Sister Time

Last night Addy asked if she could give Ella her bottle - she fed her the entire bottle and even burped her (with a little help from me!)

Circus

Michael got tickets for him and Addy to go to the circus again this year.  We figured she'd be really excited about it this year since she seemed to enjoy it last year.  Well, she wasn't super excited and they left at intermission, but she spotted the pink "spinning wands" about 5 minutes after they arrived and while Michael did try I think, there was no leaving the stadium without one in hand.  I think that one of the reasons why she wanted to leave was because he wouldn't let her turn it on while they were sitting in their seats -- she does get a little out of control with it and it very well might have ended up tangled in the hair of someone in front of them!  Addy named it the spinning wand.  Just what every household needs. 

Memory

I sure wish I had the memory of a 3 year old!  Today Addy puts on her cowgirl hat we got at the rodeo last year and says "take my picture".  Not sure I've ever heard her say that, these days she runs from the camera.  Then she disappears into the laundry room and comes out with the swiffer sweeper and says she needs to take a picture with it like the other picture she took.  Took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about, but after putting the pieces together, we recreated this picture from March 2009 - all her idea.

She's grown so much!

Beach Fun

Another great beach weekend!

Ella is made in the shade and much more comfortable than being stuck in her carrier in back of the Expedition

Michael taught Addy a new trick - body surfing!  It is kind of hard to see her face, but if you click on the pic and make it big you can see her to the left of Michael.  She loved it!

Weeks 11 and 12

Ella is about to grow out of some of her 0-3 month clothes - her little feet were nearly busting out of her footy pajamas last night.  Still eating and sleeping like a champ.  This past week there were two mornings where she didn't wake up until 7/7:30 after going to bed around 10.  She can do that anytime she wants!  Her are some pics from the past couple weeks.  We head to the beach house tomorrow!

We pulled out the booster seat the other day so Ella could sit with us at the table while we ate. She is awake more now and while we are all at the table eating it feels funny to have her stuck over in her swing just staring at us. A lot of time she'll end up on a lap and we eat one handed but this gives us 2 hands to eat with for a while! As with the exersaucer, she not really big enough, but she does a pretty good job in it for short periods. These pics make me laugh because she looks like such a big girl sitting up in the chair. I especially like the 2nd one where she has her bib on, the expression kinds of looks like she is saying "where is my food?"

This is obviously a picture of how a baby should NOT sleep, but I had to take it because Ella LOVES to pull blankets up over her head when she is sleeping. We of course pull them down and they are never tight on her face or anything, but if she has a blanket with her when she goes down she ends up looking like this.  Another funny thing, we've been trying to get Ella to sleep in her crib more during the day so that when she moves to her bed at night it will be less of a transition.  She isn't a huge fan of it and I thought that it was because she is laying flat and isn't inclined like in her swing or cradle.  I think that myth is busted b/c she can still sleep like a champ on the couch, completely flat.  Now trying to recreate the couch experience in her crib!

P.S. Doesn't it look like her hair is coming in on top? There is a lot more fuzz we think. Even Addison made a comment about Ella's hair getting longer.

Big E!

So technically she is still pretty small for this, but since Ella loves to stand up I figured we'd try out the exersaucer. I was pretty surprised that it only takes a small telephone book and she can put her feet down and "stand up". I wouldn't say it is her favorite toy, but she does enjoy looking around at all the colorful toys for a while. We were making all kinds of noise to try and get her to look towards the camera and she was just kind of mesmerized by the bright colors I think!

Thanks Aunt Susan

The new umbrella worked great!  Addy was made in the shade.  Can't wait to really test it back at the zoo.  When it cools off of course!

