Nine Months Old Today!

Here is our adorable baby Ella at nine months old today.  It's hard to believe that she has officially been outside of my body as long as she was "cooking" inside of it.  Our little Ella Avalon is just the sweetest thing.  The Hartland fam just loves her to pieces and can't get enough of her.  She is still by far our littlest baby which just makes her even cuter, but she is SO active!  Ella is nonstop motion and such a wiggle worm!  She barely lasts in Ron's or my lap for a few minutes before she wants down.  When she is down on the floor, Ella is everywhere.  She cruises all over our house exploring the various rooms and the objects in each of them.  She is fascinated with the bathroom and the shoes in the laundry room--both of which gross me out to no end.  Ella comfortably climbs stairs, walks along furniture, and even can let go and balance on her feet for a second or two before falling to the ground.  I keep on wondering when she will take her first step.  Ella has continued to eat more table food this month--she happily eats peaches, pear, cantaloupe, and bananas along with breads, tortillas, cottage cheese, sweet potatoes, and cheese.  She will also still eat any baby food sent her way.  However, Ella still has not even come close to mastering the drinking of water out of a sippy cup which is a bit worrisome to me as this is vital to weaning her and getting MY freedom back!  Ella still smiles, giggles, and coos whenever we give her any attention.  She has also started "talking" and constantly says, "Uh dah" as her favorite baby word.  Ella also continues to blow raspberries and just started clicking her tongue this past week.  It is the cutest thing!  She also just wrapped up having three colds back to back which took our wonderful nighttime sleeper and made her an awful nighttime sleeper who needed to be either rocked or nursed back to sleep almost every time she woke up.  Ron and I are trying to reverse that this week...so we shall see.  And that's our Ella in a nutshell!