Mealtime

So two posts in one day, how lucky are you? I figured I'd better post the promised pictures of Ellie before we head out for Christmas. These pictures are from a week or so ago because the camera battery is dead and I can't take any new ones at the moment.

Ellie doesn't really enjoy eating from a spoon these days. She would rather we throw whatever we are feeding her down on her tray and let her feed herself. She is pretty good at getting the food into her mouth using her hands; however, depending on what's for dinner, it can be a messy undertaking. See for yourself:

When we blow on Ellie's food to cool it down she tries to "blow" too - all she actually accomplishes is a bit of snorting, but it is cute!

Enough with the pictures already, Ma!

Why So Long Without A Post?

Because our little cherub wouldn't sleep. I don't mean that she was waking up frequently (though she did that, too) I mean that she wouldn't sleep. Tim and I spent several nights, and many hours, this week with a wailing baby in our arms - rocking, bouncing, walking, anything we could think of to get Ellieroo to sleep, to no avail. She also was skipping her naps. It was a perpetual cycle of no sleep. In his book, Dr. Weissbluth says, "Sleep begets sleep" and it is quite true. The worse she slept during the day, the worse she slept at night; the worse she slept at night, well you get the picture.

But, I am posting today. We had a breakthrough of sorts. Ellie slept better last night than she has in her entire 10 1/2 months! She slept from 7pm until 2am and then she just needed a pacifier (no getting out of the crib, and more importantly, no nursing back to sleep!). She did get up at 5:30 this morning, but I will take what I can get! Right now Ellie is blissfully napping.

What a difference a good night's sleep can make!

The promised pictures will be posted (today I hope) so check back!

All I Want For Christmas...

...are my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth.

Ellie got her Christmas wish this weekend and her top two front teeth finally popped through. The poor baby is cutting five teeth at once (four up top, one on the bottom) and her upper gum line has been a swollen and bruised mess. These two teeth were by far more painful for her than the bottom two were.

Now we're just waiting for the teeth on either side of the center ones, and then I think her mouth will finally get a break.

Not that she is a good sleeper to begin with, but I am looking forward to getting back to our "normal" wakings at night (and being done with the disturbed sleep patterns from teething).

I'll get some new pictures posted soon.

Elfed

This will take awhile to load, but it is pretty funny. Make sure you have your speakers turned on.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1202452213

Enjoy!

How 'Bout the Doggies, Then?

Yesterday afternoon our neighbor, Denali knocked at the door. Denali is the most self-assured three year old I have ever met. She is quite a character. When I answered the door, she asked to play with Ellie. I told her that Ellie was about to take a nap, but maybe another day. She said, "That's okay. I play with your doggies instead." She is the cutest thing, and full of the dickens! I think I may see a little of Denali in Ellie...

Ten Months Old

Ellie turned ten months old yesterday. This month her personality has really continued to emerge. She is so much fun these days! She is close to walking and loves to chase us around.

How Ellie has changed over the past month:

• She can climb the stairs.
• She walks all around the house (and up and down the alley) pushing a little "walker" toy.
• She walks holding our hands, as well.
• She points at things, and pokes at them too. Her favorite things to poke at are eyes, mouths (teeth in particular), and ears. She likes to turn our heads sideways so that she can stick her finger in our ear.
• She can turn the lights off (if we are holding her up so she can reach the switch of course).
• She has started noticing things in the sky like birds and planes.
• She eats a lot of the foods we eat. We chop stuff up in little pieces and she feeds herself. Favorites are: fish of any kind, bananas, black beans, peas, noodles, scrambled egg yolk, and cheerios.
• She doesn't care much for jarred baby food anymore. She especially does not like us to spoon feed her. This can make breakfast difficult since a large part of breakfast is yogurt and pureed fruit.

Events of the past month:

• She outgrew her first pair of walking shoes.
• Second pair of shoes. See Kai Run shoes are absolutely the best!
• Visiting Santa for the first time.
• Big girl car seat! She still faces backwards, but she now is in the car seat that will last her a long, long, time.
• First flu shot. She gets the second dose this Friday.

