Singing Ella

Sorry the picture is so bad. However this is a great audio clip of Ella singing while Jon plays cello. 

Cross Country

A little Ella/Daddy time between races

    Jon is an amazing father, and Ella would almost always rather be with him than with me. If he could nurse her, she might never need me. (I tell myself that if she were with him all day, she prefer me for the bits of time I were around, but I don't know that I really believe that.)
    Jon is also an amazing coach. He gets kids excited about running in middle school and builds a really strong team by the time they get to high school. They aren't necessarily the most talented, but they love running, and train so well, that they do extremely well. This year they took a very solid 2nd place at State (2nd only to a team that has won 15 of the last 17 years).
    I feel very fortunate that I am able to stay home with Ella, so that I am able to get us to most of Jon's events without feeling like I spend all my time in the car or at school. I get to be a mom all day, and I get to see what Jon does. Autumn is my favorite time of year and we were blessed with a fairly warm one, so Ella and I enjoyed all but one of his races. I even knew all of his kids names, so I could cheer for them by name this year!
    The cross country season is officially over, and we have started to get Jon back earlier and earlier. I love being outdoors, and cheering for his team, but I also love having a little bit more family time. Let's enjoy this post-season, Ella; track starts in a few months. We've got more names to learn.

A Case of the Sillies

   Ella recently started initiating peek-a-boo. Her version usually involves jamming her fingers in her eye and pulling her eyelid around, while leaving the other eye slightly uncovered. If there is one thing I know for sure, she enjoys life. This girl finds herself hilarious, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
  

Signing

Ella's "more". Opa must have been tickling her with his mustache.

When Ella was about six months old, we started using a bit of sign language ourselves at meal times. We'd occasionally take her hands and imitate what we had done. I was told that maybe around nine months, she would start signing back. Nine months came and went and the closest thing we had to a sign was Ella ferociously flapping her arms when she wanted "more". To be honest, this is a sign that she came up with that would have been clear to anyone who knew her or not that this was her "you better help me get some more of that delicious food into my mouth quick" sign. Almost as soon as she turned ten months, signing clicked. She all of a sudden would do "more" without being prompted at meal times. One day soon after, Jon said "in order for her to get more zwieback, she's going to have to say "more please". I laughed at him, but the next day at lunch, I showed her "please", and she tagged it right on to the end of "more" herself. Zwieback has been the biggest motivator in Ella's little world. In that same meal, I jokingly showed her "thank you", and (after she took her bite, of course) she did it. (I'm not sure I've seen that one since.) Sometimes, if she is really excited about something and I'm a little slow, she'll run though "more" and "please" over and over.

The first time she used a sign in a non-meal setting, blew my mind. I am amazed at these little brains and the way they make connections on their own. I was carrying her though the kitchen on my way to the bedroom, and she saw my water bottle and signed "please". The next day, as Jon was going out the door for school, she kept signing "please" as she watched him go out the door. (Kind of sad really, but nice to know what she is thinking, even if she can't get what she wants. She didn't cry when he left, but she got an extra hug because we knew what she wanted.) She also just recently signed "please" when she watched me walk up the driveway after a run. This makes me really happy because I sometimes feel like she is way more excited about her daddy than her mama.

I've heard people speculate that a baby who signs is likely to speak later than she would otherwise. I don't know if that is true or not. I guess I don't care too much. I want her to be able to communicate in whatever way she is capable of. I talk to her all day long, but it's clear to me she's not on the verge of saying much. She makes plenty of noises and different consonant sounds (heavens, she even whistles on occasion) and she can imitate a motorboat sound. I'm not concerned about her not talking, I know she'll figure it out when she is ready, and for now I'm going to enjoy not being screamed at for more food.*



*Although, all signing knowledge goes out the window when ice cream is involved. She's only tasted it once, and after that instance, I'm not tackling it again any time soon. I do understand though, of the 8 lbs 3 oz Ella was when she was born, probably about 8 lbs of it was ice cream.

Kansas City Marathon and Other More Important Things

At the beginning of the summer, I decided I needed to start running regularly again. Jon and I signed up for a 5k, and my goal was pretty much just to finish. After that, Jon made a schedule for me with the goal of running the KC 1/2 marathon in October. When Kari said she wanted to do a marathon in the fall, I was able to persuade her to to KC. So selfish of me, and it worked! I got to see her whole family for a long weekend. YAY! The race turned out fine - I was more than 20 minutes slower than my best time, but I'm happy with it.. There were, of course more important things than the marathon . . . like our beautiful daughters getting to play together. 

kiss prep

laughing it up after the kiss

Marykate and Ella have changed so much since last time they were together in July. They've noticed each other briefly before, but this time they interacted more. This has much to do with them both being mobile. At one point, MK crawled next to Ella, took her face in her hands, and kissed her. Ella gave MK a hug. They both liked to unload bookshelves together. Ella liked to try to get MK to chase her - it worked occasionally, but most often MK would find something on the way to Ella to play with and forget about her pursuit. They also had times of wanting their own space; MK was good at spinning her back to Ella, so she couldn't take away her toy. I know the day will come when they argue about sharing toys, but this time they seemed mostly indifferent and would move on to the next thing. They have alot in common, but also show some personality differences; I'd say both are really happy, easygoing babies, but Ella is not afraid of new people but quiet, while MK is a bit (although probably only a bit) shy at first and then loud. This is a fun age for many reasons, and I look forward to seeing their friendship grow.