Ella is 5 months old!

Ella turned 5 months on December 17th.  We didn't have a doctor appointment this month, so I weighed her on our scale at home.  Ella weighs a whopping 19 lbs 8 oz, I'm guessing at the tops of the charts.  I'm not sure of her length.  She is transitioning to 6-9  or 9month clothing.  I am still putting her in some 3-6or 6 month pants, but shirts are definitely too small to stretch over the diaper.  I'm finding there isn't a huge difference from 3-6 and 6-9, so guessing she won't be in this size for long.  I have also just this past week put her cloth diapers on the largest setting and when she wears disposables we are now in size 3.  She still has those big, beautiful blue eyes!

At 5 months Ella:

• can raise chest, supported by arms when on stomach.  (Although we're still not a big fan of tummy time.)
• ROLL OVER!  (First happened 12/15)  She went from tummy to back, and was so proud!
• pays close attention to various objects and definitely makes eye contact from across the room.
• smiles back when you smile at her!
• has gotten really good at grasping toys and even putting her binky back in.
• chews on her hands/Sophie the giraffe/anything she can get her hands on all the time.  Does this mean teeth are coming?
• bears weight on legs 

Ella is still going down around 8:30-9:30 and up for the day between 6-7.  She was sleeping through the night very regularly, but has recently started getting up around 1:30-2:30 to eat and goes right back to sleep. This also makes me wonder if teeth are bothering her.  I've started looking into getting an Amber Teething Necklace for the pain.  And yes, we are still swaddling!  

We also tried cereal this month.  We started with oatmeal, which we have been trying to do about every other day.  Its a hit or miss with her.  Some days she is really excited to eat it and other days she makes awful faces.

Lenny the Elf

Lenny, our Elf on the Shelf, has made his grand appearance this year in the Malcolm home!  Ava has been having so much fun looking for him in the mornings.  We found him the Sunday after Christmas and in true Elf fashion, he arrived with a North Pole breakfast of white powdered donuts!  He also came bearing a gift of "The Elf Story" movie!  Lenny has appeared in all sorts of crazy places!  We've found him in our tree, taking a marshmallow bath, he toilet papered the bathroom and was hanging from the shower one morning, and we even caught him having a snack of maple syrup!  That crazy elf!

We are thankful!

I've been participating in the days of Thanksgiving posts on Facebook.  Its nice to think about something everyday that I am thankful for.  We've also been talking to Ava about what she is thankful for.  Thanksgiving morning she declared, "I am thankful for my daddy and my dog."  It was pretty funny, and then she continued to list every person in our family she could think of.  Ella was also at the top of the list.  She sure loves her sister.

We spent Thanksgiving day at my parents house with my parents, Tyson, Rachel and Kai, Josh, Petersen's, and several of my brother-in-law's friends that were visiting from Reno and Denver.  We had a great day enjoying each other's company, playing games, holding babies, and eating way too much!  We celebrated with Darren's family on Sunday at Wes and Cindy's house.

Ava's cute artwork showing what she is thankful for.  Melt.

Monday when I dropped off Ava at school I checked her folder (where they put things for her to take home).  There was some art work in there from the week previous.  Obviously they've been talking about being thankful at school as well.  Her artwork was priceless and I got a bit teary-eyed when I read it.  It listed things Ava said she was thankful for.  They were:  I am thankful for my family.  I am thankful for my dog.  I am thankful for my garden.  I am thankful for the cupcake store.

4 months old!

Ella turned 4 months on November 17.  I waited until after her doctor appointment to make this post.

The last four months have just flown by, although it seems like Ella has been a part of our family forever.  She is such a good, happy baby.  She is so content sitting in her bouncy chair playing with toys or watching whats going on around her.  When she gets tired, she'll just go to sleep and when she wakes up she just opens her eyes and looks around.  She is "talking" more and more and also laughing out loud a lot more lately.

Ella currently weighs 17lbs, 11oz (90th percentile) and is 24.5 inches (50th percentile).  She is currently wearing size 3-6 or 6 month clothes.  She pants are more than long enough, but the shirts are starting to get a bit snug, which is probably due to her extra bulky cloth diapers.  We are still on the middle setting on most of her diapers and when she wears disposables, she is wearing size 2.  Her eyes are still blue.  I think we are going to have a blue-eyed beauty!

Shots went as expected at her appointment yesterday.  She was so smiley and happy before the shots.  The nurses were all commenting that she was the cutest baby they had seen all day.  Poor thing, two shots in one leg and one in the other plus the vaccine that comes in drink form.  She cried... hard... and for the first time she had real tears.  She calmed down pretty quickly and fell asleep right away.  She then slept most of the evening.  I woke her up to feed her around 9 pm last night and she slept through until 6:30 this morning, woke up to eat and then went back to sleep until I woke her up around 9 am!  Shots are tiring!  

