Dance Class

Today was the last day of dance class. Addison goes during school when we are still at work so we don't usually get to go and watch, but today was a special day where they invited the parents to come to class and the kiddos demonstrated all of their skills. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Addison listens to her dance teacher as well as she listens to us (I say this with sarcasm!). There were a number of times when she was completely not paying attention to the teacher and just doing her own thing! But she is 3 and it is still really cute.  We have some pretty funny video footage.

Here is our little dancer

Dancing 3's and 4's

Addison receiving her certificate of completion - she got the OK to move up to the next class.  We figure she must pay better attention when we are not there or they didn't base their recommended next class based on how well the kids listen! 

Photo Booth

How cute is this?! They had a photo booth at the end of school party and here are some precious pics of Addison and her good friend Moriah.

Pool Party

This is the last week of school for the year and there are a bunch of fun activities planned.  Last night was the family pool party and Addison had a great time swimming with her friends.  The pool is just the perfect size for her age, most of it is shallow enough that she can walk around by herself.  We were happy she enjoyed it because she is going to be swimming there every day this summer.  Starting in June Addison will be going to summer camp.  It is at the same place she goes to school, it just turns from a school like environment to a camp like environment.   In addition to swimming she'll be doing cooking, art, and gymnastics, plus tons more.

Ella made her debut at Bertha Alyce at the party.  Everyone was super excited to meet her.  Wish I could say she was excited to meet everyone, but she slept through the entire event!  There seemed to be a lot of people walking around with strollers with small kiddos in them so I am sure that a number of her future classmates were at the party too.    

Here are some pics from the pool party.  I tried to get her and her friends to pose together, but that proved to be impossible.  It was super cute watching them play in the water together though! 

Guess What We Did On Monday

Ella's 3rd Week

Latest Developments:
-  She has a great appetite.  She'll go from dead asleep to screaming for food in a matter of seconds.  And sometimes I think her eyes are bigger than her tummy - she can polish off a 4 oz. bottle pretty easily.  She must have a hollow leg or something b/c I'm pretty sure her belly is not that big!
-  During the day it is pretty much like clockwork, she is eating every 3 hours.  At night though she is usually good for 4 hours which is really nice.  What is even nicer is that  Michael is helping out with the 5-6ish AM feeding so momma is only having to get up once at night.
-  On Friday we met Addison's playgroup friends for lunch at Lupe Tortillas and everyone was super excited to meet Ella.  And we were super excited to see our playgroup friends again, we've definitely missed seeing everyone the past few weeks.  Ella slept through most of lunch and then had lunch herself.  Now I can check off taking 2 kids to a restaurant on my own (of course I had plenty of backup if I needed it with 3 other moms there!) 
-  Ella is taking real baths now and is much happier now that she can be submerged in water.

OK, so she doesn't exactly look happy here, but she isn't screaming (note the little Buddha belly!)

Clean little peanut

All snuggly warm in her towel

-  Ella's favorite past time is sleeping, but she is staying up for longer periods of time during the day.  Definitely encouraging this so that the odds of her sleeping at night are better.  So far so good.
- Being awake for longer periods does means a bit more fussing though.  So far she really only seems to get fussy when she is hungry and when she has been up for a while and is done "playing" and just needs to go to sleep.
-  The first couple of weeks Ella was completely content just sleeping on the couch or wherever you put her down.  I think that I've gotten her addicted to the bouncy seat though.  You can turn it on so that the seat vibrates a bit and she seems to really like the movement.  I'd say that this is her #1 sleeping spot right now. 

Happy Shavuot!

Addison's school was closed for Shavout this week.  Not sure what the holiday is for, but the JCC closes for every obscure Jewish holiday there is.  So there was 1 day of school this week and 4 days home with mom and Ella.  This is how we ended the week.  

There is blue marker all over her legs too, but I think that she got embarrassed and covered them up and after I got this shot she turned away and was yelling at me to stop taking pictures! Fortunately the marker was waterproof, so it came off easily in the tub.  The week wasn't really that bad.  Addison had played in the sand box at Lupe Tortilla's yesterday for about an hour, so she was super tired and she gets a little crazy when she is tired.  She was dead asleep on the couch about an hour after this incident! 

Little Picasso

Addison is still really into arts and crafts and is fine tuning her skills daily.  She is getting better and better at coloring in the lines and her paintings are getting easier to interpret.  I was pretty impressed with this one...there is a pink mermaid, a mom with legs (guess she forgot she was doing mermaids and put feet on the mommy) and then a daddy mermaid.  Then the purple random lines are her mixing up colors.  There is a show she watches, Yo Gabba, Gabba, and one of the episodes is about art and Addison's favorite character likes to mix up all of the colors on her palette.  So painting activities always end with mixing up the colors.

