Meme!

I was tagged by Whitney to list 5 things about me that I have never revealed on this blog. Which is actually quite easy since a. I haven't had the blog that long and b. it is mostly about Ellie!

1. I transferred to a different university for each year of undergrad. It went like this: Texas A&M, BYU, Weber State, BYU (again), and University of Houston. Then I got my Masters at TWU. Some people change their majors, I change colleges.

2. I once tried to put a frozen cat in the microwave to bring it back to life (I was only like 7 at the time and obviously not that bright).

3. I was once engaged and called off the wedding a month before. Since everyone already had their plane tickets, we just had a non-wedding party instead.

4. I used to have three ferrets: Scooter, Scout, and Sadie.
5. I have almost no talents. None. I can't decorate, or draw, or sing, or play a musical instrument (well), or cook or take nice pictures. I can read really fast...that's about it. Oh, and I can say all the kids' names in my family super fast. Almost like one word: Davidjeanninejennifermarkhollydanieldianna.

And since the rules state I must tag 5 more people...I tag Courtney, Rachel, Jodie, Wendy, and Karen

New toys and standing tall

Ellie has found a new "toy" that she loves almost as much as my camera case...my old calculator. She has been dragging it around for the past three days, pausing occasionally to "talk" on it.

Oh, notice the spit up down her shirt and on her pants? I recently started switching out one sippy cup of formula for one of whole milk. I guess it might take a bit for her stomach to get use to it.

Also, Ellie is finally free standing on purpose! Before, as soon as she realized she was free standing, she would sit back down and give me a look as if to say, "Whew! That was close. I could have died!" But now she stands and waits for us to clap and cheer. And then she takes a step towards us and goes tumbling down.

Ellie updates

I took Ellie to the doctor this morning for goopy eyes. Turns out, she has an ear infection in both ears and a sinus infection. Lucky her. I tell you, we took her just 2 weeks ago for congestion and all was fine. On the bright side, Ellie has finally doubled her birth weight. Two weeks ago she was only 19 pounds, 10 ounces. Today she weighed 21 pounds, 1 ounce (with a wet diaper).

The doctor also pointed out that Ellie is getting two more top teeth coming in. That will give her a grand total of 6 teeth by her first birthday. Ellie has taken to grinding her top teeth together with her bottom teeth. It drives me crazy.

Speaking of Ellie's birthday, I finally got my invitations mailed out! We are having it a week early on Good Friday so my parents (who will be in town that week for business) will be able to attend. My mom is making Ellie her famous bunny cake! Ack, one years old...how did that happen?

Saturday at the park

Today was such a busy day! I got up early and mopped Hank the Dog's blood off the kitchen floor. Then I left Ellie with Tom and drove out to Rosie's so we could prepare for Sabrina's baby shower. Mmmm, the food was delightful...lots of fresh fruit, mini quiches, mini cheesecakes, and chicken salad on croissants.

After the shower, I took Leilani, Mia, and Aidyn home with me so we could spend the afternoon together. Before Ellie was born, I always tried to spend quality time with The Girls, but unfortunately I don't get to do that very often now. I lost my status as their favorite aunt and now Aunt Sachi (Happy Birthday, Sach!) has taken my place. ;)

Anyway, we went to the park to play. Aunt Tara, Tom's sister, joined us and I am so glad she did. Even though The Girls are incredibly well-behaved, four kids is really too much for two hands. I don't know how my mom did seven. Probably explains why she was always leaving us places...grocery store, church, the car (kidding, Mom!).

After the park, we took the kiddos to McDonalds. Ellie had her first taste of french fries and she LOVED them. Too bad she isn't getting them again for a long, long time. Overall, I would say it was a successful (albeit exhausting) day.

Double trouble

Agh! No more dog talk!

So, here is Hank the Dog wearing his lovely Elizabethan collar that he will continue to wear for the next two weeks. Poor thing, he keeps running into walls and door jambs and stumbling all over the place. It is simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking.

But enough about the Dog. This blog is supposed to be all about me Ellie. She has taken to carrying two items with her at all times. She crawls around with my old camera case in one hand and her item of choice in the other. And she gets really mad when I try to pry them out of her fingers. This morning she pulled an old Halloween sock out of my sock drawer to go along with the camera case.

