Happy Ella

She's back to her old self again... happy as can be and terrorizing the cat! :)

So Ella

I've been trying to get a couple cute candids of Ella to represent her 1 yr growth photos.... and this is all I seem to get out of her although she feels much better. Cute but no smiles. Well, the day is young!

Blah to Ahhh

BLAH.

That's the best word to describe my week as a mother of two sick little girls. Nothing serious- I guess it's just that time of year and/or a yucky side-affect of preschool. It's like the sickies have waged a war on my household and I'm pretty sure we all lost.

With that said, I haven't gotten any good 1 year growth photos of Ella. I've been 11 for 11 for our monthly date with the camera, and my 'grace period' is quickly depleting for the final month. She just really hasn't been in the mood... and there wasn't a good opportunity after the party since we had family in town. Wish me luck for a few smiles tomorrow!

We saw the pediatrician yesterday for Ella's 1 yr check-up and she weighed in at 50% (approx 20 lbs.) and at 75% length (30 1/2"). I don't know why that surprises me so much... I guess because she eats so much. She is doing well developmentally and the doctor made me promise that I would not give her a bottle all day today. Well, I'm never one to go against doctors' orders so we made it all day on whole milk in a sippy cup! Ella has got to be the easiest baby EV-UH! Well, except for the three shots and heel prick she had to endure at the doctor's office; her reaction made such a large impact on her big sister that Adelyn has been playing doctor all day trying to fix her 'boo boos' that lie underneath her colorful band-aids.

Well, o.k... maybe my week hasn't been so blah after all. I might be worn out from taking care of two ailing little girls on a full-time basis, but this is what I've gotten to witness in return:

Adelyn trying to fix her sister's boo boo's
Ella being a big girl drinking out of her sippy
Adelyn reminding me to pray before we eat our snacks (preschool IS paying off!)
Ella totally rocking her new birthday outfits/jammies
Adelyn recognizing all of her Disney princesses (you know- Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Ariel)
Adelyn recognizing two more colors (Yes- she has mastered 'princess recognition' but still working on color recognition!)
Ella walking from room to room with help
Ella mastering more learning toys
Daddy reading bedtime stories to the girls
The girls having friendly splash contests in the bathtub

I'm sure my sleepy head is forgetting tons of memories we made this week. I guess it just takes a few extra minutes to think about all of the wonderful blessings I have amidst such trying times as a full-time mom.

Ahhhhh.... I feel better already. :)

Our Lil' Cupcake is 1!

We had the monumental first birthday party over the weekend for Ella. I loved that we celebrated with our closest friends and family on her actual birthday. We made it a cupcake-themed day complete with cupcakes in the shape of a '1' (thanks for your help, Grandma June!) and a cupcake-shaped cake that I even surprised myself with making. Ella wore a cupcake outfit with a cupcake knit hat. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Ella's 1st birthday.

Oh, we also had some family fun time playing Rock Band II so my goofy brother, Daniel, played the guitar while I assisted on the drums. It was a good time! As you can tell by the pictures- we're naturals! :)

Thank you to EVERYONE for being there on her special day. Even my family traveled 4 hours to be with Ella on her special day!

As an update, here are a few of our 1 yr old's recent achievements:

Ella is still crawling and cruising. She can stand independently for short spurts of time and does put one foot in front of the other in attempt to walk when supported, but hasn't taken her first independent steps yet. We're gettin' there!

Ella has a few words in her vocabulary now including: ma ma (mommy), da da (daddy), ki ca (kitty cat), a da (I think Addy), bye bye, and hi. We're working on 'up' and 'more' and a couple other significant first words.

Ella only eats table food now and has been on whole milk for the last week. She's down to just 2 bottles a day and after her 1 yr check-up on Thursday, we will switch exclusively to her sippy cup.

Ella started her first class at the Y last week. She loves to sing and dance!
Ella gets a kick out of peek-a-boo still... oh, and she still LOVES to play the fetching game where she'll purposely drop something off her highchair table and wait for me to replace it.

We love you, Ella Bella Butter Bean. It's been the SWEETEST year with you in it!

Funny!

