!!Happy 4th of July!!

I forgot my camera today so I don't have any pictures. Ugh! But we spent the day at Grandma's going through old photo albums and watching tributes to Michael Jackson on CNN. It was kind of drizzly outside so we didn't do many fireworks. We did some sparklers and Ella liked those!

I have a lot of pictures from Texas that I wanted to put on here. They are totally out of order and I don't feel like rearranging them so bear with me.

This pic I took the other day from our bedroom window so there is a screen in front of me, but I thought it was cute. Peter and Ella out weeding...


One of the days in Texas, Peter, Ella, Blake, Paul, Lisa, and I drove to South Padre Island. On the way we stopped at this lighthouse. They were charging $3.00 to go to the top so just Blake and I went. It was pretty cool to see the view, but it was windy...and hot.



Here's Blake going up the last few steps...

And here's us at the top!! Yay!!


Another day, Kathy, Peter, Blake, and I went to Mexico. We parked on the US side of the border and just walked over. If anyone is wondering, it's just a $.60 toll. Going there was pretty easy. Just walked right in. Coming back there was a bit more security! Checked our passports, asked Peter and I whether Ella was our daughter, whether Kathy was Blake's grandmother....weird. But it was an interesting experience. We walked around in what seemed to be the Mexican version of 16th St. Mall. It was very very hot. We ate at a restaraunt that our shuttle driver recommened. It was pretty good. Definitely different than what we are used to though. Two things I noticed. 1. No one had a stoller except Peter and I. Everyone was carrying their kids. The sidewalks were pretty run down so you couldn't really push a stroller very well, but man...it was way too hot to be carrying around those little heat generators!! 2. At the restaraunt there was another little boy and he was just walking around and playing. We let Ella get down and play with him. The boy would go over by the cooks as well. This made me nervous, because here people freak out and want you to "control your kid", but there the cooks would play with the boy and say hi and the waiters seemed fine with Ella and the boy walking around. Peter's brother made the observation that Mexico has much more of a "it takes a village" mentality than the US. Just from that one experience, I'd have to agree. And I have to say that it was a bit refreshing to not be so worried about what other people thought about your kid when really they're just doing stuff that kids do.....walk around and explore.
But that stroller thing totally bothered me!!! I'm thinking...business opportunity anyone?! hehe

One morning Blake and Peter went out on kayaks that the neighbors had so graciously offered to us. Peter and I went out when they were done. It was really fun. Blake and Peter just stayed in the harbor. At first when Blake got in he was a little nervous...I was nervous just watching him. But once he steadied himself, he was great. He figured out how to steer pretty quickly and then he and Peter were off! Peter and I went out to the ocean, we sat for awhile and just took in the view, but when I turned around and realized we had drifted pretty far, I freaked and headed back to the harbor!!

I finally got to meet Blake's and Ella's cousins, Colin and Ciara. How cute they are!! They are the sweetest kids. Colin is so smart and kind. And Ciara is so sweet and funny.
Here's Ella and Colin playing together.

Here's the whole gang.

And of course we had to go the beach. Ella and I only went once. I can't stand all the sand that gets everywhere! But Peter went back a few times with his brother and Blake.

This is a good shot of everyone just hanging out and playing in the sand.

Blake riding some waves.

Ella was very bold. She would just run right out into the water! Kinda scary. And you'd think as much as she dislikes bath time she would have nothing to do with the pool or ocean, but she loved both. Within the first ten minutes of being in the pool Peter had taught her how to put her face in the water!! Crazy kid.

We had a great time in Texas. It was so good to spend time with the whole family. I hope we can all do it again soon.

We had a busy month in June with the trip to Texas and a lot of birthdays. July will be even busier.

While we started off the month on a sad note (a co-worker and friend of Peter's was killed two weeks ago and we attended her funeral last Thursday) we are looking forward to Blake returning from Texas next week!! More birthdays (Venessa, Anna, and Peter), and my sister and Whitney coming in from out of town for the New Kids on the Block concert!!!

