complete our family and we are blessed to have you. I pray you know just how loved you are sweet girl.

Elliana Bell is 4 Months

Sweet girl you turned 4 months old on May 31. Unfortunately, we were in Stratford getting ready for your great grandfather's estate sale, so this post comes a little late. 

4 Month Stats
Weight: 12lbs 14oz (25%)
Height: 23.37in (12%)
Head: 16.5in (75%)

You are still a tiny little thing-smaller than your brother and sister were at this point, but your personality is just as big and just as fun as theirs. To see their updates from four months click here (Eli and Adi)

In the last month you have continued to grow and develop. Your personality is continuing to emerge and we are learning new things about you each day. Over the last month you have started rolling from front to back. You are really close to rolling back to front, but not quite there. We brought out the exersaucer at the beginning of May and you would have thought you were in heaven the first time we put you in it. Your face lit up as you discovered all the new toys in front of you. You have also discovered your feet--they are now a fascinating new toy. You love to grab them and put them in your mouth.

 

You are a very chatty little one. You have found your voice and you aren't afraid to use it. If we leave you and you can't see us, you are quick to let us know. You like being in the center of the chaos and you like to know that people are paying attention to you. You have developed this high pitched scream that is certain to gain our attention though--so not to worry, we do pay attention to you. When you wake up in the morning, you are ready to chat. Which is perfect since you are usually cuddled up in bed with me because I am too lazy to put you back in your bed after your second nightime feeding. It's the best to wake up with you because you are so so so very happy. Recently you have discovered your feet as well. So our new morning routine involves you playing with your feet and telling me all about your night. You are a pretty good sleeper--although you aren't sleeping through the night. You become very crabby about 7:30 or so and are generally ready for bed about that time. You tend to sleep until 2-3am when you demand a little nighttime snack. Then you wake up again about 5am for another little snack and some early morning cuddles.

You are getting better at taking a bottle. Your dad and I went on a date and your sweet aunt Cece was able to get you to take a bottle and fall asleep. Small steps...but we are hopeful that you will continue to grow to like the bottle as mom does have to go back to work sometime :). You still love your brother and sister and light up whenever they come near. And let me just tell you, they love you more than you will ever know. Your big brother is constantly checking in on you and making sure you have your paci or a blanket or whatever you might need. And your sweet sister loves to hold your hand and kiss on you. When Adi wakes up in the morning, the first thing she asks about is you. I pray that you all are the best of friends.

You don't like your carseat much. This is why we all flew from Dallas to Amarillo for Papa ER's estate sale. We had a blast taking you and your brother and sister on the airplane and staying in a hotel and all. We spent 10 days in Statford getting ready for and hosting the estate sale--10 long days. You were a champ though. Everyone remarked on what a good and happy baby you were. Of course, you were either being held or worn most of that time :). Your aunt Vicki got to spend some more quality time loving on you. Your pawpaw Lynn also got to meet you for the first time--he was pretty smitten too.

Elli Bell, you are a true joy. You light up any room you are in. You are a beautiful child with a joyful spirit. We are blessed to have you in our family.