Ella is ONE!

Where did the year go?  It seems like just yesterday I was complaining about the heat and my baby that I thought would never arrive.  (Remember, she was born on her due date but I felt two weeks overdue!)  Time needs to start slowing down.  I am not ready for my babies to grow up just yet.

We had an eventful, hot day for Ella's birthday.  I had taken the day off and decided we needed a fun activity to do in the morning so due to the heat we decided on the Splash Pad.  It was not a hit.  There were too many other kids there (which always makes Ava timid) and Kai and Ella didn't like getting splashed.  We lasted there MAYBE 20 minutes and decided our blow up pool on our deck was a much better plan.  The kids loved that and we all worked on our tans.  

While the girls napped my mom helped me finish up some things for Ella's party that evening.  The cake didn't look as pretty as I had hoped because it was melting in the heat.  But at least it tasted amazing and even more importantly, Ella loved it.  She would have eaten her entire smash cake if I had let her and actually cried when I took it away from her!  

At one year, Ella weighs 25 lbs, 1 oz (95%) and is 30 1/4 inches (85%).  She has two bottom teeth.

Ella's favorite things are: her tiny little board books, sitting in the little pink chair, picking on Sophie, her binky, Bubble Guppies, music, dancing, water, and playing outside.  She is mommy's girl and is such a brave little one.  She isn't afraid of anything and loves to explore!

Vacations are fun!

I have been slacking lately in the blogging department.  But I couldn't go without making mention of two very fun vacations that we have taken this summer!

First, back in June the girls and I traveled through the night to Branson with my mom for a Meinders Family Gathering.  The girls traveled great.  My mom and I took turns driving through the night and arrived on my aunt LaDonna's door step shortly before 7:00 am.  The whole way I had planned to nap once we arrived, but once we got there we decided who needs sleep?  And we went to Silver Dollar City instead! Ava loved the rides (big kid ones) more than I could have ever expected and Ella was content people watching.

We spent the weekend staying up late, sleeping in (the girls BOTH slept until 10:30 the day after Silver Dollar City!), boating, swimming, and catching up with family.  I was so proud of Ava.  She is normally pretty timid and stays close to me, but she really came out of her shell that weekend and was having so much fun running around with my cousin's kids!

Just a couple of weeks later, over July 4th we headed north... way north to Sleepy Hollow Resort.  My aunt and uncle bought this property just a couple of years ago and I hadn't been up there yet.  It was the perfect getaway.  We did nothing but fun in the sun and relaxing.  They have so many activities to do there that it is the perfect vacation spot for families.

On the way home, we spent the night in Minneapolis and hit up the Como Zoo.  We took Ava to this zoo last year and she loved it and wanted to introduce it to Ella.  She, of course, is a little young to enjoy all these fun activities but she is usually content just being a part of it.  She likes to be where the action is!

Ella is 11 months!

Ella turned 11 months on June 17th.  At 11 months, Ella weighs 24 lbs, 10 oz.  She has two teeth on the bottom (the second one just started popping through this week!  Ella continues to be a happy girl and is very curious.  We often call her our little trouble maker, because if there is something she shouldn't have, she is going to find it!

Ella is pulling herself up on everything and standing on her own more and more.  I see so many differences between her and Ava it makes me curious about her personality and interests as she gets older.  She has been skipping a morning nap for a good month now, which helps her take a better afternoon nap.  She can still be pretty unpredictable with her nap schedule, and has been getting better about going down to sleep on her own with a little crying it out.  Which is hard on mommy.

Her words are: "mama" and "dada".  Nana and my friend Tessa that babysits one day a week for us are convivced she can say "Ella" as well.  Not so sure that's intentional.  :)

At 11 months Ella can:

• Pull herself up
• Walk behind a push toy
• Stand on her own
• Understand "no" and gives me the face, which we refer to as "The Stink Eye"
• Waves bye-bye and blows kisses
• Rolls ball back to you when playing catch
• Sort of drinks from a sippy

Ella favorite thing to do is take toys out of the toy basket and torment Sophie, our dog.  

