9 Months

Well, a whole pregnancy time frame has flown by since our sweet girl joined our family. She is growing way to fast for me and she insists on acting older than she is so that doesn't help ;)

Her check-up was this morning and she weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz and she is 27 inches long. She is in the 60th percentile for weight and 20th for height. It appears our little lady will be petite :) I'm already having problems with her clothes fitting...her little chunky thighs need a bigger waist size but her legs aren't long enough to fill them, lol. I love it though. Her legs are so cute and squeezable. 

She learned some new tricks this past month. She said her first word, DaDa...of course. It was Preston's first word too. Blake is two for two. It's so precious to hear her little voice jabbering away. She immediately repeats "dada" if we say it. It's crazy she can already mimic us. She can also mimic the fish  face sucking noise. 

One of my most favorite things to see babies learn is how to clap their hands. She started doing it about two weeks ago and it's just so darn precious I can hardly stand it. Something about babies hands, they are so tiny but so busy. I just love seeing those little hands explore and learn new things. Anyway, she started banging them together at first but now she can actually make the clapping sound...at least a very tiny baby clapping sound. Have I mentioned how sweet and precious that little pat-pat sound is? We'll say "yay!" and clap our hands and she breaks into a big smile and bounces and claps along with us. She will be playing and I guess gets very proud of herself because she will stop mid play and clap a little bit :) I've even caught her on the monitor sitting in her bed fussing after a nap but clapping anyway. Oh I love it. And I love how happy she gets doing it. Cuteness. Nothing like it.

Her eating is about the same but we have added more table foods to her diet. She has eaten bananas, strawberries, grapes (in a mesh feeder), rolls, mashed potatoes, black-eyed peas, corn on the cob. I think that may be it. She also snacks on Ritz crackers, baby cookies and yogurt melts and puffs. She likes Cheerios too but she gets tired of them after a while, same with the puffs. She loves the bigger veggie puffs though. She's doing better with a sippy cup too but still needs help from me. 

She nurses 3-4 times a day so that hasn't really changed.

She started riding in the top part of the buggy and sitting in high chairs at restaurants. She loves it. She loves to see all the hustle and bustle going on. 

She's gotten very attached to Mommy lately. She clings back to me if I try to hand her off to someone else. And she screams if I do successfully pry her away. I sometimes have to be sneaky if I need to step away from her because she yells at me if she sees me leaving or if I walk by her and don't pick her up. Stinker.

We dedicated our sweet Ella to the Lord last week. It was a fun and special day for our girl and for us. We are just so thankful God gave us this baby to raise and we commit ourselves to bringing her up in a loving home, eyes fixed on Jesus. My prayer for her is to become a virtuous woman of God, a Proverbs 31 woman. A few of my favorite verses of Proverbs, 31:25 "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come" and 31:30 "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

Another fun fact is that she seems to be a touchy feel-y baby which is exactly like her Daddy. Anyone who may not know Blake, ever since he was a baby (per his Mom), constantly wants to be touched. It sounds weird, let me explain. He loves for his arms, legs, head or back to be rubbed and will ask me to do so 99% of the time I am sitting by him. This includes while we are driving too. I'll never forget we had only been dating a few weeks and he asked me to rub his leg. I thought he was psycho. Touch your hairy leg? I don't think so. I laugh because its normal to me now but sounds so odd to other people. Don't even get me started on the ears thing. He always rubs my ears or Preston's ears or even the cat's ears. Ha! I promise Blake is not some crazily weird guy. Once again, it was something he did as a baby and he's just always done it. Gosh I love him. He's one of a kind.

So anyway, back to Ella. Twice now when she is tired and doesn't want to sleep, I have gotten her asleep by rubbing her tummy. The other day Blake picked her up from her crib and she rubbed his chest. It's something we have just slowly noticed so we will see if she continues. Makes me laugh. 

I guess that's all I can think of for her 9 month stats. Our sweet girl is just growing so fast it makes me sad. Preston too. Time flies so quickly once you have children and I just pray I never take a moment of it for granted. 

Here's a few pictures from the last month, including some from Ella's first Christmas. I hope I can make some time to do a full post on Christmas. Lots of cute pictures to share.

These pulled out of order so hopefully I can explain them well.

Eating strawberries and bananas for the first time

Christmas Eve

Ella's Dedication

Opening her stocking at Grandmama & Granddaddy's house Christmas Eve

Christmas morning!

Christmas Day

Playing with one of Ella's new toys :)

Playing cars at the train table with Brother

Eating Cheerios!

Leftover cheerios :)

One of her stocking stuffers

Saying her first word...Dada

Her first snow!

Attacking some corn on the cob

Dedication

Our little family at Ella's Dedication

She rode on this at a birthday party and loved ever minute of it

7 & 8 Months

I slacked off too long this time so Ella Girl gets a combined 7 & 8 month post :)

Well, let me just say I feel like this teensy baby of mine does not want to stay that way. She is learning new things so quickly I feel like she is speeding past her babyhood!

I mentioned in her 6 month post that she started army crawling but by 7 months she was up on her knees moving around and now she speeds all over the place on her hands and knees. She is very curious and investigates anything new in her path. 

