Working on walking, playing at the river

Ella has spent a lot of time walking and running around the house - with our aid, of course - and is becoming a bit more confident letting go here and there and standing or taking a few steps on her own.

We have also been taking her to the river and letting her play in the water and the sand, which she loves. "Nature girl", as we call her, has no trouble leading us right into the deep water and covering herself with dirt and rocks. She loves going outside at home, too, and playing in the grass and sand around the house. In fact, she is constantly leading us to the front door so that we can take her outside to play.

As I write this, we are spending our first days and nights away from Ella down here in North Carolina for our good friends' wedding. It is bizarre being away from her, but we know that she is so happy with her grandparents and so comfortable up in the Adirondacks house that we are able to enjoy ourselves. Every report has been great so far.

Here are some pictures of Ella walking, wading and wrestling with dad.

Much love to all,
H

Back in the mountains

Having just returned from a Ross Family Reunion in the Hamptons, Will, Ella and I are resettling into mountain life up here in Upper Jay. Ella is playing with all sorts of new toys and eating new foods. We take her to Lake Placid on a regular basis to play on the swings and splash in the lake.

We had a great time at reunion, seeing a number of family members whom we hadn't seen in years. Ella played with her aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, great aunts, great uncles and, of course, mom and dad. She spent a good deal of time in the pool and got disgustingly and gleefully sandy at the beach. I wish we had photos of that escapade...

Here are three pics of (1) Ella with her aunt Cassidy, showing off her provençale dress, (2) smiling away in a beautiful handmade sweater, one or two sizes too big, and (3) walking around in her grandparents' kitchen with her blankie in her mouth - just like mom used to do... Dad shoved his into his ear.

Love to all,
H, W, E

Ella feeding herself and smacking

It's been a while since we added a video! Here is a brief clip of Ella getting some help feeding herself (she hasn't been all that interested in doing that until lately) and then showing off her smacking noise. Enjoy!

With mom and dad

Here are two more of Ella with her parents!

A birthday celebration!

Ella enjoyed eating the cake, but was happiest to smear it all over her face and tray. When we gave her a bath that night I found it all over her little body! This is a progression of how it went... you can see in one of the pictures that she's telling us she wants "more" cake!

Ella likes to text her friends.

She is very technosavvy.

Ella is one year old!

With her birthday on Friday the 13th, Ella celebrated her first year - and a whole year without any illness! And then she promptly caught her first cold. She has tons of new tricks and sounds - like smacking her lips - and is quite convincing with "mama" and "dada" these days. She seems to love bears (hugs her teddy bear all the time and kisses them in books) and dogs and being mobile! She is aching to walk so that she can get into all sorts of trouble. She will definitely keep us on our toes. Here are some recent pictures: