breakthroughs

we had two major breakthroughs yesterday.
in the effort to keep baby happy and content, we've started to run out of ideas. there's a good number of things she likes doing (besides eating, which is #1): staring at our faces, sitting on her bouncer and playing with us, or looking at her aquarium on her own, looking at her mobile, or sitting in her bouncer half asleep while ben's foot is in charge of the bouncing... but she would only do any of those for a limited amount of time, and then she gets bored, and starts to cry expecting us to solve her discomfort or entertain her otherwise (see baby loop post...).
when everything else fails, ben just holds her upright, facing forward, and walks around with her so she can "look at stuff". if you don't have a baby around, try holding a 12lb (5-6 kg) bag of potatoes like that for a while. it's a muscle builder.

well, FINALLY, Ella warmed up to her swing, which puts another weapon in our arsenal.*

and yesterday while shopping at Meijer's, and Ella wanted to be held and look at us and wouldn't agree to stay in the stroller, she finally warmed up to the baby carrier. (we did use it once before when she was too little to argue). now that she can hole her head, she can face forward and look around, and she likes it much more. and we like it much more, because it's easier on our backs and arms :)

* if anyone is looking for a good useful present for us, a battery charger (that takes all sizes of batteries) is a good idea. both the swing and the bouncer are battery-operated ;)