Ellie is 8 months!

Ellie Bug is 8 Months!

as of yesterday

 Ellie's schedule at 8 months: 

7:30--wake up/bottle

8:30--breakfast (cereal, fruit, yogurt)

9:00--nap

11--bottle

12:00--Lunch (cereal, veggies)

1:30--nap

3:30--bottle

6--dinner (cereal, fruit, veggies)

7:00--bath

7:30--bottle/bedtime

 The schedule hasn't changed much from 7 months...the big difference is adding in her dinner for a total of 3 meals a day.

New foods this month: chicken, yo baby, apricots, nectarines, broccoli, spinach, parsnips, pumpkin, rutabega

She has also had lots of table food nibbles from our plates...pasta, pudding, breads/crackers, ground beef

She has also had apple juice (very diluted) and loves it

 She has been so good about eating most anything we have put in front of her but in the past week she has started protesting.  We are trying to figure out why...if its because she's not hungry or if she wants more texture to her food or if she doesn't like certain things.  She was extremely picky Wednesday through Friday of this week but ate great this weekend so we're not sure?

 She's wearing size 2 diapers.

Size 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes.

Newborn crib shoes...not that she wears shoes often, but we are having a time finding ones that fit her!  She has a teenie tiny foot!

Not sure how much she weighs--I estimate 15 lbs.

Mom measured her last week and she was 25.5"

 Favorite toys: 

LOVES books!  She can sit and listen for a long while to several being read to her.

She has started really loving the exersaucer and will play independently for quite a while.

Sophie the giraffe tops her list of chew toys right now

She has also become quite attached to her lovie.

 Milestones:

Shaking her head "no"

pulling up

standing for long periods of time (5 minutes or so) on her activity table

tolerating her stomach and experimenting with becoming mobile

She has started making army crawling movements with her legs but she doesn't get anywhere...I'm not sure if she'll be a crawler or not.

 She was baptized this month--surrounded by lots of special friends and family!

She spends each Sunday morning in the church nursery and her "teachers" say that she loves being with the other babies--watching their every move and interacting with them while they are playing.

 We took away the paci this month and she has transitioned beautifully!  She actually cries less when we put her to sleep at night and at nap time because she has learned to put herself to sleep without her paci.  I'm not saying taking away the paci at 8 months is for everyone, but it has gone very smoothly for us.

 Ellie experiments lots with new noises and sounds.  She has a raspy coughing noise that she makes when she's being silly or when she's frustrated.

She has started saying some of her back consonants (/b, g/), although not consistently.

 She's hanging tough with still only two teeth but they are growing and you can see them most of the time when she smiles now.  

 She is still loving her feet--she likes to pull them all the way up to her face and eat them!

Changing her diaper is becoming more and more difficult.

 We take her out to eat often, especially on the weekends.  She behaves beautifully because she is SO nosy and just stares at everything and everything around her.  

She is also a great shopper for the above stated reason...she loves sitting up in the buggy like a big girl!

 Standing up with our help is one of her favorite things to do...she hasn't started taking steps with support yet--she is still moving them in a very robotic motion.  We laugh when we think of how she is going to look when she starts to walk because she's still so itty bitty.

 I spend lots of time thinking about what she's going to be like in a year...and when she's 2, and 3, and 4, and starting kindergarten.  It is hard to believe that we are 2/3 of the way through her first year!

We love you, sweet girl!

We're Paci Free!

After 8 months...we are paci free!

 I'm not a fan of pictures of babies with pacis in the mouth so we don't have many of Ellie to be honest with you...but I did a walk back through photo memory lane to pull the ones I do have for memory sake. 

 Can you even believe that her paci used to be half the size of her tiny sweet face?  

 We made a spur of the moment decision Tuesday night when we were putting her to bed that we weren't going to give her the paci.  It was probably a good thing that I didn't have time to think about it because I would have been dreading it...she did cry for 15 or so minutes before falling asleep.  Naps on Wednesday were not an issue...Wednesday night, 15 or so minutes of crying.  No issue with naps on Thursday and no issue with bed Thursday night...she has learned in 3 days to fall asleep herself.

 Prior to Tuesday, she was only using her paci for about 5 minutes right before she would fall asleep for naps and at bedtime and sometimes in the car so I figured if we were going to break her of the habit, now is the time.  It does make me sad that I'll never see her with her sweet gumdrop pacis in her mouth as she is sleeping.  It's such a sign of infancy and I'm having a harder time letting it go than she is!