Thanks for sharing, Julie! :)

Pet Neglect :(

This blistery cold weather reminded me of our days in Michigan so I decided to scroll through some old photos. What I found was an alarming trend. This is Shelby (our dog, in case you didn't know) pre-kids:

And here is Shelby post-kids, 4 years later:

Poor thing! And the same goes for our cat, Savannah, too. I promise they aren't completely neglected. They're just not the center of attention anymore- well, unless our children are on top of them.

I Was 'That Mom'

You know.... 'that mom' who always feels it necessary to tell you exactly when her child reached a milestone a little early. Well, I caught myself bragging about Adelyn's savvy potty skills at a young age. Before she was 2, and as soon as we placed the potty chair next to the grown-up potty, she was already poppin' a squat to use it. Apparently all the training needed at the time was a couple years of watching her mommy and daddy do it. I was so proud that I decided that I need not push the envelope and put her in panties quite yet. Besides, I was in NO HURRY to deal with soiled panties.

Well, thanks to all my bragging I'm sure, my daughter will be 3 in a couple months and flat REFUSES to use the potty. She seems to be quite content using her diaper and rarely tells me when she needs to go or that she's already gone. In one of my many attempts at training her to use the potty, I let her run around the house half naked so she was tempted to use the potty. Well, it worked in the short-term. But when she needed to do the big deed (#2), she had no problem with doing it right on the floor. Yep, on the floor.... while skipping.

So what is a mommy to do? I've done the reward chart... complete with reward candy and reward song. See? Everyone says that she'll do it when she's ready... and that you can't be too agressive about it or it will back-fire. Did I miss the boat? I'm starting to feel like a failure of a mommy. *head bowing*

Oh, and you know what else I'm feeling guilt about? Adelyn is also addicted to her pacifier. It's apart of her sleeping ritual... she likes to suck while she twirls her hair. We've been having lots of discussions lately about how pacifiers are meant for babies but she's not budging. So, last night, I decided to take some advice and cut the end of it off. Apparently if you cut a little bit at a time, eventually it will lose its appeal. When Adelyn put the cut paci in her mouth, she said, "MOMMY! It's BWOKE! I don't want BWOKE paci!" And she proceeded to chuck it as far as she could across the room. Well, then she asked for it again, sucked on it for about 10 minutes, and then chucked it across the room before she fell asleep with NO PACI. Amazing, right! I felt awesome! Well, that was short-lived, too, apparently.... because it was the very first thing she wanted this morning as she woke up... and the very first thing she wanted when we got in the car from our classes at the Y. She seems to be content sucking on a bwoken... I mean, broken.... pacifier. So we'll see how it goes over when I cut a little more tonight.

Geesh.... I would have never thought I'd be so affected by the simple challenges we face as parents of toddlers.

If any of you have it all figured out, could you let me know the secrets? Better yet... blog about it so I can learn on an intermittent basis.

Bling, Bling!

Andrew and I were just talking about how we needed to do something special for Ella's first birthday coming up next weekend when we passed a jewelry boutique in the mall that advertised ear piercing. When Andrew agreed that this could be that special gift we were looking for, we decided that it was best to get both girls' ears done at the same time. It just didn't seem fair to do one and not the other. I'll have to admit that I was very skeptical about it and obviously had no plans for Adelyn to get her ears pierced as an infant. But then when I started to become more open to the idea, I felt that we missed the boat on getting Adelyn's done young enough so she wouldn't understand what was going on. Boy, was I wrong!! Adelyn was not phased by the experience one bit. She literally sat still, shot a brief funny look, then smiled as she saw the pretty earrings in the mirror. Ella, on the other hand, cried for about 5 minutes after the techs shot both ears at the same time... and I felt SO bad. She was fine as soon as I gave her a bottle, though. I will have to admit that they both look so darn cute. Besides the 8 weeks of initial maintenance, I think it will be worth it. And we will allow the girls to pick out their own new pair of earrings once they reach a certain age or milestone. That way it can still count as a privilege when they're older.

Oh, what fun it is to be a mom of 2 girls!

Sweet Revenge!

Ella has started to develop a feisty side to her.... and boy, is she giving her big sister a run for her money. For instance, here she was trying to swipe Adelyn's cover when Adelyn was NOT in the mood. (BTW, I do realize that my 2 yr old is getting too old for her paci.... if you have any recommendations on how to break this habit, please share!)

