Happy Halloween!

We hosted a Halloween themed dinner club at our house since we were still decorated from Ella's party.

This picture is a miracle. It took about twelve bad pictures to get this one good one. It was a little ridiculous trying to get them all still, not crying, and vaguely looking in the same direction.

This is how most of the pictures came out. Ella was crazy baby by this point in the evening. Avery was melting down and Aubry and Brook were just appalled by the whole thing.

Ella was really into the Trick-or-Treating. Usually when people knock, the dog barks and scares Ella, so we sent LaRoo to Jeff's parent's house. So instead she was running to the door every time and trying to chase after the kids when they left.

She kept peeking out the window to see who was coming and going.

I keep forgetting to post about her 12month check up, so I guess I'll do it here. Her appointment was last Tuesday. I usually call about a month ahead of time to schedule, but I got busy and put it off until about two weeks before this time. So, our normal doctor, Dr. Sweet was booked up almost until December. They offered to schedule us with the Nurse Practitioner and I jumped on it. I've been wanting to meet with her anyway. I like going to NPs and I didn't want our first time to see someone new to be when Ella was sick or something. I hate to say it, but I was pretty disappointed. Bedside-manner wise, it would be hard for anyone to compete with Dr. Sweet. She's just so nice and seems to so genuinely enjoy Ella. I can get over a lack of personality for someone who has a lot of competence, but unfortunately, she didn't impress me in that department either. The nail in the coffin was her horrible advice on breastfeeding. Not only did I find her comments offensive, but just completely incorrect. It's no wonder we have such horrible breastfeeding rates in the country when you have healthcare professionals discouraging and providing false information about it. (Ok, stepping off soapbox...) Needless to say, I will be calling extra early next time to make sure we see Dr. Sweet.

Other than that, the appointment was fine. Ella was 20lbs 3oz, which is 40% and 30in, which is 82%. May she always keep those proportions!

Terrible Ones...?

Saturday night, after Ella went to bed, we cleaned up all the mess from her party. I put all her old toys away and set all her new toys and books out so she would see them first thing when she came out Sunday morning. She usually likes to be held first thing in the morning, but as soon as she saw all her new stuff, she squirmed to get down and took off to investigate.

Still a little sleepy...

The house was her present from Jeff and me. Unfortunately it got delivered, un-assembled, the afternoon of her Birthday, so we didn't have a chance to put it together before her party. That night Randy, Dahlia, and the kiddos came over and Alicia and Dahlia put it together. We still need to paint it, but Ella loves it, especially if there are any cats or other kids in there.

Silly girl!

An empty canister + a spoon = awesome drum set.

Playing in the cabinet.

Ella and Maggie at Nana and Gran's Halloween party.

I thought things would slow down a little once Ella's Birthday was over, but not so much. We were busy, busy this last week and next week is looking the same. I'm not sure if this is related or not, but Ella has been less than pleasant this last week. We settled pretty quickly back into a two nap a day routine, but then all of the sudden, she started fighting nap/bed time like crazy. As soon as I take her in the room and start our pre-nap/bed routine, she starts screaming and crying. She settles down when we sit in the rocking chair and will kind of relax and nurse, but as soon as she's finished and I take her to the bed, she starts fighting again. If I just lay her down, she'll try to get up, so I have to hold her or practically lay on top of her to keep her in bed. That infuriates her and she screams and cries even more. She just keeps squirming and struggling until she wears out and falls asleep, which can be any where from 30 minutes to two hours. Uggghhh! So frustrating. The one good thing I can say is that usually when she's out, she's out (I'm sure that'll put the jinx on that...). I have no idea what's going on with her. I've been reading, reading, reading trying to figure it out, but other than a few little things to try, it seems like it's probably just a phase that will have to pass.

When this first started, I was having a really hard time not losing my patience and my temper with her. I quickly noticed that her day time behavior was deteriorating as well. She's been extra clingy, cranky, and very quick to get frustrated and throw temper tantrums. Monkey see, monkey do, right? All of this was making for a pretty vicious cycle. So, I'm trying really hard to, and mostly succeeding at staying calm during all this and hopefully she'll follow my example for good behavior as well as bad. Although the sleep thing has only gotten a little better, she definitely seems more her usual happy baby self.

In light of all this toddler drama, I decided not to sign up for swim lessons this session. The timing wasn't going to be great and even though the pool is heated, it's still cold. We might sign up again the next session or I might wait until she drops down to one nap a day. We'll see.

Ella has started running, but she only does it once a day, when her Daddy gets home from work. We'll be sitting on the floor playing and I hear the garage door go up, which she doesn't seem to notice. So I'll say "I hear Daddy!" and she perks up and starts looking toward the garage. As soon as she hears Jeff come in the house, she takes off around the couch to meet him at the baby gate. It's so cute and it makes me smile every day.

1 Year Old!

Birthday Girl! Her big gift was a kitchen from my Uncle Steve. We decided to let her have Saturday morning since we figured she would be overwhelmed by her party later on.

It was a hit!

Of course, the phone was her favorite part.

The shirt she has on is the shirt I wore on my first Birthday. My Mom told me that her Dad gave it to her when she was pregnant with my brother (before they knew he was a boy) and she held onto it until she had me. It's in great shape for 38+ years old.

Party Time!

Ella's party turned out so great. She has such a good time. The food all turned out good, Jeff did great with the Halloween themed food, and everything was yummy. We have never had any professional photos of Ella done, so we hired a photographer to take pictures at the party. It'll be a few weeks before we get those pictures, but I can't wait to see them. Ella was hilarious opening her presents. Almost everything was in gift bags and she was like a little Tasmanian devil tearing all the paper out of the bags. She loved all her toys, but I think she was a little overwhelmed with them all. She kept just going from one to another to another. The other kids were loving it too.

