Ella check up

I forgot to post about Ella’s 1 year check up.  We went last Monday, 4/13, for her appt.  It went well.  She looked great and did okay with the 3 vaccinations that she got.  (She didn’t even cry with the first one!  The other two stung a bit more, though.)  

Her stats – Weight – 21 lbs, 10 oz  – 50th percentile – She has gotten really thin!  It is so weird to have a baby that is the average weight of a one year old at ONE YEAR!  (The boys were way past this at a year!)

Height – 30.5 inches – 90th percentile (Tall and skinny – I’m a bit jealous!)

Head Circumference – 18 inches – 90th percentile (This is fine – we always pay attention to this measurement because of Caleb’s Hydrocephalus).

We are so grateful that she is a healthy, thriving little girl.  Chris and I were talking about how much she has changed in the last week.  He was noting that she turned one and then decided to grow up!    But it is true, it seems that all of a sudden she understands more and is communicating more, she is trying to say more words, getting more teeth (3 that I know of are trying to cut through).  She has this funny little sense of humor and she likes to play little games.  She is standing more now – still not trying to take steps, but getting SO close!

Today, I had to laugh…she was crawling around with her little pink purse on her shoulder!    That’s my girl!  Oh, and she has figured out how to unzip my purse and the diaper bag – she empties them immediately!  Then she has also figured out how to open the back door, if it is unlocked.  She wants to go out there and get in her swing! 

So, as you can see, Ella is changing at a rapid pace!  I am just trying to enjoy every bit of it!

***Ella’s 1st Birthday Party***

Well, the special day finally arrived…Ella turned 1 year old and we were able to have her party ON her birthday!  (It was convenient that it fell on a Saturday!)  We had family and friends here with us to celebrate.  Thankfully the weather was nice.  It was warm and a bit overcast, but it didn’t rain at all (which was good, because if everyone had been inside the whole time, it would have been a very tight fit!)

We had a wonderful time.  Our dear friend, Val Busser, made an AMAZING cake for the day!  Wow!  Yes, it was a bit over the top…(smile)…but it was SO MUCH FUN!  (Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU VAL!)  I am totally loving this whole girly-girl thing!  Of course everything was PINK.  Ha!  (I have never even been a big “pink” fan, but something about a little girl does it to you!)   

 Enjoy the photos below…

Our sweet girl on her birthday! 
 

 She seemed to be excited!  (She really liked the cookies, too!)

                 

The INCREDIBLE cake!                                  

This was the “smash” cake – “1″

With Mama & Daddy!

  

I must have forgotten to take this photo at the beginning of the day.  But there were a whole bunch of rubber duckies as party gifts for her friends!  (Since rubber duckies are Ella’s favorite!)

She got a PINK guitar from Grammy & Grandpa (they got the boys each a guitar for their first birthdays).  Check out how she is holding it – like she knows just what to do!

This was our gift to her…a little stroller that will help her learn to walk!  She is here with her friend Lucy!

She was having so much fun!

 

 Happy Birthday, Dear Ellllllaaaaaaa….

She did try to blow out the candle – we had been practicing…she just couldn’t quite do it by herself!

Hmmm…what do I do with this????

Yes, she just stuck her face in it and took a bite! 

Then, she stuck her hands in it…

mmmmmm….chocolate!

gotta love this face….

need…more…chocolate!

the “big kids” eating cake

Ella (after a much needed bath and change of clothes) with her friend Sadie (who turns one exactly one week later)!

I will post some more photos soon, but wanted to at least get these on the blog!  Thank you to everyone who came and celebrated our sweet girl’s birthday!  It was a day we will never forget.

**Ella is 1!**

I can’t believe that one year ago today, our little Ella Grace was born!   In some ways it seems like yesterday, but in other ways it seems like she has been with us for a long time.  What a blessing this little girl is to our family.  I am continually amazed that the Lord would bless us with such a gift.  She brings so much joy – even to people who don’t know her!  She has such a sweet personality, eyes that brighten your day and a smile that will light up a room. 

Ella is cruising even more and starting to let go and stand alone.  No actual steps yet – but I am sure they aren’t too far away!

She cut her 5th and 6th teeth this past month.  (The latter just cut through a couple of days ago, after about two weeks of pain for her!)  She is trying to say different words.  We heard a dog barking last week and she perked up.  I said, “that is a dog!”  She said, “Do.”  I said, “Dogs say “ruff, ruff”, She said,”uff.”  So much fun! 

