The cute and the goofy

My mom came to visit this past weekend so Ryan and I got to go out on a date! : ) We saw Taken, and can you believe it was the first time that Ryan and I have been to the movies since Ella was born? We used to go pretty regularly- we used to do lots of stuff - not so much anymore! : ) There is a crybaby matinee at a theatre downtown; I've been to that once with my friend Eri and her baby, Kai, but they only have one option (of a movie) per week. Speaking of Eri- she was kind enough to watch Ella for me so I could go in to work- the same morning I called her up! Someone's on vacation at work, and his fill-in got reassigned last minute and so I actually went in 2 extra days so far this week. That's a lot of working for me! But actually it's been okay : )

Ryan watched Ella yesterday, and even took her to her doctor's appointment. She is now 27 inches long, which puts her in the 95th percentile for length, and 16 pounds, 13 ounces which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight. She's actually always been in the 50-75th percentile range for her weight- the nurse told me she was in the 90th percentile on the last visit but she must have been reading the chart wrong (I happened to check on babycenter.com out of curiosity and then reconfirmed on the original growth charts.) Anyway - she's healthy! I didn't think I'd mind not being at her checkup but I think I asked Ryan over and over how it went, what did the doctor say, etc - more like an interrogation, so I guess I better go to the next one!

Although Ella was furious while getting her shots; she looks like she recovered pretty well, huh?

In this past week, I have snapped 111 pictures on my camera! Geesh! I didn't realize I was taking so many pictures! But I guess I will take about 5 or 6 of Ella doing exactly the same thing from just a slightly different angle! And sometimes she'll blink or make a funny face (kind of like me!) So, just for fun here are some of her goofiest pictures!!!!!

Just another day...

Hmmm, I finally figured out how to use the internet on my laptop (something is keeping our wireless from connecting, so we're using a landline until we figure that out), Ella is napping, Ryan's not getting home til late- I have the perfect chance to blog something and I cant think of anything to say!!!! Hmmm..... Well, let's talk about Ella!

Ella likes to babble "da-da" and if she's in bed with us she'll wiggle over to Ryan- cute! And she gets excited when Ryan comes home from work- she hears the door jiggling and she just knows it's her daddy : ) She's getting soooo close to sitting up unsupported and rolling over- every day she's getting better and better. I just started her on oats which she has been doing fine on- she mostly got rice cereal up til now, with tastes of other foods (some baby jar veggies/fruits and some frozen fruits in a strainer). We think she's starting to teeth but nothing visible yet. Her 6 month check-up is next week. I can't believe she's going to be 6 months old already! Where has the time gone?!?

Here are some pictures from the previous week... The first is Ella in her new jumperoo from my parents; the second is Ella limp as a noodle! The last picture I just took a few hours ago... She looks like she wants some food on that tray, huh?

Well, that's my little cutie pie : )

My mom is coming tomorrow, yippee! (Well probably, she's flying stand-by and you never know with stand-by- so you never want to get to excited about those maybe it's not going to happen plans...) No big plans yet but it's always nice to see your mommy : ) It's funny how after having Ella I appreciate my mom more. I wish she could come more often. Or just live next door. Hehe...

My Valentine...

Boy has my life changed so much from last year.... Valentine's Day last year I was pregnant and miserable! Ryan made the 30 plus minute drive to my workplace to take me out for lunch, and since I always love trying new places he took me to this Japanese restaurant right by my work. Well, before I could finish my lunch I had to run to the bathroom and I threw up EVERYTHING I had just eaten. It was ssssssssoooooo gross; I remember it felt so thick I thought I would choke on it - and to top it off it splashed the toilet water and vomit onto me. Oh my goodness, I hope I never go through that kind of all-day morning sickness ever again! Oh and then for dinner I really wanted Papa John's pizza.... The wait was forever and the entire thing was such an ordeal that when the pizza delivery man finally showed up I ended up rejecting the pizza and slamming the door in his face! I'm sure I told him that I was pregnant and hungry and he hadn't helped resolve the situation. Poor Ryan had a sad look on his face - he was hungry too! We ended up making a frozen pizza... Guess I didn't think that through when I lost it on the pizza guy...

