Hello Seven

Yeah, Ellie is pretty stunned it's been seven months already too.

She's getting better and better at sitting up.

Until she starts kicking, reaching for something, or laughing.

Ellie regularly puts her foot in her mouth. She discovered her feet a couple months ago, and diaper changes have not been the same since. Sometimes I wish that was on the list of questions they always ask about development at the doctor's office. "Now, does she regularly try to eat her toes? Good. And what about her pacifier? Can she spit it a good yard or more? Excellent."

This has become part of Brady and Ellie's daily routine. He comes home and takes Ellie for a little guitar time. She loves it. Her favorites are sea shanties.

Then I break the spell by using the flash so you can see her face.

We also took Ellie for her first visit to the farmer's market this month. I got her all dressed up in overalls and a straw hat. And everyone called her a boy.

But she quite enjoyed herself anyway.

Lately, Ellie's favorite place to be is outside on our balcony. For some reason it is very soothing to her to sit out there and watch the cars go by. Sometimes she leans forward and yells at each one as it passes, which is hilarious. It has been getting quite hot, so we set up this as her "swimming pool." Our apartment complex managers decided not to open the pool this summer (!) to keep costs down. We were so excited to take Ellie swimming because she likes to splash so much in her bath. We'll have to take her somewhere else I guess.

But here she gets all her favorite things: outside, cars to yell at, and splashing.

Lot and lots of splashing.

Less excited about wrapping up in her robe afterward, so not the photo-op I had hoped for, but you get the idea.

Things are getting a bit better with her eating now. The doctor increased the dose of medicine and her reflux seems much better. So now we are working on getting some better eating habits now that she seems to not be in so much pain with feedings. Still a bit of a struggle, but things are looking up on that front. AND she has started to sleep better again. The last two nights were the first time in several weeks that I have had four or more consecutive hours of sleep. The one time she does wake me up in the night before her morning feeding she has just needed a pacifier and we both go right back to sleep. I don't know if it's the cold she's had lately that's made her so sleepy or if the medicine is finally helping with her sleep too, but whatever it is, I'll take it.