First Tooth!

It happened!  Ellie sprouted her first tooth (the bottom right to be exact)!  Of course you can't tell it's there, and honestly, I wouldn't have known it was coming in since she wasn't behaving any differently than normal, so hopefully that bodes well for the remainder of her teething experience.  As for me, I sure will miss her toothless grin.

A Proud Day

Ellie and I made the trip back out to Toledo on Monday to attend my brother's white coat ceremony as he begins medical school.  We are so proud of him!  Ellie was wonderful throughout the entire ceremony, although we did duck out early so she could eat before we went to dinner.

We found the newly-coated med student before the rest of the family.

Congratulations Bryan!

Fashion Forward

Why has it taken me 8 months to discover the cuteness that is Ellie in a romper?

An Avocado Convert!

Reunions, Babbles and Butterfly Kisses

Normally when I make a trip to Ohio, one or two weeks is never enough time to see all the people I would like to, and having a child makes getting around even more difficult.  So I tend to set fairly reasonable expectations for who I will actually be able to see while in town.  Having much more time during this trip, I have been pleasantly surprised by how many people I have caught up with.  So far I have attended my 10-year high school reunion, went to the Journey concert with an old theatre friend, reconnected with a close friend from grade and high school and just last night met up with a good friend from college.  I sometimes worry that because we will likely move every three or four years, Ellie might have a hard time making and keeping friends.  As she gets older, I hope to teach her the value of good, long-lasting relationships -- that even though time and distance may separate, there is always the ability to reconnect with an old friend.

In other news, last night I heard Ellie's first recognizable babble.  She has been squealing and blowing raspberries for the last month, but yesterday, while eating her dinner, she said, "mama".  Granted, I'm 98% sure it wasn't said in context, but it was music to my ears just the same, and Brian happened to be on Skype at the time so he heard it too (whether he's more excited than disappointed with this particular consonant sound, I'm not sure).  She said it a couple of times after her bath while getting ready for bed and then again while we were playing this morning.  Having spent the last 8 months listening to her cry, laugh and make noises of all sorts, hearing Ellie discover her voice to make the beginnings of words truly amazes me and makes me realize how quickly she's growing.

Again realizing how fleeting Ellie's time as a baby is, I have spent more time rocking her to sleep when she goes down for the night.  Usually (since I still nurse her before bed), as soon as I see she's getting drowsy, I will burp her and put her down.  Call me selfish, but this past week I've been relishing the only time of day when Ellie will actually rest her head on my shoulder as I hold her (during the day when she's being carried, she will wrench her body around to see where the action is).  It's this time of day, when she's resting her head on my shoulder that I feel her eyelashes fluttering slowly against my cheek.  Although unintentional and unbeknownst to her, I can think of no better way than to end my day than with her sweet little butterfly kisses.

This is how we take our naps...

8 Months

As we continue the downward slope to one year, Ellie turned 8 months on Tuesday.  I'm still wondering how I got blessed with such a wonderful, easy child.  Aside from a few hiccups on the sleeping front, I can only describe Ellie at 8 months as pure joy -- namely, she smiles all. the. time.  When I get her from her crib in the morning, after naps, just about anytime anyone looks at her.  She loves to smile.  And does this girl love to squeal!  She has been squealing for some time, but lately it is the volume and length of her squealing that have both increased.  Every now and again, she'll give me a babbled consonant sound, but she would much rather squeal.  And blow raspberries.  Lots and lots of raspberries.

Ellie is quite the pro at rolling over, from side to side; there have been many times when I have left the room briefly to come back and find she's rolled entirely off the blanket we have laid out for her (in a somewhat futile attempt to protect my parents' carpet from Ellie's occasional urpiness).  She's also figured out that if a toy on the blanket is out of her reach, she just needs to pull the blanket towards her so she can grab the toy.  She is not a fan of sitting up on her own, or sitting up in general.  She has a tendency to arch her back and then roll onto her belly, but we'll keep working at it.  There still is not a whole lot on the crawling front, but she's got the push up part and the pulling the knees up part down, just not together.  I love that she stays relatively put right now and for the most part is okay with that, but I can tell would rather get moving!

New this month:  Ellie is into patting things.  The carpet, her bumbo tray, your face, she wants to touch everything.  After suffering from a pretty nasty diaper rash for a few days, we took her outside to air out (on a side note, turns out the rash is most likely a yeast infection which we are still trying to clear up!).  She was very intrigued by the grass.  This is most likely due to the fact that we live in Arizona, where hardly anything green grows there natively.  Although base housing requires upkeep of a grass backyard, ours isn't doing so hot and I wouldn't think it would be very soft to the touch.  But Mimi and Papa's grass was!

Her other new favorite thing to do while in her bumbo is to take all the toys on her tray and one by one, drop them off the edge and see if anyone replaces said toys so she can do it all over again.  She also starting doing this hilarious cough/laugh, which I have been able to get her to repeat if I do it back to her.  Oh, the things we do to get a reaction out of our children.

