This picture was taken yesterday, but today Miss Ella is 4 days shy of her first birthday. I’m having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that although she’s only been with us since October, she will soon be turning a whopping twelve months old! This week I watched the video we took on the day we first met, so that gave me pause and let me really see how she has grown and blossomed.

As she approaches this milestone of babyhood, Ella has been displaying many signs of “big girl-ness.” For instance, she loves nothing more than to take your hand and walk EVERYWHERE with you. She drinks more water than formula now. She eats pretty much whatever we do, and loves to feed herself. Her new favorite obsession is shoes! Now that she’s walking on her own and it’s nice enough out to go outside and explore, Ella has discovered the joy of shoes, and she just loves them.

The biggest change for me is that she recently started sleeping in her room by herself. The three of us have been sleeping in the same room for almost six months, so this was a huge adjustment for me. She just loves it! She had been giving some signs that she was ready for a change, so we listened to her and went ahead with switching her over to her own space. She didn’t even look back for a second. She’s sleeping well and waking up happy and playing in her pack and play on her own. We’ll see how she does in her crib soon enough. Mommy can only take so much growing up at once.

Tuesday will be a huge day for us. I’m excited to celebrate that this little spitfire of mine has been given a full year of life and I really am looking forward to watching her grow and develop into her own person. But for now; at 362 days old, I can still call her my baby girl.




Related Links:
Read all the "Life With Ella"s
The First Birthday After Coming Home