Pictures with Santa

Today we took Ellie to get her picture with Santa. She definitely liked being the center of attention and seemed to understand that the longer she waited to smile, the longer she got to spend as the center of attention.

We decided on the way home that maybe she did so well with Santa because he seemed like just another grandpa. And she knows to be nice to the grandpas since they earn the money so that the grandmas can buy her cute stuff. Plus, grandpas are warm and make for good cuddle spots. Hehe.
 
 

 

Giving Thanks

This is the longest I have gone without posting since Ellie was born.  But life is going well, and I'm thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving...

• I'm thankful that both I and my baby daughter are alive.  We both came very close to meeting Jesus on the day of her birth.  And she spent 10 weeks and 5 days in the NICU.  But we're both alive and healthy now.  And for that I praise the Lord.
• I'm thankful for a husband who loves the Lord more than me and who loves me dearly.  He's the leader of and provider for our family.  He's strong yet gentle and is an amazing servant to Elise and to me.
• I'm thankful for my beautiful and smart baby girl who is growing more and more each day.  Becoming a mom was more of a transition than I expected, but I now feel like a "real" mom and feel a deep, deep love for my daughter.
  
• I'm thankful for a warm house and a warm bed.  Although finances are very tight right now, the Lord is providing for us and we have not gone without the necessities.
• I'm thankful for my family and Kit's family who love us and support us.
• I'm thankful for our silly pug.  Although he can be a pain (and I definitely don't feel the same way about him now that I have a real baby), he is a constant reminder of the joy that pets can bring.  And his little sister thinks he's pretty darn fun to kiss and pinch.

I'm thankful for so many things, but those are some of the biggies that come to mind in these few brief moments I have to type.  Happy Thanksgiving!

This picture is a couple of weeks old, but it shows how Ellie felt about her first trip to Ikea - exhausted!  She had fun looking around but fell asleep toward the end.

Happy 8 Month (and 7 Since I Forgot) Birthday, Elise!

For the past 6 weeks or so, I kept thinking of things to write in Ellie's 7-month birthday post.  Then we got busy, and I realized that I missed it by a week.  So I figured I'd just do 7 and 8 months together.  So here's what she's up to...

• Still wearing 3 month clothes, though her pants are getting a bit short and some of the onesies are getting short as well.
  
  
  
  
  
  Her cute new jacket from Nana.
  
  
  
  
• Just switched to Size 2 diapers this week.  They're still too big (i.e. her clothes have been wet in the mornings when we get her up because of leaks) but work for the most part.  And I always buy the jumbo packs of diapers so I didn't want to open another pack of Size 1.
  
  
• Has discovered that her feet are her new favorite toys, and her big toes are her favorite chew toys.
  
  
• Rolls front to back and back to front.  Many nights she sleeps on her tummy because she rolls over and falls asleep.  At first I tried to move her back to her tummy, but then she would just roll right back over.  Often when she goes from front to back while playing she sort of lightly bonks her head on the floor.  (We have her on a blanket but it's often on top of our hardwood floors.)  We just smile at her when she does it so she doesn't get the idea that bonking your head is a bad thing.   So far so good.
  
  Post-nap smiles.  Enter napwakeup10302009 to watch.
  
  
• No longer has a wedge under her mattress.  She's always tended to end up lying along the bottom of her crib anyway (aka not raised at all by the wedge).  And now that she's rolling everywhere, she was sometimes ending up with her head below her feet and kind of wedged into the bottom of the crib.  So we figured it was time to lay her flat rather than at an angle.  So far it doesn't seem to be bothering her reflux, and it's fun to go in when she wakes up to discover where she's rolled to.
  
  
• Is still on her reflux medication but is no longer taking her high blood pressure medicine!  Her BP was still slightly higher than that nephrologist normally likes it to be when he takes them off the medication, but he said her was comfortable taking her off and is trying to get her done with visiting him before she gets any more nervous about strangers.  She's been pretty apprehensive about him for the past couple of months, and I guess it's really hard to get a BP reading when babies get scared because they're crying and trying to get away.
  