She has started squealing a little more again.  It seemed to start back up as this tooth was coming in.  Chris measured her on a decibel meter – 116 db!!!   (And I know she has screamed even louder than she did at the time he measured her!  She has quite a strong voice!)

Her hair is trying to grow and seems to have a bit of a curl in it.  It can get a little frizzy right now!  Ha!

Today we are having a little party here at the house for her.  I can’t wait.  It is a big photo op, so you know I will post lots of fun photos of the day!  We are looking forward to celebrating! 

“Lord, Thank You for the gift of Ella.  We are so grateful that You chose US to be her parents.  Help us to train her in a way that glorifies You.  We desire that she will grow to be a girl and ultimately, a woman that loves to worship You.  We know that You have given her many gifts that will be developed, please help us to be wise in the way that we steer her through life.  Give us the wisdom that we need to raise this special little girl!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

-Gotta Get the SHOES-

 

Ella loves her shoes – she’s obviously a girl!    I have been keeping her shoes in the window sill – it’s the best place I have found for them, plus they are just SO cute! 

Ella has figured out that I keep them there AND how to get to them!  She has started climbing up on the little rocking chair that sits under the window and stands up to get the shoes down.  She was doing this the other night and I got a couple of pictures!  She would then sit down in the chair and chew on the shoes!  She thought it was so funny! 

 

 

Goings on…

Well, there has been a lot going on around here.  We are doing pretty well, just staying busy.  I am having a hard time finding the time to post – I hate that.  But I thought I would update on some things over the past few weeks.

Park Day…

One Saturday, we had a work day around the house.  We decided to have a picnic lunch at the park.  So Chris and the boys rode their bikes while Ella and I drove in the van (with the food!)  It was such a fun little outing.  It was such a great day – relaxing, fun and productive!  Doesn’t get much better than that!

 

Alec LOVES to swing!

Havin’ fun!

 

Ella also loves to swing!  She was in there a long time!

 

Sweet kiddos!

 

 

Ella’s Ducky…

Recently, Ella has a new love for the bath.  She liked it before – well, most of the time, but now she gets excited!  Her favorite thing in the bath is her ducky!  She now says, “Duh” when she sees the ducky.  (We were at the store the other night and she started saying it – I turned and sure enough, there were a whole bunch of rubber duckies! )  She also says, “Ba” for bath.  It is so fun to see her making connections and figuring things out!

 

 

Eleven Months…on the 11th!

So, today Ella is 11 months old.  Wow.  Can’t believe that in just a month we will be celebrating her first birthday!  Amazing! 

Ella is changing rapidly these days!  She is obviously understanding more things and even trying to talk a bit!  She says Mama, Dada, duck = “duh” (she LOVES her princess rubber ducky in the bath!), shoes = “shzzz” (she is such a girl!), please = she puckers up with a fishy face and make a “p” sound! (she has just started getting good at this over the last week!  She is even starting to do it on her own when she wants something –  without being prompted.  It is much better than when she squeals for something!)

She still has 4 teeth – two on top and two on the bottom.  But she has figured out how to use them!  She wants to eat everything we eat!  It is great!  We really haven’t used baby food in a while.  She loves veggies and cheese, chicken, steak…you name it!  The only thing she doesn’t like is bananas!  Not sure why, but she just spits them right back out!    I think she may be getting another tooth – she has been chewing on her fingers again and drooling a bit!

Not sure how much she weighs, but she is still tall and thin!  She is wearing between 12 & 18 month clothes (mainly for the length).  She is very narrow.   Still in a size 3 diaper – so great!  (I think Alec was in a 5 at this age!)

She is on the move.  She has finally started crawling “normally” (on all fours) and is very fast at that now.  The tops of her feet and her knees are getting a little calloused.  She is pulling up and cruising around everything with little effort.  She has even started letting go at times while she is standing.  I can tell she wants to walk, but hasn’t quite figured it out!  We have to keep the bathroom door closed – she will get in there and play in the toilet!  Yuck!  She thinks it is funny!

She does not like getting her diaper changed or her clothes changed.  In fact anything that she does not like…she will let you know with a squeal that could almost shatter glass!  (We are working on that!)  She has a bit of “fire” in her…but I didn’t expect any less!  She is OUR daughter, after all!    I must mention that she seems to enjoy Alec more these days!  She usually gets excited when he walks in the room.  He makes her laugh – but he can also make her squeal in anger!  Apparently he already pushes her buttons!   

Well, here are some photos from today…I am having WAY too much fun with her! 

finally…Ella’s 10 month

Well, I am finally updating…I may have to do a few posts to get caught up!

