Healthy! (knock on wood!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ella loves to sit at the table like a big girl. She's actually really good about sitting there nicely. She doesn't try to stand up or get down with out help. She can't quite reach yet to be able to eat, but getting close. Due to her good behavior with chairs, she got her little chairs that go with her table back and so far she hasn't tried to stand on them.

Ella got her first haircut the other day. This is the before picture. She had just woken up from a nap when we got there, so she was a little out of it. My hair dresser washed and cut my hair first while Ella warmed up to the place. By the time I was finished, she was running all over the place getting into everything. We sat her in the chair by herself at first and that was a no-go. So I sat in the chair and she sat on my lap.

She wasn't terribly cooperative, but she wasn't awful. I didn't really give my hair dresser any instructions other than I wanted to get rid of the baby mullet and trim her bangs.

Not a fan...

The bangs were the hardest part. It took several attempts to get them trimmed.

All done! It looks pretty much the same in the front, but the back is so cute.

You can see it better in this picture. I love it. I'm so glad I finally got it done.

Ella has been feeling much, much better. Her cough is pretty much gone and she seems to be back to her fun, sweet self. She was pretty difficult to deal with while she was sick and I was beginning to worry that the terrible twos had come early. But, no, thank goodness. She still throws the occasional temper tantrum, but they are much less frequent. She's had so much energy the last two or three days, it's been hard to keep her entertained. It doesn't help that the weather hasn't been great, she really needs to be outside. I'm just so glad she's feeling better!

She has turned into quite the Daddy's girl. She must ask for him ten times a day and she's so happy when he gets home from work. She used to be excited when he first got home, but then would want to come back to me. Now she only has eyes for Daddy when he's here. Actually, she seems to really prefer we're both with her. Friday morning we were both home for a few minutes after Erin got here for the day and she was as happy as she could be going back and forth between the three of us.

Double, tripple, quadruple whammy

Ella will not give up trying to squeeze into her bumbo even though she always gets stuck and we have to come bail her out.

Is this a normal phase of toddlerhood... trying to see exactly how small of a space you can wedge your little butt into?

Ella and Grandma on Grandma's Birthday. Ella loves her earrings and since they're clip ons, Ella get to wear them.

More Birthday celebration.

Ella's hair is getting so long and unruly. I really want to take her to get it cut, but I'm scared. She's so squirming and hates any one messing with her, so I'm worried it'll end up a disaster.

Daddy's attempt at pigtails.

She loves imitating everything we do. Earlier today I was trying to get her down for a nap and she was being less than cooperative. I kind of threw my head back, looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, (so I wouldn't strangle her) and when I looked back at her she did the same thing- eye roll and all. It's pretty amusing to she your behaviour mimicked by a one year old, puts it in a whole different perspective.

Mommy's attempt at pigtails. It was pretty cute, but it didn't last very long.

Ella is sick, sick, sick again. She never got over the cough from her last cold and her allergies have been kind of bad, but now she's full blown sick. Looking back, I think it started Monday. She stopped eating or drinking much, but she can be really picky, so we didn't think too much about it. Then Thursday night, she was coughing so much that she threw up four times from about 11pm-2am, sheets and pj changes included. Friday morning she seemed surprisingly ok, but we put a call into her pedi's office to ask about the coughing. She ended up taking a very long nap that afternoon and when she woke up she was burning up. I took her temp and it was 102.1. She was very listless as well and just wanted to be held. Her doctor's office still hadn't called us back, so I called again and left another message. I managed to get a dose of ibuprofen in her and with in about 30 minutes she started to perk up some. They finally called back from her pedi's office at 6pm and wanted me to bring her in at 7:30 that night. I said no since she seemed a little better and usually goes to bed at 7. So they said to bring her in the next day.

