Ella's 13 Month Update

I'll start off by saying that Ella is not officially walking yet since I'm sure that's what most of you want to know. I'm shocked myself, but I'm sure this time next month (or earlier) I'll be saying that she is officially walking. Now, don't get me wrong, she will take a few steps without holding on to anything or anyone...she'll even be carrying something, but then she'll fall on her butt and start crawling. So, I know it's possible and I'll just let her go at her own pace.

Ella saw her first fireworks on the 4th of July and absolutely loved them! She sat in daddy's lap the whole time and was just in awe. She didn't take her eyes off them the whole time. She had a wonderful 4th of July weekend hanging out with her cousins and especially had a fun time with her 3 year old cousin Rebekah. They played together the whole time and it was scary to see how fast Ella picked up on things that Rebekah was doing. At time I thought Ella had skipped a couple birthdays in a few days! Rebekah was frustrated that Ella couldn't talk as well as she could, but didn't seem to let that get in the way of their fun.

On the 5th, Ella start swim lessons and she learned how to blow bubbles and float on her back on the first day. The second day she wasn't much into paying attention...she just wanted to play on the steps the whole time, but at least she's having fun! This past Friday she started kicking her legs, too! Her last swim lesson is on the 18th and I'll be interested to see just how much she's learned.

Ella has also learned some new words in the past few weeks to add to the few that it seems like she's been saying f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Everytime she sees pictures of herself on the wall she'll say 'baby' and of course when she sees a baby in public she'll say it, too. She also knows how to say 'Gator' which she now calls all three of our dogs instead of just the one whose name is actually 'Gator'. But, we're happy about this because she'll be even more ready for football season since she's been saying 'touchdown' and doing the signal for it for the past few months. She loves to pick up phones (any phone will do) and say 'dad'? And she finally said 'bye bye' the other day to the store manager at Publix. She's been waving hello and goodbye for a while, but would never say 'bye' until then. But, she hasn't said it since.

Ella is officially off formula which I am sooo thankful for. It didn't take long at all to wean her from the formula...I think about 4 days, which we did right after her 12 month check-up. And she's about weaned from her bottle...when she gets tired around nap time and bed time she wants her bottle, so we're weaning her from her nap bottle first. We'll see how fast that goes. Her new favorite food is mac and cheese (surprise, surprise). She still loves her veggies and that makes me very happy to know she's more like me in that area than her father. I really hope she won't be a picky eater when she gets older.

Well, for the rest of the month Ella and I plan on hanging out by the pool and working on our tans. We're looking more and more like FL girls every day! This weekend we're going to Sea World and we're soooo excited about that. I haven't been since I was really little and I know Ella will enjoy it, too. She loves looking at bright colors and animals of all kind! I'll try and blog about our weekend when we get back! Until then...

HOT!!!

Wow...I don't know if I'm ready for summer. It it so freakin' hot outside...all the time. Even at night it's still hot. I don't know if I'm just having a hard time adjusting after being in Boston for 9 months or if we're really starting to feel the affects of global warming, but either way, it sucks! I'm not looking forward to our electricity bill because it seems like our AC is always running. I am very thankful that we have a pool to go to because it would be rough not having the possbility to be outside and yet stay cool at the same time because we do have some beautiful Florida days when there isn't a cloud in the sky. Yet, I am looking forward to rain as well.

For the few of you that I know who read my blogs, I hope your summer has gotten off to a great start. I know some of you are starting a new phase of your life and are in new places. I look forward to hearing about your new jobs and new adventures. And please know that you're always welcome at our house if you're in the area again and hopefully we'll be able to do some traveling and visit y'all.

Ella's Stats

Ella's 12 month doctor's appointment was today and it went very well. She was playing with all the doctors and nurses while she was supposed to be getting weighed and measured. She enjoyed getting all the attention and has fun up auntil her one shot that she had to get. But, she recovered quickly...she only had to get her chicken pox vaccine, so it wasn't too traumatic for her.

As for her stats., Ella weighed 21.6 pounds which is about the 50th percentile and she is 29 1/2" long which is about the 60th percentile. So, she has definitely slowed down in the growth department in the past few months. But, I hear that's normal once they start getting around and being more active.

After getting a few things confirmed by the doctor, Ella will be weaned off formula this month, which I am very excited about! She's already been drinking whole milk, but it's nice to know that she can switch completely over and we're going to start giving her some juice, too! She's also pretty much weaned herself off of baby food, so I'll have to get more creative when I fix our dinners and make sure she'll be able to eat stuff that we eat as opposed to just giving her bread/crackers, tomatoes, cheese, etc.

Later in the afternoon we all went to the pool and had a blast. Ella is not afraid of anything when it comes to water. Our Community Center has three pools (two of them for kids) and we enjoyed all three. Ella was able to crawl around in the kiddie pools since they were only 6" deep at most points. She even went down couple slides with daddy. Needless to say, she came home very tired and went to bed soon after. And I'm very tired, too, so I'll type more later!