What A Difference Two Weeks Makes

I'm definitely learning the lesson that most of the time your kids are going to do the complete opposite of what you expect them to do.  Case in point this time is Addy and swimming.  Two weeks ago we are swimming at Dad's house and you can hardly get her to leave the steps.  Then the past 2 weeks we've received glowing progress reports from her swim teacher and I blogged about her not demonstrating her skills for her parents.  We'll I guess I should have actually gone swimming with her before I made that comment because we went to Dad's house today for some swimming and she was a total fish!  It was amazing the difference.  She was gliding, face in the water, blowing bubbles, early phases of swimming using her arms...she'd pop under water and then come up away from the stairs and grab the side of the pool.  Seriously it was a total 180.  Go Addy! 

My Little Girl Can Write Her Name

She is growing up too fast!

Addy Art

Addy drew this pic before camp this morning.  I may be biased, but I think it is pretty darn good!

Camp Rocks!

Nothing like a little pony ride at camp! Addy told me that she rode a horse at school and that it just went around in a circle and was attached to something.  She didn't seem giddy about the experience but did seem to have enjoyed it.  We've never done the pony rides at the rodeo, but I think we may need to start adding that to the list of things to do. They also had a petting zoo and big brushes to brush the animals.  Addy told me that she didn't pet the goat because she didn't want to get nibbled on.  She said the goat tried to nibble Ms. Briana's shoe (her counselor) because it thought that it was food. 

Who knew Addy was such the swimmer, she has graduated to preschool level 2.  According to the 2nd part of the exit skills assessment she can glide 2 body lengths, roll to back and float for 3 seconds then recover to a vertical position.  Maybe one day she'll demonstrate those skills for her parents, but in the meantime glad she did it well enough for her swim teacher!  I love how her teacher noted that she sometimes "forgets" to put her face in the water. 

The Girls

Super cute coordinating dresses that Gabe sent us (thanks for making them Megan!).

Ella just wanted to take nap, so we offered her big dog for a resting place!  She wasn't completely giddy about it, but we took advantage of the photo opp. 

Thought that I'd post this one since I'm actually in the picture for a change.  Addy snapped this pic.

Ella Update

I feel like she is doing tons more things just over the weekend!  Now not only is she putting her fists in her mouth, she grabs onto things really well and pulls them to her mouth, or as close to her mouth as she can get them.  She use to just kind of stare at the toys hanging on her play mat but now she is grabbing at them and it really seems like she is playing with purpose, not just arms and legs flailing (there is still plenty of that too though!)  

Still not a super huge fan of tummy time, but she can really hold her head up now. 

Without question, the swing is her favorite place to sleep.  She still sleeps well in her bed, in fact she has gone 7 hours which is great.  But during the day, it has to be the swing.  Not only is she grabbing her toys, but she is grabbing her blankets and pulling them up.  When I put her down for this nap the blanket was only up to her belly, covering her feet and she pulled it up to snuggle with it. 

Beach Weekend

Headed down to the beach house for 4th of July weekend and had a great time again.  Addison absolutely LOVES going down to the beach and I think that she could spend the entire day down at the water if we had enough food and drink for her.  Ella even made it out of the car this time and put her feet in the sand.  We have some pics, but we happened to be sitting in front of the car so you can hardly tell that we are at the beach except for the fact that I am in a swimsuit -- for these 2 reasons (me in the bathing suit especially) we'll try again next time to get a more proper Ella at the beach pic.  In the meantime, here are some others for you to enjoy

Ella rocking on the porch

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Susan came for a visit on Saturday.  A great time was had by all.  Addison had a blast playing at the beach with Aunt Susan and Grandma and Grandpa got to spend some quality time with Ella while we headed to the water.  Here is a cute pic of Grandma and the girls. 

Not sure what Star is doing or how I managed to capture this pic, but I thought that it was pretty funny.  Star had a great time at the beach on Saturday.  Sunday it was way too busy and lots of other dogs so she didn't get to go down again.  Only one trip to the water and fireworks - wasn't the best weekend for Star! 

We had another birthday celebration for Michael now that the Wolfs are back in town.  Nothing like spreading the birthday celebration out as long as you can!  (Addy - Why won't you look at the camera?!)

