Mittens and Leaves

Every year Chris' family does an ornament exchange and everyone makes their own ornaments to share. This year we made little felt mittens and decorated them-Ella "helped" (meaning: colored her hands with a black sharpy while we worked intently on the craft. Oops.)





Ella also got in on the action of helping Chris rake leaves. She was so excited to get to play outside after being cooped up with being sick and all the cold weather. They had a blast!

Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! Happy Birthday Jesus!!! We had a really great and really exhausting Christmas. Last night with my family and today with Chris' fam. A really positive time for everyone. Ella was in her prime-she thrives on being surrounded by people at parties and was SO cute in her little Christmas dress (thanks Nana) and saying "May-we kwis-mis evey-buddy." Haven't downloaded the pics yet so enjoy a recent random photobooth pic of my sister and me and enjoy your holiday :-)

Fweeking

I was reading Good Night, Gorilla to Ella the other night and on one page all of the animals go to sleep in the zoo keeper's bedroom. On the next page it's all black except for the zookeeper's wife's eyes when she realizes the animals are there. We've read this a bazillion times but this time, as soon as we turn to the page with the eyes....

Ella yells: Fweeking out! Fweeking out!
Me (thinking I didn't understand her): What?
Ella, louder : Fweeking out!!!
Me, giggling: Freaking out?
Ella: Yeah Mommy, lady is fweeking out!!

She kept saying it over and over and I was laughing so hard I almost fell off the chair. It's moments like that when I really wish I had a video camera running 24/7.

Virus transmission and where babies come from

Conversations with Ella...

Wed. morning I'd mentioned to Ella that Hannah was sick and not coming to music class, this conversation happened about 4pm on Thursday

Me (feeling her head and hearing her cough): Ella do you feel yucky?
Ella sadly: Hannah's Sick, now Ella's sick (shaking her head as if to say "what a shame")
Chris incredulously to me: Virus transmission is NOT innate knowledge. HOW DOES SHE KNOW THAT??
Beats me


This morning while Ella was looking at our friends' Jen, Shaun, and Lexi's Christmas picture I told her that Miss Jen has a new baby in her tummy and it's a little girl like her. I told her that later the baby will come out and we can play with her. This is the first time we've ever discussed this so I expected it would just go over her head. A little while later I told Chris about what I'd told Ella and he asked her what was in Miss Jen's tummy. Without missing a beat she enthusiastically said "My new friend!!"

Sick and Productive

Ella is sick but I was productive-maybe the good and bad even each other out. Yesterday Ella woke up from her nap with a cough and was hot to the touch. We found out that her cousins (who she played with the day before) had just gone to the doctor and have a combo of ear infections, pneumonia, and bronchitis. After talking to a nurse about her symptoms and drama including two car seats coated in vomit, Ella made it to the Urgent Care Clinic and was diagnosed with an ear infection and a pretty bad cold (her temp. was 102.6). It definitely could be worse so we're hopeful that she'll be feeling better soon. It's so sad to see her so lethargic and her breathing so whistle-ey and labored. Poor baby. Since we were home all day though, we moved our guest room and Chris' office so I was mighty productive in between cuddling Ella.


All tucked in on the couch with her juice, tissues and baby doll

I came out of the bedroom and she had moved this ottoman over the wall and was pointing and telling her doll who was in each picture on the Christmas cards! SO cute!!

Playroom/guest room in the midst of the move

still in the midst

all done!

The Office/Guest room pics still to come...

Thank God for the Digital Age

I came across this picture from last year....I honestly don't remember Ella ever being this small or her hair being this short! Thank God we live in the era of cameras or I'd probably be telling everyone she came out of the womb with long curly hair...Crazy...

The Many Attempts for a Christmas Card

"cheese"-ing a little too much

pointing and blowing?

itsy-bitsy spider

dancing

distracted by the lights

in a daze

hiding behind her blanket

ahhhh finally, smiling at the camera (this was the ONLY one out of over 100, I'm not kidding)

First Snow!!

We got our first snow! I LOVE snow and I'm hoping to pass that on to Ella :-) She had a lot of fun.


putting on her new snowsuit ($2 at a yard sale this summer!)

Doctor's Visit

Ella had her 2 year check up today. She was a hero with the flu shot and getting her blood taken (we're doing a check for Lyme disease since we found a tick on her a few weeks ago). The poor tiny girl had 4 vials of blood taken!! Speaking of tiny, she's still a little over the 25th percentile for height and weight. She's gained 5 lbs and 3.5 inches in the past year-no wonder she's worn the same size clothes for about 7 months!

Dec Last Year: 20lbs 12oz, 30 inches
This Year: 25lbs 13 oz, 33.5 inches

All around she's a very healthy girl and doing everything (and more) that 24 month olds should do. She's still working on identifying letters and colors but is stunningly good at remembering every animal and random object we've ever pointed out to her. She knows all the words to "Jesus Loves Me" and sings a long to most every other kid song she hears. She's putting 6-7 words together in complete thoughts and though her speech isn't always discernable to the untrained ear, I understand most of it. She is in a FABULOUS phase (ever since the wretched refusing to sleep phase) where she's been sleeping from 8pm until close to 9am and napping from 1pm until 4:30ish. It's probably a growth spurt and I know it won't last so I'm enjoying it :-) I'll take and post some more pics soon. Oooo maybe I can scan our Christmas card onto here...I'll try.