Doing Our Part To Keep Santa Off Welfare

We took Ellie to see Santa at a local mall this weekend. Times must really be tough in the North Pole this year because Tim had to empty out his wallet in order to purchase the picture of her in Santa's lap.

We expected there to be some kind of inflated cost associated with buying the pic, so we were smart and brought our own camera. The elves were smarter. You can only take a picture with your own camera if you agree to purchase their picture also. Additionally, moms and dads can only snap a shot from the sidelines - not exactly the greatest angle. As you stand in the long line a "sales-elf" comes up and shows you their picture packages and tells you the prices. While she waits for you to pick your jaw up off the floor, she suggests that you take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for them (okay, so she didn't say that, but it might have been a helpful suggestion).

We listened to how we could purchase this great package (one 8x10 sheet) consisting of one 5x7, one 3x5, and two wallets for only ...drum roll... $22.00!!! Four pictures of the same shot for $22.00?!? We also were given the option of buying a CD with the (single) image so we could print as many as we wanted. This cost a mere $25.00 and is the choice we made.

Sorry Ellie, that will be a deduction from your college account; at least you'll have a great shot of you and Santa.

Here are the pictures:

Daddy and Ellie walking to kill time while we waited.

Still walking... and waiting...

Here's the picture from "the sidelines." Ellie had just noticed their camera and was pointing at it.

And here is the shot we paid for. Notice Santa had to hold her left hand down. She wouldn't stop pointing at the camera.

Quick Pictures

I know that there are a couple of people that check this blog on Friday evenings (Hi Grandma and Aunt Jan!) and I don't want to disappoint them, so here are a few pictures of Ellie from this past week:

Hanging out at our friends' house with their daughter, Emily.

"Reading" Stephen Colbert's book I Am America (And So Can You). This was Daddy's idea...

At the park, with Daddy. Too bad this shot turned out blurry.

With Mommy at the park. Daddy did a better job taking pictures. His did not turn out blurry!

Ellie loves this slide. We sit on one side and let her sit on the other, then we go down together (with Mommy or Daddy hanging on tight, of course.)

Never a Dull Moment

Ellie is such a joy these days! She has really come into her own since she has become mobile. She has always had her own opinions about things, but now she is very good at communicating what she wants and where she wants to be - which is usually doing something she isn't supposed to and going somewhere she isn't allowed! If things get quiet, we know she is being "naughty!"

Here are some pictures of Ellie being herself:

Discovering the washing machine. Look at all the pretty colors, and they spin too!

What do you mean shoes are dirty and shouldn't be played with?

In the exersaucer is not nearly as fun as under it!

Christmas started early here (a post on that later) and Ellie enjoyed shredding tissue paper. If anyone is wondering what Ellie would like for Christmas, a bag of paper would suit her fine!

The latest way to carry something from point A to point B. When your hands are busy helping you crawl and stand, where else are you supposed to hold things? She has seen this method work for the dogs, so why not her, too?

Standing and creeping along furniture.

Pumpkin Pictures

Here are the promised pictures of Ellie and her pumpkin. I was determined to find a pumpkin big enough to put Ellie in for her first Halloween, because, hey when else can you fit in a pumpkin? So here is the chronology:

Ellie standing beside her pumpkin before the carving started.

Pumpkin guts are fun!!!

Look at me! I fit!

Nine Months Old (Last Week)

Ellie turned nine months old last weekend. She also happened to be 40 weeks old as well - the same length as my pregnancy (okay, it was technically 41 weeks). Ellie has officially been a part of the world for the same length of time that I carried her in my body. Pretty amazing! I can't believe that 18 months ago the beginnings of what would be our little girl were just starting to form. How far she has come!

