Happy Birthday Steve!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say Happy Birthday to Steve, who turns the big 3-2 today...thanks for being such a great husband to me, and daddy to Ella. We love you!!

Monkey Joe's

This Saturday afternoon my friend Shruti and I took our girls to Monkey Joe's for the first time. Avni is just 2 days older than Ella so it's a fun little pair -although they seem mostly oblivious of each other at this point :)

They have a "Mini-Monkey Zone" that is an inflatable boat just for age 1 - 3. There were some big kids on there that I wanted to tell them to get out of there but instead I just stuck very close to Ella, or rather she stuck to me like glue, and we had a fun time. Avni was really adventurous and bounced all around and took off. Ella was more cautious and had a good time as long as she stuck close to me. Here are some pics from the adventure.

Ella on the slide


Ella and Avni stuck together


Avni bouncing


Shruti and Avni


Ella getting brave (relatively speaking :0)

Fun with Grammy

Mom was here last weekend and Ella had lots of fun with her.

Snuggling on Grammy's shoulder


Getting pushed in her rocking chair by Grammy

This was my rocking chair when I was little and Mom and Glenn fixed it up for Ella's first birthday, so now it is hers!

Me, Mom and Ella

Ella's Hairdo Do's

Here are some lessons from Ella's list of Hairdo "Do's"

#1. All that's required for a ponytail is just like it sounds - a little tail of hair!

I call this one 'the Thomas Jefferson'

#2. Let Mommy put in a hairbow and give an angelic smile


#3. Wait 30 seconds, then yank hairbow out, then eat hairbow


#4. Actually, hairdos are overrated...bed head is the way to go!

Snow Day!

In my 2 1/2 years living in Fayetteville, 2 years in Missouri, and now 3+ years in Raleigh, I have not seen more than 1/2 inch of snow total...until today! Yesterday we started hearing in the forecast that it was supposed to snow and got more certain throughout the day and did start raining late last night, which turned into ACTUAL snow over night, and even more than that, actually stuck on the ground!

So, it's Ella's first snow day - and the first one for us in several years. Altogether we got about 5 inches, definitely a real snow storm.

Here are some pics of the snow






Steve took Ella out for a minute to see what she thought of it


Here she is checking it out - most important thing - scoop it up and try it!


Yummy!


They were just outside for a minute but she definitely seemed to enjoy it, and was unphased by the cold. As pretty as it was today, I'll be glad for it to warm up again!

Gymnastics Class

We signed Ella up for a Little Gym gymnastics class, and had the first class this past Saturday. It's for babies age 10 to 18 months, and there are 5 kids in the class and their parents too.

It was so cute - there is lots of singing and playing and Ella really had a good time. She crawled through the tunnel (and was the only baby that made it through - not that I'm bragging ;0), "walked" on the beam with daddy's help (aka Steve holding her up while she tried to sit), rode on a parachute, did some log rolls, played with balls, tried to hang on uneven bars, and bopped and danced to the music. In possibly the cutest moment, at the very end of the class, they were supposed to help the teacher put these bells and maracas back into a basket, and Ella scooped up as many bells as she could get her hands on, and put them all in the basket. Then, as the teacher tried to take the basket away, she put both hands out and made an attempt to get all the bells back...it was precious.

It was a really fun class and definitely something we'll look forward to every Saturday morning! One of these weeks I'll have to take some pics to post.

Checking on Nomar

One of the first things on Ella's "to do list" every morning is check on Nomar, who is almost always sitting in the windowsill in the dining room. We give her a cup of milk in the kitchen which she quickly abandons to go see what her buddy is up to. After she's satisfied that all is good with Nomar, she tackles her next morning project, checking on the dogs!

One Year Doctor's Appointment

This morning we took Ella to her one year doctor's appointment. She did pretty good but got a lot of shots - 4 of them, right in the chunky thighs, plus a finger prick test to check her blood. She was very, very upset and it was the hardest to console than any other time of getting vaccines.

She weighs 18 lbs 11 oz, and is 28 inches long - so, she still needs to sit backwards in the carseat a while longer but we know she's ready to turn around as soon as she can!

Ella is very healthy and the only thing we need to work on is getting her to drink more milk...she prefers water or juice but from now on, it is just milk until she has had enough for the day.

So, another good appointment and I am very happy that we managed to get through her entire first year with just one ear infection and a few colds.