She also started pulling up on everything. The first time she did it was in her crib which I saw through the monitor and it scared me to death since the mattress was still on the highest level. Needless to say Daddy lowered the mattress that night. She was very proud of herself though and was grinning ear to ear when I came in to get her. 

At first it would take her a little bit of effort to pull up but she quickly figured out how it worked so she can immediately pull up on things now. She loves the little musical baby table that we had of Preston's. It's the perfect height for her and she will stand up and bang on it for a long time. 

She also found the stairs (yipee!) but thankfully she doesn't head straight for them yet. She knows where they are but she doesn't always head for them. It took her just a few days from finding them and pulling up on the first step to now climbing them. These particular stairs are two wooden stairs that open to a landing with carpet and then carpet up the remaining stairs. She loves them so I just sit behind her and let her go. She climbed up 6 of the carpeted steps the other night and then pooped out, lol. 

She is such a squirmy little thing - always bouncing in our arms and she also bangs her head backwards a lot, like against her high chair or against our chest when we hold her outwards. Not a clue on that one. She also likes to tap her foot. When she is laying in the floor on her tummy, one foot is almost always tapping. She will tap her hand on stuff too. It's very sweet. I just love her tiny hands and feet. And they are definitely tiny. She can still wear size 3 month shoes. 

She is always squealing and smiling at us. She really is a happy girl. She is starting to get clingy though and she likes to look for Mommy. 

She loves for her Daddy to snort at her and tickle her tummy. She gets all squeal-y laughing at him.

She also has this funny breathe-through-her-nose thing she does when gets excited. Its kind of like the "hee-hee" sound from lamaze breathing. She does it when she sees one of us or herself in the mirror. She loves to see herself.

As far as eating goes, she nurses about 4 times a day and eats baby food 3 times a day. It's usually a fruit mixed with baby oatmeal for breakfast, a veggie for lunch and a combo food with fruit for dinner. She seem to have a sweet tooth as she much prefers the fruits and sweet baby foods. She also started eating the puffs and yogurt melts. It took her a little while to get the hang of putting them in her mouth but she does well with it now. I usually end up cleaning a bunch of puffs out of the highchair seat but 5 out of 10 isn't too bad :)

She is still learning to use her sippy cup. She would rather just chew on it since she seems to be teething (no teeth yet though). 

She loves her baths. She has a pink bath seat and she and Preston have the best time taking a bath together. She squeals and splashes and laughs at her brother while he hogs the toys. Santa is bringing Ella some of her own bath toys...

She is sleeping pretty good now. Over the last few weeks she has had more nights of sleeping all night (around 9:00 p.m. to 6 or 7:00 a.m.). But honestly I never know what to expect from her. She can sleep all night and then the next night be up a few times. A few nights ago she was asleep two hours and then I saw her on the monitor standing up and talking, ready to get out of the bed and play at 11:00 p.m. No ma'am, I don't think so. 

She takes at least one good nap a day if we are at home and sometimes two, depending on how long she sleeps with her first nap. If we are on the go she will snooze in and out of the carseat. She doesn't like to fall asleep just anywhere. She definitely wants her bed or carseat. Preston has always been that way too. They like routine. 

I'm not sure on weight or length since we don't go back to the doctor until 9 months but she is pretty much the same as she has been, petite and chunky :) She has the cutest chubby wubby legs. I heart them. She is wearing 6-9 month clothes and a few 12 months. 

Her hair is really starting to grow and thicken up and she can even wear a few bows without a headband. I can't wait for her hair to grow long. I'm thinking her hair will be about the same color as Preston's but we'll see once she gets more of it. It's very light right now but Preston's was too. Her eyes are still bright blue and I think they might stay that way. Preston's eyes were blue until close to a year old but they were a darker blue. Now his are a grayish brownish color (very unique). Hers are so light that I would be surprised if they darkened up. 

Well I guess that's all for now. I'm doing pretty good. She turned 8 months yesterday so hopefully I can keep on track and update timely!

Here's a few pics from the last two months although they are definitely not in order. 

Wearing one of my dresses as a baby

My dress again with the bonnet :)

My Big 3 Year Old

Making birthday pancakes and out for birthday lunch

My beautiful boy

After his first big boy short haircut

Birthday party fun!

Disclaimer: This post has been in the works for about 3 weeks so any "present time talk" could be a few weeks old.

I just can't believe my baby boy is three years old. Oh it makes my heart clench to think how fast he is growing and I am just so thankful the Lord gave us this precious child.

I was just looking through some photos of him at a year old and it seems like it was just the other day.

All this time I have been thinking of him as a baby and now I'm forced to realize that the chubby legs have become slender and baby babble has become full communicative sentences. I now have this talkative, loving little boy who I love so much it hurts. Ugh, it's late at night and I'm feeling emotional. I need to stop being sappy.

He's just so lovable. Not trying to be the annoying mom who thinks her kid is better than anyone else's but I do think he is fantastic :) Perfect? Of course not. But he is pretty darn special :) No matter what happens in Preston's life, I want him to always know that Mom & Dad are absolutely crazy about him and will always be there for him.