Ella's 1 Year Update

This past week has been such a whirlwind I'm surprised this update is only a few days late! Last weekend we were in Jupiter, FL for my best friend's baby shower and Ella had a blast with her family! Then we drove to Port Orange Sunday evening to spend the next few days with Stephen's family who were going to fly out with us Wed to go to Boston for Stephen's graduation from Harvard. We were busy swimming, playing with dogs, shopping and celebrating Ella's birthday early with Stephen's family! I was very nervous about the flight to and from Boston because I had no idea how I was going to keep Ella still since we did not pay for her own seat. Thankfully the third seat next to us ws empty both ways so we were able to lay Ella down in between us to sleep. Granted, before she would sleep she was very antsy and loud!! But, overall it went a lot better than expected. We got back from Boston Fri around 5pm and immediately drove to Gainesville to pick up my G'ma so she would be here for Ella's party the next day. So, we didn't get back to Tallahassee until 11pm that evening.
Ella's party was in the afternoon that Sat. which was good because I had a lot of stuff to take care of before people started coming over! It was a small affair, but Ella still had a lot of fun and got a lot of cool toys that she really enjoys.

Yesterday we woke up to news about Tropical Storm Alberto. While in the process of taking my G'ma back to Gainesville, we had to decide whether we should turn around and just have her stay with us a couple more days since it was suppose to hit Cedar Key which is directly West of her, but she really wanted to get back and make sure she had her medication on hand just in case it turned out to be worse than expected. So, Ella and I didn't get back from Gainesville until 4:15pm yesterday and she and I both are ready to not travel anymore for a long while. She is so sick of her car seat and I'm sick of not being home and not getting the chance to finish unpacking, etc. So, we are here to stay for a while. I don't even want to think about going somewhere for a couple months.

Now, for Ella's official update...her 12 month doctor appt. isn't until this Thurs. so I will definitely blog again to give you those stats. But, as for her personality and social skills...she is blossoming every day and it's amazing what she's started doing just inthe past couple days! She is still not walking...I feel it could be any day now, but she is really not interested at this point. She is completely fine with crawling and cruising. She points at everything and says "that" and then we tell her what she's pointing at. She waves hello and goodbye to everyone! And just in the past couple days she has started this new belly dance. It's hard to explain, but it's pretty funny when you see it. She loves going up and down the stairs..we don't let her do it unless we're with her, but I'm thankful that she quickly learned how to go down the stairs backwards instead of head first! Ella has also learned the signal for touchdown and makes a noise everytime she does it and then starts clapping, so we're really excited for football season to come because she'll be ready!!! She's been eating weird lately. She stopped eating baby food completely...she just won't have anything to do with it. So, she'll eat crackers, tomatoes, bread, and cheese. She still only has 6 teeth...I think she's teething because the past couple days she's been a little difficult, but I can't tell where her teeth are coming in. So, we'll see if she gets some new ones here shortly.

Today, we went to the public library for story and singing time and she absolutely loved it! She enjoyed watching the other kids and we'll definitely be making this a weekly event. I just wish it was easier to get around Boston so we could've started this earlier. Better late than never I guess. So, Ella is sleeping right now and she should be out for another hour or so. You'll be hearing from me again on Thurs. and before I sign off I have to say Happy Birthday to Analise. It's a day late, but we were thinking about you yesterday!

We're Home!

Well, we're officially in Tallahassee again and we closed on our brand new house on the 19th. It is so nice to live in a place where no one has lived before. We're very busy unpacking and trying to get organized but it's hard with Ella. She's very busy and wants to be doing something at all times and with all this stuff lying around she wants to get into everything. So, of course we we say 'no' and pull her away from whatever it is that she's getting into, she has a tantrum. So, a lot of our unpacking is late at night when she's asleep.

As I said earlier, we closed on our place on the 19th and we were very glad to be in town for FSU's College of Medicine graduation on the 20th. It was bittersweet as this would've been Stephen's graduation has he not taken a year off to get an MPH. But, we were very excited for all of our dear friends who graduated and are now doctors. Hopefully I can get some pointers from the wives on how residency REALLY is before I embark on that adventure myself. It's also sad that they all moving away as we're coming back. So, hopefully we'll be able to visit them in Pensacola,FL and Laurel, MD. And they all know that they're more than welcome to visit us here and stay with us when they're back in Tallahassee.

Well, it's late and I'm ready to sleep...although I'm sure I'll do a little more organizing before I actually get in the bed. I'll keep you updated on how things are going and you can also look forward to Ella's 12 month update in a couple weeks!

