Warrenty is up

I realize this was taken on a floral blanket. It’s what happens when the firstborn is a girl. Sorry.

Aaron came home today and I told him that our warranty was up on Miles. He’s 90 days or 3 months.

I can’t believe that 3 months has already passed. It’s like from day eight, when he lost the brand new to the world smell, to day ninety has been on fast forward. Time has been zipping by as I chase Ella and it’s hard to remember to stop to savor the small quiet moments with my little man.

I haven’t had the opportunity to get him weighed recently, but he’s at least 14 pounds and over 24 inches long. In length, he’s busting out of 3-6 month footed sleepers but he’s not bulky enough to fill out 6-9 month. Oh well.

He’s been miserable with teething lately. I hate to see him suffer. It seems that his favorite teether is the side of  my knuckle. I generally end up with quite the indent in my finger at the end.

Giggle fits are quite a regular event in our house. Today was the first day Ella got him to laugh! I’m still not quite certain what she did, but he just about died from giggles. He’s especially ticklish under his belly button and the neck under his ears.

Rolling from back to side is a regular occurrence. I think he’d be rolling all the way over at this point if he had more time on the floor. It’s just really crazy and insane when I put him on the floor for too long because Ella gets SUPER excited and into a lot of trouble for being too enthusiastic with Miles. I think we’re going to have to start spending some time on the floor after she goes to bed in the evening.

His head control is good and takes great interest in the outside world. He’s beginning to prefer being worn facing out and gets really frustrated if you carry him around reclined for too long.

The child is FASCINATED with the television. If Ella’s watching a movie and he catches a glimpse, he will crane his head around to keep watching if we try to move him away. This is a big difference between he and Ella. She just recently noticed the tv. I kind of wish Miles had taken after her that way.

I can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

Thoughts on Ella

We’re down to the count of the last days where she will be my only baby in the house. Not that she’s a baby anymore — the self potty training, opinions on clothing, and nonstop chatter banished that notion long ago. I am so excited to see her in action as a big sister. While I’m sure that there will be moments of frustration and jealousy, I have a feeling that they will be momentary blips on the radar rather than constant battles.

Ella has hit this amazing point of development: imaginary play. She gets a grocery sack and fills it with random things, grabs her hot pink purse, puts one of her babies in the stroller and waves bye bye to everyone in the living room. More often than not, she comes running back shouting “uh oh!!” and informs us she forgot gummie snacks for the ride. What just kills me is that she is perfectly content with imagining that we are handing her packages of fruit snacks and she asks for help opening the baggies.

I think she knows the days of just Mommy and Ella are numbered. She wants to spend a lot more time snuggling together. I’m treasuring every minute of it.

My fashion expert at 21 months

Ella Update

We’ve been busy busy busy this week and I’ve had little to no time to write any “real” blog posts, so you get my “get out of jail free card” blog post. An Ella update! Feel free to roll your eyes and move on until next week. I’m fairly certain my mom (aka Nana) is the only one excited about these posts, especially since I’m such a slacker and haven’t gotten pictures up on Snapfish.com for her to order since March! Yes, that’s on my to-do list this weekend. I’ve got April almost up and ready.

I feel like we’re rapidly approaching the end of Ella and Mama days at a break neck speed. By this time in September, Miles will be here and we’ll be in the middle of trying to find a new groove. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really really excited about adding to our family but I’m also sad to see the end of what I’ve come to love and cherish so much. Because of this, I’ve been trying to make a point of doing *something* every day like going to the farmer’s market or playing at the park. This pregnancy has found me inside more often than not, so this is kind of a radical change for she and I.

But this isn’t about me. This is about Ella!

Ella cracks me up daily with laughter. She’s learned how to shrug and use it appropriately in conversation. If she can’t find something, she runs up to me with her hands by her head saying, “Uh oh, uh oh!” When I ask if she knows where whatever it is she needs, she shrugs her bony little shoulders, shakes her head, and says “Oh no! Bye byes!”

She’s a lot like her dad and very single minded. Or maybe that’s just a toddler trait. Who knows. Whatever the case, Ella has a hard time letting go of an idea or event once it sticks in her mind. Take Elmo, for example. She loves loves loves Elmo and I’ve even caught her talking about Elmo in her sleep!

Another concept that she won’t stop talking about is babies and breast feeding. Every Tuesday, we go to a nursing mom’s support group even though Ella’s weaned. The older kids are around Ella’s age, so she gets interaction while I get to talk to people over three feet tall! A couple of the moms have had babies in the past year and Ella is simply enamored with the idea that mamas give their babies milk. She spends a good portion of her day nursing her dolls and teddy bears and it’s been quite the challenge to convince her our cats don’t want to be nursed!

