Ella's first show

Today was Ella's first time to a "show"! We went to see an Imagination Movers show with my friend Lindsay and her little boy and niece. It was cute but we might try it again in a couple of years. I'm not sure how much Ella really enjoyed it. She paid attention for the first 5 minutes or so and then got pretty squirmy. I had to bribe her with snacks the whole time just to get her to be still. We made it for about an hour and then decided to leave early. I had fun though...it made me excited to do more things like that in the future when she's a little older!


I feel like I've been slacking a little with picture taking so here are just a few from tonight :)

Wednesday afternoon we took an impromtu trip to the orchard! I've been wanting to go or awhile and it just never worked out. A friend called me up and asked if we wanted to go and I said yes! It felt nice to be spontaneous for a change :) It ended up being right around Ella's nap time when we went but she did great! She played for awhile in the kids area and then we went to the pumpkin patch. It would've been soooo much easier if she could've walked, it was super muddy. I finally gave in and just let her down on the ground. Mud washes off, right?

Turning Thirty

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I posted! We've pretty much been running on auto pilot here lately. Ella's been "off" for the past several weeks. She's been like a different girl almost! She was fussy from the moment she woke up until the moment she went to bed at night. Meal time was the worst. I would have to fight to just get a bite into her mouth! I felt like I couldn't take her anywhere because she would just be so unhappy the whole time that I would end up having to leave. Even going grocery shopping was nearly impossible because she would just cry and reach for me through the whole store. I'm really not sure what the problem was! Maybe teething? She did run a fever a few times. I kept her home from church several Sundays and a Wednesday due to fever/fussiness. But I'm happy to say that we've had 3 really good days in a row so maybe my happy Ella is back! Friday was Rusty's 30th birthday! He got the day off work and the 3 of us just spent the day together, running errands and just being together. Ella was great the whole day which was much needed, for all of us! Saturday morning, Rusty and I left for his birthday weekend in Louisville! My sister Sarah was a HUGE blessing to us and watched Ella for us from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon. It was our first time away together since Ella was born and it was so nice! We had several nice meals out (hardly ever do that now!), went to the Slugger Museum and went to see the Titanic Exhibit that was in town along with an IMAX about the Titanic. After we checked into our hotel (got a great deal on hotwire!), ate some dinner and then went on a Ghost Walk to see supposedly haunted spots in Louisville. Of course we don't believe in that kind of thing, but it was just something fun to do. Sunday morning we got to sleep in, had a nice breakfast and stopped at the outlets on the way home. Its crazy how much I missed Ella! She did so well with Sarah though, I was so proud of her!
Its amazing how much Ella can do and say now. She is still not walking...we are very ready for her to take her first steps. She loves walking by holding our fingers but that gets old pretty quick. :) She has taken steps on her own here and there but never on her own initiative. Here's her current vocabulary: mama (or mommy or mom), daddy, duck, fishy, shoes, toes, eye, "b" (blankie), "mimi" (milk), uh-oh, GO GO GO (I'm pretty sure this means "no no no" but I'm not really sure! she usually only says it if she's mad and she always says it very loudly), yummy yummy (said when she's hungry or if she sees a food that she wants), cuppy (sippy cup with water), baby, hair, ball, cow, bye and hi.
I think that's it but there may be a few more. Seems she adds a word or 2 each day. She also knows where her eyes, nose, hair, toes and belly button are and she says "moo" if you ask her what a cow says and "baa" if you ask what a lamb says. The majority of these new words and "tricks" have been learned in the past 2 weeks or so! Its so cute and fun.
She's developed a fear of her changing table lately-that's been fun. She's also gotten extremely attached to her blankie. I try not to let her have it except for at night or during naps but she'll crawl around looking for it and saying "B"??? "B"???
I'll try to post soon with Ella's halloween costume pics! She is SO cute in her costume!

Playing catch up

Whew! Its been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like I'm still playing catch up from Ella's bday party weekend. We had a great birthday weekend though. Although things didn't go totally as planned with Ella's schedule on either day, we still had a great time and everyone was very understanding. Ella got so much stuff and we are so grateful to everyone! Ella was definitely getting bored of most of her toys and books and loves all her new stuff (and so do I!). Here's some party pics!

My mom & I reading Ella one of her new books

Ella riding her new 4-wheeler from Opa!

Opening presents with mommy (she did so great with sitting still during this!)

Ella and her friend Hudson-they were super cute together!

Ella playing with her new baby-this baby never leaves her side!

This past weekend was my first time to be away from Ella overnight. My church had a women's retreat from Friday-Saturday. I dropped Ella off at my MIL's on Friday around 11am and didn't see her again until Saturday night around 6 (Rusty picked her up after work and kept her until I got home). I actually did ok with it. I missed her and thought about her a lot, but I didn't cry or feel overwhelmed or anything. Ella didn't do quite as well. She was pretty good for Rusty while I was gone, but when I got back she started showing some signs that maybe she didn't handle it that well. She was really clingy to me and would almost seem upset if Rusty came in the room (like she thought I would leave again??), she also started waking up around 4:45am and wouldn't go back to sleep along with waking up several times during the night. This was also 2 days after she had her 1 yr. shots, plus I was in the process of weaning her. I didn't intend all these things to happen at the same time, that's just how it worked out! So, we cut back on the weaning and I tried to really cuddle and love on her a lot and she seems to be doing a little better. Naps are still a challenge right now-she normally takes great naps but this week has been rough. It took me an hour and a half to get her down this morning and then she only slept for 30 minutes! Rusty and I were saying the other day how it seems that as soon as one thing is going smoothly, something that used to be going smoothly suddenly isn't, or something else becomes challenging. I guess this is just a small preview of what to expect the next 18 years right? But, even on the most challenging of days, Ella will crawl (nope, she's not walking yet) over to me and randomly just lay her head on my shoulder and give me a hug. How can I be upset after that?

Here's a cute little video of Ella watching her favorite show. Hopefully you can hear it ok!