Update on Ellie

Elianna is almost 11 months old now and louder than ever. Favorite words this week are 'Bah' which, for some reason, means 'up' (we make Ellie say 'up' if she wants us to pick her up instead of encouraging her insistent whining. Man, can this girl whine. It's a gift.) and 'ffffffffffffffffff owr!' for flowers. I got some Gerber daisies from a friend and Ellie's quite happy about them. Sure ways to get a smile out of Ellie these days are to 1. show her a ball (or a balloon, or a round light fixture...anything round is 'baow'!) 2. give her crayons and some paper 3. show her another baby. She can't get enough of them. Yesterday we had our neighbour's baby, Hayden over, and Ellie was actually trying to jump she was so excited (this is the kid who hated her jolly jumper because she couldn't bend her knees). Sure ways to make her scream in fierce anger are to 1. wipe her face 2. wipe her nose 3. clean her ears and 4. leave her hat on in the carseat so it ends up covering her eyes.

Here's Ellie playing peekaboo while doing her favorite past time - walking. We've resorted to wrapping a folded blanket around her torso save our backs. I know I'm not the only mom to testify that this "I want to be moving but can't do it yet so I want your help all the time, please" season seems like it takes an eternity. The nice thing is that anyone with two fingers for Ellie to hang on to is a dear friend of hers, so we can pass the joyous duty off to anyone who's willing.
In other news, I've found a part-time job for when my maternity leave is up...and it's a total answer to prayer. I'll be doing after school care for a 12 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy, as well as occasional Saturday afternoons. This is super exciting for me, as I was starting to feel the 'special needs' void in my heart, and as I am allowed to bring Elianna along, if I like (although I have a friend who's offered to babysit for free!) This girl is a real sweetie, as well as quite mischievous, so I'm probably in for a bit of an adventure!