Happy Halloween!

Beware of the picture overload...we got carried away with costume changes around here tonight and I can't help myself but to post them all!

 Thanks Miss Judy for my sweet, sweet onesie!  It fit her perfectly!  (and thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the pumpkin hat and Erica for the socks...they fit her perfectly as well!)

 She had just woken up from her nap and was clearly not in the mood for pictures at this point in the day!

 Outfit #2...we changed her into her official costume--a ladybug!  Most baby costumes start in 3-6 month size so I resorted to making it myself.  Seeing as how she wore it for approximately 5 minutes, I'm glad we didn't spend too much money on it!

 Her antennae seriously crack me up.  I think they make the entire costume.  She doesn't think as highly of them as I do as Josh and I had to create a dog and pony show to get the tiniest smile ever, as shown above.

 and here she is like "whatever mom, get this stupid tutu OFF asap"

 Then...her daddy got in her face and she started off smiling (above) and ended with her monster face (below).  Josh and I laughed and laughed as we made her do it over and over again. 

 Gracie got in on the action and we put her in her hot dog costume (that has been sitting in the closet since 2009).  It's a bit large but drew a large round of laughter from our house.

 and then we ended the night with a pooped ladybug!  

Does she not look like such a big girl?  Her little face is filling out and she even has some baby fat rolls on her legs.  I love every single one!

 What a great first Halloween for Ellie bug!

Beat Georgia Tech!

Ellie's ready for the Tigers to play tonight--even though she'll be in bed when they start!

 We are really hoping for a big win over Georgia Tech tonight!

 If she appears worried in the picture below...no worries, she's not!  Ellie has full faith that we're bringing home the win tonight.

We're having a lazy day around the house filled with some chores and lots of couch time and football watching!

GOOOOO Tigers!

5 Months!

Ellie is 5 Months!

She has become much more in tune to the world around her and this "photo session" was quite challenging to get her to look at the camera...she was way more interested in checking out her nursery and Gracie.

I pretty much melt when this baby smiles this smile at me...no matter how many times a day she does it, it absolutely NEVER gets old.

 At 5 Months...

We think she weighs about 12.5 pounds.  Not exactly sure but she has definitely bulked up this month.

No idea on height and head circumference.  We might break out the tape measure tomorrow!

Ellie is wearing size 1 diapers--although we are going to use the rest of the diapers we have stored up and then move onto size 2!

She is wearing size 0-3 month clothes and they fit her perfectly right now.  I am now only buying her 3-6 month as I want her to be able to wear them for the rest of the cold season.

 Eating:

Ellie is eating 5 bottles a day/5 oz each.  Still 3 oz. breastmilk and 2 oz. formula.  My pump has gotten good use in 5 months!

She also started solids this month and is eating rice and oat cereals daily with fruit and veggies.

She has tried apples, pears, bananas, avocados, peas, and green beans.  Ellie is not a picky eater and loves them all--she opens wide and slurps that good stuff down!  She eats the cereal/solid combo 2x a day in addition to her bottles.  

I am making her fruit and veggies in the wonderful Beaba!  It makes it SO easy to make and other than bananas, I can make it in bulk and freeze it all in cubes.  I love knowing exactly what she's eating and knowing its organic and fresh.

 Sleep:

When Ellie is sleepy her eyes become red, she rubs her eyes and swings her head from side to side in her bouncy seat, nap nanny, or in our arms when we're holding her.  It is very obvious when she is ready for a nap or bedtime.

She is taking 2 2-hour naps (around 8:30am and 1:30pm), 1-2 cat naps, and sleeping from 7:30pm-7:30am.  Ellie is a fantastic sleeper and we are so thankful!

We cannot push her bedtime back past 7:30...she has a "witching hour" beginning at 6 and it is all we can do to push her to 7 to begin her nighttime routine of bath/bottle/bed.  She gets VERY grumpy.

