In a Western Place

Here’s a little time lapse peek into Ella’s world. I shot all of the images with the Hipstamatic camera app, then assembled them like so.

Ella received an honorary BA in Infant Cognition and Language from Cal today!

While I’d like to think that we no longer need to save for her future education, I really don’t think a BA is going to get her very far in 17 years :)
Ella was issued the degree after she was invited to participate in a quick study on campus. She did great! Very attentive and alert (which I hear a lot, she definitely did NOT get that from me :) And weeeee! What degree wouldn’t be complete without a complementary T-shirt!

On the day before Christmas Eve, Ella turned 9 months old! What a super fun age. So many new milestones have been hit, and she’s starting to look and act more like a little kid versus a wee baby.

• Weight: 18lbs, Height: 28 1/4 inches. A picture of fine baby health!
• She can crawl! Inadvertently loves to do yoga too: downward dog and triangle pose.
• Waves goodbye and hello to her toys, people and pets.
• Toof, we got a toof! Bottom front.
• Loves to stick her tongue out. I often worry that she’ll dry it out because it’s always hanging out of her mouth!
• Loves to eat anything we give her. She really enjoys feeding herself puffed rice snacks.
• She officially has a blankie, The Wooly Bully.
• Finally started to sleep through the night! Which means I get to sleep through the night. Ah, sleep — oh how I missed you!

More from Ella’s first eight to nine months of life, here.

Today is my birthday and I’m feeling wise. Listen to me, I know what I’m talking about. :)

• When faced with a large task take baby steps. Break it down into smaller, more manage pieces.
• Decrease your consumption of fat and sugar and eat more leafy greens — you’ll feel AND look better.
• Get sick a lot? Wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face. Stay away from sick people. Viola.
• Focus on the stuff that makes you feel good… and more good stuff will come your way!
• YOUR body NEEDS to MOVE in order to be healthy!!! “Exercise” doesn’t need a gym. It is as simple as walking briskly for 30 minutes each day. It’s easy! Do it!
• If you’re unhappy with something, change it… or move on.
• Smile more, use your turn signal, hold the door for people, say “please” and “thank you” and put your shopping cart away after use.

We arrived back home safely, late, late last night after a full day of travel. Unlike our flight to NY last week, our flight home was longer and involved more planes (ugh). Luckily Ella still did pretty good. The only obstacle that we encountered was that we ran out of diapers on the last leg (geeze). A flight attendant was kind enough to flag done some extras from a generous co-passenger on our flight (thanks!)

On Wednesday we left Centerville and headed over to my folks house in Canandaigua. The weather was pretty blustery from Matt’s part of the world, but it cleared up as we drove toward 390. We stopped by our friends Rachel and Wil’s new house in Livonia. They moved back to Western New York from Sacramento a year after having their son in 2010 to be closer to family. On Thursday morning we woke up early and drove into Canandaigua to meet my friend Tracie, her husband Dan, and their two little kids for coffee at the dalai java. They were headed down to Corning so we were lucky to find some time to quickly catch up! The coffee place had a little playroom — perfect us! Ella was obsessed with a book that had a bunch of fire locks on it.

After a little nap, Matt, Ella and I headed over to Rochester so I could photograph my friend Vanessa’s family. We met up at the National Museum of Play since it was so cold out. I haven’t been to the museum since the mid 80′s, and from what I can recall, it was pretty lame when I last visited. Lame no more, what an awesome place! I really wish we had more time to hang out. The butterfly exhibit was worth the admission price alone, and Ella LOVED it. As Matt carried her around in the Ergo, a Monarch butterfly landed on her head! She was also crazy for the carousel, which she got to ride 2 times.

Here’s a small video snippet that I took of her in awe of the flying creatures. If it doesn’t make you smile at the end then well, you must be dead inside :)

Poor Ella missed out on an afternoon nap, but despite that, she was still in pretty good spirits. We headed over to my friend Ellen’s wine bar, Flight, to meet up with some more folks. I was so happy that a bunch of old friends braved the cold to come see us and meet Ella. Thanks so much: Olivia, Fran, Katrina, Meghan and Hilary!

Friday was an easy day… we didn’t have to leave the house. Barb and Dad invited some family and friends over to meet Ella… so, more faces, but no driving around. It was a lot of fun, and Ella really got a chance to vamp up her crawling and kitty chasing skills!

On Saturday my family offered to watch Ella so Matt and I could go out and have some fun. We drove into Rochester and had some delicious sushi at California Rollin (I would kill for another Pacific Ocean Roll right now). Afterwards we caught Young Adult at the Little Theatre. I love the Little Theatre so much, there’s really isn’t something similar closer to our home here in Oakland (maybe there is, I just haven’t found it yet). Afterward we stopped by the cafe for a little coffee then headed back to Canandaigua. Despite it being New years, Ella and I fell asleep watching a Modern Family DVD and I welcomed the New Year, groggily, 10 minutes after the fact. I think that was the first New Year’s that I ever slept through since I started celebrating it when I was 8.

Our flight back home from Buffalo wasn’t until 5:15, so it gave us some time to pack in the morning, then drive back to Centerville to say goodbye to Matt’s family, and return all the baby stuff that his cousin Erin so kindly loaned us. I guess we timed our trip pretty good because everyone kept talking about some wind and colder temps moving into town. By the time we returned the rental car, it was safe to say that we were ready to return home. I loved spending the holidays with so many family and friends — we really had a great time! And bonus for me, having so many people around to care for and play with Ella gave me the break that I so desperately needed. And now it’s Monday, Matt’s got the day off and just drove up to Sonoma to pick up Bradley. Ella’s napping but soon she’ll be up… then our big task for the day, baby proofing! The girl’s got mad crawling skills now, look out!

And yes, one of my many goals for the new year is to keep this blog up to date with photos and ramblings of our adventures. More time writing, reading and creating, less time rotting my brain with useless poop on the Internet. Happy New Year Everyone! I wish you all happiness and great health in 2012!!!

At least I got them out before New Years!

(Photography props: Dragonflyannie)