  
• Is approximately 14 pounds, 3 ounces.  (Or at least she was on Tuesday at the nephrologist's office.)
  
  
• Loves to have company while lying on the floor playing.  If we lie with our faces next to hers, she rolls toward us with huge grins and grabs at our faces, hair and clothes.
  
  
• Enjoys smiling at herself in the mirror.  Sometimes I'll catch her smiling at herself when we walk by, and it's just adorable.
  
  
• Giggles and squeals infectiously.
  
  Enter gigglesqueal11012009 to watch.
  
  
• Is getting closer to sitting up.  She still wobbles to one side or the other (ultimately doing a face plant), but she can prop herself up on her hands for a few seconds.
  
  
• Was Mary Jane from Spiderman for Halloween.  Complete with red wig.  Coco was going to be Peter Parker but never got into his costume since we went to friends' house for dinner and were too tired to dress him up when we got home.
  
  
  
  
  
  Trying on her wig the day before Halloween.
  
  
  
  
  
  Uncle Ben and MJ.  Okay, Kit wasn't actually Uncle Ben but his shirt looks like one Uncle Ben might have worn.
  
  
  
  
  
  The wig was a bit itchy.
  
  
  
  
• Is not a fan of taking a bath without the mesh net to holds here away from the firm baby bath.  I tried giving her a bath without the net the other day.  She cried the whole time and kept wiggling so that she had the bump that is supposed to keep her bum from sliding was up under her back.
  
  
• Went to her first bar on Friday.  My brother had a happy hour party at a family-friendly bar (which was much more like a restaurant than a bar to me but it was called a bar and had darts and a pool table).  Ellie was exhausted but had fun.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We got this cute picture to show how she looked after having fun (aka her "drunk" face).
  
  

New Blanky(s)

A couple of months ago we started giving Ellie a little lovey-type blanket (with an elephant head attached) to sleep with because she every time she'd go to sleep she'd end up cuddled up next to her bumper and sucking on said bumper.  Cleaning bumpers is a pain so I figured it was time to try a small blanket.

She only had one elephant lovey blanket (from my mom).  She has another cute, soft, small, birdie blanket that my cousin made her that we use as her car blanket.  Lately I had been rotating those during nap times when the elephant needed washing.  Knowing how attached babies can get to their main sleeping blankets, I wanted to have multiples of the same blanket so that we wouldn't have major meltdowns or naps with wet blankets should I be unable to wash and dry said blanket in between naps.  When I tried to find more elephant blankets, I could only find matching ones on crazy mark-up online.  Unwilling to pay the amounts people were asking, I decided I needed another plan if I wanted to have more than one blanket for her.  I looked at a few at the store, but the prices were still high since I wanted to have 3-4.

So last weekend I went to the fabric store armed with ideas and a plan to either make more blankets like the one my cousin made (if I could find the fabric) or at least something with the green minky fabric on one side since Ellie loves the softness.  I couldn't find matching birdie fabric, but I did find some pretty flower fabric.  So less than $20 later (Joann's was having great sales and the minky fabric was considered a remnant since they were a couple of inches short of what I wanted), I was able to get the supplies for four little blankets - or blankys as I called my blanket growing up.


And if anyone is concerned that Ellie might notice whether the patterns on the blankets match, I was able to cut the fabric so that there are two of each with matching patterns.  So if she gets wise, I'll at least still have two I can rotate.

Ellie sporting an extra piece of fabric as a headband.  You can't see in this picture, but she's also in a wrap I made from fabric I found for 50% off so Kit thought she was a little hippy baby.

 

"Really, mom?"

Cuddling on the floor with her blanky.

 

"Do we seriously have to document this with more pictures?"

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

Thought this picture shows the color of her eyes well.  It looks like they're going to go brown like her mommy's.

Photo Shoot

Here are some more cute photos of Ellie from a little photo shoot we did the other day.  The second one is perhaps one of my most favorite pictures of her.