Ella's 11 Month Update

Today was a big day for Ella! She got her first haircut! We found a place called "Snip-It's" that only does kids hair and when we walked in it was like walking into a Dr. Seuss book. Everything was kid-oriented and every chair had a TV next to it playing cartoons. Since it was Ella's first hair cut they treated her extra special and took and before and after picture for us to take home. She even got a certificate signifying her first hair cut for showing courage and bravery. She got a cute purple bow in her hair and a balloon to take home! I was very impressed with this place, but unfortunately there's only one in FL and it's in Wellington which will be 6 hours south of us! So, I don't know what we'll do for the next hair cut. But, I was very proud of her. She didn't cry even though you could tell she was a little nervous.

As for other things, this past month has flown by and Ella has become more and more independent. She is standing by herself now and loves to look out our windows that are in our bedroom. Since the window pretty much go from the floor to the ceiling she can sit or stand in front of the window and talk to the people passing by. And she definitely lets you know when she sees a dog! She gets really excited and starts pointing and saying, "da!!". I would say that's her new big thing - pointing. She's still very inconsistent with waving, but she'll point to everyone and everything, especially if she's dropped something that she wants you to pick up for her....again and again and again!

Ella has also started completely feeding herself at mealtime. She has moved up to Gerber Graduates and loves eating the vegetables and ravioli. I'm trying to wean her completely from the bottle and I'm thinking about going and starting her on whole milk now instead of waiting for her 12 month checkup. I think it'll be pretty obvious if her stomach doesn't handle the whole milk and I seriously don't think she'll have a problem. So, when I do that, I will only give her milk from her sippy cup. Right now she's only getting water from her sippy cup.
As I said earlier, Ella is standing on her own now for short periods of time. I'm sure she'll be walking 'soon', but I couldn't venture to guess what 'soon' is. Ella and I have started a new pasttime by watching The Backyardigans together almost every afternoon depending on what's going on with our busy schedules. I think I even like it more than she does!

I'm looking forward to her next doctor visit to see how long she has gotten and how much she weighs. I try to do it myself on the scale, but it never comes out right. Unfortunately, she'll be getting shots this go 'round. But, we'll be going back to Dr. Hugger's office in FL!!

As for FL, we'll be leaving here on the 16th of May and closing on our house on the 19th. I am very excited to get Ella's BIGGER nursery all set up and to get her over to our pool. And I'll be looking into Mommy and Me swimming lessons ASAP. We hope now that we'll be in a bigger place and a little more settled that we'll have a lot of people come visit. We want Ella to be able to enjoy all of our family and friends sine we've been so isolated the past 9 months. And that includes all of you reading this. Hope to see you soon!

It's That Time Again!

Wow. I can't believe it's May already. It seems like just yesterday it was August and I was dreading the move up here to Boston and complaining about everything that was going wrong. Now we are just 11 days from heading back to FL and here I am again - w-a-y behind on packing and wondering why we came up here in the first place.

Yes, May 16th is the big day. Thankfully, my original plan of hiring mover (whish was snubbed for our move up here) was adopted and we're even going to have them pack the kitchen for us which will be a big help to me. I HATE packing the kitchen. So, the movers will come and pack the kitchen on the 15th (a Monday) and then they'll come back the next day and load the rest of the stuff. As soon as they're done we are outta here! I haven't been this excited since...I don't know when. I think I'm actually more excited about this then I was about the impending birth of my daughter.

Now, once we get to FL we'll still be busy for awhile. We first have to drive to Daytona to drop the dogs off at Stephen's parent's house because our fence won't be up yet. Then we'll drive to Tallahassee on the 18th so we can walk through the house before we close on the 19th at noon. At this point, we don't know when we'll have our furniture delivered. We have a window of anywhere between the 19th nad 26th. So, in the meantime (besides putting up a fenc), we'll be putting in light fixtures, fans, blinds, etc. That'll be fun. We like working on stuff like that. I'll be painting, too, which I'm not fond of because I feel like that's all I've been doing for the past 4 years, but it needs to be done for me to have the house the way I want it. We also have to buy a refrigerator (it doesn't come with the house) and furniture (couch/chairs and a dining set). The problem is: we can't really afford any of this, but we need it...so where do you draw the line? That's kinda stressing me out and I usually don't stress out about money.

So, we'll have a couple weeks to get the house organized before Stephen starts his ER rotation on the 1st. Then we will be flying back to Boston on the 7th for Stephen's graduation on the 8th. On the 9th, Stephen will fly from Boston to Chicago for an AMA meeting that he will attend until the 14th. The baby and I will fly back to FL by ourselves (soooo not looking forward to that) and prepare for her birthday party which will be on the 17th (a week after her actual birthday). So, my life won't be settled for at least another month, but right now I'm just trying to look at it as what I have to go through to get back to FL and so far, it's worth it!

Ella's 10 Month Update

Another month has flown by! I can't believe we're going to be back in FL in 6 weeks. I am thrilled to get Ella down there for good so she can start wearing less clothes and we can start doing more things outside, like swimming! Ella is still infatuated with water, probably even more now than ever before. She loves taking baths and she loves crawling into the bathroom and pulling herself up on the tub to see if there's any water in it. We definitely have to be very careful with her! Thankfully we're going to have a brand new YMCA in our development in Tallahassee and I plan on getting her into swimming lessons ASAP.

