Elly's First Phi Mu Bid Day

Elly got to attend her first Phi Mu Mom's RUSH event and her first Phi Mu Bid Day a few weeks ago. She had so much fun and really enjoyed getting to see the women of the Alpha Gamma Chapter at Samford University prepare for recruitment. I think her favorite this was all the singing! Her Phi Mu legacy friend Margaret was at both events with her and they had so much fun playing together! She is looking forward to getting to go to lots more Bid Day's and Phi Mu functions!

Sporting my Quads and making sure Elly has Lonnie with her!

Elly just LOVES Margaret, especially when she wears big tails ;-)

A House Divided

As everyone knows I am a big LSU fan and Aaron is a HUGE Auburn fan, so of course we are a house divided. Since this was the first LSU/Auburn game since Elly's birth, I had to make sure that she represented both of her Tiger teams. I have to admit, I think that purple and gold and Blue and orange are definitely her colors.

At this point, Elly is in love with her TIGERS.....whichever one that might be ;-)

6 Month Update

I can't believe that we are already 1/2 way to celebrating 1 year with Elly. My time flies when you are having fun! She is getting to be such a big girl and really coming into her own personality.

Elly's Stats & Accomplishments

Weight:  

15 pounds, 11.5 ouces

Height: 

26 1/2 inches

Five month recap:

Weight: 14 pounds, 7ounces

Height: 261/2 inches

Attributes: She is finally getting a little more hair. Still not sure what color we are going to end up with put when we ware in the sunshine, I definitely see some red!

Milestones: Elly has mastered crawling. She is off and before you know it she has gone around the corner or is digging somewhere that she shouldn't. She is also liking to feed herself. She will grab the spook (with her left hand mind you ;-)) and then puts it in her mouth. She hasn't quite figured out about putting the spoon back in the bowl. Elly is still talking up a storm and she is REALLY liking to spit these days. She thinks it's funny, go figure. 

Clothes: I think that we can FINALLY retire some of her newborn clothes. She is still wearing some 3 months but those are mainly the dresses and some bottoms that are 3-6 months. We are definitely in the 6 month onesie's with a few 9 month ones.  We finally have 1 or 2 pairs of shoes that fit but for the most part they are either too wide or still to big in length. Hopefully we can find some to fit soon with the weather getting cooler. 

Eating: Elly LOVES to eat! She eats rice cereal and fruit in the morning around 8am and then has rice cereal and a vegetable for dinner around 6pm. For the most part she really likes everything. We have tried bananas again and she seems to like them this time. I haven't tried the carrots again to see if she has a reaction but plan to do so sometime this month. We are introducing a different rice cereal (rice cereal with bananas and apples) this month for breakfast so we shall see what she thinks as well as will begin to give her  a sippy cup with water or a little juice. We did figure out that she does not like to eat if her head/back is not fully supported. So eating in the high chair at home or her stroller works well but sitting in the bumbo seat or a restaurant high chair isn't the best for feeding. She's too noisy and keeps looking around verses eating her food. Still no teeth though ;-).

Sleep schedule: This is still a work in progress but I am hoping that we might finally be on the up and up as the last few nights she has only gotten up twice. She has been going down for a morning nap around 8:30-9:30 and varies between 30 minutes to an hour. She really likes to take these naps in Aaron and I's bed still. We are still taking a long nap for the most part between 12-3 but since she is at Mother's Day Out 2 days a week she doesn't go down until 1:30. Elly will take another short nap 15-30 minutes between 4:30-5:00 and then we are usually giving bedtime bottle by 8:15pm after her bath. This month we will be letting her self soothe and hopefully can eventually move away from her swaddle blanket (though we still keep her hands out so it's just her tummy and feet inside). Fingers crossed and extra prayers that she figures this all out as I think that Aaron and I are a little worn out with getting up with her throughout the night. 

 

Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy came for a visit

We were so glad that Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy came to visit during Labor Day! It was nice to get to visit with them and for Elly to play with Auntie Chrissy. We took lots of pictures, especially in our LSU Gear!

Elly enjoyed her visit with Gram Lene and Auntie Chrissy. She can't wait for them to come back again to play.

Here are a few more pictures from their visit.

Elly and Auntie Chrissy

Threw a little picture with mommy in here.

Sporting my new shinny silver shoes Gram Lene got me

LOVE my Gram Lene!