Had to post this 2nd pic of the same shot b/c Michael is looking at Susan taking a pic and now Addy is looking at my camera!

We spent a lot of time playing on the porch.  Sidewalk chalk works great on wood too and Ella seemed to really enjoy being outside.  Weather was amazing, no rain, not too hot and lots of breeze - ahh, wish I was still there!

Fireworks weren't the hit that we thought that they'd be.  Addy asked where the fireworks were for about an hour Saturday evening and we tried to explain that people didn't do fireworks until it was dark.  She saw a few and then she decided to go to bed before the good shows started.  Sunday she made it much longer and seemed to enjoy watching them from a distance and then our neighbors started setting them off and they were way too loud and close at that point, so she opted to just go to bed.  Ella was unphased by the fireworks exploding overhead.  She completely fell asleep in Michael's arms outside with all kinds of noise around us, then we come into the quiet house to put her to bed and she wakes up.  Go figure!  Here is Addy anxiously awaiting the fireworks show. 

Looking forward to the next trip down! 

Two Months Old

Baby girl is already two months old!  We went for her checkup yesterday and she got a great report.  She passed her 2 month milestones with flying colors and has already reached one of the 4 month milestones - rolling from front to back.  From the beginning we'd put her on her tummy and since she is not a fan of tummy time there is a bunch of squirming and nearly always she manages to end up back on her back.  I just kind of figured it was a fluke, but apparently if the kiddo does anything more than once you can check it off the list.

Ella is still eating and sleeping like a champ and she is growing like a weed.  Yesterday she weighed 10 lbs 9.6 oz and measured 23 1/4 inches long.  She was in the 80th percentile for height and head circumference and in the 48th for weight.  Unfortunately she got had to get some shots, but other than a beet red face and screaming while the nurse was administering the shots she did great.  I've been giving her Tylenol to help with any pain and she seems to be fine (or actually HEB brand b/c they still aren't making Tylenol since the big recall!)    We get to go back to the doctor in 2 months.  I had forgotten how frequently you get to visit the doctor the first year!

Definitely lots more smiles.  I think that I get the most smiles right after I change her diaper!  She still loves to stand up and enjoys bat her hanging toys around.  Her bouncer has an attachment that she seems to enjoy, there are bubbles and the fish moving around.  There is always lots of kicking and arm swinging when she is in her bouncer these days.  Unless she is asleep that is!  She has also mastered the art of grabbing my hair.  Oh, and lots of "talking" - love the cooing and baby babble. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Addison loves birthday celebrations!  And after her 3rd birthday party fiasco I think that it is may be safe to say that she enjoys other people's birthdays more than hers.  Michael's big day was Tuesday and hopefully he enjoyed the day as much as Addy did.

The Present:  When I told her Daddy's birthday was coming up she immediately told me that she wanted to get daddy a car with a track.  And if we couldn't find a car then she wanted to get him a dinosaur.  Why you ask?  Because when we go to parties for boys in her class we go buy them either a car toy or a dinosaur toy.  So she told me we needed to go to Target and go to the boy section.  This is what Daddy got from Addy for his birthday

Birthday Cake:  We have a lot of cupcakes at our house, so I wanted to do brownies.  Addy wasn't a fan of the idea at first, she felt Daddy needed cupcakes.  But I bought brownie mix and she got into baking as usual. 

We were eating the brownies later that night and Addison decided to have a vitamin with hers to make it more healthy - not sure what she had in mind, but she was proud of her vitamin topped brownie. 

Birthday Dinner:  We tried out a new Japanese steak and sushi place in Bellaire.  We sat at the hibachi table and it was a great dinner and a great show.  Addison was quite entertained by the chef as he prepared the food.  Here is Addison in a bit of awe as food was flying through the air and things were lit on fire.   

Maybe the highlight of the night was watching Addison eat rice with chopsticks.  Granted they were "kiddie" chopsticks and it was super sticky rice, but I think that she did a better job than some of the adults at the table!