Christmas Part 2

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Christmas

Christmas Eve, Eve. Decorating the tree and making cookies for Santa.

Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve night

Christmas morning

We had a wonderful Christmas. We forgot our camera when we did Christmas with Jeff's parents, so I'll have to post those pictures later when I get them.

14 Months

I knitted the little blanket Ella is holding for my dolls when I was five. It's the only knitting project I've ever finished.

Ella trying to put my shoe on for me.

Time to rearrange the tuperware cabinet...

Ella feeding her Daddy.

Sick baby...

My Aunt Susie got us the Charlie Brown Christmas doll a few years ago. You squeeze his foot and it plays a Christmas song and Charlie dances. Ella loves, loves, loves him. We have to play it thirty times a day.

Jeff makes a sound like a trumpet for the elephant, which Ella things is hilarious. When we were going through our usual animal sounds, I asked her what the elephant says and was surprised when she did the above noise. I know it doesn't sound like an elephant, but she's trying to imitate the sound her Daddy makes. So cute!

This week has been pretty challenging. Ella got sick for the first time, not a milestone I was looking forward to. And of course, the timing is terrible. She started showing some signs of not feeling good last Thursday, but was full blown sick by Sunday. Jeff and I both started feeling bad Sunday night and were in bad shape by Monday. Wednesday was my first day by myself at the new job. It went well, but would have been easier not being sick. Oh, well, we survived! We're all on the mend now, but still very snotty...

What does the monkey say?

This is what we do instead of eating dinner. At least she's stacking things now and not just knocking them down, although she does still love to do that!

Ella and Avery at Avery's Birthday party.

Ella had her own piece of pizza, but she wouldn't leave Avery alone for hers.

This is why I'm glad Ella can't climb up on any of the furniture at home...

Ella's vocabulary is exploding, but not in the way I expected it to. She's has a few words, that mostly only Jeff and I understand, but she has a ton of animal sounds. If you ask her "What does the monkey... dog... cat... ducky... sheep... lion... snake... cow say?" she makes the appropriate noise. She's also saying mamaw, dada, bite, wawa (water), bite, book, up, cat, button, bellybutton, and tickle. Like I said, she doesn't say many of those words clearly, but I know from her context clues and repetition what she means.

I ended up starting work last Saturday, but that's the only day I've worked so far. It went well. Ella ate well and went down pretty easy for her nap for Jeff. She has seemed a little clingy to me since then, so I'm glad I haven't had to go back in yet. Hopefully she'll continue to adjust. I have a few more days of training over the next week and my official first day on my own will be the 21st. I'll be working Mondays and Wednesdays from 10a-7p with a two hour break in the afternoon and Saturdays 8a-12p. Not a bad schedule. The break on Mon. and Wed. is long enough for me to come home and spend time with Ella, which is awesome. So far, I like the job, but it's very different from what I was doing. I'm still not sure how everything is going to work out... I guess we'll see.

Crazy haired, naked baby

The dry weather is really doing a number on Ella's hair. It's fine from the time it gets washed until the first time she lays down. Then the back becomes a giant rat's nest. No amount of brushing or smoothing will fix it after that.

Ella's favorite game is diaper/clothes change escape. She gets this wicked grin on her face as soon as we lay her down on the bed and the first chance she gets, she takes off in whatever state of undress she happens to be in. It usually takes three or four times of catching her and pulling her back to us to get her changed/dressed. She thinks it's hilarious.

We went to the Mansfield Holiday Festival on Friday. It was not as little kid friendly as I had hoped, but I think Ella liked all the lights and music and she was very interested when Santa and Frosty walked by. She barked at the reindeer, as she does all four legged furry animals that aren't cats. She has a funny little meow for cats, it actually sounds very much like our cats. She loves looking at cats and dogs in her books. In fact, we have four bedtime books we usually read, and she knows exactly where the cats and dogs are in each books and some nights she's not interested in anything else but finding them. Last week at the grocery store, we spent ten minutes in the pet aisle pointing to the puppies and kitties and woofing or meowing appropriately.

Ella and Lucy. I was trying to get a picture of Ella kissing Lucy, which she did about ten times, but it was too quick to catch. She's really gotten the hang of giving kisses and makes a MWAW! sound too. She's fairly generous with her kisses, especially with other babies. She kissed one little boy at Toddler Time on Thursday and another one at the restaurant we were at Friday night. It's funny to me how shocked the other kid always seems to be. They usually just freeze while she's giving them hugs and kisses and I eventually have to say "ok, that's enough" and pull her away.

I'll be starting back to work a week from today. I wasn't actively looking, but keeping my eyes and ears open for the "perfect" position. It's hard to find a part-time Nurse Practitioner position, so when one came along, I was eager to follow up on it. It's not my usual thing, it's a medical weight loss center, but they're very flexible with the schedule, which is super important to me. I'll be working about 20 hours a week with about half of those hours being evenings and Saturday, so Jeff will be with Ella during those times. The rest of the time Ella will be with her Grandma and my friend Erin. I'm still not sure how the schedule is going to work out, I'm hoping to get all that nailed down tomorrow. I have extremely mixed feeling about going back to work. On the one hand, I'm ready to have a career and money(!) again. On the other hand, I get choked up every time I think about spending that much time away from Ella. I'm sure it'll all be fine, but it will definitely be an adjustment for all of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Road trip! We headed for Bryan/College Station Wednesday late morning. Carrie and Maggie rode down with us which made the trip infinitely better for Ella. I don't think she fussed once on the way down or back despite being tired. Either Jeff or I always sit in the backseat with her if we're both in the car, but I guess we're just not as entertaining as Aunt Carrie and Cousin Maggie. This was during our brief stop in Waco for a potty break, leg stretch, snack, and coffee.

Ella and Daddy walking to Uncle John and Aunt Carolyn's house on Thanksgiving. She walked the whole way there from Uncle Steve's house. It was a slow walk, but she loved it and she was so good about holding Jeff's hand the whole time.

My Aunt Carolyn set up a little table just for Ella and Maggie, it was so cute.

Ella and my cousin's dog. She was just Ella's size. Ella had a great time with all the cousins. The weather was perfect for playing outside.

Ella at Cracker Barrel Friday morning. I think her allergies were bothering her again, they seem to get her every time we go down there.

Itsy bitsy spider!

Ella always wants a drink of anything I'm drinking. Saturday morning she was bugging me for my coffee. After I had drank most of it, I let her pretend to take a drink, which mostly consists of her chewing on the side of the cup.

Ella and Kyle at Kyle's first Birthday party on Sunday. Ella is a month older than Kyle, but you'd never guess it looking at them!

We had a great Thanksgiving. As always, Uncle Steve went above and beyond to make us comfortable and keep us full. Thanksgiving day with my extended family was wonderful. We usually only get to see that side once a year, so it's always a little overwhelming to try to catch up with everyone, but it's great to see them all. And of course, the food was delicious too! I'm so glad that Carrie and Maggie were able to go down with us and we got to spend a lot of time with them. Saturday when we got home, we continued the Thanksgiving celebrations with dinner with Jeff's parents and Thomas. Again, the food was yummy and we enjoyed relaxing with the family.