Ella is Nine Months Old!

I can't believe it has been nine months since little Ella was born. She is changing so much every day. She is moving so much quicker and getting steadier and steadier on her feet. She pulls herself up on everything, bites it, and then slowly lowers herself to the floor again. She still only has her two bottom teeth, but she may be cutting a couple more soon with all the biting and fussing she has been doing lately. In the picture below, I finally captured her teeth on film!

Here Ella was climbing up on me, so I got a close-up. Now that she can pull herself up on things, no one is safe :)

Here is a video of her typical antics lately. Turn up the volume for the raspberry in the beginning--she has been blowing them all of the time now! She must like the feel, or she's just experimenting with what she can do with her mouth.

What really makes her look older to me is the fact that we can see her neck now. She still has those big cheeks, but she is losing some of her baby fat in her arms, face, and legs. Here is another video of her "cruising" and giggling too because Mom did something funny and then cheated by tickling to keep the giggles coming. Also, the cat is on the couch, and Ella's favorite game right now is "hunt the kitties to pull their tails." Luckily, Harry and Sally are very patient with her and have never swiped at her, but there have been times when she would have deserved it. She's still too young to understand the concept of "gentle petting" no matter how much we show her, so the cats are getting smarter about running away. The sad thing is that they get so little attention these days, they don't often run, opting instead to let Ella grab a fistful of fur or their tails. Poor kitties!