 

Happy 2 Week Birthday Ella

Where did week 2 go?!  Michael went back to work this week, so we had our first couple Mommy, Addy, Ella days.  All went surprisingly smooth.  On Friday we even made our first girls trip to Target.  Ella went shopping with me earlier in the week and the experience was must less intimidating with her than it was with Addy.  One of my biggest fears of having 2 kids was how to manage everyone when we went shopping.  Mission accomplished though.  Not sure how we would have done if it was a big shop (think we'll save those for when Addy is at school) but I managed to fit 2 kids, one in a carrier and our stuff in the cart.

Ella seems to be going through a growth spurt.  We had run out of newborn size diapers and the 1s seemed a bit large.  I bought some newborns yesterday and when I actually got them on her they seemed tight.  And I liked the newborns b/c they have the cutout for the umbilical cord and the day I buy new ones the cord (a.k.a Mr. Stumpy) falls off.  We certainly won't miss Mr. Stumpy though. 

Yesterday Ella was starving every 3 hours, even at night when she had been eating closer to every 4 hours.  She is also staying awake for longer periods.  We are trying to keep her awake and play more during the day to make sure she is good and sleepy at night.  Addison is still having fun trying to entertain Ella, which is cute to watch and quite helpful! 

Better Than TV

When Addison is watching one of her TV shows, she tends to go into a TV coma and completely zones out the rest of the room.  But this week we found something more exciting than TV - a Target toy catalog.  She discovered the catalog mid-show and didn't look back at the TV after she opened it. Brought back memories from when I was a kid and we'd get the huge Sears catalog at Christmas time and I'd go through it circling all of the toys I wanted. 

Here she is kicked back in her chair studying the pages carefully

Periodically she'd call us over to show us something that she wanted.  One of the items was some pink goggles.  I reminded her that she already had pink goggles, so we had to go find them right away and she wore them the rest of the night.  I also gave her a pen to circle the things she wanted, but no promises that she'd get any of it!

Super Big Sister

The Pfluger/Kelly Visit

Granny, Jean and Betsy came by for a visit this weekend.  Granny spoiled all of us girls with new clothes and we had a great visit.  Ella was super excited to get to meet her great-grandmother!

1 Week Old Already!

Where did the week go?!  Ella had a big day to celebrate her 1 week birthday.  We went for her first doctor's apt which went great.  Not only was there minimal wait time to see the doctor (not always the case), the doctor said she looked great.  Here are her stats:
Length: 20 inches, ~ 50th percentile
Weight: 7 lbs. 5 oz., ~ 30th percentile
Head Circ: 14 1/4 in., ~ 70% percentile
She had to have her 2nd PKU test which she was not a fan of.  I seem to recall Addison screamed through the entire test as well.  The nurse claims it doesn't hurt, the babies just don't like the tech squeezing their feet to get the blood required for the test.  Not sure how they know it doesn't hurt, but we'll go with that theory. 

Addison is very ready to have a playmate, so she set up the play mat for Ella this afternoon.  Ella slept through most of playtime, but Addison was especially entertaining and was making up songs and dancing around for us.

A few moments with open eyes.  

You can see who did most of the playing!  And yes, another stylish outfit that Addison put together herself - nothing like a plaid skirt with polka dot shirt, much less one with 0 colors that match. 

Brrrr...

Dad and Mary watched Addison while we took Ella to the doctor today.  Dad asked that we bring Addison's swimsuit so that they could try going for a swim.  All of us were convinced she'd hop right out of the water as soon as she felt how cold it was, but she loved it.  Ended up swimming for an hour and a half!  Dad said he was a bit chilly, but according to Addison the water was "just right".  She has a new float this summer - meet "Sally" the lizard.  Here is Addison and Granddad going for a ride on Sally.  Pretty sure she is going to have to swim every visit now! 

Tub Time

We are trying to figure out what our new tub routine is going to be.  Pre-Ella, Addison took a bath pretty much every night.  Not because she was dirty necessarily but more because the routine seemed to work well for getting her to wind down for bed.  But we realized that bathing an infant and a toddler every night wasn't going to work real well, so we are trying alternating bath days.  Ella was not a huge fan of her first bath on Wednesday, although seemed to do a little better tonight.  Part of it might be that we are a bit rusty on infant sponge baths.  Addison is loving helping bath the baby though.  She is the official hair washer right now (well, with a good amount of help from Dad). 

And now that we are home...

Things have been pretty smooth sailin' so far.  I keep waiting for chaos to set in though.  Ella is still sleeping as much as she can and only gets fussy when it is time to eat, when she is getting her diaper changed and when she isn't swaddled and her little arms are out of control!  Addison has gone to school the past 2 days.  On Monday night she was excited to get to school and wear her big sis shirt.  Michael came up with the idea to put together a little photo book for her to take to show her friends pictures of her new baby, so she spent some time picking out the pictures she wanted to include in the photo book. 

Tuesday morning comes around and she tells us she doesn't want to go to school.  After some persuasion and a bit of bribery she is excited about school again and she ends up having a great day.  Michael picked her up earlier than usual since we were just hanging out at home and he got scolded by Addison for coming to get her too early in the day. 

