Yum yum!

It was time - Ella popped two teeth, she is sitting up on her own, and she has been showing a lot of interest in food....it was time to give this solid food thing a try.

We went back and forth on starting her on the typical breast milk and cereal or a veggie. After some discussions with my sisters, we decided to start with the rice cereal. At first she seemed to like it - see video below - but soon after we stopped filming she decided this was not for her. She was making horrible faces, gagging, turning her head, and spitting up. We are going to try again tomorrow night - hopefully we'll have better luck.

Ma - What's the big deal? 

 Playing like a big girl

Don't worry - I'll be here if you need me! 

 Getting ready for her first solid food!

This is going to be fun!!

Ahhh - what was that!?

Hummm....I don't know if I love this.

Alright - can we be done now?

Yay - it's over! 

It started out nice...

Wonderful Weekend

We are having a fantastic weekend - filled with mommy/daddy time, Ella time and family time. On Friday night Adam and I went to the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Nats stadium which was unbelievable. Bruce is such an incredible performer.  He played for 3 1/2 hours - high energy the entire time.

We arrived home from the concert around 1:30 a.m. but it was about 2:30 a.m. by the time we were in bed. Unfortunately miss Ella decided to wake up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning. I kept her in the crib until 6:00 a.m. but there was a lot of crying and back and forth with the paci. More on that later.

Saturday was a perfect family day. We took Ella on a bunch of walks and just played together at home - it was very special. Here are a few pictures and videos from Friday night and Saturday.

Today is the Jewish New Year so we are celebrating at Jonathan and Jaime's house tonight. We are really looking forward to seeing them and the kids.

Ella is doing great these days! She has settled in nicely at Adrienne's on Mondays and Thursdays and is ALL smiles, everyday. She is rolling all over the place which is a pretty good way of getting around. She is also sitting up by herself now so we will be starting solid foods shortly. I'll post a more detailed update on her developments later.

The Concert

Beautiful baby

I love sitting up like a big girl now

Just hanging with my dad

Practicing standing - She was really doing a great job before I got the camera out. I think her legs started to get tired. But this video is really funny.

My 30th Birthday Weekend

What a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Thank you to my family and friends for making my 30th birthday so special. The big family dinner, arts festival, massage, nails, dinner at 1789, camera shopping, BBQ, surprise brunch with my BFF....everything was perfect. I feel so blessed.

Maybe the best part of this weekend was all the quality time we got to spend as a family. Adam has been working a lot lately so this long weekend came at the perfect time. We were so sad to see him leave this morning :(

Ms. Ella had a birthday of her own on Saturday - she turned the big 5 - 5 months that is. To celebrate she continued to pop her two bottom teeth, started using her new big girl stroller and had a very cute 5 month photo shoot.

I am still a bit tired but glowing from a wonderful weekend.

Two at once! 

Best stroller in the world!!

Just had to share this one - Babies look so cute in jean jumpers

The official 5 month photo

Outtake 

Laughing at daddy

 My beautiful baby

FoUr mNnths

4 months = FUN

What a difference a month makes. Over the last 4 weeks Ella has really increased her ability to communicate what she wants, play, respond to our silliness, and show us affection (my favorite milestone).

When it comes to playing Ms. Ella likes action! She loves her new exersaucer (see video below) and anything involving standing up or lots of movement. She still enjoys tummy time but she has been practicing rolling over frequently so she is able to move on if she wants. She grabs at everything now so I have to be more careful what I carry around when I’m holding her. She will dive her hand into my morning coffee if I’m not careful.

Everything must go in her mouth of course so cleaning toys (and our hands) is happening a lot more often now. She has even sprouted a little tooth, which seems to not be bothering her yet. She still loves to bite our knuckles so we have been following its growth that way. Attempting to actually SEE the tooth is very hard.

The best development this month, in my opinion, is her new ability to give us kisses! She pulls our faces towards her and drools all over our checks – it’s messy and adorable.  It looks like she is trying to eat us but I’m sure this is her way of returning all the millions of kisses we give her. We are also getting hugs and earth shaking smiles when she sees us. Sometimes it feels like my heart can’t take it – it’s that cute!

Well – maybe a close second to her kisses are her belly laughs. It has been so much fun getting this girl to crack up! Below is a video of me cracking the code to her funny bone one morning.

She has a little stranger anxiety – mainly with men. Truth be told, she really only wants her dad when it comes to guys. However, Uncle Nick really got her laughing the other night and she’s pretty sure Jonathan is Adam x 2 so the local uncles are in safe territory.

She is very much aware when mommy and daddy are not around and gets a little fussy until we return, then it’s back to happy baby. It’s amazing to watch her with other people – as long as we are close she does okay. But you better believe she is watching to make sure we are there.

Naps have become much better – thank God! I know I wrote a while back that Adam saved the day and got her on the path to sweet dreams. Well – I didn’t update the blog that this went to hell in a hand basket quickly. She HATED naps and I began to feel the same way. It was always a fight. This too shall pass – and it did. She now goes down nicely. She still only sleeps for 45 min. at a time but I think that will change once she gets older and expends more energy. She is still sleeping 11-12 hours at night (has been since 2-3 months).

