8 months

 

(These monthly photos are getting harder and harder with her moving around so much, so there you have what I could get that day!)

Size: Moved up to size 3 diapers. She's in very little 3 month clothes (some dresses are being worn like shirts and that's it). And then the majority of clothes she fits in are 6 to 9 month. Don't have a weight or height this month-her next appointment is the 9 month well check. We can tell she thickening up a bit though and that makes us happy and sad at the same time!

Eyes: The color is holding strong at a deep blue/grey/green. They are a beautiful unique shade.

Hair: Long people! Like several inches long. It's getting in her eyes more, so putting it up in a little pony on the top/side of her head is getting to be a common hairstyle of hers. It is longer in the front (with a little curl), then shorter in the back, yay for awesome baby hair growth (ha) and gets really curly when wet. And it's still a golden brown.

Sleep: Praise she's still sleeping grandly! Some days her morning nap runs a little shorter than normal; about an hour and half. But her afternoon one stays close to 2+ hours. She does wonderfully during the night; still those 10+ hours of blissful sleep for her. And I love how she can be so tired in our arms when we put her down for nap/bedtime, but sometimes she'll talk to herself for a good 10+ minutes before she actually gives into sleep. No whining or crying, just Ellie babble, and it's adorable. And sometimes she'll wake up in the middle of her nap, do her talking again for about 5 minutes and then fall back asleep for another hour.

Eating: This girl is a champ eater people! We have introduced more solids into her diet and she was a little hesitant on a couple of them. But when we gave them to her the second time, she accepted all great (except one of them)! So far we have given her oatmeal cereal, avocado, green beans, sweet potato, squash, apples, bananas and kiwi (suggested by doctor and that went as good as one would guess-she wasn't a fan at all). She's still wants mama's milk her normal amount and that's fine. I hope to continue nursing till she's at least one, so I won't think about weaning until that's closer or if she's not showing as much interest sooner than that.

Milestones:

• Crawling on her hands and knees-sometimes, otherwise it's a fast and furious army crawl
• Goes to a seated position all on her own
• Gets up on her knees
• Has pulled herself all the way up to a standing position a lot. She will lose balance a lot of the time, too so you have got to be ready to catch her and thankfully we have been because there would have been some nasty falls! : / No worries on her part ; )
• Swinging/waving arms and kind of claps to music 
• And I could swear she repeated me after I said 'all done' and just 'done'; two different occasions. They weren't clear as day, but it REALLY sounded like she was mimicking me! It sounded like ' ah duh'. I think I'm talking crazy (I'll admit it) and Steven wasn't really listening, so I can't have him back me up here. Plus she hasn't done it again, but that would be pretty cool if it was the start to words!

Likes:

• Any toy ball
• Being tickled 
• Shoes; hers and ours (I wonder if a shoe fetish is forming...wonder where she might get that from...)
• Crawling ALL over the place, she loves exploring anywhere and everywhere
• Mauling over your legs and pillows
• Her musical/activity table
• Having you blow raspberries on her
• Playing with her spoon

Dislikes:

• Waiting in her highchair for food. She knows that's where she gets the food and she's ready when you put her in it-so you best be, too. (she doesn't get really upset, just makes some whiny noises thankfully)

And these are some of the things I want to remember...
The way she grabs/plays with my hair while she's nursing. Reaches for you. Sucks on her bottom lip randomly. Talks to herself in her crib before she succumbs to sleep and when she wakes. Smiles EVERY time we get her in the morning and after nap. The way she smiles when Steven walks into the room. The way she nestles into our neck or on our shoulder when she's tired. Sucks her ring and middle finger at the same time, on her right hand only, when she's tired. Purses her lips together and blows, kind of spits. How she observes new people and then will give a cute or awkward smile soon after. Slaps the hardwood floor before she actually crawls onto it. The way she scrunches her nose up and breaths out of it all crazy. Gets excited for solids by moving her arms and legs.

We are so lucky she's a really happy baby. So the dislike category has been hard to fill out these last several months! She likes/loves so many things. All that I have listed in the 'Likes' category since month one, and so on, has stayed basically the same - so it would be a huge list if I put them all down every month! And seeing her reach her milestones makes me get choked up pretty often...yes I'm a sap, and yes I'm a proud mama!

Fall love

In honor of today being the official day of autumn...my favorite season might I add... I wanted to share our...okay maybe more like my, fall to do list! Steven will enjoy these things, too, but I want to make sure they happen!