As for other things, I'm sure she is officially over the 20 lb mark by now. She is eating well and enjoying trying new solids. I've been letting her try more and more kinds of foods since she has 5 teeth now, but some of her favorites are still the kinds of food that she doesn't need to chew on. As I was saying earlier, she is cruising around the place like she owns it and would love to just crawl around all day long if I let her. I will be very happy when we have a bigger area at our next house for her to be adventurous in, but I'm sure she'll be walking by then. She is getting so steady on her feet and loves to pull herself up on things and then let go to see how long she can stand up by herself. Thankfully she mastered the proper way to fall on her butt.
Her hair has gotten long and it looks like I can actually start doing things with it now, but every time I put a barrett in it falls out or she pulls it out and tries to eat it. So, nevermind. But, I'm thinking about getting her hair cut soon. It needs some shaping.

As for words, she's still saying 'mama' and 'dada', but she's started saying 'da' when she sees dogs. I purposely stopped saying our dogs names to her so she would learn that they're dogs first, so now she says 'da' whenever she sees any dog, so apparently it worked.
Ella is also enjoying meeting other kids. She's been like this for the longest time, but now that she has been around them more, she is just so tickled to be able to watch them or touch them, or 'talk' to them. She has a friend at the gym who she gets to play with in the nursery and it helps a lot because she doesn't realize I'm not there.

She is about to celebrate her first Easter and I'm looking forward to when she's old enough to dye eggs with me and have Easter egg hunts. But, for now, she has baby Easter gifts to enjoy that are overflowing in a cute Easter basket. Until next time, we hope all of you have a wonderful Easter, too.

It's Great To Be A Florida Gator!

WooHoo! UF kicked UCLA's butt last night! For those of you who may not have watched the game (sinners!), the Gators won their first National Championship in basketball last night. It was a great game (if you're a Gator fan) and was pretty much over by halftime. I would've loved to be able to be in Gainesville and watching it in the O'Connell Center with the rest of teh Gator Nation, but it was still a sweet moment watching it on my couch in front of the big screen. And hopefully this is just the beginning to our winning ways in all sports...can anyone say National Championship in Jan '07?

Update on Ella's 9 Month Update

We're in DC right now and I'm just getting time to sit down and give you all the stats from Ella's doctor's appt. from Tues. So, here they are...she weighed 19.9.5 lbs. and was 28 1/2" long. Both of those are in the 75th percentile. She's slowed down some in the growth dept. but for all we know she could be back in the 9th percentile on her next doctor's visit! We also were told that we could turn her car seat forward-facing because her legs are already getting bunched up from hitting the back of the seat...so...we put it forward-facing for our drive to DC Wed. night. I think it might have been a little much for her. She was a lot more fussy on this drive then she usually is....actually she usually either plays or falls asleep in her carseat, but she fussed and fussed and finally fell asleep and then would wake up intermittently (sp?) and scream and then go back to sleep. I don't know if the different direction she was going in and the fact that she could see more was too stimulating for her or if she was just overly tired from the days events of cleaning and packing that she didn't get a nap or what. But, I'll be curious to see how she does on our way back...

Ella's 9 month Update

Ella has changed so much this past month...

The biggest thing to me is that Ella is always standing in her crib when I come in to get her in the morning or when she wakes up from a nap. This is also a problem when we put her down to sleep because she knows she can get back up, so she just stands up in the corner of her crib an cries for us. I would have to say that her ability to do this and the freedom that she gets from crawling around is really making her happy and and turning her into 'Curious Ella'. Her favorite things now is to be on the floor and crawl and pull herself up on things. And once she pulls up on the couch or the playpen, she likes to walk herself from end to end. She also likes crawilng after a toy and picking it up and throwing it a little farther out of her reach and going after it again and again. This new level of freedom that Ella has has also diminished my level of freedom. Besides the fact that I have to watch her at all times now, she has also developed separation anxiety and does not like me to leave her alone at all. She really doesn't ever want Stephen to hold her either. But, we don't always give her her way. We can pretty much tell the difference when she's really upset about it or if she's just trying to get attention. But, it is difficult to get anything done and it's hard to get to do little things like check my e-mail or go to the bathroom without her having to sit in her exersaucer or playpen and just cry for a couple minutes; although half the time she'll settle down quickly and just start playing by herself.

As for food, she loves to feed herself. Whenever we got out to eat, her favorite thing is the bread! She's also a huge fan of Cheerios, but what baby isn't?!?! I can definitely use Cheerios as a distraction tool if I want/need to get something done. The dogs also like it when I feed her Cheerios because she usually gives them some, too. As for her main meals, she has moved into the Level 3 area and is enjoying more varieties, buther favorite food is still sweet potatoes. She is not a fan of anything green (she must get that from her father!) and she won't eat meat by itself. She likes it better when it's mixed with something. Her three and a half teeth help her chew on everything, not just her food! She loves playing with and gnawing on drawstrings that are either on our waistbands or on our sweatshirts and she still has a fascination with keys; unfortunately not hers, but mine!