This morning Addison was read to head to school.  We haven't been springing out of bed to get her there early and when Addison noticed that she was "late" she told Michael that circle time had already started, then she dashed off to get in the circle, didn't even tell him bye.  And before they even got out of the car at school Addison told Michael not to come and pick her up early today!

Activities here at home pretty much consist of eating and sleeping (both mommy and baby) and Michael has been playing Mr. Mom, taking care of the house, making sure I eat and helping out with errands since I can't drive.  Michael is also taking advantage of the break from work to work on misc projects around the house, and surprisingly hasn't been glued to the blackberry!     

Ella went on her first stroll yesterday with Dad and then we all went today.  Sure did get hot over the past couple of days.  I haven't done much walking since Friday, so I just went around the block which was plenty of exercise.  Ella seems to enjoy strolling, so I imagine we'll be doing a lot more of it, preferably in the morning before it gets too hot.

 (she looks a bit concerned in this pic, but it is just one of her many newborn baby faces!)

Ella and the V.I.P.'s

We're Home

Ella and I got the OK from our doctors on Monday to head home, so we were all excited to leave the hospital and start figuring out our new routine at home.  We made it home around lunchtime and Addison and Star got to the house shortly after we got home.
 
Waiting for the nurse to bring us our carriage (aka wheelchair) to usher us to the car

Ella modeling her coming home outfit.  It was a wee bit large on her, but fortunately I had bought a newborn size and not 0-3.  She is modeling her dress on the blanket that Aunt Susan knitted for her. 

Ella did great on the car ride home.  She wasn't a huge fan of getting all buckled in the car seat, but once we got moving we didn't hear a peep from her.  

When Addison got home, we asked her to give Ella a tour of the house.  She showed Ella her nursery and then we went to Addison's room.  That is pretty much where the tour ended.  Addison wanted to hold her for a minute and then she got a blanket out for Ella to lay on and then she started pulling out toys to show Ella.  Granted Ella slept through most of show and tell, but I'm sure she was soaking it all up. 

Not surprising, Star was clueless that we were +1 when she got to the house.  Star did her "I'm so excited to see you" routine, running around the house crying/squeaking with excitement.  It wasn't until I was changing Ella's diaper later and Ella started to fuss that Star realized what was going on.  Ella's cry sounds more like a kitten crying than a human at this point, so as soon as Star heard that she ran into the nursery and put her paws up on the changing table to see what the noise was.  Maternal instincts kicked in at that point and since then it has been kisses on the baby's head and she is on full-alert to keep us all safe from the floral delivery guys, mailman, etc. 

Sibling Cake Party

Sunday when we were still in the hospital, our big activity for the day was a sibling party.  The hospital makes cute little sibling cakes and we knew Addison would be a fan of that so we ordered one for her visit on Sunday.  Fortunately she was still excited to come up and visit us, so mid-afternoon Grandma and Grandpa and Addison came for a little party. 

The Sisters

Addison wasn't completely excited about Ella's crying. She quickly had Michael take Ella back after she started to fuss and later told him that she didn't like it when the  baby made that noise and that mom could hold the baby when she was crying.  I think that this was reality lesson #1.  Prior to Ella's arrival Addison was planning on taking care of the baby herself and rocking her in the rocking chair when she was crying.  Can't wait to see when she sees her first dirty diaper! 

Proud Big Sister!

Our first attempt at a family pic!

Baby Ellla

Ella Grace Wolf made her debut April 30, 2010. She was born at 12:06 PM weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 19 ¾ inches in length. So far she has proven to be a great sleeper, we typically have to wake her up to eat and there are usually a few naps during mealtime. Just hope this continues once we get home!

Delivery went great.  We love our planned c-section!  My doctor always said I had a textbook pregnancy and I think that it is safe to say that the delivery was pretty textbook itself.  Fortunately it was pretty quiet around the hospital, so I was only in recovery for a little over and hour and Ella joined us in the room about an hour after that. 

Ella's first night went well.  She stayed with us in the room until around 11:00 and then went to spend some time with the nurses in the nursery.  You might think that would allow us to get some rest, but between the visits from the nurse, nurse tech, anesthesia nurses and I can't even remember who else, we got rest, but it was by no means a good solid night sleep.  Seems silly to say this, but we are looking forward to getting home and only having to wake up every 3-4 hours.  Fortunately Ella was a big enough baby so the nurses haven't been fussed about making her follow a strict eating routine, they've encouraged the 4 hour timeline for eating at night.  

Ella came back to the room around 6:00 this morning and hung out with us all day. Well, she did go back to the nursery for her hearing test, which she passed.  Not sure if "passed" is the right term, no clue how they do a hearing test on a 24 hour old baby!   They got me up and walking pretty early today.  Can't say I am leaping up from a sitting position, but thanks to some strong drugs I am not in much pain at all, just a little sore. Our day consisted of taking walks around the hospital halls, introducing Ella to the Heather, Alex and Abbi Turner, Aunt Jean and Uncle Tom,  Meme and her most important visitor - big sister Addison.