Six, Seven, Eight, Nine Months

Poor Ella.  Second child syndrome is so bad I haven't kept up with her monthly post.

 May seems like years ago at this point so here's the latest on her now:

• She is still the happiest baby on the block.
• She says baba, mama, dada and makes a bunch of random other sounds and noises.  The weirdest one is when she clears her throat, clenches her jaw and bangs her hands on the table.  It looks scary but we think she's happy.
• She waves and says, “Hi!” and waves and says, “Baba!”  They are two difference waves.
• She LOVES to eat (hence the 20 pound and 10 ounce weigh in at her last appointment).  If she’s at the table, she wants to stuff her face full of food.  She’ll try to claw her way out of the highchair to get more food.  We had to move her away from Ruby because she tried to grab her food too.  Most meals it seems like Ella eats more than Ruby!
• On a related note, she has the stinkiest diapers in the world.  The minute you walk into her room it is clear that she needs a change.  Last week Grandma O'Brien said she had to open the windows it was so bad.  Haha.
• She spends her day crawling, pulling herself up, lifting her hands up in the air and free standing.  She falls on her bottom, crawls and does the same thing over and over and over.  She's been doing it for months now so we thought she'd walk even earlier than Ruby.
• She has two bottom teeth.  They must’ve hurt because for a few weeks our happy baby became grumpy.  I was worried but the happy girl is back.  The teeth actually bite things so she’s eaten some sponge from the play kitchen and Ariel’s tail from Ruby’s pool toy.
• Knock on wood, she’s still a good sleeper.  She sleeps from about 7:00 to 6:00 AM, wakes for one feed and goes back to sleep for an hour or two.  Her naps are also pretty good but the poor girl doesn’t have much of a schedule thanks to her big sister's activities.  We stay home for her morning nap but after that she’s on the go.
• She has a naughty streak.  She immediately spots the one thing in the room (i.e. a shoe, Ruby’s milk, a power cord, etc.) we don't want her to have and b lines for it as fast as possible.  If she successfully gets it, she looks back at us, turns and crawls as fast as she can to the farthest spot in the room.  When you get it away from her, she's pissed.  With so much attitude at nine months, we're afraid...very, very afraid.
• She recognizes all of us but still love, love, loves her big sister.  As soon as we hear Ruby's footsteps, her eyes are glued to the stairs waiting for Ruby to appear.  I hope this lasts forever.

In a nutshell, she is a chunkalicious bundle of happiness and we love her to death.