11 months

Elly's Stats & Accomplishments

Weight:

19 pounds, 5 ounces (home scale- didn't change from last month on the home scale)

Length:

28.5 inches

 10 month recap

Weight: 19 pounds, 5ounces

Length: 28 inches

Attributes:Her hair is getting thicker and longer. It's still quite light and seems to look more light brown. However, in some light it still has a beautiful red tint to it. Her eyes are still bright blue and I am LOVING it!

Milestone: Elly has taken a few steps by herself but then sits down. She is SUPER strong and loves to pick up and lift just about any and everything. She has gotten really good at balancing and standing at the same time. Her favorite these days is to pick up my laptop - yes the laptop and act like a super big girl.

Elly still loves to push her lion push toy and will even push her table (I think that she thinks it's on wheels too). She has gotten pretty good in her walker moving around outside. The other day we were enjoying the beautiful weather and she kept pushing herself in a circle. Silly girl. 

 

She has gotten pretty good at walking as long as you are holding at least 1 hand. Elly likes to see what's going on around her so she tends to get a bit preoccupied with that verses paying attention to wheres he is walking. She has also gotten extremely interested in how things work. From clipping her in her car seat or high chair looking at her sound me. We have FINALLY started to get 2 little teeth! YAY! They are not completely in yet but you can see them pushing through smack dab in the center on the bottom. The two of them are coming in simultaneously.

Clothes: This one still varies greatly! She ranges from 3 months to 12 months. It really depends on what the outfit is. We have finally started to wear some shoes and have lucked out in finding some that work for her little narrow foot. She will wear a shoe size 2 and we are starting to need a 3, but they have to be shoes that have the Velcro all the way across so we can make them tighter on her foot. Otherwise when she starts walking, they just fall off. We are in #3 diapers and will be for a while, unless she hits a major weight gain anytime soon.

 

Eating:  This hasn't changed a whole lot. She is still not a big eater and would rather eat snacks or our food. We keep trying new "adult" food like green beans, potatoes, french fries, bread, etc but it is really hit or miss and depends on her mood. I think if she thinks she is eating something of mommy and daddy's then she will try it but if you just give it to her, she could care less. I am hoping that she will not always be this picky eater but we shall see. 

 

Sleep Schedule: Not too much has changed here either. Elly is definitely a child of routine and that seems to be the best thing for her! She has been taking her long nap in her bed and some days she will play in there over an hour, cry a little then fall asleep. There is no rhyme or reason to it but I am just glad when she takes a nap as she always wakes up much happier. She is still ready for bed around 7:15-7:30 and definitely let's us know if she is tired and ready earlier. Aaron and I are very grateful that for the most part she will sleep through the night until about 6:45-7:00 in the morning. We have had a few instances that she has woke up crying this past month or woke up at 5:00 but they have been few and far in between. Grateful to finally get to sleep through the night!

The weather has been pretty cold, snowy, icy and nasty. Aaron ended up having to walk about 3 miles home when we were hit early with snow that completely shut down the city. I was definitely glad that I work from home as Elly and I were safe in our warm house. Elly didn't get any snow pictures of herself but here are a few of our deck and front yard. Didn't really capture the essence of what was going on outside either of our snow times but I guess it's better than nothing. 

We celebrated Valentines Day and Gram Lene sent the cutest shirt and yummy cookies for us to eat! Thank goodness that she sent so many cookies as I had come down with the flu and walking pneumonia so we were able to use a few of the cookies as Valentine's happies for Elly's teachers. I am sure they appreciated me not touching or baking anything. 

Thanks for the YUMMY cookies Gram Lene!

Gram Lene's yummy cookies turned into Elly's Valentine happies

"Kisses 25 cents" Ellyson's college fund starting early

The weather finally decided to warm up and become much nicer so Aaron and I took Elly to the park for a little bit. She LOVES to swing and even got to slide a little bit. We are looking forward to the weather staying warm and getting to play more often. 

Here's to another great month of fun with this little munchkin. Looking forward to the fun to come!

Oh the Places we Shall Go!

We have been a pretty busy family this past few weeks with lots of traveling. It's been fun but we are glad that we get to stay home for a few weeks before things get crazy busy again in March.


At the end of January, we took a trip down to Louisiana for Aunt Angela's bridal shower. Renee Ruello, met us in Birmingham and rode down with us. Elly and I were extremely grateful that she was with us as we hit some crazy weather in Hattiesburg - yucky ice and sleet - and Renee was great at getting us safely to New Orleans.

