What do Stay at Home Mom's do all day anyway?

For anyone wondering what I (and other stay at home moms) do all day, check this out. Very well said.

Ella Bella

Ella had a few nights last week of going to bed really late (a couple nights she showed no signs of being tired and wanted to play and another night she was at a Latin Dance party at a friend's house with my mom and apparently danced more than everyone else!) But, this week she's back on her night time schedule but sleeping really late in the mornings (fabulous!). So, Chris and I went in to wake her up at about 9am the other day and found her in our favorite sleeping position ever so we had to take a picture. She slept in this bottom-in-the-air position a lot as a baby so it was very nostalgic for us. We oooed and ahhhed and took a bunch of pictures before we woke her up.

This Ella's new Kitchen! Thanks Aunt Amy! It's pretty high tech. The burners light up when you turn them on, the microwave "dings," the faucet makes running water sounds when you turn it on and "Chef Tony" talks to you when you look at the recipe book. She really enjoys pretend play lately so this is perfect! (My friend Jen got us another smaller kitchen for $2.50 at a thrift store today! Yay for cheap toys and generous friends!)

It was a beautiful day so I took a few pictures of Ella outside. Here's one that is really cute and a horrible one that I think is pretty funny :-)

Doritos and Dogs

Here's Ella knocking (relentlessly) on Chris' office door. It's definitely the sad part of him working at home.




Then she gave up at started eating Doritos out of a bag that's almost bigger than her.





And now, a picture of last night's tragedy. Ella's hearing aid fell out while she was playing in the living room and within seconds Brooklyn (the dog) got ahold of it and chewed it up. Her other hearing aid is currently out getting repaired because the microphone got wet. Will we ever have both hearing aids and no issues for more than a week at a time?? An active toddler and a super-expensive, very tiny, not very durable device are a bad combination.

Pudding Baby

no explanation necessary

18 Months Old!

Ella is 18 months old!! She had her 18 month doctor's appt this morning and it went really well! She was not a fan of the doctor at her 15 month appointment and cried even when they were weighing her. This time she was happy as a clam, marching around the room in her diaper, reading herself The Foot Book, and playing with a purple plastic glove the nurse gave her.

Her 18 month stats are as follows:

Weight : 22lbs 13 oz

Height : 31 1/2 inches

She's in the 40th Percntile for height and 25th for weight but the doctor said that she doesn't seem underweight at all (she still has a little bit of that baby buddha belly) and is doing well. We talked about her picky eating habits and the doctor said goldfish and peanut butter really aren't bad staples for her diet and to continue slipping in the fruits, veggies, and dairy wherever I can. We also talked about vitamins so I'll get her on those soon.

Ella only needed one shot today. She cried for less than 10 seconds and then was so fascinated by her bandaid she promptly stopped crying and then waved and said "bye bye" to the nurse. I snuck in a few pictures after that while I got her dressed.

PS: I've experienced this a number of times now but when people notice Ella's hearing aids they assume she doesn't talk or can't hear (let alone understand) what's going on around her. I know that's reasonable for someone who doesn't know her but I always enjoy the surprise on their faces when she starts talking. So, I was quite the proud parent when the doctor was asking me questions like "does she like bread and cereals?" and Ella answered "yes," very clearly and nodded her head and then went back to pointing out everything she recognized in the book she was looking at. Then the doctor asked me if she was using a sippy cup and Ella walked over to the diaper bag, pulled out her cup and handed it to the doctor. She even walked up to the doctor picked up her stethoscope and held it up to her ear (I have no idea how she knows to do that). The doctor then went to write down notes about Ella's "advanced speech and cognitive development" and proclaimed her "a very smart child." Yay Ella! Those hearing aids won't hold you back at all!

Bubbles, Paint, and Hugs

Ella has been having lots of fun getting to be outside and do fun new things. She loves blowing bubbles and says "bubbles" almost perfectly! She has been blowing on lots of things lately-she deems things "hot" and then blows on them. It's usually food but also her car seat when she gets in and it's warm outside :-)

Since Mother's Day is tomorrow Ella got to try her hand at painting for the first time. Here are the results :-)

We went to the Lakefront today and tried to feed goldfish crackers to the ducks but a turtle and some fish fought for them instead. Ella had a blast looking at all the animals-I think she's going to be like me in being fascinated by "creatures" not as much by domesticated animals. Anyway, once we were up on the grassy area she kept trying to run away from us but kept looking back every few steps to say "bye" and wave. She was cracking us up! Then she and Chris renenacted the "Hug" statue. Fun afternoon :-)

word log...

Words Ella is using a lot now...

outside
help (with a "p" at the end now)
hannah
hope
hot
Grover
Raleigh (the dog)
book
up
no no no
ella
mama

Friendly Girl

Ella is a very social child. I've been helping in the Nursery at a Women's Bible Study for a few weeks. Yesterday the lady who was in the Toddler room watching Ella said she was a "sweetheart," that she played so well the whole time and that when other kids pushed her out of the way or took toys from her, she just walked away and did something else. I'm sure she'll learn to stand up for herself when necessary but for now, it's really nice that she doesn't have constant conflict with other little 1 year olds. Here are some pics of our little corinne-junior, I mean social butterfly :-)

No Bottle, New Sounds, and EL-BO!!