Preston is so fun and entertaining. Just since we moved in our new house in February his vocabulary blossomed and he is constantly spouting off things that just leave us laughing. As sad as it makes me to see his babyhood leaving, it makes me equally as happy and joyful to see this fun age.

He is very smart, loves to count all the time. He counts his food, each step up the stairs, pretty much anything. He counts to 12 correctly and then mixes up the rest to 20 but he's getting there. He knows his letters and we sing the ABC's together...although he doesn't have the order down pat. 

His imagination has taken off and he loves to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear or Woody. He is always running around saying, "To infinity and beyond!" or if we leave a room to do something else he likes to run off and say "to the rescue!" Makes me laugh.

Some big news from the summer is he learned to use the potty and finally gave up the paci (which was for sleeping only). Both terrified me but he did so much better than I ever anticipated. Once he finally "tee-teed" in his little potty and realized what he was actual supposed to do in there, he was trained in just a few days, honestly. He did #2 all by himself when I was in the shower. I was a bit shocked when he told me and sure enough he did! He's had maybe 3 accidents during the day since the summer but he sleeps in Pull-ups at night. He usually stays dry but every now and then he will wet in them. As for the paci, or "blah-blah" as he always called it, we explained that he was a big boy now and pacis were for babies. He was definitely upset but within a day or two it wasn't even a big deal. 

He loves to dance. I guess he gets it from his crazy mama who dances around to random music. I'm just happy that he wants to dance with me. One of our favorite songs to dance to is the Route 66 song that John Mayer sings at the end of the movie Cars. It's our favorite.

And speaking of cars, those are still our current obsession. His birthday party was Cars themed. He began his interest after watching the movie soon after we moved into our new house. We have been collecting the cars ever since then and they are his absolute favorite things to play with. Mommy might share in the collecting obsession too but I think that's okay :) His best friend Carter has the same love for Cars so that's always fun. Carter's mommy shares the collecting obsession with me so that makes me feel better, ha ha, Kim! Who knew two adult women could get so excited about finding a new toy car at the store?!?! Okay, enough Cars talk.

Another thing I love about P is his trying-to-be-serious face. If he's mad or just feeling silly he will get that serious look and look away from us. We always stare back at him with a goofy face and he just busts out laughing despite his best attempts to keep a straight face.

One of my favorite expressions is his closed mouth smile that shows off his dimples. It's just the sweetest little smile and absolutely melts my heart. Those dimples are one of the few physical traits that he got from me. Funny how I used to be embarrassed of my dimples but I'm proud to have them now and I love that my boy and I have them together.

He still loves to eat. His favorites are chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes aka "panpakes" and waffles, grilled cheese, yogurt, pb&j or pb & banana sandwiches. He LOVES fruit, just about anything. In the summertime we devour watermelon and he also loves strawberries, grapes and bananas. As far as veggies, he likes black eyed peas, corn and green beans. And of course he has a sweet tooth like me and loves doughnuts or "dun-dunts" and anything chocolate..."chock-it". His favorite go-to candy treat is a sucker. Any kind or flavor. Loves them. He still drinks milk daily but he also likes gatorade or sweet tea.

He's so cute when he sits down to eat and says his prayer, "Thank you, Jesus, food, Amen". He will even do it alone if nobody is eating with him and it warms my soul to hear it. We're working on more detailed blessings :)

I want to list of a few more things he says to always remember so here goes.

gone gone - "jone jone"

grocery store - "food store"

spit up - "pits up"

band aid - "and baid"

motorcycle - "motorsucker"

anything that starts with a "c" is pronounced with a "t" (come here - "tum here")  

If we are out somewhere and you ask him what he wants to eat, it's ALWAYS "chicken, fry, ketchup, drink". We sometimes get a "milkshake" tacked onto the end but not every time. Geez...

I know there are more but I can't think of them right now. I'll try to update if I think of them.

He is truly one of the most thankful children. Anything he gets he always runs to Blake or I and says "I love it! Thank you Mommy/Daddy!!!" And it's no exaggeration on the excitement. He kept telling me thank you today when we put up his Christmas tree in his room.

He is such a good big brother. He loves Ella so much and tells us all the time, "I love my little sister." If she cries, he mimics me and tells her "It's okay, little baby" or "Ella, it's okay sweet girl." He usually gets up in the morning before her so when he hears her on the monitor, its "Ella's awake! Let's go get her!" I like to let him go first and watch on the monitor (video) to see what he does and he climbs up on the side so he can peek in and talk to her. It's so precious because she is just as equally excited to see him. This is what happened the other day when I took my eyes off the monitor for a few minutes...

He loves to play with her but he is getting possessive of his toys so we are working on sharing with sister. She is a big fan of his cars so I am constantly telling him to let Ella have one since he tries to sneak them all out of her reach.

And of course it's not a perfect world in our house and meltdowns and temper tantrums do take place and sometimes we want to pull our hair out...just the normal life with a preschooler :)

I wouldn't trade him for anything though.

Well, I guess that's all right now on my boy. I hope to update more often but goodness these babies keep me busy :) Ella's 7 month post is past due so hopefully I will have that one soon!