Ta-da

A little out of season, but I had to post this cute picture of Nic helping put up the spider webs for Halloween. He was so proud of his spider webs and even made a paper spider to hang on it (completely designed by Nic- wish I had a picture). He LOVES climbing period, and acting like a big kid now (since he is in pre-k...haha)

My Husband...

Chris has spent the evening outside in the freezing cold putting up our Christmas lights. As I sat inside in our nice warm house enjoying the evening, I realized there is one more thing I can add to the list of things he does around the house! Oh how I would hate being out there in the cold getting the house ready for Santa, but so thankful I have a forever like I do.

Updates...

It's been awhile since I've posted, so I decided (even) without a recent pictures I would update everyone on our first Thanksgiving with Ella and all her new acomplishments lately. We started Thanksgiving Wednesday after work with a trip to Texarkana to visit Chris's dad's family with Chris's parents and his little sister Melanie. Ella did great in the car for the five hour trip there, slept most the way, and enjoyed the next couple of days being completely spoiled by family. We made it back on Friday, just in time for our friends Thanksgiving and ended our long holiday weekend in Mooreland with my mom's side of the family. Ella started (what I thought at the time) entering into a different developemental phase on Saturday with spurts of fussiness and a need of constant attention. Just after telling my good friend at work, how much of a ham she was being this weekend, I got a call from Ella's babysitter, Miss Judy, this afternoon telling me that Ella has been throwing up and hasn't slept very much since she got there. How did I mis-interpret her 'entering into a different developmental phase' as her not feeling good? Feeling like a bad parent, I left work to go pick up my little girl. Even though she was a little under the weather I was secretly a little exicted that she wasn't feeling well so I could have an excuse to spend the afternoon with her, and OH she was such a sweetie. All she wanted to do was to be snuggled and held. Just before she went to bed we were reading her books and she started kissing all the faces of the girls in her "Twinkle Toes" book. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. She recognizes faces really well. Some of the girls were on the right side and some on the left and she would find their faces everytime and kiss them. I really enjoyed being home with her over the break and today. Part time would be nice...

Our camera is out of commission right now, so hopefully Santa will bring me a new camera so I can keep updating pictures!!

Family Pictures

We took our first family pictures last weekend and man was it challenging. I guess I didn't realize how much males in general didn't like to do this kind of stuff. I initially thought Chris was just being a turkey when he made a comment about being ready to go 3 pictures into the session, but it followed by his little mini me (Nic) also ready for the pictures to be over with. I however, would like to think that Ella would have loved to stay with me and take pictures all day - I'm sure she'll let me know soon enough. The difference between men and women has become more and more apparent to me. I don't know if it was because I was out numbered before Ella was here and our house was very heavily male oriented or what. But I'm standing my ground now and happy that the numbers are now even....

Favorite Position

Ella loves her pink bunny security blanket and sleeps with it every night. She holds it by her mouth with both hands wrapped around it to fall asleep. She's a side sleeper all the way, and scoots herself all the way down (almost out) of her positioner everynight. I think it's time to take it out, but I've been dragging my feet because that would mean she's growing up! This is a picture of her napping this weekend with her baby legs on.

Under the Hood

We had to change the batteries in the jumperoo the other day and Chris got the screwdriver and changed them with Ella in it. I had to catch a snapshot of this, because as soon as he scooted underneath her jumperoo I had an image of her at 16 years old sitting in her car while daddy changed her oil for her. I just thought this was a cute picture!

3 months down...

Ella is now 3 months and this month has really been fun. She's really changed and starting to figure out how everything works and it's soooo much fun watching her learn new things. Here are a few things that's going on in her small little world:

Likes to watch Baby Einstein (10 weeks) for about 10 minutes in her Bumbo
Likes spending time with her brother - he "reads" her books and she LOVES it.
Found colors (blue, red, orange, yellow)
Talks, talks, talks (9 weeks)
Has a little seperation anxiety (not being away from her for a second doesn't help)
Sleeps from 9 PM to 6AM without waking up
Weights 11.2 pounds and 22 1/2 inches
Grabs for her toys and and can 'hit' her rattles to make noise
Stands up and mimics walking while holding her
Loves looking at mirrors
Hates being on her stomach
Holds her ears when she is tired
Playing in her jumperoo and activity center (10 weeks)
Takes 6 oz and started cereal in her bottles
Laughted out loud (10 weeks)

I'll stop there, before this gets out of hand, but this month she has really started to be really active. Chris and I were talking the other night and thought 'she's going to be a mess when she starts crawling...'

Ell's 2 Month Appointment

Ella had two month check up last week and had to get her very first shots...(boo hoo). The doctor said she looked healthy and sounded healthy and that she is a petite little lady. Ella is so active and the doctor said she is acting more like a 5 month old. Here are her stats:

Weight: 11 pounds 2 oz. (25%)
Length: 22 1/2 inches long (25%)
Head diameter (5%)

Since Ella is so active the doctor thought that was the reason for her being so "slender". She kept saying Ella was very advanced in the things she was doing and couldn't believe she was only 11 weeks old. We are going to start Ella on soy formula (doctor suggestion) for her spitting up and if that doesn't help she said to start putting cereal in her bottles (which will beef her up too!)

The shots were painful...for both Chris and I too, but we made it through and she got to spend the rest of the day at home with Daddy (getting some special attention I'm sure).

First Week Back

Today was my second official day back to work. Yesterday my mom came down to watch Ella (because the babysitter's daughter was having her baby)which made my first day back a little easier- thanks mom. She brought her up for lunch and I just held my precious girl my whole lunch hour and really didn't want to let her go. She got to meet some of my friends at work and was in such a good mood (I think she missed me). However, today was the longest day of my life! I did fairly good and didn't really break down, but I had a knot in my throat all day and emailed Ella's sitter about 20 times today. Good thing she is not easily annoyed (or atleast she didn't show it)and she did an awesome job of getting right back to me. As soon as the clock hit 4:30, I was out the door, basically running to my car. I drove so fast on the way to get her(I really didn't care if I got pulled over)and noticed I was tapping my foot the whole trip there- I was so anxious and excited! I made it to north Edmond in record time and practically ran up to the door. Ella was sleeping and I could tell she was really worn out. She didn't sleep much today, but hopefully it will get better for her as she get use to the new evironment. However, we had an amazing night together. She was so happy to see us and let up kiss all over her all night long! She rolled over AGAIN this time from her tummy to her back and her bath time is getting so much fun. She won't lay back anymore while giving her a bath. She is constantly in a sit up position all hutched over tightening her little stomach muscles the whole time...it's so funny. I just put her feet in first and she LOVED kicking and splashing for about five minutes. It's so neat to watch her really study new things, she's so serious sometimes. We finished the night at 9:00 with her "Good Night Little Pookie" book (her nick name for Chris and I is Pookie) and some good 'ol snuggling. I did decided to put her in her crib tonight, unlike last night, however it was hard to not just take her to bed with me. Tomorrow I'm sure will be just as hard, but I know it will eventually get better as the days go on. It just seems like she changes so much in 8 hours.