This Valentine's Day should be a little more enjoyable for me : ) Ryan's taking me to an acrobat performance (if I can find the tickets!) and possibly a picnic, we'll see.... What means a lot is that I know Ryan is trying to make me happy -doing the kinds of things that I like... So, I actually meant for this post to highlight how wonderful Ryan is.... Throughout just being friends, then dating, being married and becoming parents together, Ryan has always been extraordinary. Yeah we had those newlywed fights, once I even dragged out my luggage with the intention to start packing I was so mad (who knows why? I got mad over pretty small stuff) but then I did the lower lip pout and asked Ryan if we could make up and get along again... Then after we had Ella, I swear my hormones were out to get Ryan! He didn't even do anything and I was just mad at him almost all the time! I resented how he didn't have to make the same changes as me- deciding on work, dealing with breastfeeding, etc. I'm happy to say that my hormones have come a little more into balance and I'm no longer having those kinds of feelings. I feel much more clear-headed now and I realize that I have the best husband ever. I really mean that, and I think that Ryan deserves credit for how great he is. So, I don't mean to brag or make anyone jealous or anything... but shouldn't I be able to brag a little?

Once Ryan gets home from work he changes Ella's diapers, feeds her, gets her ready for bed... When we're eating out he holds her so I can eat first. When we watch Mia and Aidan (our niece and nephew), Ryan is running the show. He makes dinner much more often than I do. He puts away the laundry since I just hate that last step in that never-ending cycle... He tidies up after himself all the time... I could keep going but I think it's clear he's pretty extraordinary, don't you think? Not to mention I know I can count on him to rescue me if my car won't start and I'm stuck somewhere, or if I did something stupid like run out of gas (yep that happened once.) And then there are the little things, like how he'll pause the DVR when I want to talk a little... which is like ten times during one show! There's just so many great things that he does... And he's super handsome! I would go on and on but I know that sort of thing can be annoying... so, that's it for now : )

Well, Happy Valentine's Day!

The exciting days of our lives

Boy, we're not even through January and I'm already slacking on keeping up this blog! Oh well, sorry to the two people that read this : ) By the way, thanks for reading! I guess part of my slacking is due to my days mostly being pretty repetitive and not exciting: nurse the baby, make sure she naps, nurse her more, feed her rice cereal, play with her, get her to nap some more, you get the picture. A good day is when I also do a load of laundry, clean the kitchen (which isn't too hard when you hardly cook anything), remember to take my multivitamin and DHA pill (the DHA is to promote brain and eye development in Ella, since I'm nursing), and getting and sorting through the mail. Yep, that's it. I'll do other random stuff too, but that's my basic checklist. And I'm not doing very good at keeping up with the mail - I have a dump bucket for the mail that doesn't seem important but I'm not sure if I want to toss it before reading it... So, no wonder I can't even keep up this blog, huh? Oh and you may have noticed making dinner was not on that list... Let's not even go there!

So when I try to think of what blogworthy news I have, it's hard to come up with all that much... Seriously, last week while I was walking into work someone rolled down the window and whistled at me - and I was like, oh yeah- that's the highlight of my day! He wasn't even remotely good looking - he was actually gross, but hey I can still appreciate it! (It's funny though, that kind of thing used to irritate me - everything DOES change after having a baby!) Yesterday Ryan told me that I looked thin, and that made me feel pretty good...

Alright, that's not the only 2 things that have happened in the past 2 weeks, but now Ella is getting fussy for me to give her some attention... I really do enjoy taking care of her, and I LOVE it when she laughs or smiles... It just melts you : ) Okay she's actually sucking really hard on my arm right now, so I'm thinking she's a little hungry : ) I better go!

Jessica took this picture almost 2 weeks ago - cute, huh? She made the jacket she's wearing...

A good day after all...

So I went in to work today. And actually, it felt pretty good. I like seeing all my coworkers, and it's nice to feel like I'm still capable of doing my job (sometimes I feel like I have that mommy mush brain thing.) Eventually I will be working more so I don't want to get too rusty. And I didn't feel *too* guilty about not spending the day with Ella- I dropped her off at Uncle Rob and Aunt Jess' house. They took good care of her : ) And they have a 4 year-old son, Aidan and a 1 year-old daughter, Mia - playmates!!! Our plan is to swap off babysitting, which makes it possible for me to work on a regular basis. I have a friend with a baby right around Ella's age, and we're swapping off babysitting too. Also Ryan's mom, aunt and grandma all volunteered to help out, so it looks like I can definitely put some time in here and there. I'm VERY thankful for that : ) At this point, I'm feeling pretty good about working - since today turned out to be a good day after all.

