The week Ellie was born was the first warm week of the summer, so our little girl had never experience cold weather until now. She was pretty surprised at all the layers of clothing and at the cold wind on her face, but she got used to it quickly and continued to love being outdoors.
Our part-time nanny Adriana began her new job this month, and Ellie began daycare so that Melissa could work half-time on consulting projects for the Sustainable Food Lab. Ellie had never been a good napper – just 10-20 minutes here and there, mostly on her mama’s lap – so we were afraid she’d never sleep in the noisy daycare environment. The first day, they said she slept 2 hours and 15 minutes! We thought they were lying. But no, it turned out that Ellie was a great napper at daycare, much better than at home. We learned to make the home environment more like daycare by turning on the TV and playing music near her bedroom – and it helped. But she still didn’t sleep as long at home as she did at daycare. If she had, we wouldn’t have needed daycare at all!
While Ellie mostly thrived at daycare, she did catch a cold that was going around. This time we knew the drill – humidifer, carseat, snot-sucker. It was sad to see her struggling to breathe, but we got through it, and she recovered faster this time. We both got sick too, with stuffy noses and sore throats.
Ellie’s favorite motor skill this month was trying to sit up. Once day, she was lying in Steve’s lap and kept picking her head up like she was trying to do a crunch. Steve was confused at first, then realized what she wanted. He helped her sit and she loved it. We began practicing with her bumbo, her highchair, and on our laps. On walks, she stopped looking at trees above her, and wanted to see everything in front of her instead. We began using the Baby Bjorn carrier so that she could face out and look around.
As Ellie became more aware of her world, she also became more aware of her Mama and Daddy, and would react to us with smiles and giggles that light up her whole face. She has her father’s dimples when she smiles big, which she does often. The surest way to get her to grin and laugh is to sing a little song called “open then, shut them” that involves some hand gestures close to her face. Yeah, simple stuff – but she loves it. She gets excited just realizing the song is about to start.
While learning to sit up, Ellie also began to tolerate tummy time better. It still isn’t her favorite activity, but she’s become strong enough to do it for 5-10 minutes at a time before complaining. We try to be good about making sure she does it, so that she’ll develop the strong neck and back muscles she needs to crawl in a few months time.
A highlight of the month was a visit from Aunt Angela, who flew all the way from Portland, Oregon to meet Ellie. We had fun walking around the city and stopping by various local festivals.
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