Mother's Day Out

Elly started Mother's Day Out this week and we both are super excited! She will be attending Meadowbrook Baptist Church's Mother's Day Out program on Monday and Wednesday. I am excited for her get to socialize with some other babies and get out of the house for a bit. Not to mention this will let me get some work done without any interruptions. It's nice in that the church is in our subdivision, so it's only a few minutes away. Fingers crossed that maybe she will pick up a good routine and start taking two good naps a day!

Ready for some football!

The season is finally here for football and we could not be more excited! Since we are a house divided, Elly gets to sport lots of different clothes for football season.

We started off with Aaron's Fantasy Draft Day. Elly wanted to make sure she was being supportive on draft day as well as let everyone know that she was Daddy's "First round draft pick!"

Neither of them was too thrilled to be taking this picture!

Next up she had to get ready for some SEC football. On Friday she sported her Auburn attire and then Saturday it was all Purple and Gold!

It's going to be interesting to see what Elly gets to wear when Auburn plays LSU. Hopefully I will win that battle, but at least she is ready with her house divided bib!

5 months

Happy 5 Month Birthday!

Elly's Stats & Accomplishments

Weight:  

14 pounds, 7 ounces
(on Dr. Smith's scale which is a little different)

Height: 

26 1/2 inches

Four month recap:

Weight: 12 pounds, 13 ounces

Height: 25 1/2 inches

Attributes: Her hair is getting a lot lighter and I think will be more strawberry blonde, light brown. We might luck out with a tint of red as it still has that shade when we are in the sunshine. 

Milestones: Elly LOVES to sit up. She is doing really well being propped up but still hasn't mastered going from a laying position to a sitting position (though she REALLY wants to). I think this child is getting quite an ab workout as just about any time you lay her on her back she is lifting her head trying to sit up. She has also begun to scoot on the floor. Aaron and I are trying to figure out if she is going to crawl or go to a 4 legged walk and she will straighten out both of her feet and push off. It's hysterical to watch. 

She is still loving to talk, yell, sing, you name it. Sometimes she is so loud that I have to go into the other room when I am on a call. My co-workers have gotten a kick out of hearing her talk as we try to conduct meetings. Elly also loves to laugh. It's the most contagious thing I think I have seen. So blessed for a happy baby, most of the time.

Elly has become obsessed with technology - looking for an i-Phone, the i-Pad, the remote, you name it. I had an old i-Phone that we have given her to play with but sometimes that is not good enough. We will even try to hide the remote and she is determined to find it. We have one smart cookie on our hands. 

She is still watching some cartoons during the day and a few Baby Einstein DVD's that we have. She really loves to watch Wheel of Fortune. She will get excited when she hears them cheering and clapping. I think she takes after her GG Vi on this one. 

Clothes: She has definitely grown out of a lot of her clothes. We are in 6 month clothes now, though there are still a few 3 months that fit if they are two piece outfits. We still sleep in our swaddle blanket but have made it a tube top now so her hands are free. I am hopeful in the next few months, we can move away from her sleeping in a swaddle blanket. 

Eating: We have begun to eat rice cereal and fruits and vegetables in her big girl high chair. She gets cereal and a fruit in the morning and cereal and a vegetable at night. She really looks forward to eating (we have a good eater on our hands) and has liked just about everything so far. She wasn't a fan of bananas but Aaron accidentally bought the #2 bananas so that might have had something to do with it. She also broke out into a bad rash after eating carrots so we are no longer eating those. She really likes sweet potatoes and pears. Next up, green vegetables. 

Sleep schedule: We are still working on this but it has gotten a lot better.  She takes a bath around 8-8:15 every night and then has a nighttime bottle and goes to bed. Pending on the night, she will stir two to five times and not be able to go back to sleep until we go in her room and roll her back on her side or back. She seems to get stuck with her face down and doesn't roll herself back over. We still have to give her a pacifier but if she can get herself still enough she sleeps longer. Elly has been waking up between 7:00-7:30 and then we eat breakfast around 7:45am each day. She does take one good long nap during the day between 12-3 for at least 2 hours but sometimes as long as 3.5 hours. She will take short 15-45 minute naps 2-3 times a day but ends up waking herself up, no matter where we put her down at. 

She usually has to have something on her face or she has buried her head in the pillow. So much like her dad!