One Year Old!

Happy birthday, Eila Lu! Never in my life has a year gone by so quickly. My tiny, pudgy baby is a pudgy little toddler now! 

Eila has grown from 8 lbs 20 oz to 22 lbs 1.5 oz and went from 19 inches to 29.5 inches! She is between the 50th and 75th percentile for height and weight now. 

I had conferences on her birthday, which was perfect because I got out of school early. Dan had off work, so the three of us went to Culver's for a little birthday lunch (filled with chocolate custard) before Eila's doctor appointment. The poor kid had to get three shots and a finger prick on her birthday. I would like to say she was a trooper, but she was so sad and screamed so much from all of the poking. She did a great job up until then though! 

We had a bunny themed party the next day. Eila loves her bunny so much, it made sense to incorporate that.  It was fun (as far as first birthday parties go!)! I was worried that Eila was going to be super crabby- she was getting a cold, had shots the day before, took a short morning nap (instead of a longer mid-day nap I wished for), and the party was during her regular afternoon nap time. She was a little clingy at first, but did a great job! She played with her cousins, enjoyed eating a cupcake, and helped open presents. Besides eating a cupcake, I think her favorite part was playing with bubbles at the end. 

Dan and I kept a human alive and usually happy for a whole year! It was so much fun to watch her grow this year.  

Her favorite foods are berries. She loves to eat and will eat pretty much anything except plain tomatoes and plain cooked brussel sprouts. She eats pretty much everything we eat. 

She has four teeth on the bottom and two teeth on top. Two more top teeth are working their way out though.  

She LOVES to wear headbands. She picks one out each morning after we change her diaper (they are in a container on her changing table) and holds it her head so we can put it on her. 

She can walk like a pro! She learned to walk on April 1st. Now she mostly walks places and only crawls occasionally. She likes to hold something in her hand while she walks around and usually holds both of her arms straight up in the air. Its really cute :)

She says "mama" when she sees me and has totally been a mama's girl lately. She doesn't like when I leave the room. She's working on the 'd' sound but says "gaga" for 'dada' when she sees Dan. She tries to say "more" but it sounds like "ma". She attempts to repeat other words like "bubble", "ruff-ruff", "cat", "dog", and "Shhhh". She says "yeah" very clearly while nodding her head 'yes'. It is adorable!

Eila could look at books and have us read her books for days. 

She still likes to put things in her measuring cups. She also like to carry things around while she walks or put them in her fort. (Her fort is the cardboard box from her car seat on its side so she can crawl through it like a tunnel. It is so fun.) 

She is persistent, happy, charming, silly, adorable, determined, and getting so big! I love her so much!

Happy birthday, sweet baby! 

11 Months!

Oh, how a year can change things!  This time last year, I was anticipating my little one's impending birth, cleaning and organizing like crazy, and thought I had an idea of how much I could fall in love with a sweet little someone. . .

Well, now my heart has never felt so full! My sweet little someone is growing into such a cool person! At 11 months old, she's taking a few steps on her own, cruises along furniture like no one's business, give her your hand and there's no slowing her down. 

She has a list of party tricks that she likes to show off: 

peek (resting her head on her shoulder while smiling), 

hug (which looks identical to peek, unless she happens to hug something or someone), 

sniff (scrunching up her nose and eyes and sniffing), 

blink, 

clapping, 

where's your belly (pats her belly- this one is new. . . she doesn't do it all the time yet)

kiss

pointing

if you ask, "what do you have?"she'll hold it up so you can see it

patting things

tapping toys

stacking two blocks

kicking her legs when you say kick, kick, kick

bouncing 

dancing

nodding her head yes

Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, hummus on toast or naan, and sweet peas. She'll pick out the peas from mixed veggies and eat those first every time. 

She likes to play at the park. Trying to follow around the bigger kids is her activity of choice. Swings are a little scary currently, unless she's sitting on my lap. 

Peeking

She's going through a shy phase right now. When people, other than me, Dan, or other family try to talk to her, she either tries to climb up my body or snuggles into my neck. 

Happy 11 Months, little one! 

10 Months!

My little pudge is such a big baby now! She is growing and changing so quickly! 

She is such a good eater. She eats almost everything (not a huge fan of brussel sprouts, unless they are in scrambled eggs) and instead of bottles while I'm gone, she drinks her milk through a cup with a straw! Her favorite foods are raspberries and blueberries. She also eats lots of pancakes (banana-spinach, banana-carrot, banana-anything haha), and muffins (this week's specialty is apple-carrot-raisin-pumpkin seed). She is still sensitive to dairy. Whenever I ingest dairy (except in baked goods), Eila gets eczema :( I hope she grows out if it soon! 

Our valentine's day breakfast! We had pancakes (her's were spinach-raspberry, mine had chocolate chips), heart shaped strawberries, and blueberries. Yum! 