Ella was officially 14 months old yesterday. Yay! She is so much fun. She says hi and bye. She kind of says bottle and blankie, but they both sounds the same, it is just whatever she is pointing at. She can also give high fives, and claps when she is excited or if the Rockies are on. She loves to chase us or play hide and seek. She is still not a huge fan of bathtime, or getting her hair combed. She now has seven teeth! All of a sudden three came in at the same time. She wasn't very happy about that, and neither was I! But she's trooper, it was only about two or three days that we would notice that she was unusually fussy. She is still a huge fan of any kind of fruit, except cantaloupe and will pretty much try anything we give her.

She has another check up at 15 months, and that's just right around the corner! Crazy!!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!

These Boots Were Made for Walkin'...

About three weeks before her birthday Ella was starting to try to walk without holding on to anything. I figured by the time she turned one she would be a pro. But she took just a tad longer. The day after her birthday Peter and I noticed that she was doing really well keeping her balance when she was trying to turn around or manuever around toys. And since then she's changed so much! Hopefully we will have a video camera soon so I can capture her in action.

Here are some still shots though:

These were taken after she took a bath so her hair is really curly! And those pajamas glow in the dark!

Heather and Connor came over a few weeks ago and Ella and "Tank" played together. Heather wouldn' let Connor ride Ella's princess car because it "is too pink". Luckily I have another one that was acceptable! Heather wanted me to capture these moments so that we can have a slideshow at their wedding. Ha! Who says prearranged marriages are inappropriate??

See, he's already trying to check out her ring size...

That same night, Ella woke up at about midnight and I went in to check on her. I picked her up and she threw up. For the next hour and a half she continuted to throw up. (It was so gross!!) At one point I just started to cry. I had no idea what was wrong with her and...it was so gross!! I was waiting for her head to start spinning around!!
Anyway, she had had a runny nose for the past week or so and I was thinking that it might have been all the mucous that had drained into her stomach and just made her feel crummy.
Anyway, in the middle of the morning I gathered up some blankets and slept on the floor of her room with her. This is picture of her the next morning.

We discovered a bird's nest outside on my parents' porch. The robin built it right on top of a wreath that is hanging on the storm door. It blends in really well with the wreath so we never even noticed it until a friend came over to install a new light fixture and he pointed it out! Of course Dad was just tickled pink. He was tall enough to take a peak inside the nest and saw one blue egg! Now when they have vistors they try to have them come and go through the garage so they don't disturb the mama.

This shot was taken through the window so there was no chance of me getting my eyes pecked out!

Here's some other random shots:

Blake and Ella in the backyard. Wanna duel??

Blueberries and Chex-Breakfast of Champions

I met up with some girlfriends at Mama Alvino's, a yummy Italian joint. They were slow that day so the kids decided to sit on the floor and roll the soccer ball back and forth with Ella. She's really good at that game! At the top of the photo going clockwise that's Celeste, Jessica, Ella, and Hannah.


Papa helping Ella with her shoes.

Birthday Bash

When I went to pick up this cake, they handed me one that was decorated with characters from Bolt. I kinda freaked and was like, "Um, this is not right..... It's supposed to be Strawberry Shortcake...." Thank god I went early enough to pick it up that they had plenty of time to make a new one!! And boy was it yummy!

It looks like Ella's saying, "Uh, Blake, where are you taking me??"

This was Miss Ella while everyone sang Happy Birthday...shy face/pouty lip.

So, Ella didn't want to sit in her high chair and eat cake. I had to hold her. But she did take a few bites.

This is Ella and Dakota. Dakota is the grand daughter of one of my friends from work. She was so excited to come to Ella's party.

It turned out to be a nice day (no rain) so we were able to move the party outside for a little bit.

Busy momma

I call this photo "Wrong Moms" Venessa and Heather decided to switch kids to gauge how different in size they are. Connor is huge!!! And little Izzy is as light as a feather.

It was a great day! Thank you to everyone who came. It was great to see everyone and we really appreciate all of the gifts, Ella will enjoy them for some time.

Happy Birthday Punky!

Well I'm not that great at scanning photos I guess, cause this looks kinda cheesy. But anyway, this is her portrait for first birthday!! Yay!! I have some more that I'll post next time. I just wanted to get this one up now because I'm sure I won't have time in the next few days.

