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!

9 months!

Ella turned 9 months on the 17th.  We have her baby well check coming up on Monday.

Ella currently weighs 22 pounds.  She dropped 3 oz from last month, probably due to her constant moving!  She is a little go-getter and likes to be right where the action is!  Nothing is safe in this house anymore!  Cords, a dropped puff or cheerios, photo albums, dvd's, mommy's purse... she's going to get it!

Ella is wearing size 9-12 month or 12 month clothing and when wearing disposable diapers, she is in size 3.  We still are still consistently cloth diapering and loving it.  Her eyes are blue!\

At 9 months Ella:

• can crawl.
• can pull herself up and stand alone for long periods of time.
• is showing interest in shows Ava is watching like Bubble Guppies and Team Umizomi.
• entertains herself and plays by herself fairly well.  She is definitely mommy's girl though and when mommy comes in the room she often whines for me to pick her up.  
• plays patty cake/claps.

We haven't introduced foods with meats yet, but I am thinking after getting the go ahead from her doctor on Monday we will start doing that.  I have made all of our baby food this time around, so I am still finishing up what we have left and have even made a little more of some things we were running out of.  The other day I was making apples for her, so instead of blending them all up I cut them up in little chunks for her.  She loved them!  I am still nursing, but we have also started introducing formula mostly at daycare and sometimes in the evening when I'm at work.  

We are still struggling with naps, especially at daycare.  She has been back to sleeping better at night, with only the occasional restless night.  

Really trying to eat that sticker!

Mommy, I'm done!

Happy Birthday, Kai!

It's hard to believe my nephew, Kai turned one on April 9th!  We celebrated his birthday over the weekend. He demolished his cupcake!

Kai is such a happy little boy and the girls love playing with him.  I can't wait to watch them play together even more as they get older.

Ella even got to have her first taste of ice cream at Kai's birthday party. We weren't sure she would like it because she is very sensitive to cold food.  Darren always says that her bottles have to be just the right temperature or she won't take it!  She made a funny face at first, but kept going back for more.  Of course, Nana loved the honor of giving her her first taste!

Easter (a little belated)

We woke up Easter morning to discover that the Easter Bunny had left our baskets with mommy and daddy.  We had to make a late Saturday evening phone call (per Ava's request) and tell the Easter bunny not to come in our house and to leave the baskets by the door.

We spent Easter Sunday with the Malcolm family this year.  We went to church in Geneva with Wes and Cindy and then out for lunch in Hampton afterwards.  Ava enjoyed a quick egg hunt and then several smaller egg hunts inside (we took turns hiding them and looking for them).

It was a great day!