Play with Gram Lene at Uncle Eric and Aunt Angela's house

While we were down, Uncle Mike (Ivicevich) came to visit and play with Elly for a little bit. They had a blast and Elly enjoyed getting to take a selfie with Uncle Mike!

Making funny faces with Uncle Mike

Loving selfies on Uncle Mike's phone

 Sunday was the day of the bridal shower! We had so much fun getting to celebrate with Angela and visit with lots of family.

Bridesmaids

Bridal Party and Aunts

Matron of Honor and Flower Girl with the Bride to be!

Elly enjoyed playing with Brooklyn at the party

 The following weekend, Elly and I traveled to Peachtree City as I had a weekend workshop for Phi Mu. Angela was off work on Friday so she flew to Atlanta and watched Elly while I was in my training. I know that Elly enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with Angela and visit with all the Phi Mu's that she hears so much on on the phone!

Hanging with Aunt Angela at the HQ!

Aunt Angela and Mom by the Phi Mu crest

It was a great few weeks traveling and getting to see lots of family and friends. We can't wait until our next trip and hopefully can visit with more friends that we weren't able to meet up with. Looking forward to the wedding festivities in a few weeks and celebrating Elly's first birthday. Man time is sure flying by.

10 months

Elly's Stats & Accomplishments

Weight:

19 pounds, 5 ounces (home scale)

Length:

28 inches

 9 month recap

Weight: 18 pounds, 4.5ounces

Length: 27.5 inches

 

 

Attributes:We still have blue eyes (YAY!). Ellyson's hair is getting darker and really not as much red. You get a little hint of red in the sun but definitely getting darker. She is finally starting to fill out more and have a little round face. Still no teeth. Hopefully by her 1 year birthday we will finally have some.

Milestone: She has started to stand on her own and she will push her lion and walk. If you hold her hands she will walk around, though she goes fast sometimes and can't keep up. Elly is doing well with talking and has started to understand more when we say "no", " move away" as well as when I count for her to move from somewhere she shouldn't be. She is still extremely strong willed and hard headed. Unfortunately she gets this from both sides of the family. Elly has gotten good at patty cake and when you start to sing she will clap and gets excited. We have also taught her to kiss and give "snuggles" or hugs as everyone else knows them as. We are working on the appropriateness of the kisses as she kissed a boy in her class on the cheek but then turned his head to kiss him on the mouth. Ooops. She has also started to connect putting lids on things and putting her shape blocks into their place. We aren't perfect yet on this but it's starting to make the connection. I definitely think that we will have a walker in the next month or so. 

Clothes: This one still varies greatly! 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. For tights she still has to wear the 0-6 month ones as the others are all too big. We FINALLY have 2 pairs of shoes that fit. She mainly wears them at school but so happy to finally have some that fit her skinny foot. We struggle a bit with socks fitting - who makes a sock 6-18 months? Elly really enjoys pulling them off right after you put them on her feet. She is not liking her bows as much anymore but I try to negotiate that in public she needs to wear it. For the most part, she will comply. It's funny because as soon as we get in the car, she yanks it off.

Eating:  Ellyson is definitely not a huge fan of eating and would prefer to just eat snacks - puffies, etc.  Elly still gets fruit and cereal in the morning and yogurt and puffies for a mid-morning snack. She gets 4oz of milk after breakfast (if she wants it) and when she goes to school she gets an additional fruit. She gets 8 oz of milk for lunch and a snack of cheese puffies (kid Cheetos) when she wakes from her nap. For dinner we do a vegetable and some type of meat/starch combo. She DOES NOT like the meat by itself. If she eats good she will get 1 kiddie cookie. For bed, she gets 8 oz of milk. We have introduced a sippy cup of juice but right now she would rather just play with it. We will let her try some of our food pending what we are eating - rice, potato, etc and she really wants to eat more. But with no teeth, it's a little difficult. 

Sleep Schedule:We are back sleeping through the night. Elly might wake up 1 or 2 times but a lot of time she is just crying in her sleep. Once she finds her pacifier she seems to be OK. She goes down at night between 7:30-8:00 and wakes up in the morning around 6:40-7:00. She will sometimes take a 30 minute nap around 9-9:30 but only sitting next to Aaron or I or in the car. We started putting her in her bed for her afternoon nap and she will go anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. There is no rational to when she sleeps longer. Just depends on her mood. In the evening she will do another 30 minute nap occasionally but again has to be sitting on the couch or car. We have learned that if she gets too tired, she sleeps/naps worse. Elly is definitely not a child that does better when she is overly tired. 

Lots of travels and celebrations in the next few months. Hopefully I can get on track and get better with post being done in a more timely manner. Here's hoping!

 

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!