Adventures with Ella

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...