Ella's hair is getting very long and I'm excited about bein able to put barretts and bows in it, but what's weird is that even though it's gotten longer and it totally looks like I could do that, I really can't yet. But, I also need to go get some more hair accesories. She won't keep the headbands on and the clips I have now just don't stay in her hair. We got her 9 month pictures taken last night and I wish there was something that I could've put in her hair...it would've looked better I think.

As far as speaking, Ella hasn't learned any new words. She's still just saying "mama" and "dada", but at least I think she's knows what's she's saying now. Stephen was holding her the other night and she looked overat me and said "mama" and then reached for me. So, either that was a major coincidence or she's actually understanding who's who and what's she's saying. I'm definitely ready for her to start talking. I can't wait to have coversations with her!
Ella's favorite pasttime is still taking a bath! She loves the water and I can't wait to get back to FL and start her in swimming lessons! We have a lot of bath toys that she and I play with every other night and she's started crawling in the bath now...so, I don't put as much water in it and I need to get little sticky things for the bottom of the tub...I suppose I should just not let her do that, but since I'm in there with her it doesn't seem like a big deal.

I'll be back later to post her stat's from the doctor's appt.

Skiing sucks!

My husband did something really sweet this weekend. I'm always on him about not taking the bull by the horns and just planning something on his own. If we talk about doing something for the day or even somewhere to go on vacation he always ask millions of questions and ultimately wants me to plan the whole thing. So, finally, when he asked if I wanted to go skiing and whether or not I would be comfortable with Ella being watched at the daycare at the ski resort, I said, "Just plan it yourself!" So, he did.

We traveled to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire early yesterday morning. I was excited to go skiing for the first time and I wasn't too nervous about leaving Ella with total strangers since I knew that they had a policy that only 6 infants were booked for a day and once we dropped her off, the people were really nice and took a ton of information from us because they wanted to be sure that she was fed properly, changed when she should be, and napped the way she was used to napping. So, after we dropped her off we went to rent our ski equipment. We then went to the ski lift and that was the last fun I had for the day. As soon as I got off the ski lift I fell. Then I fell again. And again. And again...so and so forth. Obviously I knew that I wasn't going to be great since this was my first time, but it got old real fast, especially when you have 4 and 5 year olds zooming past you like they came out the womb skiing!! Oh, and I was on the easiest slope there was...it took me over and hour to get down the thing. By the time I was down the slope I was so sore and knew I had bruises all over my body. I alos twisted my knee really bad on my last fall which sucked because I was getting the hang of it right at the end. But, I was too worried that it would just take one more fall for me to really hurt my knee or to break something and I didn't want to chance it, let alone I was already exhausted and in pain.
So, yes, I stayed at Cafe' and read a book for the rest of the afternoon while Stephen skied by himself. I felt horrible because this was supposed to be a day for us to hang out without the baby which has yet to happen since she was born. But, if I had decided to ski more, it wouldn't have been any fun for him because I would've been stuck on the green slope all day going REALLY slow. At least he got to go on other slopes and get his money's worth.

So, I'll leave the skiing to the yankees and I'll stick with the warm water sports that I'm a 'pro' at.

Blizzard '06, NetFlix, etc.

So, I'm stuck in the house today thanks to a 'blizzard' that we had yesterday. I don't really think that our area officially went through a blizzard which is considered a snow storm where the winds are at least 35 mph for at least three hours straight and visibility is 1/4" of a mile or less. Anyway, I think the officially tally for Boston was 17", although I think we may have a gotten a little more than that. Most schools are closed today, but of course Harvard isn't. So, while all the other kids are sledding with their families, Ella and I are stuck inside with three hyper dogs and nothing to do. We've played with all of Ella's toys and she's taken two naps so far, although they haven't been long enough (for her or myself). Stephen isn't going to be home until after 9pm (guess I'll be TiVo-ing 24) and I'm trying to plan out dinner for Valentine's Day evening. We decided to stay in since Ella is getting increasingly harder to deal with at restaurants. She's not bad, she's just curious about everything and it's really hard to enjoy dinner and each other's company when she wants to stick everything in her mouth, her attention span in close to nil, and service in Boston is not great anyway.

I also haven't gotten my UsToday yet which means I haven't done my daily crossword puzzle or Sudoku puzzle, so I feel a little dumb right now. I'm assuming that we are getting mail today...I guess it's just running late since we have mail carriers on foot. I am looking forward to Wed. and Thurs. when it's supposed to be in the low 50's again.

