Saturday, December 28, 2013

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We had such a wonderful Christmas celebrating with Elly and our family! We had a Christmas photo shoot with Love Be Photography! Brittany and Elizabeth were both former students that I worked with at Birmingham-Southern College. They both are WONDERFUL photographers and I can't get over how AWESOME these pictures turned out. I can't wait to get Elly's 1st birthday pictures done with these talented women. Even with just getting over being sick, Elly did great. She definitely knows how to ham it up for the camera! Here are a few of my favorites!







Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy came over for the holiday. It was nice to have them in town and enjoy Elly's first Christmas together.

We started off the excitement with a visit to see Santa Clause. Elly was so good waiting in the LONG line to see Santa. She was OK taking the picture by herself in the beginning but as Christian got in one with her, she started to get a little unsure of the white faced man in red.

Elly's first Santa picture

Aunt Christian, Santa and Ellyson


We went to Christmas Eve service and Elly did fantastic! She was such a little angel. We decided to open the majority of the presents on Christmas Eve since Gram Lene and Christian would be driving back home on Christmas Day. 





Elly wasn't a huge fan of hearing the tearing of the wrapping paper.

Present from Aunt Angela and Uncle Eric!


Christmas morning we woke up and Santa visited Elly and Christian. Elly LOVED her new infant anywhere chair and all the toys she had gotten from Gram Lene, Auntie Chrissy, mom, dad and Santa.

Elly started pushing her new toy from Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy right away

Sitting in her new chair and digging in her stocking, while sporting her pj's from Aunt Angela and Uncle Eric

The one and only family picture that Aaron would take. :-(

Elly giving Auntie Chrissy kisses!
After we opened "Santa" presents, we all got dressed so that Gram Lene and Christian could get on the road and we could head over to Uncle Justin, Aunt Ali and Cousin Lily's house to celebrate Christmas with the Fingars. We decided we needed a few more pictures before they left.





We enjoyed eating brunch and continuing to celebrate Christmas with Hen, Grampy, Uncle Justin, Aunt Ali, Lily, Gram Bea and Grandpa Bill. Lots of good food and way to many presents. Aunt Ali had gotten the girls matching Christmas PJ's. They looked so cute. Elly was super tired and Lily was being goofy so these were the best pictures I could get.




Merry Christmas!

9 months


Elly's Stats & Accomplishments
Weight:
18 pounds, 4.5 ounces
Length:
27.5 inches
 8 month recap
Weight: 17 pounds, 11 ounces
Length: 27.5 inches

Attributes: So far I am still winning and Elly has kept her big blue eyes! Her hair is definitely growing and is looking to be a little more dirty blonde, though in the light is still has a red tint! Her hair is an interesting texture in the back....kind of fuzzy like. Aaron still like to put her hair in all sorts of designs after her bath.

Milestone: She is crawling all over the place and pulling up on any and everything that she can. Elly still LOVES to bounce and her new favorite thing is to bounce holding on to the coffee table. Needless to say when we tell her no or she gets a little pat to tell her "bad" she either just laughs at you or turns around and goes right back. I think we have a strong willed one on our hands. Elly is talking more and more and is recognizing connecting the words with the person - mama, dada, etc. We are practicing connecting words more with people and objects. When Aaron gets home from work, Elly stops what she is doing when she hears the alarm beep or him walk up the stairs. It's precious! Elly has started shaking her head no and I think is connecting it when she doesn't want any more food. She is one stubborn little girl who is EXTREMELY STRONG WILLED. I can only imagine what is in store for us ;-).

Elly taking a little nap with her daddy!

One of Elly's favorite things to do - Pulling all the diapers off her changing table. Mom picks them up at least five times a day!




Clothes: Well this is an interesting one! She ranges from 3 months to 12 months. It really depends on what the outfit is. For dresses she can still do a 3 month but really needs 9 or 12 month onesies for the length. We still struggle with shoes as she has a really narrow foot and her left foot NEVER wants to keep any shoes on. The doctors says it's OK since she isn't walking and it is probably best not to have any on her feet right now. Socks are also hit or miss. Elly really enjoys pulling them off right after you put them on her feet. We still joke that she has stinking feet (and she does) but Elly thinks it is funny and just laughs and laughs. 

Eating:  We have been introducing more things this past month. However the last few weeks Elly has not really wanted to eat her food. Food that she previously liked - her rice cereal, peas - she no longer likes and wants to eat. Elly still gets fruit and cereal in the morning, yogurt and puffies for a mid-morning snack and a vegetable or two with cereal if she will eat it for dinner. She gets about 21-24 ounces of milk. Elly isn't a fan of any juice yet but we will keep trying until we find one she might like. She in interested in other people's food so we have been giving her a few bits of biscuit, baked potato and french fry. She even got 1/2 of a gingerbread cookie at school and they said she gobbled it up. One thing we have learned with Elly is that if she doesn't want to eat it she will not! Elly still doesn't have any teeth (maybe one day ;-)) so it's a little tricky to figure out what we can give her to try and eat since she can only gum food.

Sleep Schedule: Well last month I was excited to announce that Elly was sleeping through the night and going down with no issues at all. Well we have reverted back. For the past 2 weeks or so she has woken up between 4-8 times during the night and won't just fall asleep like she used to. She has been crying when we put her down and wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Sometimes still asleep. We aren't sure what is going on and if it's a grown spurt, teething, but we are hopeful that we can get back on track here soon! Elly is still hit or miss on her naps. On a good day, she will take a 30 minute or so nap in the morning, a longer nap in the afternoon (around 12 when she is not at Mother's Day Out and 1:30 when she does) and will sleep about an hour an a half to two hours. Pending, Elly sometimes will take a 30 minute or so nap before dinner at 6:00pm. It's hard sometimes because I can still see how tired she is but she just won't take a nap or stop long enough to just chill. Aaron is really good at getting her to calm down and just sit still. If I am hope with her by myself and she is super tired, she will sit for a bit and watch whatever is on TV. Sometimes resulting in a nap and sometimes not. 

We are looking forward to Christmas and celebrating with our family!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I am a little late in the post as Thanksgiving has come and gone. We were down for about a week as Elly got the stomach bug and passed it to Aaron and I. Luckily we are all doing MUCH better now so I m finally able to post about Thanksgiving!

Elly had a great first Thanksgiving. Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy came over from Monroe for the holiday and stayed until Sunday. We had all of Aaron's family over from Nanny to Cousin Lily and even Aunt Elaine joined us for a total for 17 people! We had LOTS of fun visiting with everyone and Elly enjoyed getting to play and see all her family. In actuality it wasn't as stressful hosting that many people as I thought it might be. I think it helped that everyone brought food and we ate on the fine china (aka paper plates ;-)). It was nice to have mom and Christian here and we even ventured out for a little black Friday shopping! Elly got some good deals.

Trying to get a family picture - Aaron is not too thrilled to take one.

Still trying......

Well third time wasn't a charm :-(

Elly and Lily Kate

Elly loving on her Auntie Chrissy

Hamming it up with Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy



It was a great first Thanksgiving for Elly and we really enjoyed getting to spend time with family. Looking forward to the next few weeks with more family visits, Elly turning 9 months and celebrating Christmas!