How Ellie has changed over the past month:

• Crawling!!! Ellie is mobile, and into everything. Nothing is safe anymore!
• Clapping. All we have to say is, "yea!" and the clapping begins.
• Waving "hi" and "bye-bye" to everyone, it makes the grocery store take a long time.
• Still babbling tons, adding sounds everyday. She still only says "Mama" or "Mom" consistently, but she seems to be saying something that sounds a little like"Baba" for Daddy. She also says "hi" sometimes when you wave at her, but I don't know if it is just a coincidence. She is constantly talking, so it can be hard to know if she really said a word, or if she was just stringing a bunch of sounds together and happened to make a recognizable word.
• Pulling up on everything. Ellie loves to stand and tries to climb on things. She has a lot of fun climbing up stairs.
• She won't sit in her Exersaucer for very long anymore, so we have started putting her in a playpen while we get ready in the morning. She tolerates this much better, since she can crawl around in there.
• Finally back to only two nursings at night. It took us a long time to get back down from three after our trips last month.
• Ellie can sometimes be put to bed or down for nap awake now and get herself off to sleep. This is a major milestone for our not-so-great sleeper!

Events of the last month:

• We bought Ellie's first pair of "walking" shoes. Tim and I have a bet going about when she will walk. I say by December 11th (one month away) and Tim says January 1st. We'll see who wins!
• Ellie's first flu shot.
• First major "boo-boo" from falling after pulling herself up on her toy box. She cut her lip and got a small bruise over her eye. I'm sure it is the first of many bumps to come.
• Trick-or-treating for the first time.
• Carving her first pumpkin (pictures will be coming).

Ellie saw the pediatrician for her nine month check-up last week. Here are the stats:

• 16 pounds, 3.5 ounces (10th percentile)
• 27.25 inches long (50th percentile)
• I forget what her head measured, bu it was the 40h percentile

The percentiles have remained fairly consistent since she was born, always near the bottom in weight and about average for length and head circumference.

I Am a Terrible Blogger

Two posts? TWO? In an entire month? Yes, I am a terrible blogger. I will try to do better this month. So, here goes the Ellie update:


Crawling! Yes, our little baby is mobile. Nothing is safe. Not even the dogs. They do not quite know what to think now that this little creature can follow them. And pull their tails.

Ellie still doesn't regularly say any words other than "Mom." She uses this word to mean absolutely everything. It means she wants to be held, fed, nursed, played with, talked to, and so on. My favorite is when I am right in front of her and she yells, "MOM!" and I try to explain to her that "mom" means me, and I am right there so she doesn't need to yell...


She has picked up several "baby signs." She waves hi and bye, signs that she wants a drink from her sippy cup, and that she is all done eating.

She claps! She learned that on Halloween while we were eating dinner. Suddenly she stopped what she was doing and started clapping. She thought it was great when she would clap and we would say "Yea!"


Ah, Halloween. Ellie was dressed as a lamb. The only pictures we have of her in her costume right now are ones taken at Tim's work in the middle of the day. We did take her out trick-or-treating with all of the alley kids. She got scared when a woman answered the door in a gorilla mask, but overall she enjoyed it.

TONS of Pictures - Long Overdue

Okay, so here's what Ellie has been up to for the last couple of weeks.

First the Idaho pictures:

Kisses from Grandma B.

More Grandma Kisses

Happy girl after a walk with Mama

With cousin Kieron

I can almost crawl!!!

What are those pokey things? Daddy doesn't have those...

Happy with Grandpa B.

Let's see... can I pull off Grandpa's hat and pull something off the table at the same time?

We gave Great Grandma E. a big surprise when we showed up (unannounced) at her door.

Some cousin pictures. Grandma B. wanted to get some shots to have made into an 8x10 of the three cousins together.

Kieron feeding Ellie dinner.

With Aunt Brigette (or Aunt Sis, depending on if Ellie will be able to say "Brigette." I couldn't...)

Talking on the phone with Daddy, who missed his little girl (and her Mama, but mainly his little girl) very much while we were gone.

One final cousin picture.

Now, back home, on another hike.

Then Ellie and Mama went to "gymnastics" at a local gymnasium. They were having "open gym" day, and I thought Ellie might like to play there.

Sitting on the trampoline.

A few days later Ellie met her Great Aunt Janice for the first time. Janice was visiting Grandma and Grandpa W. so we all met for lunch.

And finally, yesterday. Ellie helped Mama clip coupons. You can never start teaching the value of a dollar too soon!