Oh! I have to talk about NetFlix. If there are people who are still using Blockbuster, you need to wake up and smell the cheaper rentals that are delivered to your front door! We love NetFlix and we're also loving watching seasons of television shows that we never got to watch such as Arrested Development. This is seriously one of the best comedies ever! Unfortunately, it's been cancelled from Fox after only three seasons. There are rumors going around that Showtime or some other cable network might pick it up, but if not, we'll have three glorious seasons to laugh at. I seriously recommend this show for anyone who loves to laugh at most anything.

OK, I'll get off my soap box and go tend to something....

Ella's 8 month update

Originally posted on February 10, 2006.

Wow, I'm actually going to get this update done on time! I guess I'll start out by saying that we took Ella to see "Curious George" for her 8 month brithday. And I'll just say that she's in an awkward stage to see a movie at the theater...the last movie we took her to was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She was very good during that movie and either sat and watched it or ate and slept. At this movie she watched it off and on and then would start play screaming, etc. which is cute, but of course we're always worried it might annoy someone else (even though there were only three other families there at the time). She also got tired near the middle of the movie and she would not settle down and fall asleep even if I took her in the back and walked/rocked her. So, it'll probably be a while before we take her to another movie.
As far as her milestones are going, she's still on track. Stephen says he thinks she's a little ahead, but he's biased. I mean she could be, but how do you really measure that? Anyway, she's still enjoying her solids. She's about ready to start on level 3 foods and is also enjoying feeding herself. Now, when I say this I don't mean with a spoon. But, she loves Zwieback (toast for babies) or any onther bread that tough enough for her to suck on and let it melt in her mouth (like French bread). She's almost got her pincer grasp down, too.
Ella is also VERY close to crawling. If she hadn't been so sick for a over a week, she would probably be crawling already. She loves being on the floor and she's been rocking on her hands and knees for a while now; she gets so frustrated because she can't get anywhere. She starts moving forward and falls on her stomach. She also loves to pull up on things. Thankfully she only does it on things that are very sturdy like our couch, ourselves, and in her playpen. I'm actually surprised she hasn't started pulling herself up in her crib, but I am glad about that because I hear that once they know how to do that they'll wake up in the middle of the night and do so and that's just not good for me! She hasn't seemed to pick up anything language-wise. She still says 'mama', 'dada', 'baba'...but again, I don't think they have any meaning to her, yet.
I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting. I'll blog again if I think of any, but I'm so tired right now. We're supposedly getting a blizzard late tomorrow evening through Sunday morning, so we were out all day today preparing for that. Ella went down 30 minutes ago and I'm not far off.

Ella's 7 month update

Originally posted on January 18, 2006.

Once again I'm late for my monthly Ella update, but my excuse this time is actually plausible...I'm still on vacation in FL. Anyway, Ella is a 5 year old in a 7 month old body. She has such personality and is letting it show more and more every day! It's amazing how much she's changed since we've been down here! She is now letting her wants be known like refusing to sit if she doesn't feel like it...she will make herself stiff and straight if she doesn't feel like sitting in the high chair or if she wants to lay on the floor instead. If you take something away from her she pitches a fit!! I wasn't prepared for that quite yet, but I guess that's a little of me that's coming out in her!
She also learned how to clap...not loud, but it's clapping. She also likes making noises with her mouth my humming and tapping her arm on her mouth at the same time. She still loves to scream for fun and blow raspberries...especially if you do it with her.
She's had a very exciting time in FL. Her first Christmas was very special and she got to see a lot of family and meet a lot of new friends. She also got to go to Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom last Fri. with her friend Analise. It was amazing to see two 7 month olds enjoy Disney like that. Ella had a blast and I'm looking forward to taking her again.
We leave for Boston the 24th and will be there until the end of May. So, hopefully the next couple months of blogs will be filled with a lot of nice memories from a place that we are very excited to get to leave for good shortly!

Ella's First Trip to the Hospital

Originally posted on January 31, 2006.

Saturday, January 28th, became a new, but miserable milestone in Ella's short life. The morning started out with Ella vomiting up her breakfast. We didn't think anything of it at first until it was followed with horrible diarrhea and then more vomiting, etc., etc. We finally felt as if she was getting better late afternoon and was planning on going out to eat when she woke up from her nap until she vomited again. We checked her temperature and it was 100.7 or something. We were also concerned because as we were cleaning her up she was falling asleep again and she'd pretty much been sleeping all day. So, our main concern was that she was getting dehydrated. (We had called the pediatrician earlier in the day and they said to watch her and give her a little bit of Pedialyte every 30 minutes. She was keeping the Pedialyte down, but she still wasn't wetting her diapers or forming tears.)