She loves all of the animals, especially George, the cat- and he loves her!  I can't get a good picture of her with him because they are always moving, so this picture of her with Seamus will have to suffice. She gives hugs by resting her head on whatever she is hugging and gives open mouthed kisses.

She knows how to do so many things! If you ask her to dance, she bounces around. She also will bounce if you tell her too. She kicks her legs if we say, "Kick, kick, Kick". She nods her head "yes" when we ask her questions. She arches her back and stretches her legs way out when I say, "biiig stretch!". She knows what her bunny and paci are, who mama and dada are, can stand on her own, and cruises around furniture.

She likes to tap things together, especially these sensory ball things she has. Her current favorite game is to put one of the balls in a measuring cup. She loves to look at books and be read to. She likes to go to the zoo, target, the mall, and the grocery store with me and is such a smiley friendly girl wherever we go.

We love you so much, little one! 

Things Kids Said on a Monday

I have a hilarious bunch of 4K kids this year! Today was a more mellow day (I needed it after my little chunk was up randomly for large portions of the night), but they were still funny little people all day long!


One of my kids is like a little old man. He wears little cardigans, velcro faux leather shoes, khakis. . . he's adorable. He talks with a gruff voice and answers pretty much any "why" question with, "That because."
For example: Why did you pour your toothpaste spit on the table? (they brush their teeth at school in the morning)  "That because."  Because why? "That becuase."
Or: Why are you laying on the floor? You should be standing in line. "That because."


One of my girls secretly colored all over her mat sheet with yellow crayon at naptime. We didn't see the crayon and didn't know it was crayon at first because of how it looked on the sheet. We asked her what happened and she said, "Me and my mama were walking to school. When we were walking to school we stepped in a big pile of yellow paint. It stayed on my shoe until naptime and then got on my mat." So if I ask your mom if you stepped in paint she would say yes? "Ummmm" Are you telling me a story? "Maybe it was crayon. I think a crayon did it. It fell out of my cubby and got on my mat. And now it's under the table by my nap spot."


We were talking about what to do if there is a fire in your home. I asked the class what they should do and almost all of them said call 911. One little guy asked, "But what if the phone is off?" and another boy said, "Then look all around your house so you can find the charger!"


We were also talking about things you shouldn't touch like matches and lighters. I asked them to name other things they shouldn't touch: cigarettes, anything that is pokey, a hot pan, and keep your hands to yourself (this randomly lead to a discussion about how you shouldn't hit your friends).


The kids in my class this year all think it's funny to call me mama and they tell me they are going to be my baby and come home with me.


During calendar time: "Ms MaElly. Do you know who Batman is? Bruce Wayne!!"


We dance to a song called "Pop see ko" and almost all of my kids think it's called "popsicle"

9 Months!

Every month I say this, but I can't believe how fast time is going! My big baby is 9 months old! She's in the 75th percentile, weighs 20 pounds 5 ounces, and is 27 and 3/4 inches. She had her two bottom teeth come in and then the top two started poking out. Those top two were rough! She was such a sad baby! A couple days ago, I noticed a sneaky third bottom tooth poking out. I don't know where it came from. One day the spot was pure gums, the next a whole tooth was there!

Eila has been going through a nine month sleep regression. Nighttime has been filled with lots of tears (from both me and her) and naps have been pretty much non existent. This little baby will be dead asleep in my arms. I can jiggle her, do the arm drop test, take her paci out. . . and as long as she's in my arms, she's good. But as soon as she feels her body touch her crib, it's loud, tearful screaming. We've tried Dan putting her to bed instead, rocking her to sleep (usually she goes to bed awake), moving bed time earlier/later, letting her cry for a few minutes, and basically nothing works. The past couple of night have been a little better- not so much crying but still lots of waking up. I hope her sleep goes back to normal soon.

Part of the reason, besides whatever other sleep issues are going on, is Eila has also been refusing a bottle lately. She drinks 2 or 3 ounces while I'm at work and then waits until I get home to nurse. I know she's not starving during the day because she loves to eat solid food, but she still gets a lot of calories from milk (at night now).

Besides her sleeping/eating weirdness, she's such a fun baby! She loves to pull herself up and move around the room. She will spend big chunks of the day learning - it's so fun to watch her! For example, she spent a big part of the day standing up and throwing her sock (that she pulled off her foot because that's such a fun game). Then sit down, pick up her sock, stand up, throw it, and repeat in the same spot before moving to a new one and doing it some more.

She loves to be on the go, tap toys together, throw toys, snuggle her bunny (we finally got a backup, just in case), babble and yell! Her favorite foods are banana pancakes and anything anyone else is eating. She thinks drinking from a glass is super cool and always looks so proud when we let her have a sip of our water.

