Part of what I love about the girls' names is that they were both popular 100 years ago and many people with those names are now great-grandmas. Both names evoke a vision for me of sweet old ladies rocking away together on a porch. I pray Ella and Sadie will live meaningful lives full of love and will be enjoying each other on a front porch somewhere many years from now.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

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 :-)

Thursday, May 3, 2007

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.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

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!!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

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....