A conversation with Ellie

Me: "Mommy"

Ellie: "Daddy"

Me: "Mommy"

Ellie: "Da doo"

Me: "Mommy"

Ellie: "Daddy"

***ugh**

lately.....

Whats been going on with us you might ask? Well we have been busy as usual. Raising a kid is hard work.

Recently I took Ellie to a local farm in Keller. Homestead Farms. They raise goats and chickens and have fresh produce. We came away with some Goat's Milk. Yum. Not. But Ellie doesn't seem to mind it. I just add some to her bottles everyday. She's had it straight and at first made a face like, um what is that. But then she kept coming back for more. tee hee. Why goats milk? Because I am not sure whats all in cow's milk after its been pasteurized and all of that. I mean, what is left? What nutrients were whisked away in the process. Alas, the goat's milk. And yes, it is too early to give her milk but oh well. A friend of mine and Ellie's mom away from me (her care taker) introduced me to goat's milk and so there we are.....I give my kid goat's milk. So it sorta seems like I am writing like I talk. Oh well, thats probably because I have been having this conversation a lot -- the one regarding giving goat's milk to my child. I know, its weird. While we are airing out dirty laundry I also forward face her in the car, give her Mott's sugar free applesauce, let her sleep with stuffed animals in her crib, and tonight I put her to bed with a bottle. **gasp** At least half of those are against the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations. Oh well, she looks healthy right???

She is also taking a liking to more table foods. She's had Annie's organic o's (basically spaghetti o's), Annie's cheese ravioli, lamb, pita bread, chicken, cheese slices, crackers, beans, and much more. She used to gag on them or just spit it out. But now she's a big girl!

Lately, like the past week, Ellis has been falling asleep ok but then waking up screaming. Like horrible scream. I have to go up there, get her out of her crib, and rock her to settle her down. It is heart breaking. I am not sure what is waking her up. Jon and I are very quiet downstairs. Who knows if she is waking up scared, having night terrors, or what. I am going to hopefully take her to the healing room at church. If I remember correctly it is a place, or more like a set aside time for you to go and receive prayer. I have emailed a few people to find out when and where so that I can take her. I always pray over her when this happens but I still feel like I should take her. There are a lot of gifted people out there with a huge power of prayer and intercessory (is that a word). Anyway, will keep you posted.

Ellie really cuts into my blogging time....

Tee Hee, but really it is true. I am a horrible blogger because of her. But who wouldnt want to spend every waking moment with a sweet angel like her? Its ok, I'll forgive her. I guess the best way for me to sum up our lives these days would be to make a list....

1. Ellie is now walking along the furniture, unassisted

2. Ellie follows me into the kitchen, by crawling in there (kind of a long way for such a little girl)

3. Her (late) 9 month appointment stats were 17.5 pounds; 28 in (my long & lean girl)

4. She still looooves to swim, she is seriously a fish

5. We started her on "chunkier" foods, aka Stage 3 foods. I puree the food less.

6. Also, she is taking to "solid foods" At first, she didnt like chopped up whole green beans, but

now she is better at it. I put peas and cut up mandarin oranges on her tray and she feeds

herself :)

7. We are starting the weaning process **tear** I'll spend some time explaining that one.

Originally I planned on breastfeeding for the first year. However, when Ellie was 7 months old, I developed mastitis (infection of milk ducts) and my supply took a hit. I spent a month building it back up only to get it again last week. So down goes my supply again. Plus, she is at the age where she would rather play than nurse. And....she is eating more solids now and drinking less milk. But the main reason is that when I am pumping now, I am not able to express all of the milk. My body just isnt responding to the pump anymore. So needless to say, whats the point? I cannot replace what she eats when I am at work. Thus, the weaning process begins. This week I took away the 1200 nursing session. When I am home from work, she gets a bottle of half EBM and half formula. I do not pump. Next week, I'll drop the 1600 feed and the following week I'll drop the 0800 feed. In the meantime, whether I am at home or at work, her bottles are a mix of EBM and formula until I run out of my stored frozen EBM. She'll be on 100% formula in 3 weeks. I am sad. I cried when I gave her her first bottle (from me) on Monday. I know that I'll always be her mom and she'll always need me.....but this is like the last bodily connection. Gosh, first the umbilical cord then the breastfeeding ;) Now I am ok. Still sad, but so thankful we made it 10 months and that she is doing well with it. She is tolerating the formula just fine and isnt crying or refusing the bottle, wondering why isnt mom feeding me. Thank God for that. Ok now back to the list....

8. She has her 2 bottom teeth...came up at the end of May. She was such a trooper! Didnt seem

to affect her too much.