Ella is wearing a mix of 12 months and 18 month clothes, and we have moved on to size 4 diapers when using disposables.  

Ella still has about 3 bottles a day and I can tell she enjoys that snuggle time so its hard to drop.  Other than that, she is completely on table foods.  She eats pretty much what we eat, and she enjoys it too!  

Dance Recital

I am so proud of Ava.  When I mentioned to Darren last summer that I wanted to sign Ava up for dance, he discouraged it.  He said she was too young and there was no way she would get on stage for the recital.  I said I didn't care about that and if she didn't want to do recital that was fine.  She is the girliest of girls, so I thought it would be something that she would enjoy.  And that she did.  Every week, she looked forward to going and never did she once throw a fit when it was time to go.  She always looked forward to it and even though she can be painfully shy at times, she made some little friends.

Saturday night at her dance recital, she really proved  Darren wrong.  She got up there on stage, like she had done it a thousand times.  She saw us in the second row almost immediately, and gave us a huge grin and did her dance with her class.  Proud mama here!

Afterwards, I asked her if she was nervous before she went on stage.  She replied a quick, "No."  Then I asked her what she thought about all those people in the audience, and she said, "um.... I really didn't think about it."  She's awesome.

10 months old

Ella turned 10 months on the 17th.  She weighed 24 lbs 1 oz.  She won't go back to the doctor until 12 months, so no update on her length.  She is definitely growing!

At 10 months, Ella:

• can pull herself up and get back down.
• crawling is getting much faster.
• will not leave anything alone.  She is a little go-getter!  
• likes to play with Ava.  She doesn't do as well playing alone.
• still "yells" at you if her food isn't coming fast enough.  
• walk across the room with a push toy or laundry basket.  :)

Ella is currently having about about three bottles a day, plus three meals and usually two snacks.  I am no longer nursing her and she is drinking formula and what is left of my frozen breast milk.  She is definitely a good little eater.  Some favorites are:  chicken, yogurt melts, mangos, carrots and grapes.  Although, there isn't much she doesn't like to be honest!  

Ella is wearing size 12 month clothes and still fitting into size 3 diapers.  We are still using cloth about 95% of the time.  

Her favorites toys right now are the shape sorters, building (and knocking down towers), and Ava's little people animals. She loves playing in Ava's room!  Ella loves turning the pages of books and loves music.  Anytime a song comes on, she starts dancing!  She also loves petting (and tormenting) Sophie, our dog.  She is also getting impossible to get pictures of.  She is never still!  (See photos below).  

Mother's Day!

I was woken up by Ava earlier than I would have liked, but Darren said she was so excited to give me my card and presents.  How can you be mad at that?  After I was showered with love, we snuggled in bed for awhile reading/watching cartoons.  It was perfect.

We then went to my parents for lunch and had a fun, relaxing day with the fam and letting the kids play.  We stopped by Darren's parents also for a couple of hours before heading home.

Meet the Johnson's

We went to our friend's Tessa and Eddie's house over the weekend for Carter's 4th birthday.  Ava and Carter have been buddies since birth.  Carter's baby brother, Grayson is only about 4 months younger than Ella as well.

This summer the girls will be spending one day a week at Carter and Grayson's house!

Ava goes to the Dentist Round 2

Ava had her first dentist appointment back in November.  (See blog post here.)  While Round 1 wasn't a huge disaster, I don't really consider it a success either.  Round 2 this week was GREAT!  She sat perfectly and listened to the hygentist and the dentist.  There were only a few tears towards the end when she said, "I'm all done, Mommy."  But I assured her they only had three teeth left and she let them finish.  They were able to do a good cleaning using tools and all!  She was thrilled with the goodie bag they gave her!

Afterwards, we had to stop by Hy-Vee for some groceries so I let her pick something for being such a brave girl.  Cookies, of course.  We brushed right after!