Now that I am back to work with a contracting job I am working full days twice a week – Monday and Thursday. Adrienne watches Ella in her daycare center and I work from their house so I can see her and breastfeed. The first week was rough but this last Monday was great – she loves Adrienne but needed to get used to being away from me and hanging in a new environment.

Our little miss is becoming such a big girl now – it’s amazing. I know this is only the start of big changes for us as she grows from infant to toddler. It’s sad and exciting at the same time.

Here are some pictures and videos to enjoy! 

She loves to play airplane 

One happy girl!  

Ella Rolls...

Just two days after her four month birthday Ella decided it was time to rollover. Our cute little girl has gotten so close MANY times but never made it all the way. Thankfully I had the camera ready so I was able to capture this magic moment ;)

Please excuse my annoying voice - I got super excited. Ella on the other hand, didn't know what the big deal was.

Miracle Daddy

(Ella - 15 weeks / July 21st)

What a wonderful weekend! Believe it or not, this was our first weekend in almost 6 weeks without any major plans or visitors. As much as we have enjoyed all the trips, people and b-day parties, we were ready for a lazy few days at home.

Since we were hanging around the house we decided to work on two areas Ella has been struggling with – bottle feedings and naps. These two issues have been hard for us but with Daddy’s help everything went smoothly.

Miracle Daddy on Bottles

Oh the bottle – why didn’t I start you sooner. I didn’t start pumping until 5 weeks postpartum and Ella’s first bottle was around 6-7 weeks. Let’s just say it didn’t go very well. She completely rejected it and cried bloody murder. Several bottles (all different types) and attempts later left us discouraged and tired.

I was totally prepared for another round of fighting, crying, kicking and screaming but we had to do it. I am going to be returning to work soon and I couldn’t let this go any longer.  After only 3 min. of crying she started to take the first bottle and she never looked back! Adam and I could not believe it, she was totally happy! We proceeded to give her all her subsequent meals as bottles and she did great. Ella did so well that I even felt comfortable enough to leave Adam and her for the last bottle of the night and hit up a movie with my girls.

I think Ella picked up on Adam’s clam and determined energy and decided it was time to trust and just enjoy. Adam loves feeding her of course so I am also confident that she felt relaxed by him.

To ensure we don’t slip back to the dark side of the bottle, Adam will be giving her the final meal of the day each night. This will surely become a special time indeed.

Well-done Adam! I feel so relieved that this is no longer an issue.

Miracle Daddy on Naps

Ella is not a big fan of naps. She is so excited by all her new toys, sounds, and activities that naps are just not that appealing anymore. Unfortunately she needs them (so does mommy) so these last 3 weeks have been hard.

During the day I have been dealing with an overly tired baby who will just not rest.  I have tried everything – catching her before she gets too sleepy, laying her down awake, rocking her to sleep, playing white noise, etc…nothing seemed to work. If I did manage to get her down she would wake up 15 min. later crying her eyes out.

So this weekend I recruited daddy to help me figure this one out. We decided I would try to lay with her in our bed to help her fall asleep. After 15 min. of screaming we were up again frustrated. She was clearly over tired and needed a nap.  I tried again but this time daddy laid on her other side in the bed. She started to freak out again so daddy held her hand – boom – she stopped crying and looked over at me – I quickly grabbed her other hand – she passed out immediately. So there we were, all in bed together and holding Ella’s little hands as she took a nap. HAHA. It was a very cute moment.

But unfortunately we cannot always nap this way so the next few naps had to be in her crib.  Surprisingly, she has done much better since that little family snooze. She still doesn’t have a nap routine but she has been more accepting of quiet time. Sometimes she relaxes in her crib and talks for a 10-15 min. before settling down – it’s very sweet.

Thank you so much daddy for all your help! We love you :) 

Ella 14 Weeks

Our little girl is changing and growing day by day. The biggest update is Ms. Ella is now officially sleeping through the night: 7 p.m. – 7 a.m. give or take 30 min. in either direction. She goes down very easily - we lay her down awake after her bath and last feeding and she drifts off to sleep. She occasionally wakes up for some reason and wants to suck on her paci so we have to go in and pop it back in. But the other night she found her thumb and I heard her sucking away on the monitor around 10 p.m. – it was so sweet.

She is now playing with her toys and trying hard to rollover. I have a very cute video of her attempts below. She cracks me up. She is still making amazing eye contact and smiles big for everyone who gives her attention. She is talking a lot more too, especially when I read to her. I think she wants to join in on the conversation.

We are still trying to figure out her nap schedule. She used to simply fall asleep whenever she needed a rest but now the world is so much more exciting and she needs some help settling down. I really have to be careful not to let too much time go by without a rest because then she gets overtired and then it's REALLY hard to get her down. We are now on a routine of trying to get her to rest every 2 hours, with one longer morning and mid-afternoon nap. She HATES leaving the action behind for her quiet room but she is getting used to it.

That’s what is happening in Ella’s little world!