At the age of one Ella can:

Give kisses
Point out your nose
Point out her shoes
Wave bye bye
Point for what she wants
Take up to five or six steps without holding on to anything
Talk your ear off....baby jibba jabba of course


Here's a couple other pics.

It's just a coincidence that she is in the same outfit as her year pic. This was actually a few weeks ago.

She likes to eat grapes.



Reading her favorite book after bath time.

Spring Storm

Here's a pic of our back yard. This was taken this morning, but the snow still fell for about five more hours (with rain mixed in) so there's a tad more out there now! Right now it's partly sunny and no precipitation. Gotta love Colorado!
Koa is always a little apprehensive about the rain and snow. She usually hangs out under the patio cover for a minute and then once she decides she's ready, she will just take off and do a few lightning quick laps around the backyard and then come flying back inside. I was able to capture her flying leap back toward the house! Silly dog.

Look how deep! It's up to her knees!

Unlike her mother, Ella likes eggs. She likes them so much, she thought she would show you how she eats them.

I didn't get a chance to update everyone on our 1st Easter with Ella. Actually on the Friday before Easter we put Ella to bed and Blake and Peter and I dyed some eggs. This year I got some crazy brand (not PAAS) and was totally disappointed! It said it came with 9 colors but really there were like 2 blues and 2 pinks...actually one of the pinks didn't even dissolve. It just turned into dust at the bottom of the cup....weird. But all in all we had lots of fun. We decided to leave some eggs out on the table to see if the Easter Bunny would come to our house one day early. He must have smelled them because guess what!? He came!! He brought Blake a basket with candy and Pokemon cards and also a big container of bubbles and a bubble wand. He also brought Ella a little pink bunny.

On Easter morning we met up with Tina, Blake, and Kathy and had brunch. And in the afternoon we went to Grandma Ruthe's. Ella seemed to be a little under the weather and she felt really warm. By the time we got her home we could tell she wasn't feeling good. She just wanted to sit in my lap and snuggle with her blanky. Unfortunately I had left my camera at home all day so the only photos I have are of her at the end of the day when she was feeling pretty crummy.

Here's her 11 month picture.

That sock she is holding is really soft. She loves to snuggle with it. So we don't use them as socks anymore. We have one in the car and one that we keep in the house. Ahhhh, the things we do for our kids.


PS-Happy 30th Birthday Heather!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts on Eating

Okay, so my kid eats a lot and her eating habits have been on my mind lately. Not anything serious. Just random thoughts.
For instance, the other day my mom and Ella and I went shopping. Ella is at the age where she doesn't really last that long in a stroller so shortly into our shopping trip she was screaming her head off to get out of the stroller. But this time, holding her didn't seem to calm her. She was just really fussy. We thought maybe it was her teeth. But once we visited the food court and had some lunch she was much better. In fact she fell asleep shortly thereafter and then was fine for the rest of the day!
At one point I realized....oh....maybe she was just hungry! And then I felt like a horrible mother. What mom doesn't know that it's time to eat! I suppose I could blame it on the fact that I work and so I don't really have her all day and so on the weekends it's tough to kind of figure out what her routine is. I think that at the sitter's house she probably eats all throughout the day! When I drop her off she starts pointing toward the kitchen because she knows there's food there and that's what she wants! I could also blame it on the fact that my child never ate baby food. She basically went from rice cereal to table food. And this I think is far harder to gauge as far as amounts that she is getting and really knowing if she is full and when she will be hungry again. And I could also blame it on the fact that I'm a first time mom and Ella totally threw me for a loop when she refused to eat anything out of a jar! (She still refuses to eat anything off a spoon.)
I suppose it's a combination of all of these things. And I suppose that feeding her and making sure she is getting enough of the right nutrients weighs on my mind so heavily because being another person's source for food is serious business! Above changing and bathing and teaching--being responsible for feeding Ella really makes this whole mom thing feel real. Maybe if I had breastfed this sense of responsibility would have hit me sooner.....I don't know. She still of course gets formula and I always feel a bit better after she finishes the bottle because I know for sure she has 6oz. of something in her tummy!
Anyway, I'm getting pretty good at this whole cooking healthier and finding things that Ella can eat all by herself. (God forbid I have to help her!)
The other day she had french toast for breakfast, some pasta (to include cucumbers, olives, and tomatoes) for lunch, and peanut butter on bread and strawberries for dinner. She ususally will snack on those little fruit bars for kids and/or Cheerios. (Better known as Cho's, as cousin Maddie used to call them).
Anyway, at the end of that day when I thought about what she'd eaten I was just really surprised she eats this stuff, and she's been eating it since she was about seven months old! Again....I just assumed that she'd be eating pureed meats and such out of jars!!
So.....that's that. Just felt I needed to get some of these thoughts out of my head!

