BligToTheBlog: 11 weeks

At 11 weeks, Ella is simply awesome. My lack of posts mostly has to do with the fact that we are enjoying her so much it is hard to take time out to update the blog. Jim is also on vacation and we are really having some nice family time. But I will try to get back on a more regular schedule of updates soon.
So, as I said, Ella is just the coolest. As of a couple weeks now, she is smiling at us - not just an occasional smile that might have been a reflex but full on smiles. One smile melts your heart and smile after smile pretty much renders you useless as all you want to do is coo at her forever. But that smile she gives when she first recognizes you and consciously smiles AT YOU, just seals the deal on this whole parenthood thing.

It's a pretty incredible feeling.

Ella is holding her head up really well and seems to want to get in the sitting position by pulling her head forward. She likes to squirm around, excercising her little muscles and it's only a matter of time before she's rolling around, crawling, walking, dancing around... :)

The last couple of days she has been "talking" - the goo's and gaa's are spillig like mad and she really seems to be communicating. It's so cool to be connecting on this next level. Each day Ella is becoming more and more like a little person. She is awake longer during the day now and can entertain herself. As much as we want to hold her and love her and squeeze her tight all the time, we do try to give her some alone time (which just really means she is in her playpen right next to us :)). She swats at her toys, laughs, and it is hard to step away from her for more than a few minutes at a time because it really is that hard to stay away.

Ella is discovering her hands and lately likes to suck on her little fist. She is starting to grip her toys and has recently also taken a slight interest in her toes and that they belong to her. While still not sleeping through the night, she does usually get a 4-5 hour stretch at some point. Unfortunately, a good portion of this usually seems to be when we are still awake. But, I can say that the lack of sleep is not so bad anymore and occasionally we are rewarded with a longer stretch of sleep.