Growing Up - Miss E., 11 months

Life with Elly at 11 months:

You have three teeth! (finally!)

You have started daycare for the first time. You seem to enjoy being there, but you are SO happy to see me when I pick you up! <--BTW, Miss Debbie just adores you!

You're sleeping has not improved :(

You are still in a size 3 diaper, but wear both 12 and 18 month clothing. Big Girl! I'd say you weigh about 20 lbs give or take a few ounces : )

You continue to be a great eater! Many times you will eat your meal, plus finish whatever Max didn't eat.

You love to "rub, rub, rub" your hands. (handwashing/sanitizing)

You have experienced your first real cold since starting daycare. Hopefully your immune system catches up fast!

You're favorite word to say is "Uh-Oh"! It's super cute!

You love bath time. It usually lasts longest when shared with Max : )

You're brother has taught you many things! Including how to drink out of a big cup (bath time). You love to imitate him in any way you can. Sometimes Max enjoys it, other times not so much. Hopefully we have very few of the not so much moments!

You LOVE to dance! The music plays and up and down your little butt goes. You also love us to hold you and dance with you. It's such a hardship ; )

You never hold still! Diaper changes to photos, I can't get you to not move for anything! (as evidenced by having to use bath photos!!)

We love ya girl!

Growing Up - Miss E., 10 months

Life with Elly at 10 months:

You walk!!!!! It's not always great, and when you want to go fast you still revert to crawling, but you've done it! You walked by 10 months!

You wear 12 month clothing and are still in size 3 diapers.

You're hair is starting to fill in more. I can't wait for it to get longer!

On the hair note, you no longer leave your headbands alone : (

You are a great eater! You've given up on baby food, and anything that reminds you of it (i.e. yogurt, applesauce), but you eat anything else we put in front of you!

You love to clap! "YAY" get's a pretty happy reaction from you as well ; )

You still only have the 2 teeth, but boy do you know how to use them.

You are getting more vocal and trying to "tell" us a few things.

You're sleep pattern seems to be going thru an adjustment as you are now waking up at night sometimes. Unfortunately, this hasn't improved your naps!

You watch your brother SO closely! I can tell we won't have much more time before you are a mini-Max!

You are just the sweetest girl and we love you to pieces!

Growing Up - Miss E., 9 months

Life with Elly at 9 months:

You eat a lot of table food, and a little baby food. You LOVE to feed yourself!

It would probably be easier to say what you don't like than what you do, so you're not a big fan of cooked apples, cheese...and I'm hard pressed to think of anything else right now ; )

You still wear a size 3 diaper, and size 12 mo clothing. You can still get into a couple 9-12 month things, but not too many.

You are a horrible napper, but usually a great night sleeper. This past week you've been getting up in the 4 a.m. hour, so I'm hoping we've just hit a growth spurt!

You crawl EVERYWHERE. I swear, if I didn't already have a shadow, you would be it!

You've now started to pull yourself up to everything also. You've started to cruise the furniture, so I feel pretty confident that you'll be walking soon(ish)!

You've still only gotten the two teeth.

When we go out, we get comments all the time what a great baby you are, and how happy you seem. Ha! If only these people could see you at home. You are definitely discontent in the evenings for sure. During the day you are pretty happy to play at your leisure and don't express your grumpiness for the world (me) to hear, but...oh, boy. I don't think we'll have to teach you to use your words.

When you are happy, girl you are a cutie. You have the best laugh, The Best.

You are turning into a Daddy's Girl. I won't lie, I don't hate it ; ) I won't lie, I don't think your daddy minds!

You love to play with your brothers toys. Max doesn't love it so much. We're all coping.

You also love water. Bath or shower, as long as it's warm you are good to go.

You have an insane amount of nicknames. Elly Belly, Sugar Lips, Cutie Pie, Pumpkinhead, Bright Eyes, Elly C....there are more. Even Max calls you by them sometimes!

We love you more and more each month my Bonnie Bluebelle.

Reflections

With permission from Bella K Photography, for your viewing pleasure here is Max's First Year Milestones:

Photos and design by Krisi Stephens

I can't believe how far he came from preemie to 1 year old! And where we are now from then? WOW.

Growing Up - Mighty Max, 2 1/2 yrs.

Life with Max at 2.5 years old:

Things you love...

• Mommy : D you are a total mama's boy.
• Your blankets! Fortunately you don't have one specific blanket you are attached to, as long as it's soft/fuzzy you are good to go.
• Chocolate : )
• Mints (tic tac's specifically)
• Staying in your jammies all day.
• Pancakes (you see a syrup bottle and freak out!)