I will start with Ella’s 10 month update – which should have been alomost 3 weeks ago.  :-/ 

Ella is such an amazing gift.  I am still in such awe that God has blessed us with a little girl.  He is so kind to us!

She has been changing at a rapid pace – especially her personality!  You can tell she understands more and she definitely lets you know her opinion!    At 10 months she was pulling up and just starting to “cruise” on the furniture.  While she could crawl the “normal” way, she still mainly chose to army crawl (it was faster for her that way)!  Unfortunately, that method revealed how dirty my floors were as she would collect it all over her clothes! 

We are always stopped by strangers who just want to see how cute she is!  It is quite funny!  One lady asked if I had considered doing baby modeling with her!  She said she had the “gerber baby” look!    I told her “no”, but that we don’t have a shortage of pictures of her!   

Ella, while still growing longer, doesn’t seem to be gaining much weight, so she is long and lean (every girl’s wish!)  She still wears a size 3 diaper and her clothes are mostly 12 month.  Yet she still has a few smaller items that fit.  (This has never happened in our family before, so it is a new concept – actually fitting in smaller sizes than her age!  ha!) 

Okay, that is all I will update for now, as I will be doing her 11 month update next week!   

Here are Ella’s 10 month photos.  I took them on Feb 11 in our back yard.  I caught her at the perfect time and she was amazing for these photos!  They have to be some of my favorites so far!  (I forgot to mention that Ella is sitting in a rocking chair that my Great Grandpa Biram made for me when I was born.  He even carved my name and birthdate and his name on the bottom of the chair!  I LOVE it!  So special!)

 

 

-what a mess-

So, on Tuesday night, I was getting ready for Worship Team rehearsal.  It was about 20 minutes before I needed to leave.  I needed to finish up my make-up, change clothes and change Ella’s clothes before we headed out the door.  no biggie…right?  Well, thankfully, I decided to change Ella last since she would be playing on the floor while I finished my make up.  That was a good move on my part!    She was in the bathroom with me and all of a sudden there was a strong smell…I looked down…she had managed to break a little hole on the TOP of a nail polish bottle (still not sure how she did that) and had poured it everywhere!  It was all over her clothes, the tile and she was spreading it around.  It was all over her skin and even got on her head!    I missed a great photo op, but I immediately went into “crisis clean-up mode!”  Ha!  What a mess, but I am SO grateful it didn’t spread to our brand new carpet – just 18 inches away!  It wasn’t too hard to get off the floor, but it was a challenge to get it off her skin, my skin, etc.  I doubt I will even tackle the outfit she had on.  It was almost too small anyway, so not a huge loss! 

Needless to say, I was late for rehearsal, but I had a good story!  I guess she was tired of waiting for me to polish her nails – she is a girl after all!    So maybe someday soon she will have her first pedicure, but for now,  no polish for Ella!

-pretty girl-

*my girl*

*love this look*

*she loves to stick her foot up on the table*

* look closely to see her new teeth*

*this was a rare time that Ella enjoyed having Alec hold her – had to catch it*

-this week-

 

We had a pretty busy week.  It wasn’t bad, but I was just out of the house a lot during the days.

Ella had her 9 month check up on Wednesday.  She is doing great!  Nothing really to report.  She is 20lbs, 6 oz. (just above 75%).  She is definitely my LIGHTEST baby!    (Alec was 20 lbs at 4 months!)  She has only gained 1 lb. since her 6 month appointment!  Amazing!  I realized the other day that my back doesn’t ache the way it did with the boys!  Ha!  She is, however, VERY long!  29.5 in to be exact (95%).  So she is tall and thin – every girl’s dream (hope it lasts for her!)  Her head circumference was good as well – 17.75in (75%).  We always keep an eye on those numbers!

She got two shots (flu – 2nd shot & Hep B).  So it wasn’t too bad and she didn’t run a fever or anything.  But she did take good naps that day! 

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On Wednesday night we had “S’mores night!”  We decided to get a little more creative with Home Group snacks!  We are going through the “Proclaim” evangelism training videos, so we had the couches pulled in and a fire going (it was quite chilly that night) and hot chocolate and s’mores!  What a fun night!  The group seemed to love it and it is always fun to mix things up a bit!

I must also share that I am at the end of my huge laundry pile!  I have one load left to do!  I thought I would never get caught up!  Seems like a little thing – but for me is a HUGE accomplishment!  I am pretty excited about that! 

We are enjoying a night IN tonight, so I will sign off for now!