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.