9. She loves to take big girl baths. If she tumps over, I can usually let her figure out how to get

back up.

10. She gets so excited to see the dogs. I think that she has always liked them but now they pay

attention to her. She even shares her food with Raider. He takes it so gently from her hand

and she laughs at his tickling tongue.

11. Jon can really make her laugh these days. There's nothing sweeter than a baby's little laugh.

Ellie's a Water Baby

You know how it is like, oh, 90 something degrees in Texas right now?!?!? Well since its getting hot, it's high time Ellie learned how to spend some of these hot summer days in the pool. Jon and I bought Ellie a little backyard pool one day and about a week ago we put her in it. She has been taking a "big girl bath" so "swimming" in a pool was no different. Well, except for the pool water is cooler. Anyways, she loved it. I put some bath toys in there and she sat there, splashed, crawled around the pool, all of that fun stuff. I am sure she is going to grow up loving the pool.

Today, I took her the the real pool. She loved it! Even though the water was a tad cold. It was mid 80's out today; I guess because it was overcast. We went anyway. We went to Wendy's neighborhood pool, threw the floaties in the water and put the girls in 'em. Both Ellie and Hayden seemed to enjoy the water. Both splashed and laughed. We though that we'd keep them in the kiddie pool, but for whatever reason the kiddie pool water seemed colder than the regular pool water. They stayed in for a little while and then got out to have snacks. Baby Mum-Mums of course. It was high past nap time, so we left. But since both the girls did great, we'll be going back soon. Ellie was so wiped out from the fun that she went to bed at 6:30 pm and is still asleep (it's 11:00 as I type this)

It is so much fun to watch her grow up and get to do all of these things. I am so blessed to be able to show her the world. Speaking of growing up.....Ellie now crawls (very well, I might add), pulls up on things into a standing postion (funny to watch), and is eating a TON of food. She still mostly eats purees but the amount she is taking in is crazy. She also gets snacks now - Baby Mum Mum's (melt in your mouth cracker things), baby puffs, and cooked baby carrots. She's an eater for sure! :)

TCU and Texas Tech Spring Games

Every year Jon and I go to the spring games for the two schools I went to. The spring games are like a practice football game that fans can attend. The games are totally rigged but it is still fun. Afterwards, the players usually sign autographs, that Jon proudly displays on his game room wall. If you have ever been to our house, you know what I am talking about.

This year, the TCU game was first. Jon's parents came as well and I spent very little time watching the game and more time paying attention to Ellie. Ellie was really good and enjoyed watching real life players run all over the field, as opposed to on a TV screen. We pulled her stroller down to an open aisle and she just hung out. She even ate her baby food. A big wow since she is usually easily distracted. Unfortunately, she was not sporting a TCU onsie because she has grown out of her only one. We of course, bought her a new one when we were there!

The weekend afterwards, we all made the trek to Lubbock, TX. Jon booked us a room at The Overton Hotel - the latest and greatest thing to hit the other cow town. Usually we stay at some less than par hotel because, well, that's Lubbock, TX for ya. But this year was a treat! We stayed on the 13th floor of a 15 floor hotel and had to scan our room key to even get the elevator to take us up to that floor. (Sarcastic tone here) --- We were hiiigh rollers. We had separate breakfast from floors 1-12 and had a special turn down service where we got cookies and they turned on a sleeping sound machine. LOL. Ok, all sarcasm aside, it was a really nice place and within walking distance to the football stadium. When we rolled into cow town, the weather was very unexpected - cold, windy, rainy. Needless to say, we had to make a trip to Babies R Us and the mall to get proper clothes for Ellie and I. We also bought a rain slicker for Ellie's stroller. We were hoping that would protect her from the elements and she would be able to enjoy the spring game. Wrong. When we got there on Saturday morning, it was soooo windy that I could barely stand it. There was no way that I could safely pull Ellie out of the stroller without her for sure getting sick! Her and I stayed at the spring game for oh, about 15 minutes and then made our way to the car to play there. Jon stayed at the stadium and froze but still enjoyed himself. Ellie and I just hung out in the car, but we didn't mind. I kept us busy by nursing her, playing with her, teaching her how to use her sippy cup, talking on the phone to Wendy, driving Ellie around when she took a nap.....and then Jon was done and we left. He he :) Too bad I didn't get to show Ellie off, because she was the cutest Red Raider I have ever seen! She had a TTU onsie and a cute red and black hat. We ate out, shopped for Tech gear and just had a fun time as a family. It was really great! The only down side was giving Ellie a bath in the small bathroom sink because all they had was a shower, no tub. She did not enjoy. And then I had to do it again at 1130 pm because she threw up in her sleep (random). She enjoyed that sink bath even less. She was like, uh mom why are you putting me in here, I was sleeping?!?!?!? I let her sleep with us the rest of the night and then took a shower with her the next morning. There was something about that fast 1130 pm sink bath that just didn't get all the nasty off. Boy, did she looove a shower. I was afraid she wouldn't like the water hitting her, but nope, she loved it. Of course I had to have Jon's help because she got slippery fast. Anyway, her favorite blankey was ruined by throw up and the hotels laundry service was only M-F. Boo. Jon had to clean the blankey in the shower and then wring it out frequently so that it would dry for her by Saturday night. All this wringing out made the blankey extra long. So now Jon says she can use it until she is 18 :) Anyway, I leave you with some pics from the weekend.