I'm declaring victory in the bottle weaning process! It's been a week since she's had a bottle and has done exceptionally well. I'm so glad to have that behind us! The fear of doing it was much worse than actually doing it!
This was a big week all together for her...She's definitely turned some type of developmental corner...she's SO much fun and a responsive little person who understands the vast majority of what I say to her. It's very exciting. All week I've been overwhelmed by how good she's been and how cute she is but really I think it's more than that...I feel like we're bonding in a way that simply wasn't possible before because we didn't speak the same language. Now I feel like we're friends :-) We had a "date" last week at Panera and shared a bagel and orange juice and "talked." I had a great time! I've noticed lately that I am excited when she wakes up from her nap not bummed that my free time is over. I think that's a good sign :-)
This week has been big for her in getting new words too. She's also willing to say more sounds and repeat after us more than ever. She used to only repeat things we said if they were familiar sounds or words she already knew. This week I've heard c, f, g, r, and s used in words and I honestly haven't heard some of those sounds come out of her mouth ever before! She's been all about saying "Whoa!" and "Uh oh" this week.
Her Elmo obsession is cracking us up. She stole a little tiny Elmo figurine from Aunt Amy's house and will carry that thing around (kissing it intermittently) for HOURS! I don't think she's never carried anything around for more than 3 minutes. Anytime she sees Elmo on Sesame Street, in a book, in a store, anywhere-she starts yelling and pointing "EL-BO, EL-BO!!!" She'll do this until someone acknowledges Elmo with an equal amount of excitement. It's adorable to see her get so worked up about something (besides chocolate).
The best Elmo news is my AWESOME craigslist find (for background, I used to be addicted to craigslist and then Chris cut me off because he was jealous of all the time I spent with craig, so, this was my first post-addiction purchase and I'm proud of how I'm only craigslisting in moderation). Anyway, back to Elmo. I found a HUGE stuffed Elmo that was brand new and literally bigger than Ella. Best $5 I've spent in a long time. Ella LOVES it. It's taken naps with her, she feeds it her snacks (and then eats them out of his mouth when she realizes he doesn't want them), and the other day I had to wake her up from a nap and the first thing she did was roll over and kiss Elmo. I keep praying that her life will be characterized by her loving God and loving people. So, if this intense love for Elmo is any indication of her tendencies, I think we're in good shape :-)

Day 5

Things continue to go well!

Last night Ella spent the night at my parents house and we forgot to bring the pack-n-play so she slept in their bed with them. Apparently it went fine, they said she drank her milk with dinner and went to bed (much later than usual but that's ok) without any crying.

When I went to pick her up today she had just fallen outside and was all upset so my mom offered her a bottle to calm her down! When she told me this I almost had a fit-NO BOTTLES ALLOWED-but, my amazing child looked at it and threw it on the floor and wouldn't drink it! Way to stick with the plan Ella!!

She's napping right now and just like yesterday she didn't want any milk and she cried for a couple minutes but has been quiet for a while now. This is such a blessing...wow...who knew this could go this well? I'm not sure when I declare her completely "done" I'm still nervous about some freaking out happening. Hopefully not. Remind me of this when I'm going through some horrible stage with Ella and unable to remember any stage that went well.

Day 4 update

Ella is still asleep and it's been over 2 1/2 hours! This is a good, long nap for her so I think this definitely counts and 1 successful nap sans bottle! I'm shocked and thrilled...I've been dreading this for months and it's like she's taking herself off the bottle! I love that girl.

Day 4

Chris put Ella to bed last night after she had some milk in a cup and read a book. She slept until 8:30 this morning! This is fabulous!! Night two with no bottle!

Right now (2pm Wednesday) Ella is taking a nap!! She didn't even want milk (she was too full from lunch I think) and when I asked her if she was ready to take a nap she kept saying no and was crying when I left the room but she only cried for 2 minutes and it's been quiet in there for at least 30min. So, hopefully she's actually sleeping!!

This is going shockingly well. I guess she was just ready to give it up! I REALLY hope this continues to go so smoothly!!

Day 3

First, the great news...Ella slept 12 hours last night without a peep and NO BOTTLE!!!!
Bad News...I knew the nap would be harder and it definitely was. No nap actually occurred today but lots of crying and chewing on the crib rails did. I offered her "elmo milk" in a cup, read books, rubbed her back while she laid in the crib, changed her diaper, even let her have a 30min break to watch Sesame Street. Still, after 3hrs in and out of the crib-no actual sleeping occurred. She played quietly for a little while at one point but no nap. I hope bedtime tonight is nothing like this afternoon...the bottles are gone as far as I'm concerned so there's no going back even if there's more Ella-drama than usual for a while. This afternoon wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and hopefully there won't be too many more like it. We shall see....