Something that has just recently developed has been her desperately wanting to put on her own clothes and refusing all help. Most mornings it doesn’t matter too much but when we have to be somewhere first thing (like midwife appointments at 8:15 am!), it gets really challenging. I can’t wait until she figures out how to put her arms through sleeves.

Every day finds her discovering something new, experiencing the mundane with wonder. Ella has really brought new perspective to my life and it has blessed me beyond words.

An Ella Update

This month, Ella turns 19 months. For those of you who aren’t into the whole month age thing (I wasn’t until I had a child), that means she’s almost 2. More like 1 and a half.  Just over the past few weeks, there has been an explosion in her personality! She’s trying to talk more and picks up on words daily. When she’s grunting and whining for something, we ask her to please use words to tell us what she wants. It’s simply amazing to watch her stop and think. You can almost see the wheels turning in her head! Just the other day I told her that, even though I knew she was hungry and wanted a snack. She sat for a few moments in silence and then made smacking noises with her lips followed by adding “yum yum”.

She’s very insistent on telling us stories, even though we don’t know exactly what she’s saying. The big orange cat in our house, Phillip, is called “No No Kitty” by Ella because he gets into trouble so much. Well, a few weeks ago, No No Kitty got out of the house and it really traumatized her. She was crying and signing for him to come back! This has been the never ending story that has been told to us. Ella points to the front door and says “No No Kitty! Bye bye! No no!!!” and she won’t stop saying those phrases until we acknowledge her by saying something like, “Yes, the No No Kitty got outside but Daddy caught him and brought him back. Aren’t you happy that he’s safe inside?” She nods a response and wanders off to go play.

Her latest story incorporates her newest word, “boom”. Late last week, there was a HUGE thunder storm and Ella would comment on the thunder every time it cracked. We would respond with something like, “Yes, thunder makes a big boom doesn’t it?” Now she’s pointing out the window and jabbering away unintelligibly except for the word boom. And again,we have to acknowledge her story by repeating it back in our own words before she’ll let it go and move on. Not that we mind, it’s rather entertaining. 🙂

Ella also seems very excited about having a new baby coming to our family. I didn’t realize just how much we talk about Miles until I noticed her patting her baby doll’s back and saying “shh shh shh Mys”. She also brings me toys and says “Mys” over and over again. When I ask her if they’re for Baby Miles, her grin almost splits her face and she nods excitedly. We ask her often if she’s going to teach Baby Miles how to smile, how to play, etc and she can hardly contain herself when she agrees.

I’m hoping this sticks around when the reality hits this August.

Ella Update

Ella turned 16 months old a week or so ago. It amazes me to look at her and see a little girl instead of a baby! I still call her my baby, but she’s quickly abandoning the idea of infant and hurdling at a break neck speed into toddler hood.

She loves to go outside. If she feels she hasn’t had enough fresh air, she’ll crawl into the stroller and bang on the window. Or if the stroller is put away, she’ll grab her coat and try to open the front door! I can’t wait until the weather is better so I can let her play in the backyard. There’s talk of tomorrow being 60 degrees, so we just might be able to partake in the squishy backyard!

Words she says:

Mama
Dada
Cat
Peass (please)
Bye bye
Hi
Eye (She gets really upset if I try to lay down for her nap with my glasses on!)
All done
Yes (da? I don’t know where that came from)
Syllables that are untypeable but mean “thank you”.
Ackies! (for anything stinky or messy)
Mess
Uh Oh

Signs she uses:
All done
More
Please
Thank you
Milk
Help

Some of her other favorite things to do is running to everyone and asking for kisses. She tries to pucker up and makes begging noises. Another new development is that she smacks her lips when something sounds good!

It was as if overnight, she became fiercely independent. I can hold her hand while using stairs, but she has to do it herself. She insists on putting away her own shoes and if I try to carry her to the car, you’d think I squeezed a cat too hard.

My all time favorite nickname for is is “chickpea”. When she was an itty bitty baby, her bottom looked like a garbanzo bean. “Garbanzo” seemed to masculine, so I went with the more feminine name for the same legume. ha! Now I have fodder for her high school graduation party or something similarly embarrassing.

Aaron trait: The other day, she was riding on her “beep beep” car in the kitchen and accidentally crashed into the cat food bowl. She wasn’t hurt but was sobbing to beat the band and emphatically saying, “Uh oh! Mess!” over and over again. She didn’t stop crying until all the cat food was picked up and everything set to rights. Aaron is pretty similar, without the sobbing part or cashing his beep beep car.

Dallas Ann trait: When I was really little, I use to go to the bathroom to watch myself cry. Ella has started the same thing. When we tell her “no” about something, she runs away, sobbing loudly, and sits down in front of the hall mirror to watch herself cry. It’s very amusing.