We took her in yesterday after I got home from work. She was not happy about being examined- she screamed every time a stranger tried to touch her. After hearing Ella's history and examining her, the nurse practitioner felt like it was allergies with either RSV or strep. So they did the rapid tests for both, which included a nasal swab and throat swab, so you can imagine how that went. Turns out she has allergies, RSV, AND strep. There's not much we can do about the RSV, it just has to run its course, which can take a month or more. We have to make sure she stays relatively hydrated and oxygenated and if not, she would have to go to the hospital for "supportive therapy". I'm hoping we're passed the worst and that won't be necessary. For the strep, she has to take antibiotics. This is much more challenging than it sounds. For one thing, she fights us like crazy and it's ridiculous drama to try to get any kind of liquid meds in her. For another thing, she's been throwing up any liquid medication we give her. We managed to get most of the first dose in, not so much of the second. We'll see how the next 18 doses go...

As if all this wasn't enough, she still trying to cut those bottom molars. Her little gums are so swollen and blue, I know that can't feel good. Poor baby! She's been challenging to say the least, but I'll take the grumpy over the listless any time, that was scary! I'm just so ready for her to be well.

15month Check-up Report

Ella's emo look. Playing sad is new game. She can't do it for more than a few seconds before she starts laughing.

Self-portrait

Jeff sent this picture to his Grandma who has been in the hospital.

In the bounce house at Brooke's Birthday party.

Ella trying to feed Charlie puffs.

Ella had her 15 month check up last Friday. The stats are: 21.7lbs (32%) and 32in (92%). So she's even more tall and skinny than last time. I think she actually lost a little weight when she was sick the week before last, so hopefully she'll put that back on. The main point of the visit was to check milestones. She did great. She was ahead of the curve on her fine motor skills, gross motor skills and verbal skills. She did not like being there this time though. Jeff said she had a hard time with the visit when she was sick, so maybe she was a little traumatized by that. Dr. Sweet said she did look like she was getting over another upper respiratory infection- she was still pretty gunky and had some fluid in one of her ears, but everything was resolving. She's still coughing, mostly at night now, but it's getting better.

She's saying new words every day. I can't even keep count any more although she only uses a few consistently. She's been very into s sounds lately. I hear "shoe" and "sock" a million times a day. Yesterday, her daddy added a new four-letter s word to her vocabulary.... She's been walking around all day today saying "oh, $h!t". I'm trying to ignore her or say "shoe?" and point to a shoe, but it's really hard not to laugh. Guess it's time to clean it up!

15 Months

Ella is feeling better, but still has a runny nose and cough. Oddly enough, the cough seems to be worse during the day than at night. She hardly coughs at all at night, but she's coughed so much she threw up during the day. I'm just glad she's able to sleep pretty well. We have no new teeth. Her gums are swollen in four spots and I suspect there are some teeth trying to come through under there, but it might be a while still. She has been so grouchy lately, I'm hoping it's just that she doesn't feel well and my sweet baby will come back when she's better...

Actually, she is still really sweet. Lately when she's nursing, all of a sudden she'll wrap her arms around me and squeeze me tight and look up at me and smile. It just completely melts my heart. Also, if she does something bad and I'm using my stern voice, she will try to give me kisses and hugs. Every time she hears someone coming in the garage or the front door, she looks at me and says "Daddy?!". I heard her saying it to Erin when I came home from work the other day. I'm not sure if she was disappointed when she saw it was me.

She's really trying to expand her vocabulary. Every day she tries new words. Yesterday it was shoes and easy. I don't think she's retaining it though. She seems to understand what it means at the time and I can understand her pretty well, but if you ask her again later, she doesn't seem to remember. I guess it just takes a lot of repetition. When Erin gets a text or whatever on her phone it says "Droid" in a deep computer voice. Well Ella has picked that up and every time Erin's phone goes off she repeats the "Droid" in her high pitched squeaky voice. It is so cute and funny, we were all dying laughing.

Return of the snot-nose

Ella is working on using a spoon to feed herself. So far it's been very messy and only slightly successful, but she's getting there.

Ella loves showing her tummy, particularly her bellybutton.

My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!

Ella's gangsta look.

We had a little play group, pizza party for the play offs last Sunday. We ended up having six girls and one boy age three and under. It was a little crazy to say the least.

