Tuesday, May 21, 2013

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.













Monday, May 20, 2013

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).  


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

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.




Monday, May 13, 2013

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!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

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!