At 4 months Ella:

• can laugh out loud
• can follow an object that is more than a foot away
• can hold head very steady when upright
• grasps her play rings very well and starting to grasp a rattle
• squeals when excited
• holds self up to sit when supported. 

Ella almost rolled over the other day during her 4 month pictures, which I credit to her not loving tummy time.        

Ella usually sleeps from about 8:30-9:30 pm to around 6 or 7 am.  She occasionally will wake up around 4:30/5 to eat but will go back to sleep right away.  We were definitely blessed with another good little sleeper!  We are still swaddling at night.  I tried not doing it and just putting her in a sleep sack for three nights last week and each of those nights she was so restless that I was up so much checking on her.  She sleeps so much better when her arms are confined!

At her appointment yesterday we got the okay to introduce rice cereal if we want.  Dr. Huwe said some babies don't show much interest right away and she said it was up to us if we wanted to try or wait.  Being that Ella is in the 90th percentile for her weight, it seems as though she is getting enough to eat as is so I'm not in a huge hurry to get started.  Ava wasn't that interested in the cereal, so I'm interested to see what Ella thinks of it.  I'm sure big sister, Ava will be really excited to watch Ella start eating foods though!

Family weekend

We spent last weekend in Des Moines with my family.   Rachel, Mom, and I wanted to go to do some Christmas shopping so we invited the guys along so take care of the kiddos while we shopped.  We had a good time!  Ava had so much fun swimming in the pool!  I hope we can make this a yearly event!

We went to the dentist!

A couple of weeks ago Ava had her first visit to the dentist.  She accompanied me to my appointment over the summer so I was hoping that would help.  She didn't scream or cry, so I count it as a success even though we were only able to get her to open her mouth long enough to count her teeth.  No tools were used at all.  It was an expensive teeth counting!  Afterwards, she was so excited about her goody bag from the dentist filled with stickers, floss, toothpaste, gum, and a toothbrush!  She later told Darren and Grammy Cindy that she didn't like the girl (the hygentist) she only liked the boy (the dentist).

Halloween Happenings!

We have made it a fun yearly tradition to visit a pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkins before Halloween.  We found one last year just north of Waverly that we love.  There is lots to do there and the prices aren't too bad.  Ava has had so much fun the past couple of years there.  We went a couple weeks before Halloween with the Burton's and my mom.  (My dad happened to be visiting family in Oklahoma, so he missed out.)

Family of four.  

Love her!

Cutie

Ava wasn't into taking pictures.  Then Kai pulled her hair.
This is as good as it gets with 3 grandkids age 3 and under I guess. :o)  

Love my nephew!  

Bat girl!  She was unsure of these cut-outs at first, but
eventually got the hang of it!  What a cutie!

Had a jumping in the leaves party!

Even Ella joined in.

Helping Daddy rake.

Making witches hats with Mommy!

Ava had several opportunities to dress up this year and luckily I didn't have to even buy a single costume for her!  She loves to play dress up so between myself and my mom she's gotten quite a few outfits over the past year and I knew they would be perfect.  The Saturday before Halloween we went to Hampton for their Main Street Trick or Treating.  She didn't really want to go (staying at Nana and Papa's playing tea party sounded way more fun).  I pretty much had to make her put her costume on, but once she saw what it was all about she was really excited and had so much fun.  She was a clown, a very cute clown.  Of course, she was afraid of some of the other kids in costumes and Rachel and I had to take turns carrying her.  Whew... carrying a 40 pound 3 year old gets heavy!

On Monday, she got to wear a costume to dance.  I let her pick her costume and she picked out an old sparkly dance recital costume that we got from someone.  She said she was a princess ballerina and wanted to take a magic wand.  She looked so cute.

On Wednesday, she picked a princess dress (again with a magic wand) to wear to school and I brought along her clown costume to put on her after school for Trick or Treating.  When I picked her up though, she had other plans.  She told me she wanted to wear her princess costume again.  That girl loves to be a princess.  I'd have to say, its very fitting for her personality!  We met Burton's and their little lion downtown Cedar Falls for T or T on Main Street.  Afterwards, we met Darren for a quick dinner and then to our friends the Mattson's.  When we got home Darren came inside with Ella and I took Ava to a few houses in our neighborhood.  She had a blast and by the second or third house had gotten the hang of it and kept wanting to go to more houses!

Ella only got in costume that one time.  She was a baby chick, and the cutest darn baby chick you ever did see!