Things you dislike...

• Vegetables!
• Having your picture taken : ( unless I'm taking a crazy # of pics of Elly, then you want in on the action
• Having your diaper changed.
  
  
• You are in a size 5 diaper. I am hoping potty training goes better soon because it pretty well isn't going anywhere right now and I'd love to stop buying your diapers!
• You are transitioning to 3T clothes.
• You have a very broad vocabulary, and are pretty clear in your diction. Or maybe that's just me since I hear it all the time : )
• You are still a huge fan of going outside, and can now unlock the door so that you can get yourself there. Some scary moments result from this!
• You still DO NOT sleep through the night. Agh!
• You recently went to your first haunted house. Daddy says you did well. You woke up screaming two nights later though. Not your usual.
• You love flying. Or rather pretending to fly. Buzz Lightyear, airplanes, helicopters, fairies, dinosaurs...all of these things fly and therefore are imitated multiple times a day.
  Speaking of imitating, almost everything you see you try to do yourself.
• You are fearless. You are the kid parks were built for. There is one particular park that has a toddler area vs a big kid area (5-12yr); you have already conquered the big kid area. My heart stopped while you were climing...you were above Daddy and out of his reach! All by yourself!!!
• You are a great big brother! So kind to Elly and always wanting to make sure she has everything she needs. Your toy sharing could use a little work, but I suppose that will come in time.
• You are just an all-around great kid. most days Daddy and Mommy look at each other in awe and amazement. (we have days we look at each other and wonder what were we thinking too!)

We love ya kid! Stop growing up so fast, would ya?

Growing Up - Miss E., 8 Months

Life with Elly at 8 months:

• You have your two bottom front teeth!
• You love to eat solid food, especially with the teeth : ) You still eat regular baby food because you don't seem to quite fill up enough without it. It's two jars at lunch and dinner, and puffs for breakfast. You also will have rice husks, cheerios and other edibles for snacks in the a.m. and p.m. You are also still nursing like a champ ; )
• We have to sing to you while you're eating supper or it's almost a continual whine between (and during) bites. I totally do not get this.
• You are crawling! You love to go! go! go! (on an adventure...) You also pull yourself up to stand anywhere and everywhere. You are happy to have us hold your hands and walk from object to object too! (nooo!!!)
• You officially wear a size 3 diaper.
• You are still in size 6-9 month clothing, but I think we'd be okay to move you to 12 month clothes...especially sleepers.
• You're napping needs a lot of work! But your bedtime routine is magical : ) 7:30 every night you are ready to start winding down and are ready to be down for the night just after 8. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this!!!!!

• You love to blow raspberries : D
• You are pretty much over the baby toys that your brother loved for so long. If it's not something Max or friends will play with you don't want to have anything to do with it. I cannot tell you how much I wish you were entertained in the activity jumper!
• You are talking more and whining less, although there is still a lot of room for improvement here.
• I think your eye color is pretty permanent : D When you wear denim, they are so dark blue, but when you wear purple they take on this lovely lavender hue. I love it!
• You have really started to imitate those around you! SO entertaining!

We ALL love you SO much!

(hoping this shows off the teethers a bit better!)

Elly moment: I was watching her crawl today. Obviously this has occured before, but I am usually on the floor with her, or watching her from farther away. Today I was standing just a couple feet from her as she was crawling towards me. It just struck me how small she is, (no, not really...she's right on target) or looks at least, as she's doing these big girl activities. I don't remember Max seeming this small as he worked his way up the skillz ladder. It was such a proud/sad moment. And now it's memorialized.

Pumpkins in Patches

We took our first ever, and now annual, trip to Patches Pumpkin Farm. It was a BLAST and I'm thinking we'll actually be going back this year just for some more cheap Fall fun. The pictures don't capture all the fun we had, but they do it more justice than words, so enjoy : )

See a pumpkin.... pick it up!


So big, and so mad!

Say it ain't so!

A great little petting zoo, and Max wouldn't touch any of them!

(he actually was more interested in the fake horse -not shown- than any of the real animals)

Max, Celina and Jack ready to head to the pumpkin patch.

BREAKING NEWS: Just the 6 of us.

(not funny? well, it's late for me and I'm not that into you ; )


How come the kids never want to cooperate when we have a family photo op?

Elly is IN LOVE with Celina. And of course all the kids love Mike!

Thanks to Anna, Jack, and Celina for helping us make this trip the success it was!