This month we have discovered she loves her lovey.  She rubs it in between her fingers and on her face when she is trying to get to sleep.  It makes me a bit nervous as she can pull it over her face and I always go in and move it but it really does soothe her and gets her to fall asleep easily.

We have moved past the swaddle and you have graduated to the sleep sack!  You transitioned from swaddle to sleep sack much more easily than I honestly anticipated.  I underestimated you :)

Next "big" transition sleep-wise is getting rid of the Nap Nanny.  Completely dreading it.

 Ellie loves to sit up and view the world around her.  She likes to sit up in our laps, propped up on a cushion or sitting in her Bumbo!  I'm really hoping she masters sitting up by herself this month!  She can do it for a couple of seconds but will then topple over.

She smiles and giggles and laughs at Josh and I all the time.

 Ellie is reaching and grabbing at her dangly toys and she still loves looking in the mirror at herself.  

She holds some of her rattles and her paci in her hands very well.  She is better with her right hand than her left.

 She has started exhibiting some anxiety when new people hold her--especially if she can see Josh and I. I am afraid she is a bit rotten as she pretty much gets picked up anytime she fusses.  One disadvantage of not being in childcare where she is not the only baby needing taken care of.

Ellie has also started making a "monster face" where she clenches her fist and does a half smile/half grimace when she is excited or anticipating something (like a bottle).  It is the funniest thing and we actually got picture evidence of it in her 5 month photo session!

The fact that the next time I write a monthly post she will be 6 months completely blows my mind.  A half of a year.  I'd say I wish we could freeze time but with each new day brings more joy and more excitement and I love watching this baby girl grow!

Josh and I were discussing the other day what we did before we had Ellie...his answer was sleep!  My answer was only doing laundry once a week, never handwashing bottles, and NEVER waking up at 5:45 for work! :)  It's definitely all worth it!

Miss Giggle Box

This was from tonight. Ellie was being a giggle box!!

Our Last Day of 4 Months!

Where has the month gone?  Being back at work makes the time go by even faster, if that is even possible.  I cringe when people ask me how old Ellie is and my reply is "almost 5 months."

On the other hand, as she gets older she is getting more fun, her personality is shining and I love watching her develop new skills!

 She has gotten quite skilled with her hands in the past week and a half--she is very accurately grabbing at toys and engaging herself with the toy once she "catches" it.  The toy in these pictures is a "Skip Hop" owl (love all Skip Hop's stuff!) that we pulled out this week and she loves it!

 She likes grabbing the ring attached, feeling the bumpy texture on Mr. Owl's foot, looking in the mini mirror and definitely loves hearing his crunchy wings.  

 Grammy and I discovered that she loves onamonapia words--she giggles at words like "pop", "shhh", "click" and "boo!"  Speaking of giggling...she is definitely doing it much more frequently and we're not having to work nearly as hard to hear it from her.  We've gotten several videos--the best being from tonight that I will post soon.  She smiles continuously throughout the day!

 And speaking of videos...Josh and I watched all of the clips we have taken since she has been born.  It is unbelievable to look back on when she was born and how much she has grown and developed since then.  I remember Courtney telling me that Ellie had the tiniest hiney she had ever seen...and after watching those videos tonight, she is so right.  We didn't think she was SO little back then--now we know she really was.

This sweet love has provided us the most challenging, most fun, most tired, and absolute happiest days of our lives.

Our Sunday Best

Ellie had to wear her new sweater this morning for the cool chilly morning air!  

 We went to early church and then to breakfast during Sunday School hour with another couple from our class.  Everyone else was absent so we fellowshipped at Tommy's Ham House and it was delightful.

 We've spent the rest of the day during chores and taking naps and making up for not doing anything yesterday while we enjoyed the day in Clemson!

 Below Ellie is saying, "OH MY GOODNESS!!  The Tigers are 8-0???"  Our household has been quite happy the past 8 Saturdays and we hope to continue to be this week as well!  We desperately want a win against Georgia Tech!

