Our resident beaver

Naive first time parents that we are, we didn't realize that Ella wasn't just drooling on the ottoman. She was in fact sinking her only two teeth deep into the leather ottoman/coffee table. She also did something similar along the bookcase.

(I know its bad to take a picture of the crime in action, but for the record...)

These days you hear a lot of "No ma'am..." and "We don't bite the ottoman..." and slapping on her little hand. She's smart. She gets it. Most times as she pulls herself up on these furniture items, she'll look at me and start shaking her head.

Sadly we're not always with her in this room. I noticed a few new marks the other day. The ottoman isn't as bad as the picture shows. I mean, yes, those marks are there. But the flash shows them up well. To just look at the ottoman, you can't see these bite marks.

Since Ella is now cutting one top incisor, if we are not vigilant, we could end up with some very interesting marks.

Cute little beaver.

A few pictures

This is what a giraffe "does"

11 months
The squat

11 Months old

Ella is 11 months old today. I can hardly believe that in just one month we will be celebrating her first birthday.

I've been terrible about maintaining her baby book. Hopefully this blog will be helpful in remembering special milestones and developments. Here are a few things shes up to these days:

- speed crawling
- exploring other rooms in the house. She finally figured out that she can go ANYWHERE. Its funny to watch her cruise down the hall and then gingerly peek into each room
- clapping
- waving goodbye
- blowing kisses (on just one occassion)
- making fish noises by opening and closing her mouth when we ask her "what does a fish say?"
- hanging her long tongue out of one side of her mouth when we ask her "what does a giraffe do, Ella?"
- pulling up on things (but can't get down . . . resulting in a very sad cry for help)
- still calling everything "BA!"
- LOVING, absolutely LOVING walks in the BabyBjorn carrier
- still nursing, but also eating (and enjoying) broccoli, cauliflour, peas, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, mashed potatoes, whole wheat pasta, lentils, yogurt, oatmeal, porridge, banana
- finally learned the art of the sippy cup
- high pitched sounds while blowing raspberries. Very cute . . . very "girlish"
- playing peek-a-boo (sometimes she initiates and is the "boo-er")
- graduated from the baby capsule to a forward facing car seat (see post below)
- MAJOR sleep improvements. Longer day time naps (probably thanks to increased mobility and sleeping from about 6:30pm - 6am sometimes 7am)
- signing for "all-done" and very close to signing for "more"
- cutting her third tooth. A top "fang"/incisor. Hopefully she'll even up the vampire look with the other fang at the same time. :)

She's a treasure and she's changed our life. Thank you God for our beautiful daughter.

Momma and daughter at the Organic Food Swap in Wollongong

Ella and Lily in Canberra

We spent this past weekend in Canberra, the nation's Capital City. Its just a three and a half hour drive from Wollongong but is the longest road trip we've taken since arriving in Australia. Ella Rhys spent much of the first six months of her on the road. We were a little concerned about this trip since we were taking Ella out of her baby capsule and into a forward facing car seat. You'll see from the pictures below what she thought of that! But she ended up doing just great and even took long naps while on the road.

Loving the old . . .


Not so thrilled with the new yet . . .


On the way we stopped at a rest area and Ella was able to see the "BA" (birds). I wish you could see the beautiful parrots that were eating off the ground

Ella checking out the birds . . .


We went to Canberra to see Mark, Kate and Lily Jennings. Jason knew Kate from his time as a HIM worker back in 1998-2000. Kate and I had connected through facebook since having our girls just five days apart. Lily is the older of the two. Kate and I plan on getting together as regularly as we can so the girls can know each other growing up. And we sure enjoyed each others company, too.

Our weekend was relaxing, full of fun fellowship and good food. On Saturday Kate and I hit a baby and kids consignment market and I got some great deals. Was able to find a Leap Frog Activity Center for Ella for just $8AUD. I also picked up a couple of clothing items for her and few larger sized baby boy clothes. Yep...we're having a BOY!

We took the girls to Quest a con in the afternoon where they have "miniQ" - a babies play area. Ella and Lily had a great time in the aquatics area playing with the balls and water. Ella looks serious but she was having a ball.





Isn't it amazing how a little hair makes a baby look so grown up? I PROMISE you that Ella has some hair. Granted not much on top - mostly a baby mullet. But its getting thick at the back.

Saturday night we also visited with Sarah, Kent and Bailey (almost 2) Vidler. Bailey was delighted to hang out with two cute girls and we didn't hear many complaints from them either. It was fun to watch them interact in their own little ways. We enjoyed worshipping with the Canberra church of Christ on Sunday. Jason was able to share briefly at the end of worship our vision for the work in Wollongong.

This is the best we could do for a picture with the three kids . . .





We headed back to Wollongong on Monday via the Robertson Pie Shop. I'd had to say that I'm not one to get all that excited about a meat pie but these are good. They have a large variety of pies and claim the chicken and veggie pie as my favorite. Its really just like a chicken pot pie which is great because thats not something I make at home. And to top it off, the lady gave us a free pie because she thought they looked small.

It was a good weekend!

Me . . . a Winter Baby?

This is how a girl from Queensland keeps her "born-in-a-Texan-summer" baby warm in a New South Wales winter. I might have endured snow and minus 30 temperatures in Canada; a non insulated apartment and icy cold bike rides to school in Japan . . . but I still call it cold here.

As is typical of homes in this part of Australia, we do not have the luxury of central heat or ducted heating. While the temperatures remain above freezing (lows from 38F and up) and daytimes can even be "pleasant" (highs in the high 50s), we still have to work hard at keeping warm. Our house does well at holding in the cold air -- a good thing for summer days.