- walk one of the college campuses/greenbelt to see the leaves their beautiful fall colors
- collect different fall leaves
- visit a pumpkin patch dressed in plaid
- carve/decorate pumpkins
- build a fire pit and make s'mores in our backyard
- go to a Boise State football game, and finally see the smurf turf ; )
- bake an apple pie, all from scratch (never done one before-wish me luck)
- make caramel apples
- drink hot apple cider
- make chocolate chip pumpkin bread
- go to a corn maze
- watch Hocus Pocus
- and drink lots of pumpkin spice lattes of course!

As you may have noticed, several of those entail eating and drinking. But that's what crisp temperatures and warmer clothing calls for. Bundling up with cozy clothes and blankets with warm eats and drinks sounds fabulous to me. Happy fall ya'll!

7 months

(Ellie kept wanting to roll over to her tummy every time I put her on her back. Hence those two shots of her on her side, she was mid roll and super happy!)

Size: This one hasn't changed at all with what she's wearing; size 2 diapers, and clothes ranging from size 3-9 month. Weighs 13.81 lbs and is 25" long as of September 17th. 

Eyes: I would say they are a deep blue/grey/green. And in different lighting one color seems more bold than the other making it hard to figure out their true color! 

Hair: Still has the golden brown color! It is getting so long! And finally her bald spot is filling in a little. Yay! She's not even on her back a ton, but I guess when she is, she moves her head back and forth often, and that would wear the hair down each time. It just looks pretty funny because the rest of it is long. I put her in high pig tails the other day and we had a good laugh, because it sticks out so long and pretty straight. I want to try doing anything different/fun because it's long enough to do several things with, but she moves her head a lot - she's wondering what you're trying to do to her. 

Sleeping: Praise the Lord Ellie is continuing to sleep superb! Same schedule as the last few months. However, there are some days where her afternoon nap is difficult for her and results in some crying. But all together she still does really well. The 10+ hours of sleep at night is so wonderful. However, since she goes to bed so early (7pm), she wakes early and if we had a late night, the morning after is a bit rough and throws me off...but that's our fault, not hers! And at least her naps are on average 2 hours long, so if need be, I can nap as well!

Eating: We have started solids! So far we do oatmeal cereal in the morning and avocado in the afternoon. I have given her sweet potato once. Her doctor recommends just feeding her the oatmeal and avocado (both mixed with breast milk) right now due to her weight. Focus on the higher calorie food (avocado) to help and not have her fill up on several low calorie foods. She does still nurse 6 times during the day as well and she loves every opportunity to eat indeed. If she didn't spit up so much (reflux/GERD issue, not over eating issue) or move around so much, she would have rolls on rolls for sure. I'll just give the few rolls she has some love! ; )

Milestones:

• Solids
• Sitting up on own for longer periods of time
• Grabbing toys behind her or by her side without needing to look (she's been able to do this for awhile)
• Army crawl

Likes:

• Food! She will open her mouth great for every bite. She also makes this 'umm' sound with a lot of bites, like yum! Not saying she is trying to talk, but just saying she makes that noise by coincidence
• Sweater strings; she'll pull on them and try to yank them out (I feel she's thinking. 'what's up with this "never" ending string that won't come out??') and then of course she has to chew on them
• Having you wave at her while you say 'hi'
• Getting more interested in stuffed animals
• Squealing in all sorts of ways.  A lot of the time it sounds like a dinosaur; like a pterodactyl - it's funny and weird at the same time! She has squealed for several months, but now she's experimenting with all the sounds/ways she can make noise! She reaches some awesome low and high decibels/pitches!
• Holding onto your hands while you clap
• Will like pretty much anything new you give her to play with, she's a curious girl

Dislikes (and thank fully there's still not a lot):

• You being slow with her next bite of food. She's ready man and you need to be also!
• Touching grass with her hands 
• Loud/sudden noises; startles easy just like her mama

Anniversary No.7

This guy treats me so good. He is so selfless and wants to make this girl happy. I truly appreciate all he does for me, and now for Ellie as well. Thank you for loving us the way you do. You are a man after our heart and especially God's heart-makes me love you more! Happy 7th anniversary Steven! 