We love her soo much! Our sweet, future Red Raider!!!

Man, it has been a while

Little Ellie has been keeping me so busy, obviously! It has been over a month since my last post. I am going to try to be better, I promise. Ellie has been dedicated to the Lord, she's turned 6 months, she's had her first Easter, and much more!

Her baby dedication was in the middle of March, at our church home Gateway. It was during the morning service and a lot of her family came to see it. We stood up at the front of the congregation with many other families who were dedicating their little ones to God as well. She was prayed over and loved on by many family members.

Here is Ellies 6 month picture. Every month, I take a picture of her and it has been fun to see her grow. As I am writing this (very late) I am laughing because now her pictures are taken sitting up. I am not quite sure what I am going to do when she is too big to sit in the Boppy.

Ellie's first Easter was great! Except for me scheduling myself to work ALL weekend. Luckily, another nurse agreed to come in early for me on Saturday, so we could still go to church as a family. Ellie had a very sweet pink and white dress and enjoyed her first Easter basket. On my way home from work on that Saturday, I realized I had forgotten to get her a bow that matched the pink of her dress. What a bad mommy. Thankfully, there is a place very close to our house and on the way home that carries bows! I rushed in, matched the pink and made her look adorable. She loved holding onto that lamb stuffed animal (given to her by grandparents in an Easter basket), but quickly Raider mistook it for his doggie toy lamb and her lamb was toast!

This post is getting a little long for me to work with, so I'll close for now and pick up where I left off!

Since the last time I wrote....

......Ellie has mastered the back-to-front roll over and we have ventured into homemade organic baby food.

I'll start from the beginning. Ellie learned the back-to-front roll over one day while she was home with daddy and I was at work. **tear** I missed it. I kept waiting and waiting for her to do it for me. Dang it, it took about a week and a half for me to witness it with my own eyes!! Now she is a rolling machine, moving all over the place. It was even waking her up in the middle of the night. I guess she would roll over on her tummy and then not really know how to get back, even though she mastered the front-to-back roll first. Whatever it was, it was waking her up and sometimes she'd go back to sleep and sometimes not. I'd have to go up there and flip her back over and she'd be fine. During the time I was waiting to see her roll over with my own eyes, I walked into her room to find this --

Now Ellie is a rolling machine! Ok next topic. Even back to when I was pregnant with Ellie, I knew that I wanted to make her food. And I knew that I wanted it to be organic. My friend, Wendy was given the Beaba BabyCook Baby Food Maker. I had heard of this food processor, or sorts and decided to get one for myself too. They retail for $150 but I got mine on Ebay. It came with the food processor, cook book, and 2 food storage containers. Together, those retail for $210 but I got it all for $120. I was so shocked and thankful to God for providing me with this deal! Sweet potatoes are what I tried out first. I had to make one potato at a time, but all in all it took about 10-15 minutes each. All you do is, peel it, cut it, steam it, mash it, and viola! I dished the potato out into the storage things to freeze them. The storage container is silicone, so once frozen, I popped them out and transferred them to a storage Ziploc. I have yet to use the BabyCook again, but Ellie is still learning to eat, so we haven't used that many servings. Pics below are of the process. Ellie helped by riding in the baby bjorn while I drank and glass of wine and made pureed sweet potatoes. What an evening!

So far, Ellie has eated Oatmeal (not homemade but still organic), Sweet Potatoes, and Peas. She loved them all once she warmed up to the idea of eating solids. So far, no weird reactions to foods. At first, I thought they were upsetting her tummy because she was gassy and I had to sleep with her one night (she seemed to be in so much pain and the only way I could get her to fall asleep was with me). Who knows if it was the solids or not?!?!? Want to see some pics of her enjoying solids? She is so cute!