Labor day update..

Whew, we had quite a full long weekend, and Ella got to see many people.

On Saturday friends P & B stopped by with their 23 month-old son and we grilled out some burgers. Ella had lots of fun watching their son use her toys in new ways, and seems to have learned a thing or two from him.

On Sunday we drove off to visit Ella's grand uncle/aunt, along with two of her first cousins once removed (my wife's first cousins) and five of her second cousins (their children). (could you keep track of all that?) That was a great deal of fun, but it was quite a loud scene with 5 children ranging from 12 months to 10 years old running around.

Today we went over to visit Ella's aunt (my sister), uncle and 20 month old cousin. Also lots of fun, and her cousin was very excited to see her. ("Ella... Ella.... Ella...")

Progress-wise we did well this weekend. Today her uncle managed to get her to stand by herself for a new record length of time, about 5 seconds. Her previous record was about a half second long. :) I also helped her "crawl" in the kitchen today by holding her hands to the floor while she dragged herself along on her stomach. We've done this "crawling" before, but in the past she got very upset about it, but today she was content when we started out (she became irritable after a while of working at it).

She was also generally much more active and excitable than normal this weekend. Lots of clambering around on us, splashing around in the tub, etc..

Overall it's been fun. But man am I tired now.. ZZZzzz...