 Grandma and Grandpa kept Ellie yesterday during the game and brought her a Curious George Pat-A-Cake book.  She likes reaching out and grabbing George's hands when it is being read to her.

 She is quite into books and will attentively look at the pictures as it is being read to her.  We are hoping this love continues as she grows!

This week Ellie will turn 5 Months.  Can you believe it?  We sure can't!!

This week

Whoa!  Talk about a deer in the headlights!

 We've had a pretty relaxed week...nothing too much going on besides work!

Ellie has had a great week--really great naps, great eating, and a happy baby.  

 Big "moments" this week?  

 We tried apples last night for the first time--she loved them, possibly more than her bananas.

 We are no longer swaddling her at night or for naps!  She never got to the point where she was busting out of the swaddle (thank you, beloved miracle blanket) but I think it was making her mad when she couldn't get to her hands to soothe herself when she was in her "twilight" sleep.  

 We use the sleep sack on her at night but for naps we usually just let her rest in the clothes she is wearing without it.  She sleeps great both ways.  We have also discovered this week she has grown fond of her lovies and fleece blankets.  Doesn't surprise me as I was attached to my lovey for quite some time growing up.  When she is fussy, she just needs to rub the fabric and it immediately calms her down.  Her two favorite right now are her "Angel Dear" elephant and lamb--thanks Liz and Katie!!  (Thankfully we have an entire basket full of lovies that were given to her...I am sure she will love them all as she grows!)

and I must admit, I loved this outfit on her yesterday!  Could have just eaten her up--although, I could pretty much do that any day of the week. :)

Sweetness

This face is the look of pure sweetness.  Josh told her the other night that all she would have to do is pull this look and she would get anything she wanted.  (We'll see about that...!)

 We put her on our bed at night to work on tummy time and rolling--she's usually getting a bit fussy around this time because she's tired so this helps her stay entertained and cuts down on the crying.  

She actually rolled over from her tummy to her back on Sunday.  Not sure if it was a fluke or not because she hasn't done it since but Josh and I sure did celebrate her doing it!

 Thanks for all the suggestions/emails about her eczema.  The hydrocortisone has helped--we have already seen a difference, and we're implementing several other suggestions as well to hopefully prevent further outbreaks.

I should have also mentioned that she was weighed on Monday when we went in and she is up to 11 lbs, 12 oz!  The solids are definitely helping her get some additional calories in and we are very pleased with her weight gain.

 We went to Josh's work today so that I could get a flu shot (blah!)--several of his co-workers haven't seen her in quite some time and Terry asked her if we were feeding her fertilizer she had grown so much!

A Doctor's Visit

These pictures are not from today--none of them are--I "dumped" the pictures from our small camera that we keep in her diaper bag so many of them are quite old but too sweet not to post!

I took Ellie into the doctor today due to some dry spots on the back of her legs.  I noticed it for the first time several weeks ago and didn't think much about it, but then I saw it on her other leg Sunday night and decided it best to take her in to get it checked out.  We met with Dr Jones (loved him) who told us it is just some excema and to put hydrocortisone on it.  He is not worried in the least--but of course its put me in a small tailspin.  Anyone ever dealt with this in babies?  On top of the hydrocortisone, we're also lathering her up with some good ol' greasy Aquaphor for moisture.  Praying that this will do the trick and get rid of them.  She doesn't seem bothered by them in the least...bothering ME a whole lot more!

Moving right along...the above and below picture are taken when we went to Charleston for Josh's work conference. 

Below is my mom's dog Maggie who decided that Ellie's infant seat looked like a good bed for her.  I snapped the picture and then quickly gave her the boot!

Evie let Ellie play on her playmat last week...she was a fan!!

We walked downtown after church on Sunday to eat lunch at Fall for Greenville but it didn't open until noon, so instead we had a beautiful meal at Mary's and then got dessert at Chocolate Moose!  YUM!

Ellie in my most favorite color on her in a sweet bishop. 

She loved sitting outside during lunch...the trees and flowers kept her entertained!

It was a great ending to a great weekend!