We haven't seen any teeth yet, but Ellie loves chewing anything she can get into her mouth.  She is a champ at eating and so far has eaten anything I've given her.  Weight-wise, I'm guessing she's about 13 pounds now, but by the looks of her cheeks and the rolls on her thighs that I both love to nibble, you'd be none the wiser.

 

First Trip to the Zoo!

Despite her somewhat disinterested expression, Ellie had a great time today at the Toledo Zoo with Aunt Kate, Nic and SAM!

Crossing the Picket Line

I'll be the first to admit that I am a little neurotic particular about Ellie's sleep schedule.  Especially considering we've jumped ahead a few time zones in the last month, I try to keep her routine the same -- maybe it's more for me than her.  :)

Recently, Ellie has been on strike -- a sleep strike that is.  Granted, I know her sleep strikes are quite tame compared to those of other children, but it still throws me for a loop when she gets up more than once in the night and refuses to nap during the day (I can just hear other mothers telling me to shove it).  I'm left wondering how I survived her getting up every two to three hours during the night when we first brought her home.  Oh that's right, having the help of my wonderful husband is the reason I survived those first harrowing weeks Ellie was home.

Normally, Ellie goes to bed at 7 in the evening and wakes up once between 3 and 5 in the morning, goes back to sleep and gets up for the day between 7 and 8.  Lately she's been getting up 2-3 times a night, starting a vicious cycle.  Ellie wakes frequently during the night, then doesn't get her naps in because she's too tired, doesn't sleep well at night, which makes her overtired the next day... you get the picture.  Not only is Ellie cranky, but I am too.  When she does get up in the middle of the night, my going in to comfort her back to sleep only revs her up even more.  Normally I don't mind having her cry herself back to sleep at home (she usually whimpers for only 15-20 minutes), but being in my parents house makes me uncomfortable doing it.  They will of course argue that they don't mind, but what mother doesn't feel guilty when her crying child wakes others up, even if it is family?

Two nights ago, after having a few rough nights, I decided it was time to cross her sleep strike picket line and let her soothe herself back to sleep.  Although I know there are those who will disagree with my methods, having a well rested baby (and mommy) is worth it to me.  She woke up twice that night; both times I went in and patted her on the back and told her quietly it was time to go to bed.  Unfortunately, there was nothing "soothing" about her soothing back to sleep that night.  Both times she cried (at times pretty hard) for 20-25 minutes before she eventually quieted down and fell back to sleep.  It absolutely breaks my heart to hear her cry and I end up questioning myself in the middle of the night: does she think I abandoned her?  Does she think I forgot about/don't love her?  I know Ellie learning to fall asleep on her own will be better in the long run.  She woke up around 7 the next morning, and took two decent naps later that day.  Last night she went to bed with a few whimpers, but only woke up once.  This morning when I went in to get her she was very happy, giggly and full of smiles.  So was I.

I don't look forward to disturbing Ellie's sleep schedule when we head back home, but I can (hopefully) sleep soundly knowing it won't take long for her to get settled back to being in her own bed after a night or two.  She is truly an easygoing and adaptable little girl, and I am so lucky she's mine.

A Midsummer's Ohio Dream: The Halfway Point

Wait, we've been in Ohio for three weeks already?!?

Time here has been flying by, even though we seem to have brought the Arizona heat with us and haven't been out of the house much.  That said, we are still having a wonderful time, and my mom and dad love coming home to Ellie after work each night.  We've been able to get together with my grandparents, my friend Jackie and her kids, and we've made many trips to my dad's office to get in a midday visit.  We also have some fun plans on the horizon for the next few weeks.

Because our trip has been more relaxing and not so much eventful thus far, I haven't taken too many pictures, mostly pictures on my cell phone to send to Brian.  Ellie's made some progress on sitting up on her own (still not quite there yet), and has tried quite a few new foods.  So far, the only food she isn't too fond of is avocado.  Other than that, not a whole lot going on.

Luckily Ellie is used to playtime indoors.

Fascinated by her shadow.

Getting some love from Mimi before she goes to work.

My sister has been out a few times with her two boys -- SAM "needed" to hold "Baby Ellie."  Just look at those two pairs of blue eyes.

I love, love, LOVE this picture of the three cousins.

Getting in some face time with Uncle Bryan.

Oh yeah, and I got to go to the Journey concert earlier this week -- I'm still singing all the songs I heard.  Brian is still jealous.  I'm waiting for a YouTube video to surface of me dancing like a fool to every song.

How is it we only have 3 1/2 weeks left?

Mommy's Night Out

An opportunity to see Night Ranger, Foreigner, and Journey in concert? Be still my heart.

(Thanks to my friend Ari, her mom Deb and Steve for the ticket and my brother and parents for watching Ellie!)