Ella is sick again. I think she picked up a bug at Toddler Time last week. She has at least two and maybe four teeth coming in, so I think her immune system is a little run down. We've been giving her probiotics and of course she still breastfeeds, so we were hoping that would help keep her well, but I guess not. We've been spoiled by no illnesses in her first 14 months, but I guess we're making up for it now. She just got over that lingering cough about a week ago, and now it's all the same junk again. She was really feeling bad yesterday, but Jeff and Erin managed to get a dose of ibupofen in her and she seems to be feeling better so far today, although still very snotty. She hasn't eaten much since Monday and every time she does, she winces when she swallows, so I guess her throat hurts too. She's been nursing A LOT though, and we discovered yesterday she'll take ice chips. I'm trying to remind myself how lucky we've been with how rarely she's been sick and how minor those illnesses have been, but, still, this stuff is no fun!

biTe!

Ella at Toddler Time. We go every Tuesday and Thursday morning. She loves it so much. She gets a huge smile on her face as soon as we walk in the door.

This is what happens when Mommy and Daddy turn their backs on an open dishwasher for two second. The little monkey is climbing on everything and she has definitely figure out how to use something shorter to climb up on things she can't otherwise reach. I see lots of bonked heads in our future. Speaking of which, one of her favorite new games is to gently bang her head on something and then come running over to me holding her head saying "bonk, bonk, bonk!".

Ella trying to share her banana with her Daddy. She started saying banana, although the ba part seems to be optional. She's also saying "wawa" pretty clearly when she wants water. Her big accomplishment is learning to say t's. So now instead of "biii" when she wants a bite, it's "biiiTTTTes". Her t is a little lispy, so it's more like "bithes", but it closer. She says "uh, oh" too.

She's found her appetite for solids lately. She loves fruit, pretty much any kind- bananas, grapes, raspberries, blueberries, clementines, pears, cantaloupe, watermelon, mango. The only things she doesn't seem to be too crazy about are apples. She also likes pretty much any cheese and anything with tomato sauce. We make her a lot of whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce and mozzarella. She'll eat a little bit of chicken, but she's not really a fan. Occasionally we can get her to eat carrots or sweet potatoes and Erin said she was gobbling down some peas for her, but in general veggies are difficult. We're trying to find ways to get her to eat more vegetables, but at least she likes fruit.

Leaving for work has been a little better so far this week. Monday Ella and Erin were playing on the floor when it was time for me to leave. I was able to just give her a kiss and walk away and she was fine. I'm crossing my fingers it'll stay that way. It's been really busy at work (New Year's Resolutions....) and my scheduled break has not been happening. So I haven't been able to come home in the afternoons for the last few days and probably won't tomorrow either. I've asked them to rearrange the schedule a little bit, so hopefully next week it'll work out better. I'm not happy about this since that was a big selling point on me taking this job. Hopefully it'll all work out, we'll see.

Happy New Year!

Ella playing with some of her Christmas loot.

Getting ready for a New Year's Eve party.

Is Avery hugging Ella or choking her...? Not sure.

I can't believe the holidays have come and gone already, that was so fast! It's been a hectic few weeks, though, so I'm ready to get back to "normal". We're still trying to figure out the new routine with me working. I like my new job for the most part, but there are a lot of kinks to be worked out. It's still hard for me to leave Ella, every time. She cries pretty much every time, but I always wait out of sight for her to settle down and it never takes more than a minute or two. Jeff was off all last week, so he was home with her. Now Erin is back this week, so she's having to get used to her again. I know she likes Erin and she seems to do really well with her, which is such a huge relief.

Ella ended up going to see her pedi Dr. Sweet last week. Dr. Sweet said it looked like a head cold that had turned into an upper respiratory infection. She wanted us to start her on probiotics, which we did, and gave us a prescription for antibiotics to start last weekend if she wasn't better. She is still coughing, but she doesn't have a fever, she's playing and eating like normal, so I decided not to do the antibiotics. Jeff and I are still coughing too, but feel fine otherwise, so I think it's just some lingering congestion. I'll sure be glad when we're all 100% again!