Underwater Swimming

We had our fourth swimming class with Ellis today. She did so well! The big challenge was for her to ”swim“ underwater from the instructor to Erik. Erik was already under so he could see her coming. Judging by her happy kicking legs when she came up, I think she enjoyed herself.

The lovely Clara

Isabelle and Nick made their first trip to the East coast with their 10 week old daughter Clara last week. It was so exciting to meet her and to see our good friends as new parents. They are doing great and Clara is so precious. I tried to get a good picture of Ellis and Clara together, but it proved to be a little difficult since Ellis is in the grab everyone and everything stage. Seeing Isabelle and Nick with Clara brought me right back to last fall when Ellis was that young, easy to carry, and we counted her time outside of the belly in weeks. What a special time and how quickly it goes!

9 Months!

Or 3/4 of a year! Ellis now has two cute little stubby bottom teeth and is crawling up a storm. She’s been commando crawling for quite sometime, but is now up on those hands and knees shuffling around. We've done some minor babyproofing at home, but even with that I am amazed at what tiny things she can find on the floor and get into her mouth. Her mobility has forced us to vacuum and mop more, which isn’t such a bad thing. I don’t know when babies generally say their first words, but I think I hear ‘ja’ (or yeah), cat, and dada from her all day long.

Last weekend we had the pleasure of going upstate for visit Josephine and Peter. It was a very relaxing weekend with lots of delicious food and time in the hammock looking up at the trees. We rented a zipcar to drive there and were so impressed; Their cars, locations, and reservation system are so much easier to use than the standard car rental companies.

clap your hands say waahhh

Another sticky summer weekend has flown by and we had a lot of fun hanging around the neighborhood, seeing friends and consuming lots of ice tea, ice coffee and ice cream. Ellis had her 8 month check-up on Saturday. Her head and feet were hanging off of the scale, but I think she came in around 23 pounds and nearly 30 inches! I am only 66 inches. It’s crazy to think she is nearly half my height. Thankfully, she is less than 20% of my weight! It is just incredible how much more adventurous she is lately. I find that we are having to say “No” and “Nee” suddenly around the house as Ellis lunges towards some power cords, a twig on the ground, dirty shoes, etc, etc.

We managed to capture a little of her clapping this morning.