I'm certain that Ella is feeling pretty good now that she's able to give her big sister some retaliation for all the times Adelyn interrupted her naps or stole her toys. You go sister!

Oh, and here is 'feisty Ella' pulling out the wipes again. She LOVES to pull things apart, especially kleenex boxes, wipes, and toilet paper. You definitely know where Ella's been because she leaves a very distinctive mess behind her.

It's so neat to see Ella's personality develop from day to day. She will be TONS of fun on her first birthday when I let loose as a mommy and allow her to indulge in yummy cake!

Bittersweet!

There's just no way else to describe it. My oldest just started preschool today and although she absolutely loved it, I am still a little sad that she has joined the ranks of other preschoolers. She is only 2 1/2 (will be 3 in March) but I heard about an excellent local 2 yr old program 2 mornings a week. For those who don't know Adelyn well, she is a SUPER outgoing, social butterfly who loves new environments and new people. In fact, about a month or so ago when we took the tour of the facility, she cried when we left. All day, she asked to go back to "schoo" to "pway bwocks" and "meet fwiends" as she put it. After the holidays passed in December, we decided to enroll her and see how it goes.

Well, I highly doubt we'll retract our decision to let her go to school a little early. When I returned back to get her, on our way out the door, she said, "Mommy, I LOVE school!" The two teachers even said that they were surprised at how well adjusted she was... like she has been doing this for a long time. Oh, and apparently she didn't ask for mommy once the whole time she was there. *Tear* I know, I know..... let it go!

Here's a couple pictures of our little preschooler this morning on her first day of school. Doesn't she look so grown up in her back-pack?

Happiness Is Contagious

I have a confession to make: I hate receiving forwarded mass e-mails. Typically, I delete them on the spot. Maybe this roots from my work days of 100 e-mails per hour where you are forced to prioritize. For some reason, though, I decided to give one a chance this week... and I'm so glad I did because it hit a chord. Here it is:

Healthy Lifestyle Tip: Happiness Is Contagious Do you ever wonder whether happy people have something that keeps them cheerful, chipper and able to see the good in everything? It turns out they do, they have happy friends. New research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California suggests that happiness is influenced not only by the people you know, but by the people they know. The study shows that happiness spreads through social networks, sort of like a virus, meaning that your happiness could influence the happiness of someone you've never even met. "We have known for a long time that there is a direct relationship between one person's happiness and another's," says study co-author James H. Fowler, PhD, University of California. "But this study shows that indirect relationships also affect happiness. We found a statistical relationship not just between your happiness and your friends' happiness, but between your happiness and your friends' friends' happiness." They concluded that the happiness of an immediate social contact increases an individual's chances of becoming happy by 15 percent. The happiness of a second-degree contact, such as the spouse of a friend, increases the likeliness of becoming happy by 10 percent, and the happiness of a third-degree contact, or the friend of a friend of a friend, increases the likelihood of becoming happy by 6 percent. Surround yourself with happy people, because happy friends can make you happy. Source: webmd.com

I can completely relate to this right now because I've begun to find inspiration in other blogs written by complete strangers... well, 'third degree contacts' per the message above. I know this might sound odd... but I somehow feel happier when I see that there are other decent, Christian people who can't seem to write enough about their own families or take enough pictures of their own family moments. Not only does it make me feel like I'm not the only family-obsessed, picture-happy mommy out there, but it's refreshing to see good news and high spirits amidst such bad economic times.

Also, I'm fortunate to have met and reconnected with friends in 2008 who carry that same quality and I am definitely happier in their presence whether in person or messaging online.

So, thank YOU for making me happier. I just hope I can carry the same role at some point in your lives! And if I can't, I'm sure my sweet little girls will put a smile on your face if you continue to keep up with the blog.

Thanks, Paris, for the forward!

If a Picture Could Talk...

This one would say:

• Adelyn's new Christmas present was a good investment.
• Adelyn likes to put band-aids on her fingers for no reason.
• Adelyn totes 3 purses with her at all times.
• Adelyn likes to find and wear mommy's lip gloss and then wipe it on her shirt sleeve (typically her right sleeve).
• Adelyn doesn't like to wear socks.
• Adelyn would rather not smile for the camera.
• Adelyn has been watching mommy on her laptop too much lately.... scary!