cousin comes to town

A couple weeks ago my cousin came to visit us! It was so great having him here and showing him Boise; he had never been here before. We wanted to show off the city and go to some staple places and do things that we all enjoy of course. Since there is so much to do around here we didn't even get to do all that we had talked about unfortunately...but that gives reason for another visit now doesn't it! ; )

We took him to our church Sunday morning, floated the river, hiked places that showed an awesome view of the city, the zoo, Roaring Springs (a waterpark), a baseball game-which had some cool fireworks at the end, walked around The Village, the guys played disc golf a couple times, we drove around downtown/the Capital-walked around a little to some places to eat down there too and ate at several other yummy local places. Time seemed to go fast, but we enjoyed ourselves. It was great watching him with Ellie as well. They had met each other before, but it was a couple months ago and a pretty short visit. So it was nice they got to have some more quality time with each other. She certainly enjoyed his fun personality. Thanks for coming Brandon!

Here are some pictures from our time together!

 

6 months

Happy half birthday baby girl! 

Size: This girl is staying tiny; still in size 2 diapers...3, 3-6, 6, and some 6-9 clothes. She is 13.25 lbs and 24.8 inches long.

Eyes: Her eyes have stayed mostly a deep blue, but now they also seem to have a gray/green/brown tint to them...not sure what color to call them yet, maybe hazel?

Hair: Golden brown still! I hope she keeps it because it looks like mine!

Sleeping: Her sleep schedule has stayed the same the last five weeks!!!!! That being: waking during the 6 o'clock hour, morning nap around 9am, afternoon around 2pm and bedtime around 7pm. And once she's down for the count at night she stays down 10+ hours straight which is heavenly! I am still so surprised she is doing so well at night and I know there are things that could arise and throw a wrench in that (i.e. teething, growth spurts, etc anything), but we are so grateful with how she's doing so far. Thank you Jesus!  I will add that there have been days where we've seen if she could be flexible with nap time, or nap place, and it has usually not gone in our favor. I don't mean to be a stickler about her nap times and place (crib), but we've tried and it is not the best for Ellie. We want a happy girl, so we try to stay as close to these times and place as possible.

Eating: Nothing has changed here; nursing and taking a bottle great! And still haven't introduced foods to her yet. Really there isn't thing stopping us, except the official go ahead by doctor (haven't talked to them yet), but we will be soon-very soon! I think Ellie is a little jealous of us eating, too so I think she will be glad to take part with us ; ) 


Milestones: 

• A kind of hop, scoot, crawl is going on! She will get up on her hands and sometimes get in a full on plank for a few seconds, or she will get up on her knees/hands at same time and other times she will do like a sideways lazy frog hop type thing-hard to explain and it happens fast, ha. All I know is she is trying and doesn't like trying for very long-she'll start whining. Every day we work on it and we praise her for all her effort! 
• Helps hold her bottle and sometimes she can do it all on her own for a moment 
• Sits on her own for a couple seconds at a time 

Likes: 

• Being sung Patty Cake, Jesus Loves Me and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. I try to do the motions with her hands and she's a fan of that! 
• Playing Peek-A-Boo  
• Plastic containers and lids-hey whatever floats her boat 
• Her exersaucer  
• Talking to her toys while she's playing/sucking/chewing on them and she can get loud with her babbling-she has some good lungs on her!  
• Being read to (I've been meaning to put this on her last couple updates, because she has liked this for awhile now. Yes she likes grabbing at the pages mostly, but she gets really intrigued by the pictures and looks up at you and smiles. It also seems like she is trying to figure out what you're talking about. Reading doesn't always last that long either, but it's a start) 
• Looking at whoever is talking in the room, voices really grab her attention. And if you're the one holding her out facing the room and you start talking, she will turn/arch around to look at you 

Dislikes: 

• Holding still, she's a mover for sure 
• Not being able to get the toy she wants or getting to you while you're sitting/lying on the floor with her. She tries crawling but she gets tired/irritated kind of fast 

 I feel like there are some things I'm forgetting to add to these lists, but these are the big things for sure! 6 months has come and gone so fast. I know her first birthday will be here before we know it. Ahhhhhh! It's still surreal sometimes that we are parents. Pretty much every day I look at her and ask, how did we get so lucky?! She is beautiful.

5 months

She was talking to me during pictures and I was able to capture her starting to babble something : )

Size: Still in size 2 diapers. In very little 3 month clothes and then in 3-6 and 6 month. I can tell she is getting bigger, but I don't know what her weight or length is since she doesn't have a 5 month well check.

