Ellie: 9 Months

Ellie is *APPROXIMATELY* (based on my rough measurements, will update tomorrow after her 9 mos check up) 29 inches tall and weighs 19 lbs.

She is officially a green hazel eyed blonde.

She wears 18 mos clothing comfortably, now. Most 12 months are too tight and short.

She loves fluffy sparkly dresses, bows, mommy's jewelry, and trucks.

Something new was she learned to clap her hands at the beginning of the past month and give a high five- thanks to her Daddy who taught her! Eric is am amazing daddy! He reminds me of my daddy with all the sweetness, excitement and thrill, and doing anything and everything to make his baby girl happy and to make her laugh! I love watching them play together! She has learned "all done" in sign language and does implement it to tell me she is finished with food...unless she is just completely over it- then she slaps her tray and throws her food on the ground.

We continue working on walking and stable standing without holding anything. She can stand alone but when she does it is like it freaks her out and she plops herself down as if to save herself from falling...ironic. Ha!

Ellie loves to kiss us- including Blondie, to be tickled, and to tickle other people's feet, be chased, wave hello, squeal very loudly with joy, eat, play outside, play peek-a-boo, and walk with her walker.

Ellie does not like the vacuum cleaner. I get a very good work out holding her in one arm and pushing that thing around. She looks at it like it is the most mean and suspicious thing. It does have a really loud roar and squeaky wheel. She holds onto me with a death grip.

She says, "Hey, Dada, Mama," "Blondie" - which sounds like "blah" or "blon", "Cajun", which is pronounced by her as "Cay-cay, Cay, Cay-zhun".

She is obsessed with other people's dogs. She is a dog lover to the extreme. Just like Mommy and Daddy. Every morning, she looks for Blondie and Cajun, cranimg her neck and whipping her head around to find them. When she does, she smiles so big and says, "Hey!"

Ellie started this month off with flashing me a TWO toothed pearly smile. How incredibly exciting to see her growing and to see these little teeth that are part of her smile!! Beautiful!! I am definitely the mom who will be bargaining with the tooth fairy to keep her baby teeth. I know....its a little weird. But I am so in love with her. Baby teeth and all.

Ellie celebrated her very first Easter this month. On April 1, as a matter of fact. The same day she turned 8 months, and April Fools, of course. Big day. To celebrate her first Easter, Ellie, Eric and I introduced Ellie to the traditions Eric and I have shared in all of our past Easters together. Therefore, once Ellie woke up, she came downstairs to hunt for all the Easter eggs the bunny left. Ellie had sparkly/glittery Easter eggs. Then, amidst the egg hunt, she had to also find the Easter basket the Bunny filled and hid. She found it hiding with another egg behind the couch. She looked through her basket to discover the Bunny had brought her bubbles, a stuffed bunny, some books, race cars, and a princess dress up kit. Then, we went to church together as usual and we were joined by Mimi and G-Daddy. After service, The three E's went to Mimi and G-Daddy's for lunch.

We continued our hiking this month and made some new friends I feel like we have known for years. Ellie and I performed a Hike It Baby 30 challenge and saw so many beautiful waterfalls, friends, and views. I LOVE where we live! We finished the challenge together accumulating 62.82 miles total.

Ellie got to have some good cousin time which as always is very important to me. She had many play dates with them. She had play dates with Sam, and Grant and Miles. She also made some new friends, hiking! She learned how to kiss from Sam, who gave her a sweet kiss one day. Now she kisses Mommy ALL the time and I just love it!!! She also discovered she could kiss her other baby friends. Is there anything cuter than a baby kiss?! She holds you, then slowly leans in, mouth wide open, little tongue somewhat stuck out, then she lays that wet little mouth on you and holds it there for a second. The sweetest!!! She kisses her baby dolls and puppies now, too.

We took Ellie to the Greer International Festival that Eric and I have attended since its very first year. We love it. It was the best ever this year because we got to share it with Ellie. She got to attend a petting zoo, make a mask, and dressed as if she were from South Korea (and so did I!)

Ellie went to pick strawberries for the very first time with me. We wanted Daddy to be able to join us but with our weekends booked at least until June, there was no other time apart from during the middle of the week. Ellie loved the experience. She picked a strawberry from the patch and ate it entirely and nibbled another. Now, every morning, Ellie goes to the open refrigerator (as I am working from it myself) and grabs herself a strawberry and plops down to eat it. (The bucket is at the very bottom.)

We also went hiking with our good friends, the Hardy family. Ellie and Sam held hands, played in the dirt, and watched the creeks and waterfalls together during a 7.67 mile hike at Jones Gap Falls and Rainbow Falls. Time with them is always so so so much fun!

We ended her 8th month to bring on 9 months with attending the Peter Rabbit Festival at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens. It was positively incredible! We arrived a little late and there was so much to do and only 2 total hours but it was soooo perfect! We met Peter Rabbit himself, saw Beatrix Potter herself, saw Mr. McGregor's garden, petted several fluffy rabbits, saw many wild animals and farm animals, and got to experience the feel of many animal skins, and paws, wear rabbit ears, and attend an interactive nursery rhyme musical performance where she played with drums, scarves, bells, egg shakers, and a tamborine. She got to keep two egg shakers, too! She loved it!!! Now to purchase her more little musical instruments to have at home and explore with! There were many more activities they hosted at the event but we had to pick and choose with the limited time we had. There was a scavenger hunt, and story time with a farmer, and games! A totally free event. So thankful for the people that put these on so our baby can learn, explore, and play!

I can't wait to see what her 9th month of life brings! We love you, Baby Ellie!!