Cute, and Fast Too!

If I had to come up with a summary for this month, it would be something like "active" or "interested" or "able". It wasn't until I talked with my parents, who had visited during the first half of August, that I realized how much Ellie has learned since then.

First it was the discovery that there was a world behind her — she started twisting around in her Bumbo to bat at the curtain, the salt shaker, the lamp, the flowers, or whatever was behind her.

Then, while sitting (facing forward) in my lap while I checked my email and drank my morning coffee, she started following my mug from the desk to my mouth by twisting around and tilting her head back.

This fascination with food (and mugs in particular!) has led to a little frustration at mealtime since she still gets her own special mummy food. But things are a little better since we got her a mug of her own.

She's gotten really good at playing on her tummy, reaching for things, pivoting around her feet, and propelling herself around a little if I let her push her legs against me. Sometimes when you pick her up, she looks over her shoulder—longingly—at her toys.

She no longer sits quietly but rocks and lunges, trying to expand her invisible sphere of the accessible world. Little does she know that as soon as she gets the crawling thing down there will be no stopping her!

She's so fast now that Mummy has to hold on tight, especially when we're visiting the Museum of Antiquities in Newcastle with Uncle Tom and Aunt Doyla where you never know when Ellie might go running off with a second or third century Roman carving of Venus washing her hair or something.