We took a short beach trip to celebrate John being done with his law school finals! The first day Ella was very scared of the ocean, and it didn't seem to help that she got sand in her eyes within the first 10 minutes of us getting there. The second day it wasn't as windy, and Ella seemed to enjoy the beach a bit more. She even took a little snooze on the beach.
Instead of building a big sand castle like all of the other dads, John decided to dig a big hole. He kept telling Ella that if you kept digging you would eventually find water, which he did. Ella definitely enjoyed helping dada dig in the sand. 
Few little updates on Ella. She is saying about 15 words now, and has started doing some sign language. We started letting her watch a little TV in the morning (so we can get ready!) and she has been watching these DVD's called Signing Times. It's amazing how quickly she has picked up on it, and she really enjoys it! Ella isn't walking yet (unless walking on her knees counts!). She is very efficient at crawling and refuses to let us help her walk (actually she refuses to let us help her do much of anything). She is VERY independent and wants to do everything on her own.
She is officially off the bottle completely and transitioned to whole milk wonderfully! Definitely helps the check book not having to buy formula anymore. She's been trying more finger foods and is not choking as much as she used to! Still scares me to death every time though! Ella has started throwing some little temper tantrums from time to time if you take something away from her (like the dog bowl). She just screams and throws her head back or just lays her head on the floor crying very dramatically. It's really quite funny!
