A 9 Month Old Update!

 

This little monkey turned 9 months this week! and this is about the only good picture we got! because she spent the rest of the time on the move!

Mostly trying to rip down that bunting! she loves paper more than anything right now! She always manages to eat a corner of an envelope just in between the 10 metres it takes for me to walk down the hall from collecting the post each morning! the little rascal! 

Backwards shuffling on her belly was her way of trying to avoid the photoshoot! She backed herself into a corner under a chest of drawers!

and then started trying to roll over!

and even a bit of standing too!

Eventually the bunting had to be done away with before she destroyed it forever, we've still got 3 more months to go!

Phew, that was hard work! Despite not actually being able to crawl she sure knows how to move! and her 9 month old self is a real wriggler! 

She's been rolling over far more than she ever has done in the past! In fact she's so keen to roll as soon as you put her on her belly that I struggled to get this video!

                              

and she was very pleased with herself when she discovered she could sit herself up from lying down! All those stomach crunches back in the day paid off!

                              

At the beginning of the month, she started making da sounds which soon turned into dada! We managed to record a little clip of her doing it on the first day she was putting the sounds together! Byron was delighted...I upped my efforts in teaching her the ma sound meanwhile...

                             

and two weeks ago we finally got the first mama, and we've been hearing it lots ever since (even more than dada now!) which makes me very happy!!

                             

We also started teaching her the 'more' sign at the beginning of the month to use during meal times so she can tell us when she wants more.  Within a week she was using it independently! and she now uses it to tell us when she's hungry too away from mealtimes which is very helpful indeed! 

                             

So there's been lots happening! She is really growing into such a little person and you can tell her understanding has increased so much! She understands when I say 'shall we sing a song' and her eyes light up in anticipation of which song I'm going to pick! When I say 'let's read a book' she looks over at the books and knows we're about to pick one! and she also understands when I say 'let's watch baby Jake' and she claps her hands with glee! We have a big baby Jake fan over here! She watches one episode a day, and is mesmerised from start to finish...in fact it's the only time she'll willingly let you snuggle her and hold her hand so baby Jake time is special for both of us!

She also had her first trip to the zoo, we checked out the Welsh Mountain Zoo which is just nearby to us in Colwyn Bay and we were really impressed with how good it was!

We started off watching the sea lions, doing all kinds of clever tricks like catching frisbees...

but Ella's attention was elsewhere! yep she was checking out the regular old blackbirds and seagulls! We should have told her you get to see those for free!

but she is a huge bird lover!

and you can bet if her eyes are elsewhere in a picture it's because she's spied some birds!!

So we took her to the actual aviary, much to her delight!

This is her wide open mouthed 'wow' face!! She was mesmerised by all the bird action in there! it was so cute!

and what's even better than watching seagulls in the sky? chasing them with daddy of course! I love her outstretched hands here, like she actually thinks she's going to catch it!

She celebrated her first Halloween, as a little pumpkin!

and we discovered her love for balloons! I had hung some up on the arch that leads into our lounge, and we literally couldn't walk out of the lounge without her having to touch each balloon at least 5 times! We would walk back and forth and back and forth between each bundle that had been hung! oh, how she loved it! we only took them down this week because she had just been enjoying them too much!

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch, which was very fun!

We met up with Granny and Grandad and Auntie Alli for some fun in the corn maze!

Ella thought it was hilarious to find a field full of pumpkins!

We found a wheelbarrow, picked our perfect pumpkin and popped in Ella for the ride!

She was very happy to be the driver! I love how she's balancing herself with her little outstretched hands here!

We also went to a 'trunk and treat' organised by church where everyone decorates the boot of their cars and the kids trick and treat between cars!

We just watched this time since Ella isn't at the chocolate eating stage! and took pictures next to giant pumpkins! can you believe that one is real!

Bonfire night was a rather low key affair due to Ella having had a sickness bug the week leading up to it, so she actually fell asleep during the time we were meant to go to the local fireworks display! We did a few sparklers outside the house, but in true Ella fashion she was more interested in watching the sparks fall to the floor than watching the sparklers themselves! 

In other news, one of her favourite past times is being hung upside down! she can't get enough of it! 

and her other favourite thing this month is the book Dear Zoo.  She was bought it by my friends when she was born, but she's suddenly become obsessed with it in the past month! She is really good at lifting up all the flaps and knowing where the flap opens on each page! She especially loves the monkey page and accompanying monkey noise that we do when we read it to her! I'm now stocking up on more flap books for her Christmas prezzies!

This month, she also worked out how to move her eyebrows to produce a very sad looking scowl! She has perfected it quite well, and it's now one of her favourite facial expressions to do! When people try and smile at her in shops now, she flashes them one of her scowls instead! It's kind of embarrassing but she seems to love it! 

Waving and clapping continue to be her favourite things to do! She gives her waves away freely, and always likes to greet you when she wakes up from her naps with a wave! it's pretty adorable! and if you say hi or say the word wave to her she will respond appropriately! 

Byron took her into Asda the other night while I waited in the car to pick up some nappies, after the cashier asked him if Ella was his! (who else's would she be?!) she proceeded to say to Byron 'oh, she must be your whole world'! I thought that was a very cute thing to say, and how right she is.  Ella is our whole world, and every day spent with her happy and infectious personality is an enjoyable one! She makes us proud every day to be her mommy and daddy and we're loving what every new month brings!