Many mornings we put a coat over Ella's pjs and slippers over her feet. There is nothing we can do to keep her hands warm as she crawls all over our wooden floors. And nothing I can do to keep those chilly hands away from me while she nurses! She doesn't seem too bothered by the cold, the attire, or that fact that she'll have many of her birthdays in the dead of winter as long as we live in Australia.



I'd have to say though, that there isn't much cuter than a bundled up baby . . .

"BA"

We enjoyed time outside together on a beautiful fall day. To date, Ella has not been a big fan of the grass. The blanket helped, and she did pat it with her hand this time around, so we are making progress. While she doesn't like to touch the grass, she is not at all afraid to eat leaves. It brings Jason great joy to be outside with his daughter and he loves any interest she shows in the great outdoors.

Most days, Jason will carry Ella in the BabyBjorn on a walk. Ella understands "Bjorn" and "outside" and looses all patience once she sees Jason pick up the Bjorn to get ready for a walk. Once outside out comes her pointer finger(s) to direct Jason on which way to go and to alert him of their surroundings. Birds, dogs, cars, people...she can hardly stand it. All of these things are currently known as "BA". Actually most everything other than "mama" is "ba" right now. She is so much fun!

This past week I was blessed by the opportunity to see my family in Brisbane before attending the Come Before Winter retreat on the Gold Coast. You can learn more about this renewal at I still don't really have the words for all that I experienced and the blessings received during this week. I am so thankful though to have had the opportunity to be with these 12 women, and the 39 other participants from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Our time was spent in Psalm 103. In the afternoon until the end of each day's activities, Ella was taken care of by a babysitter. Leaving her was rough but I am proud of how well she did. It is good for her to learn to be secure in the care of other people. And I appreciated the break so that I could better "land" and participate.

The women who blessed us during this renewal


The beautiful view I could enjoy each morning


Below are some recent pictures of Ella . . . now 10 months old. Her rapid growth is a little easier knowing that another little one will soon be in our arms. I'm finding this first year of life to be so amazing and precious. Of course there are challenges but so much joy, too. Ella has definitely connected "Mama" with me, but everything else has become "Ba"...from birds, to dogs, to baby, to bath. She can clap on command and still dances to anything. The shaking of the head "no" might now be connected with the sentiment, too. Sweet thing though shakes her head for "yes" and "no" right now. She loves to pull up on the ottoman, sofa, and bookshelf. Its a whole new world.

These two are definitely related. Like father like daughter. I love it!



Lots of personality





A good traveler - educating herself on the emergency procedures


Family time in Brisbane




Bath time with cousin Benjamin

My name is Ella, and I love my Dad

Hi. I'm Ella and this is my Dad . . .



Even though Mother's Day has just passed, I couldn't leave out this part of Ella's development. Ella has enjoyed a special bond with her Dad since the day she was born. Jason had some great daddy-daughter time immediately after her birth. He rocked her, held her and sang to her. More recently though, Ella has developed an amazing affinity for her Dad. No jealousy -- I love it. There are times she'll about climb out of my arms to get to her her Dad. Her eyes light up when he comes home and she gets her legs and arms going until he picks her up. Last night we went and watched Jason rock climb. She cried her "my-heart-is-broken" cry when he put her down to begin climbing but you should have seen her smile and try to get to him when I pointed Jason out to her. Its such a special thing to watch and I am so thankful that Ella has Jason as her Dad. Its one of the greatest gifts I could receive as a mother.

New beginnings

Shortly after we arrived in Australia, I dropped, and broke, our digital camera. A couple of weekends ago, Jason accidently left our video camera (which could also take still shots) on the train coming back from Sydney. VERY sadly, it has not been turned in yet. We were without a camera for about two weeks. Ella didn't know what to think. her parents were no longer dancing in front of her with a silver flashing thing that she had grown so accustomed to.

Perhaps the break was good though. Because now Ella SMILES for pictures (versus the deer-in-the-headlights look). Absolutely adorable! She does a very cute scrunchy-nose smile (which I am afraid she learned from me...I think I do this face to her often). With her two bottom teeth and chubby cheeks -- I just want to eat her up.



But not only this - in time for the new camera, Ella crawled last night for the first time. Real crawling. She was going backwards - usually against her will. However last night was dedicated, intentional crawling. Forward at that! We are so proud of her. In fact this morning, I couldn't wait to get up and let her at it again. I guess I would have happily waited until, say, 9am. But you get the point.

Climbing around on her dad


The pictures don't capture it as well but here's the crawl




We've been teaching Ella to wave hi and bye -- and she is catching on. Last night I also saw her shaking her head from side to side. And no, its not defiance. And no, I'm not in denial. Its just something she's figured out how to do. For now at least. Another new thing is her attention to her baby doll. She pats it and kisses it and pokes her eyes. I think its good practice for her sibling on the way. Not the poking the eyes out part. We'll work on that one between now and November.



When Ella was a newborn, I would often find myself grieving how quickly she was growing. Many people would say 'it gets so much better than this'. And honestly I never believed them. I wondered what could possibly be better than this...an innocent, new life that slept and snuggled so sweetly in my arms. But I'm beginning to get it. Her new developments are great. Priceless. Heartwarming. Fascinating. Thank you, God.

Another reason to give thanks . . . here are some pictures of the Griffiths arrival. We're so glad they are here with us.



On the way home from Sydney to Wollongong, we stopped at the Bulli look out


And enjoyed time at the Wollongong harbor on a beautiful fall day


They brought with them some gifts. Thanks Anne and Amos for this cute "Ella" sippy cup....she LOVES it.



I'm thankful to God for our sweet baby girl. Thankful for the Griffiths safe arrival in Wollongong. And thankful, too, for the means to purchase a new camera so that we can have some memories of these days with her.