So, at 7:30pm we took her to Children's ER. Once we got through to the treatment area they pretty much wanted to watch her while we gave her fluids to see if she kept them down. They didn't feel like she was too dehydrated to give her an IV, which I was happy about, but yet they made us feel stupid for coming in. Around 10:45pm they said we could go home if we felt like she was OK and to watch her closely. Well, as we were leaving the lobby she vomited again and had another horrible episode of diarrhea that went EVERYWHERE! (I swear, diarrhea is 100 times worse than vomit!) So, we went back in and told the nurse what had happened and whether we should stay or continue on our way home and see how she does. They took her back again and decided to give her and IV. Well, I had to leave the room for this one and unfortunately, by the time I got back from my "bathroom break" they still hadn't put the IV in. So, I was outside of the room and able to hear her scream as they put the IV in her foot. I about lost it and the nurses outside the room were asking me if I was OK. I'm a wuss, I know.

Thankfully, Ella fell asleep shortly after and slept the whole time she was getting fluids. We finally left the ER around 2am and got home where she continued to sleep until 9am the next morning. Well, since then she hasn't vomited, but she's had diarrhea continuously. I can't even count the many outfits we've gone through every day. Her bottom is so sore and I can't stand to see her like this. She still sleeps a lot, but at least she's more alert and will play for short periods of time. We've gotten in touch with the pediatrican again and they said to switch her to a lactose-free formula for a week or so she she can build of certain enzymes that's she's losing and therefore can't break down lactose. So, we'll see if she gets better, but I could imagine having diarrhea for four days let alone a baby! I'm obviously glad it's not something worse, but this is worse enough for me...and Ella.

All Ella Wants for Christmas is Her Two Front Teeth

Originally posted on December 29, 2005.

Ella has reached a new milestone in her race for toddler-hood. She has three teeth that have popped out (two on the bottom and one on top). We're happy t see that they're finally coming in because it seems like she's been teething for months; granted the crankiness that comes with teething just started in the past week or so. Thank heavens for Baby Orajel! But, Ella did have a better Christmas than just getting her first few teeth and the pain associated with them.
Stephen and I decided to have our Christmas before we left for FL so we wouldn't have to drag more stuff than we needed to. So, we had our Christmas a week early so Ella could enjyo the things we got her before we elft town. So, we got her a dragon-thiny from Fischer Price that you can put balls in that come out of the dragons mouth, etc. It's really cute. We also got her a Leap Pad for Infants with a cuople cute bks that go a long with them. I'm sure we'll be getting some more when we get back...but it's like buying Nintendo games for it...they're $12 a piece. She also got a lot of bath toys because bath time is one of her favorite times and so we thouight that shoudl we love to have toys to play with, so she gt some cute frogs that can shoot water out of their mouths and some stacking cups from Pottery Barn Kids. She also got a big inflatable duck for her to sit in in the bathtub. That should be a lot less dangerous should she fall ver while sitting up...granted I will be there with her the whole time, but sometimes you just can't catch those little boogers fast enough!
Now, at Nana and Papa's she got a some really cute outfits from Gymboree and a collection of Veggie Tales DVD's. She's also got her own cell phone which she loves, and a bus that you can put blocks in or when she gets older, she can pull it around. She also got some books, which we are s excited about. We love getting new bokos to fill her library with.
She also got a$100 gift card from my former sister-in-law and got $75 from my grandfather's daugher-in-law. This kid definitely made out really well and we had a blast watching her have more with the boxes and the wrapping paper then anything else! This time next year she'll be 18 months old and should have even more fun. We can't wait!

Ella's 6 month update

Originally posted on December 13, 2005.

Well, yesterday was an eventful visit to the pediatrician. Ella was in good spirits and showing off in front of the nurse practitioner the whole time. Unfortunately, right when we were getting ready to lay her down on the table so the NP could actually examine her, she fell over and hit her head on the wall and the corner of one of the instrument holders. I still have no clue how that happened since all three of us were standing now less than 5 inches from her! Anyway, the pretty much ruined the rest of her visit because she was fussy, getting tired, and then the shots came!! So, she got her 6 mo. boosters as well as her flu shot. But, mommy and daddy got their flu shots, too! So, Ella got to watch us get our shots first, but that didn't seem to help her out any. (My arm still hurts this morning, by the way!)
Anyway, here are her stats! She weighs 17.7 lbs. and is 27" long. Her head circumference is 44cm. Apparently, her head and length are in the 90th percentile while her weight is in the 70th percentile, just like last time. But, the NP said she's still in good proportion. Ella is also ready to start three meals a day with her veggies and fruits and should only be getting 4 6-8 oz. bottles...so she'll be eating about 7 times a day. And next month she'll be able to eat some protein which I'm not looking forward to. I can't even imagine how pureed meat will look like and smell. Ugh!!
Anyway, the NP was great. I obviously prefer to see a doctor, but you could tell that she'd been doing this a long time. But, she did get annoying at times and made me feel like a bad mother when she asked if I was following the directions EXACTLY when I made her formula (well, duh!!!) and then also warned us about our dogs saying that a child should never be alone with a dog(s) until their 6 years old! Well, sorry to say, but our little hole in the wall that we live in doesn't leave much room for anyone or anything to be out of my sight wherever I am in the house! Anyway, I know she's just doing her job and that there are a lot of parents out there who are probably retarded enough that she has to say those things, but still, it was annoying.
Well, we have a little over a week before we head to FL for a month! We're very excited and can't wait to see our family and friends! I'm also looking forward to the warmer weather! I'm hoping I'll be able to blog whie I'm away, but who knows how busy I'll be. But, Ella will at least have a 7 month update while we're away, I promise.

