Super-Girl

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Super-Girl! This is the new trick of the week, spread your wings and fly baby! Now all she needs is a cape! Talk about a great way to strengthen her back, this is like doing a back extension and holding for 3 or 4 minutes.


Toes are the perfect built-in entertainment. Ella could spend minutes on end....this is a long time for an almost 6 month old...just staring at and playing with her toes. She's been known to suck on them and squeal with delight.

Roloff Farms

Our little pumpkin!

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend with Anna, Cody & Reid. We went to Roloff farms in Helvetia, this is the farm and family where they film the show "Little People Big World". We had a great time, went on a tractor tour of the old western town and a bit of the farm. We strolled through the pumpkin patch and toured the "pumpkin house". We even saw all members of the Roloff family (minus Jacob). We are fans of the show so it was exciting to see them. While we lived in California we got hooked on the show because it was a constant view of home. They would shop at stores that Jason shopped at growing up. The kids on the show took their driving tests at the same DMV Jason took his. So while we were away for 2+ years we enjoyed our steady stream of Oregon footage via the Roloff family. We had beautiful weather and great company, an added bonus Reid and Ella behaved like champs!

The Lails

Big boy Reid is almost 1 year old!

TLC film crew on the farm

Jumpy-Jump

Ella borrowed a jumperoo or as we call it the "jumpy-jump" from her friend Reid. She's not quite tall enough to reach the floor yet, so we have big thick books stacked under her feet. She's getting the hang of spinning herself around all 360 degrees to play with all the toys. Her favorite thing is the bug with fabric wings...they are great to chew on. This kid loves to chew on everything! Thanks Reid (Anna & Cody too), Ella will be jumping like you in no time!

Meet Ella....

Meet Ella, the elephant that is! This is quite possibly one of Ella's favorite toys. It has a belly that spins and it sings silly songs and lights up. Jason and I sing the songs and act like goof-balls every time it sings, it's what parents are supposed to do right? We can play it from across the room and she'll stop what she is doing and look around until she finds one us of and can watch us sing and dance and act like fools. (Every once and a while I find myself being fearful that there is a hidden camera in our house and we'll be the next million-hit you-tube video). His trunk is great to chew on too...that's what friends are for, they make you laugh and don't mind getting drooled on!

These will make you smile

Don't you just love it when a picture makes you smile? Ella is such a doll....I know I might be a bit biased, but we just can't get enough of her adorable smiles! Her Great-Grandma West brought her this giant stuffed pony, it's so soft and cuddly and Ella loves to lay on it already. She'll be playing cow-girl and riding the thing before we know it.

Sleepy time

Sleeping like a baby!

Ella made the move from her bassinett (more like our bed) to her own room about a month ago.
Prior to her big move to the crib and "crying it out" we'd have to bounce her on a big yoga ball to get her to fall asleep at every nap and bedtime (usually took about 45 minutes) then we'd put her in her swing or bouncy seat to sleep otherwise she would wake up the instant we laid her down! She just wouldn't stay asleep in her bassinett so we'd end up bringing her to our bed just so we could get a little sleep. Well then she'd want to nurse all night long, which meant that neither her or I were getting any solid sleep. I always said "I'll never have a child in our bed" but found out quite quickly that you do what you have to do to survive! After about 3 1/2 months of this on-going battle we knew we had to make a change for everyone's sake.

It took about a week and a half of crying it out to get her to sleep on her own (it was pure heart-breaking agony for all of us but we HAD TO get some sleep). When we started she would cry for 5 minutes and then we'd go in and console her a bit while she was still in the crib, leave, wait 10 minutes, console her, wait 15 minutes console her and repeat at 15 minutes until she went to sleep...SO HARD! Now she'll sleep on her own without a huge battle. There's often some crying involved before she falls asleep but once she drifts off she'll sleep a solid 6 hours most nights before getting up to eat. She naps well on her own now too.

Now that she rolls over like crazy we can't get her to sleep on her back. The first week post-roll we went in and flipped her over any time she was on her belly...well that no longer works. The girl loves to sleep on her stomach. Her position of choice is butt in the air, ankles crossed and arms tucked under her chest. It's a bit of a modified fetal position I guess. So much for "back to sleep", it's all tummy for this girl!

Cereal?...Yes please!

"This is tasty stuff"

Ella has been watching us eat and opening her mouth every time we take a bite of food for a few weeks now. We decided it may be time to try giving her some rice cereal, so last night we gave it a try and she LOVED it. She made a squishy face with the very first bite but from then on she opened up and downed it like a champ. She acted like "what's the big deal, I'm a pro already. Why the cameras mom & dad, I'm just eating!"

Ella gets mad when she's "tied down" in her high chair so Jason fed her a bit on his lap