10 Months!

Ellie just turned 10 months old on Monday! Wow has time flown. She's just so BIG all of a sudden!

We have gone through many changes this past month. I became a stay at home mom as of June 1st!! We have had so much fun playing and hanging out together all day. E is now crawling all over the house so we have to make sure the floors are really clean (or trust me, she will find that one Sam hairball and try to eat it). Mimi bought Ellie a play pool for the backyard and we're putting it to good use during these hot days. We also enjoy our jogs on the rare cool days and giggling as Sam licks her face.

We made Ellie's first long road trip to Oklahoma last month. My cousin was getting married and I'm not going to lie, we were a little nervous how she would handle the late night. She was a trooper! Especially for all the unexpected that came up, but Ellie hung in there so well. I need to remember that babies are more resilient than what we think - and that it's ok to get them a little off schedule every once in a while. It won't break her :)

We're looking forward to the rest of the summer, planning E's first birthday and just having fun together. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with her - such a dream come true!

The below pictures are from 8 months - 10 months.

                                                           Bloomers on the head!

                                                          Ellie's first pigtails :)



                                                              Look how big I am!

                                                              Enjoying the wagon

                                                          Dinner was so good!

                                                                      Pool time

                                          It's getting harder and harder to sit still

Ellie - 7 months!

Our sweet Ellie turned 7 months old today! I know I have not blogged in awhile, but it seems that going back to work and balancing the working mom thing proved more difficult than I thought . Nevertheless, I still want to record some memories of our last few months.

Months 4 & 5 seemed to fly by. Ellie went from laying on her play mat just staring at her toys to rolling from her tummy to her back. It took her a little longer to figure out how to roll from her back to her tummy, but she finally got that around the 6 month mark. Now at 7 months she's rolling around the room and running into furniture if we don't keep an eye on her! She seems to be quite the mover and shaker so far, we better start baby-proofing the house now!

Ellie started giggling and laughing around 5 months. Her first "belly laugh", as I call it, was at Sam as he was licking her face. She then reached out and pulled his ear so he ignored her for a couple of weeks. They are now back on good terms. She's recently just starting crinkling her nose when she wants to smile REALLY big! She's so stinking cute. She has a fond love for her "Sophie", which is a rubber giraffe chew toy. Speaking of chew toys - I feel like that is all she does now is chew on EVERYTHING! We've certainly seen the signs of teething since around 4 months but we have yet to see a tooth break through yet. I'm sure it's coming soon enough.

The exerciser/bouncer that my mom got Ellie for Christmas has been put to great use. She absolutely loves to bounce. Even when we're holding her she wants to bounce off our legs into the air. It's great, and I have more defined arms to show for it. She also LOVES her Skip-Hop Owl that our Aunt got for her. It has lots of rings & chew toys attached to it for hours of fun :)

At 6 months we started feeding Ellie "real" food. Her first food was peas and she loved them! We then went to squash, carrots, avocado, green beans, apples, sweet potato, etc. The only bad response we got was from the green beans the first time but after a day or so she was just fine with them! So far we have a baby that loves any kind of food, as long as you can spoon it in fast enough. She's now trying to hold her own spoon and feed herself - there goes our clean house!

So here we sit at 7 months. She's rolling, she sitting up, she's grasping toys & mommy's hair, she's talking (ba-ba-ba is a current favorite) and she's smiling extra big. We could not be more blessed - not just for such a fun baby - but just for a healthy little girl. Every checkup we've had with the doctor has been normal, dry skin or rash here and there but nothing really to worry about. She's taken her shots like a champ - I honestly think she handles the needle better than I do! I look forward to the coming months and the milestones we'll experience, but for now I'm happy right where we are. I never want to rush her out of one stage into another because I know I'll miss that stage and never get it back!

Please pray for us as we take our first road trip to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks. Ellie is going to meet her great-gma for the first time!

*The pics below are from her 6 month photo session.

Month 3

Better late than never! Ellie's third month was so fun. It was my last month at home with her before returning to work. We really enjoyed being together the whole time. She went everywhere with me (duh) - the gym, on walks, shopping trips, lunch dates, etc. Ellie continued to sleep a full 12 hours throughout this month with very few exceptions. We are SO lucky and I am very thankful for the sleep. During month two we had the witching hour every night between 5-7pm. That went away in month three!!! Thank goodness, those evenings were rough. Ellie continued to smile at us and ham it up. Since I am writing this later it's hard to remember if her first giggle was month three or four - but it was somewhere close. And it's SO STINKING CUTE! Our love for her surprises me every day because I think that I can't love her anymore, then the next day comes and it's even more! We are such a very blessed family.

*The first picture below is with Ellie's bff- Lola Harper Hutchison! They will be friends forever.

 

Ellie Month 2

Our second month with Ellie has been so fun! Words really can't describe the joy of having her. It's so fun to wake up to her smiles in the morning and to listen to her coo throughout the day. Not to mention that we're getting a full nights sleep now! She's been sleeping for a solid 12 hours for a little over a week now.

At her two month check up she weighed 10 pounds even and has grown to 22 inches long/tall. She's in the 25th percentile. It's so funny how large she seems when comparing her to newborns now. Where did my small little girl go? I know she's still small, but I'm just saying :)

Like I said above, we're just over the moon to share each day with her. In the next month I will be returning to work and that will definitely be an adjustment but a good one. I know she'll love the daycare and will soon make many friends there!

Until next month!

Ellie - Month 1

Our Ellie is already one month old! She has been a joy to have around the house. I am certainly cherishing my time at home with her (thanks to work for letting me take the time off!). We've been blessed with many visitors who have been so thoughtful to bring us meals and love on Miss Elle. Our lives now revolve around poopy diapers, gas which equals fussiness, long nights, etc - but it's all been worth it! Somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks she blessed us with a 5 hour stretch of sleep. Oh thank goodness! That trend has thankfully continued throughout the month and we're looking forward to longer stretches whenever she is ready.

In the first month she's gained over 2 pounds and grown almost an inch (actual stats are 8 lb 7 oz and 20 inches). She's finally filling out her newborn onesies. We thought we had our first smile just a few days ago, but quickly discovered it was only gas! Ellie lights up when Josh comes home from work - and so does he! I love watching him with her, he's truly such a natural wonderful father. We joke about her poor boyfriends one day and how embarassing it's going to be for Ellie. We've got lots of time before that happens though...right??

It's bittersweet - sad that those first days are already gone but SO looking forward to the next month. I cannot wait to see her smile, to see more of her personality and possibly even get some more sleep. I won't push it though, because we can't get it back. Until next month or the next milestone!