I can't believe my little baby is a year old. What an amazing, crazy, fun, exhausting, challenging, awesome year!

52 Weeks

Ella going for a ride.

Ella and Maggie playing at Mamaw's house.

Mamaw and Ella on Mamaw's Birthday. Ella was way too busy to hold still for a picture.

Ella playing with the box her Birthday present came in...

Silly girl!

Bumbo!

Everything in the mouth!

Swings! She still isn't crazy about them.

We spent a lot of time at the park this week. The weather was nice and she loved it. A piece of equipment was broken and they had it roped off with bright yellow caution tape. It was like a beacon to all the kids- COME CHECK THIS OUT!!!

It's been a busy, busy week. We've been working over time trying to get everything ready for Ella's Birthday party. I started to feel bad earlier this week about how much time I was spending working on the party and trying to get her to entertain herself. So we spent at least a few hours every day the rest of the week doing something fun. Thursday we went to Toddler Time at the Mansfield Activity Center. They have a big gym and they put out all their big soft blocks, tumbling mats, tunnels, bounce house, etc. Ella had so much fun! There were only two other kids there when we first got there, but there were tons by the end. We will definitely be making that a regular thing.

51 Weeks

Ella on the phone with her Grandma.

Apparently the conversation got serious...

Ella and Brooke at dinner club. We tried to get a picture of Ella, Brooke, and Aubry, but Aubry was too busy for that.

Have I mentioned how much Ella likes other people's toys?

We're trying to get back on schedule after our vacation, but as always, it's easier said than done. The first three nights after we got back, her sleep got progressively worse. I don't get it, she slept really well at night in ABQ, but is now back to waking up and not going back to sleep multiple times as soon as we got home. Ugghhh. I guess it's time to move to Albuquerque.

To make things more interesting, our video monitor got broken on our way back from New Mexico. The wireless USB receiver was already pretty fragile due to a little monkey yanking on it all the time. Apparently the trip was just too much and it crapped out on us. We ordered a new one immediately, but it still hasn't come yet. So, we've been locking the cats up in the evenings and leaving the door cracked so we can hear her. Fortunately, she's only woken up one night (a few times) and she fussed rather than trying to crawl off the bed, thank goodness. On the one hand, not staring at the video monitor has been kind of nice. On the other, I'm very anxious when I don't know what's going on with her.

I've been going 100 mph since we got back trying to get ready for her Birthday. I'm so excited for her first Birthday, especially because she cooperated and was born close to Halloween, so she can have a Halloween Birthday party. However, I might have been a little bit ambitious in my planning. I have so much I want to do, but time is running out to get everything done. I also, somehow, forgot to account for the almost one year old I have to keep up with while trying to get everything else done. Hopefully it'll all come together, and if not, there's always next year!

Swim lessons this week were interesting. We were a few minutes late due to the messed up nap schedule. So I was rushing to get into the pool since they had already started. For the first time ever, as I was getting in, she kind of tensed up and grabbed onto me a little tighter. I had a hard time the whole first half trying to get her to let go of me and swim. She also wouldn't kick very much which is strange for her. I think she may have been cold. She felt like she was shivering a little bit and her lips looked a little blue. It was cooler outside than usual, but the water felt pretty nice. Overall, she seemed to still have fun and she got more into it the longer we were there. Hopefully it was just a fluke.

ABQ Day 6

Tuesday morning after we woke up, got packed and ready and tried to put Arielle and Kelly's house back the way we found it, we went to visit Jeff's Grandma one more time before heading to the airport. Everyone else was at work, so it was nice to have a little quiet time with her.

We dropped the rental car off and Dave drove us to the airport. The flight back, we didn't get as lucky and had to share our row. Poor guy... Ella was about three hours over due for a nap at that point and she was pretty unruly. I think her ears were hurting during landing, which seemed to take forever. She would nurse for a minute, then scream, then nurse some more. Finally after a few minutes of that she passed out. Unfortunately, she was only able to sleep about 20 minutes. We were hoping she would sleep on the way home, but no such luck. So instead of her usual 2.5-3 hours of sleep she usually gets during the day, she got about 20 minutes. Needless to say, she was not in the best mood. We put her to bed early and she crashed.

We are happy to be home, but it was a great trip. We really enjoyed getting to see all the family and of course the weather was just amazing.

ABQ Day 5

Ella gearing up for our hike.

Ella on top of the volcano.

Ella and Mommy on top of the volcano.

Ella and Daddy on top of the volcano.

All of us heading back down the volcano. We woke up and got a move on Monday morning. These three volcanoes are about 10 minutes from Arielle and Kelly's house and made for a close, quick hike. You really can feel the difference in altitude up there. The hike was pretty easy, but we were both huffing and puffing going up. But we made it all the way up and the views were worth it.

After Ella's nap, we went to Cindy's for a last lunch. Jeff's Uncle Brent, Aunt Mary Lu, and Grandma Flora drove in from Gallup as well. We had some really yummy local pizza.

Ella with her Grandma, Grandpa, Great Uncle Brent and Aunt Mary Lu.

Ella with two of her Great-Grandmas.

Playing in the backyard one more time. We sure are going to miss this...

Ella and her Great-Uncle Dave.

Ella and her Great-Aunt Cindy.

Ella and Sandler in their car seats.

Awwww! Ella really thought Sandler was great and he was so sweet to her. So cute! Ella screamed and cried just about every time we put her in the car seat unless Sandler was there.

After Ella's afternoon nap, we went out for one last dinner with the family. Arielle, Sandler, Jeff, Ella and I meet Dave and Cindy for sushi. We had a great meal and the kiddos were more or less patient while we ate.