A Look Into Our Future...

Ellie is very expressive with the looks she gives us. I have a feeling this is a taste of what we'll be seeing a lot of when she becomes a teenager...

This one was just too cute not to include :)

Seriously???!!!

Is she really teething already? Ellie can't stop drooling, is fussy, and vigorously shoves EVERYTHING in her mouth and chews, not sucks, like there's no tomorrow. I looked back at my baby book (thanks for keeping such great records, mom!) and Ellie is exactly the same age I was when I got my first tooth.

Chewing on a frozen wet washcloth. Notice the movement of her hands and feet. She never holds still!

Dropped her washcloth, the hands are going to have to do.

Getting Strong!

Ellie is getting much better at "tummy time." She doesn't scream as soon as we put her on her tummy anymore. The key has been to put her on the bed and then have the dogs play in front of her. In this picture she is intently watching them chase around the room.

Ellie can now go from a sitting position to a standing position just holding our hands for balance. She doesn't need any help beyond that! She likes to stand up and march her feet, so it looks like she is "walking" across the surface she is standing on. She loves to be standing!

We head to Idaho in 10 days. It will be Ellie's first trip. I am already making lists and trying to organize her stuff - deciding what we need to take and what we can live without for 5 days.

In the Clear

Today we took Ellie to Children's Hospital to see the orthopedic specialist. He said he feels that her hips are normal at this point! We were so relieved. She will need to have x-rays taken again when she is one year old and have another examination at that time, but it sounded like he expects those results to be normal as well. We are so thankful to have a healthy, happy baby.

Ellie Had a Little Lamb

Our friends Barb and Bob sent Ellie this soft, musical lamb. She really loves it! She has gotten much more interested in toys lately. She enjoys feeling them and trying to shove them in her mouth...

Ellie's Little Lamb

Happy baby in PJ's with her lamb.

Little Swimmer

Tim's mom and step-dad came and visited us this weekend. They stayed at a nearby hotel that had a swimming pool. We thought it might be fun to let Ellie splash around a bit. She loved it! I have a short video clip of her; I'll try and figure out how to add it to the blog.

Getting into the pool for the first time!

Floating on her back.

She kept kicking those little legs and splashing with her arms!

A local pool has "Mommy & Me" swimming for babies 6 months and older - I think we will enroll Ellie in August.

Three Months Old

How Ellie has changed over the last month:

• She can roll from her tummy to her back
• She laughs
• She loves to watch the cats and dogs
• She pets the animals (with assistance)
• She grabs things
• She puts everything in her mouth
• She typically gets up no more than two times a night
• She sleeps until 7:30a.m. every morning, allowing Tim to get ready for work
• She really enjoys her bouncer and has recently started using her jumperoo
• She watches everything we do
• She rides in the stroller facing forward, looking at things go by as we walk

Events of the last month:

• Ellie had her first shots
• Ellie was visited by lots of grandparents
• Experienced her first thunderstorm - she didn't mind nearly as much as the dogs did!
• She had x-rays of her hips
• Ellie went on two "hikes" - one in the foothills and one at elevation (about 7500 feet)
• She stared taking Prevacid for reflux

Pictures

Yes, it looks like we might have a red-head on our hands!

Enjoying the "Bumbo" seat.

Getting kisses from Grandma B.

In Grandpa P.'s arms.

Grandma P. with Kipling lookind on. He keeps a pretty close eye on his baby!

Ellie all ready for a stroll around the lake.

Ellie, Mommy, and Daddy

Update - 12 Weeks Old

Things around here have been very busy. We have had visitors the last three weekends, so most of our spare time has been spent catching up on housework. My mom spent last weekend with us and left on Tuesday. The weekend before that Tim's dad and step-mom stopped by on their way out of town for a long road trip. The weekend previous to that one our friends Dan and Becca and their daughter Eleora met Ellie for the first time. Busy, busy, busy!

While my mom was here we took Ellie on her first "hike" at elevation. It was so nice to get up in the mountains and smell the pine trees again. I missed out on nearly all of last summer's hikes due to morning sickness, so this was especially nice for me. We went on a nice stroll around a mountain lake. It was beautiful!

Ellie laughed for the first time today. (Sorry Mom, I didn't have the heart to tell you on the phone that you missed it by only one day...) She was lying on her changing table and I was giving her loud kisses on her tummy. We had blown raspberries on her belly before and she didn't seem to like it; but today she really liked my loud, exaggerated kisses. She started making little giggly noises and eventually they turned into deep belly laughs. I tried to get her to repeat the performance when Tim got home, but of course she wouldn't!

Today I figured out how to get Ellie to at least tolerate "tummy time." I placed her on her tummy on the bed and sat down on the floor so I was at eye level. Then I dangled her toy in front of her, but not for her to react to - for Kipling to react to. Everywhere I moved the toy Kip would follow; everywhere Kip went Ellie lifted her head and shoulders to watch him. It worked great!

We see the orthopedic specialist on May 9th. We are hoping that he'll give Ellie's hips the "okay."