 Now fingers are crossed she doesn't find a replacement for the paci...aka--her thumb!

 The picture above is definitely one of my all-time favorite.  It's a good one to show how little she was!

Next hurdle...getting rid of the nap nanny!

What I Learned Today!

Ellie was much more willing to sit outside today...no tears!  and a few smiles!

 It was beautiful today!  We spent an hour or so soaking up the sunshine, playing and watching Gracie run around the backyard.

 Ellie's new trick today is shaking her head "no".  She thinks it's hilarious!  

She will also shake her head back and forth when you give her eskimo kisses.  

 After dinner we were all playing and she held onto Josh's fingers and pulled herself up.  By herself.  

Did I mention I am in denial that she is growing up?  Way too fast?

 When I got home from work on Monday she was taking a nap and I just slipped into her room, picked that baby up and rocked her while she finished her nap.  I take for granted that I will always have that luxury...so instead of finishing a load of laundry or vacuuming or dusting...I spent Monday afternoon rocking her.  Time well spent. 

 Ellie tried chicken last night.  She loved it.  Shocker, I know.

 I also made her parsnips last night...her palate is exposed to a much greater variety than ours (meaning Josh's and mine).  In my 28 years of life I've never once seen, much less tasted a parsnip.  Again, no pickiness with Ellie--she loved them!

 Here's hoping the rest of the week is as beautiful as the past two days!

A Sunny Day!

Today was a beautiful day!  I was excited to get home from school to take Ellie outside and get some pictures of her in the first bishop that I smocked and constructed...

she felt otherwise!

 I have no idea why she wasn't happy to be outside and sitting on the grass but she cried real tears and was not happy about the situation!

 and even pulled out the curled tongue.  she's our drama queen, no doubt!

 Then she decided that maybe looking around the backyard wasn't so bad after all....

 and then she became enchanted with the grass and looking underneath our deck

 I must have tried every trick and noise and face under the sun to get her to smile.  She would not budge. She kept her straight face no matter what I did...and how stupid I looked to our neighbors!

 and then the tongue came out...and would not go in

 so.....

 maybe we'll try again tomorrow :)

Hiatus

Not sure why we have taken somewhat of a blog hiatus the past week...the weather has been crummy and we've pretty much hung out at the house in our pj's whenever possible and haven't taken many pictures.

 I did have to snap some on Sunday morning before church though...can't resist a baby in a bishop!

 I took a photography class last week so I've been playing around with my camera on "manual" mode.  Let's just say I am not a quick learner as evidenced in this series of pictures below...half of them being extremely too dark.  I just have to laugh at myself and it's a great reminder that this is why I pay professional people to take her pictures.

 I have no idea what is up with the smirk in the picture below but I love it.  

 Ellie has learned a new "party trick" this week...a raspy hoarsey cough...she does it over and over and over (and over) again.  It was hilarious at first...now we are trying so hard to not laugh at her when she does it so as not to encourage it. :)

 We'll try to do better this week with updates :)

love song for a baby

Come, my darling.

Come, my dear.

Come hear a song about a baby, 

a very special baby.

Come hear a song about you.

 Before the first stars blazed in your sky,

before the sun ever kissed you,

before you cried your first cry,

we loved you.

 When you came into our arms,

slippery as salmon,

puckered as prunes,

loud as a lion,

already we knew,

we loved you.

 You had tiny hands with perfect nails and fingers like the petals of a flower.

and yes, we loved you.

 You came complete with ten little toes as sweet and pink as candies.

Certainly, we loved you.

 You had two eyes and one very small nose, not much hair, and no teeth at all.

Still, we loved you.

 Round cheeks, a round tummy, a round little bottom, all made us love you.

 Your laughter was the sun.

Your smile, the moon.

Even your burps were bells, since we loved you.

 So we snuggled you, we juggled you,

we watched you while you slept,

because it's true, we loved you.

 We clapped with you, we danced with you, we dried your tears, and soothed your fears.

 We tossed you high, we kept you dry.

Can you guess why?

We loved you.

 You burst upon our world like a comet, like birdsong in the silver silence of dawn,

and how could we help but love you?

 We'd dreamed a baby,

we'd wanted a baby,

we'd planned for a baby,

we'd waited and waited and waited for a baby,

until finally there was you.

 And oh, how we LOVE YOU!

my new favorite book of Ellie's!

by Marion Dane Bauer