Ella's First Cold

Originally posted on December 7, 2005.

Well, I've become and irresponsible mother and let my daughter catch her first cold. Seriously though, I guess I can't be THAT hard on myself, but I feel horrible that Ella is so miserable right now. I'm sure she got sick from all the public transportation we've been using lately, especially since we aren't using our travel system at all anymore and she's a little freer to reach out and touch the poles that people put their hands all over! Anyway, she very congested nasally (is that a word?!?!) and it sucks because we can't give her any medication that will actually work! All we can do is using saline nasal drops and then suction her nose, but she hates it. She screams and writhes and turns beet red. I hate it when I have a cold and now I hate it even more when she has a cold! It's so hard for her to drink her bottle and she'll be asleep and then start coughing because she can't catch her breath and then she wakes up screaming! Thankfully, she usually goes back to sleep fairly quickly if that happens during the night. I really thought that with her being sick I would be up at all hours of the night with her, but she's really slept just as well as before. Anyway, I just had to type out my frustration at the fact that there's nothing we can use to treat her symptoms because saline nasal spray does not work!!!

Ella's 5 month update

Originally posted on November 15, 2005.

So, this is a few days late...again. I returned home from Florida to find that our phone line was completely down. We promptly called Verizon to let them know if the situation and unfortunately they said that they couldn't guarantee anyone to come repair the problem until Tues. So, the days rolled by without me having any connection to the outside world...finally Tues. got here and Verizon showed up around 9am. I won't go into the fact of how ridiculous it is that Verizon (in Boston anyway) thinks it's OK for a customer to go days without phone service. Forget the internet....I couldn't even dial 911 if I had to!!
So, my real reason for blogging - my beautiful daughter Ella Bella (yes that's her nickname). On Nov. 10th, she turned 5 months old. I know I say this every month, but time is really flying by and it's scarig the crap out of me. I'm getting really sentimental about Ella and her time as a baby. It's going by too fast. She is amazing me more and more every day. She started doing so many new things just while we were in FL and even now that we're back she's started saying "Ma Ma"!!! Can you believe it?!?! I'm not sure if she really knows what she's saying and what it means, but she is saying it and she really only says it when she's frustrated and she wants me to come get her, so maybe she does know what she's saying. You can tell that she wants to talk so bad. She loved watching us talk to her or talk to each other. She's so aware and curious of EVERYTHING. Her personality is great. She's very relaxed and easy-going. She still only cries when she's got a dirty diaper, hungry, or tired. And even the hungry cry we've kinda gotten rid of because we're on a pretty good eating schedule. She's doing a lot better with solids and we're ready to try another flavor of cereal. I'm going to try and find barley, but I hear it's hard to find.
As for physical things that she's doing...she's finally rolling over both ways. Even though she has been able to do it for a while, she hsan't really enjoyed doing it, but I think since she's stronger now and knows how to get to her toys, she actually has a purpose for doing it now. She has really started playing with her tongue a lot. I'm actually surprised it's taken this long, but she loves sticking it out at us or making funny faces. She is sitting up on her own now and we really need to get her high chair out. I know I've been saying this for a month now, but hopefully we'll get it down this weekend since we'll finally be here for the weekend and will be working on the house. Ella absolutely loves her exersaucers...yes, she has two of them. I had to get her one while we were in FL just so she'd have something to play in and it was so cool that we decided to take it back with us instead of leaving it there for when we go back for Christmas. She's also chewing up a storm and I'm just waiting for her first tooth to pop out any day! And just in case you're around her any time soon...if she gets your knuckle in her mouth, be prepared to scream in agony; she's got a really strong bite (even without teeth).
One unfortunate thing is that I thibk she has excema. No one in my family has it, but a lot of people in Stephen's family have it and it didn't even dawn on me that she may have it until Stephen's sister saw her arms and a place behind her ear which I had already explained away with some other possibilities. But, she said it looks the same way her kids excema showed up. But, it's not too bad and it doesn't seem to bother her, so I'm treating it with lotion and will wait for her 6 month check-up to talk to the doctor and see if that's what it really is. It really bummed me out when Angela said that that's probably what it is because I don't want Ella to have any annoying things she has to deal with like itching and rashes that don't look great, but if it is excema, her's really doesn't look bad at all. I've definitely seen worse. I'll keep you updated on what I find out.
Well, until next time, have a Happy Thanksgiving! I may or may not blog before then, but either way, have a great holiday and break for work and/or school. We miss you all!