7 month milestones

Mom was very busy this month with work and am very behind in blogging.

Big Girl bathtime – this month you have a new bathtub and are playing with toys while you soak. I never liked the baby bathtub anyways, you were constantly slipping down into the tub and getting water in your ears. Your new tub is inflatable and sits inside the big bathtub. You can situp and play with toys in the water. You love it, and get upset when we take you out. You always need to take a toy with you, or we have a situation.

Every day you are getting even prettier. It’s hard for me to imagine you being any more beautiful than you are, but it keeps happening!

You are growing in leaps and bounds and are now wearing size 4 diapers!

Grandma Janine weighed you and you are already 21-22 lbs.

You are starting to lurch forward onto your stomach, but no crawling motions.

Your favorite foods this month are potatoes, homemade vegetable medley, and peaches mixed with banana rice cereal.

You can move forward in your walker and are walking all around the house already getting into stuff. You like to play with cell phone and battery charger cords and are becoming interested in the outlets.

You can pull yourself almost to standing in your crib and we had to lower the mattress.

You are enjoying cartoons more and more – Handy Manny, The Wiggles, Sponge Bob, Sesame Street, Higglytown heroes and some new baby Einstein videos.

We have some new books – all animals sounds and textures. Still your favorite thing.

Love,
Mom

Pregnancy memory

Today I used Dreft to wash clothes because we ran out of our other laundry detergent. It’s the first time I’ve used it since before you were born. I washed all your clothes and blankets in Dreft to keep myself busy in the last month or two of my pregnancy. Every day I would smell the freshly washed and folded tiny clothes and sort out my favorite blankets, and imagine you in them. Today that smell made a little tug at my heart, remembering thinking and dreaming about what you would be like, look like, feel like, smell like. Remembering how different life was then, before the Ella Mae. It seems like a lifetime ago. While you were in my womb, I was in my own “womb” preparing for motherhood. Eating right, drinking lots of water, sleeping a lot, feeling anxious, reading tons about babies, feeling you kick and poke with your toes right under my left ribs. Now, I can’t even imagine what life would be like without my Ella Pella Girl. My heart is full.

Love,
Mom

6 month milestones

You are now 7 months old, and your 12 months clothes fit perfectly! Long toes and legs, just like your Dad.

It’s been a very exciting month! The biggest new development is that you can now sit up all by yourself, which you prefer to do while laying on your back. Your stomach is very strong. This has made bedtime a little more challenging because you are like a little spring, we lay you down and you spring back up. When you are really tired you throw yourself back on your pillow with your hands behind your head, and usually a few seconds later are sitting up again.

Also new for this month is eating lots of rice cereal, especially the banana flavored kind. You are already showing preferences for certain tastes. You will eat a whole bowl of the rice cereal, but I can’t interest you in peas, green beans, or sweet potatoes. You take a few bites and then become very interested in the walls and the ceiling.

We got you a walker for Christmas, which you are almost too tall for. I think you enjoy it and are learning how to move forward. It helps you to stand up and I am already imagining you running around the house. Soon I think you will be too heavy for your bouncer, when you are in it you jump so forcefully I think you are going to go through the floor!

You are grabbing and reaching for everything now and your hands are in constant motion. You have figured out that you can turn pages in books and now are more interested in helping me turn pages than hearing the story. I have a few small board books just your size that you nibble on and play with in your crib.

This month we have learned a few more things that make you laugh. I discover them by accident. When you see something new you usually giggle really hard the first time, and then the next time I try it you don’t laugh. The sock monkey makes you giggle and we play kissing games with it. Also, I stack your stuffed baby einstein blocks and you knock them over and seem to get a big kick out of this. Your dad makes monkey sounds which you like very much and pretends that his finger is a bee making buzzing noises and tickles your stomach. This cracks you up. Since I have discovered how good baby laughter is for the soul we are on a mission to find ways to make you laugh. I have discovered also, that you have a very ticklish butt. When I am changing your diaper and pinch your naked cheeks I can usually get a few giggles out of you.

This month your Grandma Marty died, and we are very sad. We will make sure to tell you lots of stories about her so you will know her. She loved you very much. You look almost exactly like her as a baby, so we’ll wait and see how much you resemble her when you are older. She was a gorgeous lady. A picture of her holding you was in her obituary and we will save this for your memories book. I am sad that she didn’t get to spend your first Christmas with you, but she painted you a beautiful portrait of you as a newborn baby sleeping. You will have this forever, it’s breathtaking!

Love,
Mom

First Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful first Christmas, and even your Dad wasn’t Mr. Scrooge!

We took our first family photo at Sears and gave these as Christmas presents. They turned out so well and I think I’m starting to get the bug to do more. You are very photogenic, just like your Dad, and the photographer barely had to try to get you to smile.

We visited Grandma Robn in Mariposa, whose birthday is also Christmas Day. We ate good food and got many special new presents. Your favorites are a new pair of eeyore robeez shoes to wear and a homemade baby quilt that is soft and luxurious. Grandma fed you all sorts of new things, and you ate a bunch of mashed potatoes. She also discovered that a little shot glass is just the perfect size for you to drink out of without spilling, so this is your new cup.

Your uncle Bret is home from the military for Christmas and he visited with your Aunt Kristen and Grandma Janine. Grandma gave you really cool new toys that sing and light-up which you really love. Your favorite is a green frog stuffed animals that teaches shapes and colors and sings to you. Grandma Janine & Grandma Mario also gave us a new camera that takes videos. We are so thrilled! We have already taken several videos of you an put them on youtube.

Your aunt Sherry made your the softest crocheted blanket which you sleep with every night. You love to run your fingers through it.

First Christmas Photo Album

Ella’s Video Debut

With the fancy new digital camera we got from Grandparents Cervantes we have been taking short videos of Ella left and right. I will be posting them on YouTube, and from now own you see the new videos by clicking on the right sidebar.

Ella’s on YouTube

A birth announcement

I have finally finished the first version of your birth announcement. I have been fretting and procrastinating for nearly 7 months. I have so many ideas for this, AND I simply cannot pick one design only. So, there will be several. This is the first in the series.

Love,
Mom

Those darn teeth!

I think your gums are really starting to bother you now. For the past few days, starting at around 2pm you get really fussy and uncomfortable. This lasts until bedtime. You are also chomping away on your hands like no tomorrow! Tonight I gave you a little bit of tylenol which seemed to help and you took a short nap, which threw off your sleeping schedule. You have finally just conked out, it's about 10:30 pm, and you're in bed with me now. After your nap earlier and a bottle, you played in your crib for the longest time. Looking in your mirror and scooting around in circles with your pushing toes. You got really quiet at one point and I thought maybe you had fallen asleep so I peeked in. I noticed your feet moving, and then realized your head was completely covered with a green blanket I had hung on the side of the crib. After rushing over I realized that you were camping out under there, chewing on the blanket. All smiles. Ohhhh, Pella. Mom is very tired today and secretly very glad that you are sleeping with me tonight. I better get to sleep too, because no matter how late you go to bed at night you always wake up by 6am. You're going to make a morning person out of me yet!