Eyes: Same; a deep blue, with some very faint brown trying to come through. I have a feeling they are going to stay this way...

Hair: Medium brown for the most part with a lighter brown at the roots. It kind of looks like she has highlights, too. In the past her doctor has said people pay for what Ellie has going on, ha ; ) And it's starting to get a little wavy as well! 

Sleeping: We finally have a schedule, Hallelujah!!!! She gets up between 6:15-6:40am, then goes down for her morning nap between 9/9:30am and an afternoon nap between 2/2:30pm! Her naps are 2/2.5 hours which is really nice. And bedtime is between 7/7:30pm. One day it all kind of clicked and it was wonderful; everyone is sooo much happier! She's thriving off of a schedule, imagine that ; ). This last week we started sleep training her too by following the Ferber method. It's been going amazing!! The first night was a bit rough (no surprise there), but by the second night she was soothing herself to sleep fast and sleeping 10+ hours straight. Wow were we shocked. And she's been doing this ever since, too...did we get lucky or what?! Soothing herself for her morning nap goes great as well, however her afternoon one is a little rocky. I have faith she'll take care of that one soon though. She had been swaddled every night since day one, so we weren't sure how she'd take without that along with getting sleep trained, but as I said, she's doing marvelous with it all! Before we started sleep training her, we were having her fall asleep in our arms, then putting her down and it was getting exhausting for us. We knew we wanted to start creating better sleep habits for her and were doing a lot of reading and asking around for advice on the subject. Praise God for helping us with all of this, as it was getting a tad bit stressful for me to say the least. I'm already missing her falling asleep in my arms...so I may go in and look at her more often to see her sleeping (enter heart eyes like no other on me and Steven's part).

Eating: Still nursing and taking a bottle like a champ! Haven't introduced any solid food yet, but she's showing a lot of signs for wanting our food-staring and grabbing whatever we have. I'll be talking to her doctor soon to see when we should start implementing things into her diet. She loves putting things into her mouth, so I won't be surprised if she's a fan of real food.

Milestones:

• Soothing herself to sleep. She does suck on her middle and ring finger at the same time to help soothe herself and I find it precious
• Grabbing our faces, which we of course love 
• Pulling her toes up to her mouth to suck on...oh her flexibility and inclination to put anything and everything in her mouth
• Kisses! She leans in sometimes with her mouth all wide. Slobber and sucking is what you get...a bit much, but oh so sweet 
• Holding on your hands to pull herself to sitting from laying down
• Pushing herself more to standing from a sitting position (all while we are holding her for support)

Likes:

• Being in water! We went swimming the other day and she enjoyed it. Plus it's been super hot, so I'm sure it feels refreshing
• Our phones...I'm trying to not be on it much in front of her anyways, but when we are, boy her eyes get locked in on it and she leans in to grab it
• Playing with her hair sometimes while she nurses and sometimes while she's in her car seat. It's so cute
• Being on her tummy. She rolls to it fast whenever we put her down and she sleeps on her tummy as well (now I have hope for her bald spot to fill in!!)
• Swinging her arms up and down
• Her new stuffed zebra, named Stacy by Steven. It...she...has several different sensory items attached to it and it goes on her car seat

Dislikes:

• Holding still for diaper and clothes changes. Thankfully she doesn't fuss for either of those anymore, but she just loves moving so much and it makes doing both of those a little tricky
• The iron/Vitamin D supplement we started giving her (liquid form). I don't blame her, it's funky smelling and tasting. (This is recommended for all exclusive breastfed infants-no special concern for her in particular just an FYI.)

Before Ellie was on a schedule life was a bit hard on me (and her...and Steven sometimes). I really like having plans and knowing how things are going to play out during the day and days to come. With Ellie's naps all over the place and it taking forever to get her down and to stay down it was taking a toll on me. Plus, all this was causing Ellie to be crabby a lot of the time, so no one was truly feeling their best. I was trying to give it all time and figure out her cues; it took a lot of trial and error figuring out what worked best for her and doing things before it was making her overly fussy, tired, clingy, etc. Thankfully God gave me the patience I needed, because it was running thin...very thin. Even though she doesn't know better and it's partially a learning experience for her, too, I was having too high of expectations I think. Parenthood is always teaching me things, and there is still oh so much to come.