Ella had her 4 month check up yesterday. Guess what her percentile was for length? She is in the 97th percentile! If you know my height, that's surprising! And for weight, she's in the 90th percentile! (If you knew my weight, that's not so surprising...) She was 26 1/2 inches, and 15# 3 oz. The doctor said she's doing great! He did say that her growth would probably slow soon, so not to be too eager about how tall she'll be. If you can't tell, I wish I were taller.

Well, thanks for keeping up with us! In these pictures Ella is wearing a dress from her grandma & grandpa and Mia Joie shoes, made by Jess. So cute!!!!!!!!!!! The one below was right before going off to the doctor's... before she got her vaccine shots, poor thing... The picture up top is post vaccine shots....

To work or not to work?

Isn't she darling? It's so much fun to dress her up! Funny thing is, she's always dressed better than me! Always! I think instead of buying myself clothes I bought her a ton-back when I was working full-time and had the extra money!

Before my 12-week leave was up, I knew I wouldn't be ready to go back to my full-time position, so I switched to working PRN (as needed). It's worked out alright so far, friends/family have been able to babysit her for those few instances. But it seems like everytime I go in, I dread it. Normally Ella and I sleep til about 9am, so on those days I go to work, we both have to wake up early and that's no fun! Then it takes forever to get ready because I need to feed her, change her, get myself ready, pump, pack a million different things to take with just in case she needs it.... Then dropping her off and driving to work takes over an hour.... I'm not sure if my small paycheck is worth it! Almost every day I wonder should I find another job closer to home, or something with a more regular schedule and look into daycare, or should I just take an indefinite break from work? But considering that my parents spent a lot of money sending me to college for my BS, and now my husband is stuck paying my student loan for my MS - how can I justify not working at all?

Here's the other thing that I'm on the fence about: when do you have another baby? My sister is 15 months older than me, and I'm so glad that we are close in age that I sort of want to have another baby soon so that Ella can have that same sort of relationship with her sister (or brother). But adjusting to having one baby was a lot for me, I can't even imagine having 2 little ones! Plus poor Ryan is somewhat neglected...

All I can say, is that I don't know how a mom is supposed to juggle everything! Maybe I just never had an appreciation for everything the role entails... And I'm not even doing all that much, compared to other supermoms, like my sister-in-law, Jessica... www.miajoie.blogspot.com I remember when I was younger I thought I'd be a "supermom"... I guess I can still earn that title one day!

Merry Christmas!!!

Well now that I actually shared the blogging URL on the holiday cards that I mailed out, I guess it's time to put another posting up, huh? I think my new year's resolution will be to keep up the blog. Yeah I know, I could make my resolution to do something healthy like exercise, but let's get real!

Ella enjoyed her first Christmas so much she fought off her naps and will probably sleep most of the day tomorrow (of course, the day that Ryan is going to watch her while I go to work!) Ella had no idea she got spoiled by her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles - she was just happy to be around all her family! I think we all had a good time together : )

Ella turned 4 months old today! It's hard to sum things up since the last posting, but what really comes to mind is that she's grown soooo much! Everyone always comments on how big or long she's gotten... Ryan weighed her last night and she's up to 15 1/2 pounds now, not sure on her length but last time we were at the doctor's she was in the 90th percentile for length; for weight it was 50th percentile. She definitely is starting to feel heavy as I'm holding her! And she seems a little big for her infant carseat - as Uncle Tim put it, it's a "custom fit!" It's supposed to be good for up to 20 pounds, but we're planning on transitioning her into her new convertible carseat, a Christmas gift from Grandma & Grandpa Rockwood. I put her in it this morning, I think she liked it : )

Let's see... what baby milestones has Ella reached? She rolled over for the first time at 4 weeks, but hasn't rolled over all that much since then... She really likes to stand upright with support, and recently she's started to do little "crunches" from a reclined position! She's got great head control now, and can totally recognize people - she'll follow me with her eyes, it's so cute! And she loves the time she spends with her daddy! She smiles lots if you smile at her, and she has the cutest little laugh! Grandma Goldie is really good at making her laugh : ) She started talking a lot lately, it sounds adorable! Oh and she loves to play with her hands and stick them in her mouth, and when you hold her it feels like she's trying to hold on to you too : ) Ella started on solids last week- yeah, we jumped the gun just a little! She's doing pretty good with eating, and nursing : ) She sleeps very well, if you cuddle up next to her! Otherwise, cross your fingers! All in all, I'd say we have a healthy, happy, beautiful baby!

Well, thanks for checking in on us! Merry Christmas!!! And in case I don't blog again for awhile, Happy New Year!!!