Here she is in her Cougars t-shirt from Uncle Craig, Aunt Jackie and Cayla, Cammi and Gavin

Bath Time (last bath pics post!)

As hard as it will be to resist posting more bath pics, I will try to make this my last time posting pics of Ella in the tub - don't want to give her too much ammo against me once she is older =0). (Just ask me and Erin about our Mom's old keychain, which we still talk about).

So, here we go...here is my adorable one-year old enjoying her bath and waving at daddy taking a picture


She is sooo active in the tub now and spends most of the time, kicking, splashing, crawling around, or standing up


All bundled up to dry off


Another successful bath!

Stair Master

Ella had another first today - she climbed up the stairs! Steve was in front of her and I was behind her and as soon as she got the hang of it she kept moving and got up one step at a time and was very proud of herself and the top and gave herself a few claps - too cute!!

First Birthday - January 5

Ella turned 1 this past Monday, January 5, at 2:56 pm. It is just amazing that she is now one year old and that a whole year has gone by she was born.

Here she is waking up the morning of her birthday




That night we gave her first cup of whole milk, and she is now completely off bottles and drinking just from cups (and any time she can get us to give her a drink out of a water bottle, that is really her favorite).

Cheers!


First cup of milk


Yummm



With Daddy



And we gave her a little piece of birthday cake...which of course she thoroughly enjoyed!


So, my little babydoll is now a toddler, I can barely believe it! In some ways though I really feel like she is a little girl instead of a baby but then at other times I still think she's all baby.

Now she cruising a little bit but she isn't that motivated on her own, so her best walking practice comes when we hold her hands and she'll take steps toward us and then if I walk backwards while I have her hands she'll take steps and walk toward me. She climbs up on everything and likes to do lots of exploring. The dogs and Nomar give her endless amount of fun and she gets in silly moods where she just giggles and giggles. She thinks that if her eyes are hidden, so is she, so one of her favorite games is covering her eyes with a piece of clothes or blanket and then 'reappearing' and she loves doing that. She likes to clap and of course loves dancing, and now 'blows kisses' (aka hits her mouth with her hand over and over) when it's time to say goodbye. What a year it has been, I am one lucky mommy!

Birthday Weekend

Here are some pics of Ella the night of her party (after a long nap, probably helped along with a sugar coma from her birthday cake) playing with some of her new toys.

With Aunt Erin


With Aunt Kelly


With Grammy


Playing with Sammy


Having fun (if you look closely you can see her 2 bottom teeth)


Blowing kisses (one of her most charming new talents)


The next morning I decided to feed Ella a bottle in my lap which normally she does not tolerate because she likes to be on the go and is very busy and does not have time to sit and drink bottles in her mommy's lap-- BUT because it was early in the morning and she was still sleepy, she let me do it...here I am giving my baby her last bottle!!



Getting a ride from Daddy on her new airplane from Aunt Erin


As always, it was great to have my family around to celebrate and I especially appreciated Kelly coming in from Boston for the weekend! Even though Ella won't remember this one, me and Steve definitely will, and it was really special.

First Birthday Party!!

We had Ella's Birthday party last Saturday, January 3. Kelly flew in from Boston for the weekend, Mom & Glenn came down, Erin drove in from Charlotte, and Dad & Donna from Pinehurst. We also had our friends from the area come for the party, and it was a really great time.

Mom and Erin hard at work before the party...


Erin and Kelly in the kitchen


With Grandma and Grandad


Me and my babydoll


With Daddy


With Aunt Erin


Drink with Gramps


Amy and Kelly


Laurie with Ella


Playing with Brant


Grandad and Ella


Playing with Erin & Elizabeth


Mom and Glenn playing "The Game of Ella's Firsts"




Ella on my shoulder


Little sweetheart


She actually let me put on her party hat and she kept it on for a while, even though she wasn't sure at first about it.


Time for cake! This was Ella's first time eating anything so sweet and I made her a little cake (with some construction help from Mom) just for her.




VERY tentatively sticking her finger into the icing






Hey, this is pretty good!!


Look at that chubby little hand!






All done!


Cake for everyone else


Me, Erin and Ella - and yes, that is cake icing in Ella's hair making it stick out to the side!!




Kelly and Ella




Happy girl






So sweet


Snuggling with Daddy


Beautiful pics from Amy






What a fun party, I'm so happy that everyone made it and got to spend the time with us and celebrate Ella's first birthday!