We did a test: we put Bunny and back up bunny down by Eila. She touched them both, picked them up, examined them, and then picked Bunny to snuggle and chew on! It was so cute! 

Happy New Year!

2015 was quite the year- part of me is sad to see it go and part of me is happy to watch it leave.

Eila and I did some painting and then turned her artwork into a new year's crown! We said "Happy new year!" at 6:00 pm, right before she went to sleep, watched Jurassic World, and went to bed. I somehow stayed up until midnight while texting my friends and eating snacks in bed - it was actually kind of nice!

Dan and I talked about whether or not we have resolutions for 2016. I'm not totally set on it, but I think I want to focus on letting go of things I am not in control of. I tend to get stressed when things that other people are in control of don't go the way I have imagined. For example, when I'm at school, I want people to care for Eila exactly the way I would. Realistically, I know this is impossible because they are not me. I get stressed when I get updates on her day and who ever is caring for her does something differently than I would. I know she's safe, loved, and generally happy, but it's still not the way I want things to go. I feel like I have a lot on my plate right now and I think I'm trying to cope by trying to plan everything everyone does. It's not really helping my stress level go down, so I think I just need to let it go.

Aside from that resolution, I think I want to do more things for me and my mental health. Maybe I'll get more massages. Maybe I'll try to go more kickboxing classes. Maybe I'll try to paint or read or write (or all of those!) more.

I hope I'm ready for whatever 2016 has in store!

Our Five Days of Christmas!

Get ready for a ton of photos. . . 

Merry Christmas!
(This was our Christmas card picture)

On the first Day of Christmas. . . 

Sibling picture! 

 We started off the Christmas celebrating on Christmas eve. We did our secret sibling exchange! I had Meagan this year and Sean had me. He got me an adult coloring book and some candy. We had to skype him since he couldn't come home.

I was so excited for Eila's first Christmas! One of my favorite things I got for Eila was her ornament. When I was little, my parents got us an ornament each year to hang on the tree. I started that tradition with Eila too. Dan and I really wanted to find a bunny ornament for her since she loves her stuffed animal bunny so much. We went to pretty much every store and ended up finding one on amazon! 

We didn't have a big tree this year due to all of the animals and a crawling baby. Instead we had a little table top tree- it was the perfect stop for Santa to drop off some presents :) 
Eila had a lot of fun trying to chew them open! 

On the second day of Christmas. . .  

My mom made us "weasley sweaters" a few years ago. The photo on the left is from Christmas 2014. Eila was just a little wiggly baby in my belly at the time! The photo on the right is from this year- Eila got her very own sweater!
(also, ignore dan's hair. It was wet from the shower and he thinks he looks goofy in this picture.)

Every Christmas my family goes to see a movie. This year, Dan stayed home with Eila while the rest of us went to see "Sisters".  We changed out of our sweaters, into our Christmas outfits, and headed to Dan's mom's house.

Eila (and her cousins, all of which were there- yay!) did a great job at the Christmas party. They were all very tired by the end of the night and we ended up leaving around 7:00 (way earlier than usual). Eila loved munching on turkey, asparagus, green beans, and corn with me while we chatted with her auntie.



 On the third day of Christmas. . .  

The day after Christmas was another busy one! We had Dan's sibling gift exchange. Dan had Greg and I had Michaela. The babies all wore matching jammies and it was adorable!

Dan's sister, Michaela, got each of the babies the cutest little shoes! She got Eila, Nora, and Maeve baby converse and Jack and Evelyn baby toms. It will be little while before Eila fits into these but she will be oh-so-adorable when she does! 

On the fourth day of Christmas. . . 

Eila went to Nora and Maeve's house for a play date. The girls played so nicely together (well, as nicely as 15 month olds and an 8 month old can)! They all took a nap before we headed over to Dan's mom's for a baby party.

Eila played with her cousin, Evelyn, during the Packer game. 

We had a baby party so that some of Dan's family member who couldn't make it to Christmas could see the babies. His cousin got them matching snowman hats (again, so cute!). The older girls looked so proud while they were wearing their hats. The little three kept checking each other out/trying to figure out what was on their heads.

On the fifth day of Christmas. . .  

These babies are one month apart! They were born in March and Eila was born on their due date. 

We had lunch date at Dan's mom's house. His sister and her family was in town, so we've been spending as much time over there as we can! A snowstorm started earlier in the day, and by the time we left her house, it was in full force! We haven't had much wintery weather so far this season, so I was kind of excited about it. We snuggled up inside for the rest of the afternoon. 

Eila had some sensory play time with a little snow. At first she wasn't too sure about it. Then she started eating it! 

Eila had a nice, soothing bath after all of her excitement and went to bed early tonight. It was such a good first Christmas for her!