Nine months old today

Wow, that is a scary thought. Ella's nine months old! She's into everything, crawling, pulling up, walking around the sofa, grabbing everything she can reach, climbing the stairs... she is in perpetual motion. She has finally realized that she can't yet walk by herself, and is very cautious when she lets go of whatever piece of furniture she's using to hold herself up. She now crawls on her hands and kness all the time, no more army crawling. She wants to play with anything and everything that is not a toy- her favorites are phones and remote controls. She has an old remote that we don't use, and old cell phone that we don't use and an old phone that are hers to play with-- well, she's no dummy. It's very obvious to her that Mommy and Daddy don't use them so she has no use for them either. She will pass by all of them to get to the real remote or one of our cell phones.

We went to the park today and found out that Ella loves to swing. We 've been with her on porch swings before and she enjoys that, but put her in the swing at the park by herself and she's in hog heaven. She's getting used to the umbrella stroller but I think she's not very happy with it because it's not high enough for her to see everything that is going on. But it sure is easier on me than lugging the big one in and out of the car. I think if she could spend all day in a grocery cart she'd be perfectly content. Or in the bathtub. That is still her favorite place to be. If i take her into any bathroom and put her on the floor she will crawl to the tub, pull herself up and try to climb in. Lifting her little leg trying to find something to give her a boost. When we put her in she splashes and chews on her toys and blabs away, loving every second of it.

She's still a little chatterbox. No "real" words yet but she's starting to understand the concept of conversation. She'll say something then wait for someone to respond before continuing on with her story. We've been watching a Baby Signs video with her pretty much everyday that she loves. It's the only way to get her to sit still for ten minutes. The first sign they go over is for the word "book" and about the time they move onto the next one she's over it and is ready to move on to something else, but I think she's getting it. Now when we turn the video on and she hears the intro song she'll put her hands together and say "ook" over and over. She's not quite got the sign down yet but I think it's encouraging that she puts her hands together like she's trying. The biggest problem is we can't get her to sit still long enough to read any books to her. We have to time it just right, usually right after she wakes up, so sadly, even though she may know the word she really has no frame of reference other than the books shown on the video. But we're working on it! As for other videos or shows she's not all that interested. Occassionally she'll stop what she's doing for a minute or two if the channel happens to land on Noggin but she's really not that into the TV at all. Which is fine by us. But boy, you turn on the Baby Signs video and she drops everything to watch it.

Just to celebrate the occasion here are a couple of funny pictures from lunch yesterday, where she decided that the food would be better on her head than in her tummy. Of course, she had already had her bath at this point in the day so I think she did it on purpose knowing I'd have to put her back in there. She's a genius you know ;)

More fun with the Brundage family

Last weekend the Brundage gang came over to cook out. I cannot believe how big Logan has gotten, she's 6 months now, and Riley will be three in October. Ella absolutely loves playing with these girls. Funny story, Riley is in the final stages of potty training but they still are really careful with her, asking her a lot if she has to go, just to avoid any accidents. At one point she says she needs to go and wants "Ella's mommy" to go with her. There are no words to express how sweet I think it is that she's known Bryan and I since she was about 3 weeks old and she's never once said our names... now we're Ella's mommy and Ella's daddy. So cute! Anyway, we head into our downstairs half bath, where Bryan has just hung some pictures of Ella. In one she's sitting in a white whicker chair, wich Riley is quick to notice. She looks at me and says, "Ella's sitting in your chair, Ella's mommy." So I respond with, "yes, Riley she is sitting in a chair!" her sweet, angelic face looks up at me, cracks a huge grin and, shaking her head, says, "That silly ol' Ella!" I about lost it, it was so funny and cute and precious and I adore that litte girl!

Look out LPGA

It's been a year since The Cardinal opened the new and improved golf course... and I just saw it for the first time yesterday. Pretty sad, huh? I'll blame it on being pregnant all last summer and lazines this summer. But yesterday Bryan and I decided, since Ella attended her first PGA Tournament last weekend, we should give her a chance to swing the sticks this weekend. She was so great! We only played the front nine but she was awesome the whole time, she crawled all over the place to get to the balls, drove the cart, and had an all around good time. It was a perfect day to be on the course weather-wise and there wasn't anyone behind us so we got to take our time and just enjoy the family outing. No surprise to anyone, I'm sure, Ella was sporting her new shirt from the Wyndham Tournament last weekend...

The new Mr. & Mrs. Gunter

Two weekends ago we had the pleasure of attending the Ellison-Gunter wedding in Greenville, SC. Daniel, the groom, is pretty much responsible for Bryan and I meeting and I've been friends with his family forever. The weekend was fantastic... good food, good drinks, good friends, GREAT music. Daniel is a bit of a music snob... if it's not The Breakfast Club he's not interested. So, of course, they had to play at his reception. Which is the reason for all the aviator sunglasses. Everyone had a blast! Above are some great shots I wanted to share.

Better late than never?

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've posted anything and that is totally my fault. Since I last was one here it seems like we've travelling non-stop! Here's a quick recap- we went to Ocean Isle Beach with (almost) the whole Bingham clan and had a blast, as always. It's nice to have a whole week to visit with the family and catch up. Downside, Bryan got me sick. Then I got Ella sick. Then Ella got everyone in Bryan's family sick, and my mom sick. After disinfecting our entire house I think all the germs are gone and we're back to normal.

We headed back to Sunset Beach for an ASHRAE conference for Bryan... lot of work for him, lot of pool time for me, Ella, and Nate. I think we got the best end of the deal! However, all Bryan's hard work paid off because he was awarded the Rudy Ferguson award, the highest award in his region... way to go B!

Here's a quick slide show of the highlights of our family time over the last month...