Sorry, no pics this time. My camera won't turn on! I think it needs a whole new battery, I'm not sure.
Anway, have a good weekend!

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries are Ella's favorite! I had fed her some a few months ago and didn't really think much of it. Then, when we were in San Diego, Whitney had some from the farmer's market and we gave her those and she loved them. While she was sick she wasn't eating much, but she would gobble up strawberries. If she sees me cutting them before I feed her dinner she won't eat whatever it is I'm trying to feed her. She'll swing her arm in the direction of the strawberries. So now I have to wait to bring them out of the fridge until she's done with dinner-which usually isn't much anyway. Picky kid.

We took her to the doctor last Friday since her fever had gone away for a day and then came back. The doc thought that she probably had a virus and was on the tail end of it when she got another virus and that sent her temp back up. Over the weekend she was a veritable fountain of mucous. It was quite gross. But last night and today have been good. She seems to be in better spirits and I haven't had to wipe her nose! Yay!! Peter got better some time last week and I am just getting over the runny nose and cough.
So everyone here is on the up and up.
Let's just hope Koa doesn't catch something....hehehe.

Your Eyes Have Not Deceived You...

Yes...this is a new post mere days after my last one. Told you I was getting used to this no sleep thing!

Anyway, it's been a rough week. Since we returned from San Diego, Ella has been sick. She started to get a stuffy nose last week and by this past weekend she was starting to develop a fever. On Sunday night she was coughing so much that she threw up...all over Peter.

So I stayed home with her on Monday and she got a lot of rest. Last night she really started to improve and today she is much better. Still a cough and runny nose, but not nearly as bad as a few days ago.

I must say, having a sick baby takes a lot out of you. It's hard to not be able to help them. They just have to be stuffed up and not breathe! And of course, the whole not sleeping thing is awful. We caved and put her in the bed with us which was probably fine for her and Peter but somehow I ended up sleeping partly on the bed and partly on the nightstand! Ugh! So as of yesterday she was back in the crib.....the cry it out method is just gonna have to work for now so I can get some sleep! I found out last night though that Peter's the softy, not me. When she started to cry he wanted to go rock her and I told him to give her five minutes. He really didn't think it would work but after about three minutes she calmed down and went to sleep. Slept the whole night too! Yay!!!

Who knew the control you lose once you have a child. I kept telling myself....you are the adult here! If you want her in the crib and not in your bed then just do it! hehehe. Easier said than done. She's just so dang cute!

It looks like the cold bug has bitten most of the babies around here...and some of the mommies and daddies. All three of Janet's grandchildren (Jeremiah, Gideon, and Josiah) had it. And now Connor has it. Peter and I both have a cough and when I called Heather today she sounded awful! So.....here's to a swig of DayQuil and 1.25mL of Infant Tylenol...

Anyway, here are a few photos from the last few days.

Since I forgot to take her 10 month picture, I took this the next morning. So she's about 10 months and 8 hrs old here.....close enough, right? Who the heck is that happy at seven in the morning?!! Crazy kid!

Helping with the dishes.

Peter's dad was in town last week. Unfortunately I only got to see him one night at dinner, but on Friday he came over to spend some time with Ella, Blake, and Peter.

I think this was Sunday night when she was pretty sick. Time to read a story and go to bed...

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