Fun with numbers

3 hours missed of work: $53
1 new window: $185
1 trip to the vet: $279
# of mosquitos that entered my house through broken window? countless

What I came home to tonight

Weekend wrapup

Here is Ellie facing forward in her car seat for the first time. It isn't a permanent arrangement...we were in Mark's car and I couldn't figure out the LATCH system. You can't really tell here due to the big ol pacifier in her mouth, but she liked facing forward. And here we are at the Children's Museum. We made the mistake of going on Family Free Night during Spring Break. It was so crowded and stressful...but the kids hardly even noticed.
I spent most of my afternoon today sorting through Ellie's old clothes to give to Kolby's future sister, Olivia. It made me a little sad to see those tiny little outfits, many of which she never even wore.
I also went through Ellie's shoes. Think she has enough?

Move along - no bird flu here

First off, I just want to say I really enjoyed y'alls comments from yesterday's post. It is nice to know that I wasn't the only one suffering from a slight case of the crazies. I was actually a little self conscious about posting my experience because I felt almost embarrassed about it. I can laugh about it now, but part of me is a little afraid it will happen again with the next baby. I always like to be very much in control of my emotions and it was very unnerving to lose that control. But, hey, at least I invested a small fortune in things like mosquito repellents, citronella candles, and so forth. I'll be ready for those suckers this season!

Second, for those of you who have stumbled upon my little blog here by way of BirdFluBreakingNews.com, I am sorry to disappoint you, but all you will find here is dirty diaper talk and some baby bragging.

A case of the crazies

Before Ellie was born, I arrogantly assumed that I would fall into motherhood naturally. Because I had spent so much time around children and babies, I was confident that I would be a great mother. Hadn’t I lived with two of my sisters when they had newborns? Didn’t I spend the majority of junior high and high school babysitting? Children loved me and I loved them. Once I became pregnant, I read every pregnancy book I could get my hands on. Considering I work in a large library, the amount of books was substantial. But I never bothered to read any of the books that talked about AFTER the baby was born. Because I knew that, sure it would be challenging, but nothing an old pro like me couldn’t handle.

Once I arrived home after Ellie’s birth and Tom returned to work, I found myself completely thrown for a loop. I had this tiny little baby (well, if you consider 10 pounds tiny) who was all yellow from jaundice and seemed to be oh so fragile. My mom came by each day to prepare a meal and to watch Ellie so I could try to nap, but she was also preparing for two major surgeries that she would be undergoing in two weeks and after those surgeries she would be pretty much incapacitated for a couple of months.

I hadn’t been home very long before the anxiety set in. I was worried about Ellie’s jaundice, by her seemingly lack of a soft spot, by her nonstop (and very painful) nursing, and anything else that popped in my head. Soon after, the crying bouts began. I am not normally a crier. Usually I only cry if I am really angry and frustrated about something, but feel helpless to do anything. These postpartum tears were different. They felt ‘cleaner’ somehow, without the anger and frustration that usually accompanied my crying. I didn’t know why I was crying, but I just felt this overwhelming sense of sadness. I didn’t want to let anyone come over except for my mom (before her surgery) and Rosie because I never knew when the tears would start and I didn’t want to cry in front of people.

And then there were the mosquitoes. Every time we would open our front door, swarms of mosquitoes would slip in uninvited. Our walls and ceilings would be covered with those jumping, black devils and I became obsessed with them. I would go around the house carrying a medium sized bath towel swatting at the mosquitoes. Even though I was dead tired from being up all night nursing and not able to nap during the day, I could not rest until each and every one of the mosquitoes had been eliminated. I was determined to protect my sweet new baby from the West Nile virus. Tom, although slightly frightened by my crazy state, also found it very amusing. One day he asked me, “I don’t know why you are so worried about West Nile when the real threat is the avian bird flu. You know it has 100% fatality rate in China?” He was clearly joking around, but I burst into tears because I just knew it was inevitable that the bird flu would come to Texas and take my baby from me. I tell this mosquito story a lot now and I always laugh uproariously every time I tell it, but at the time it seemed so very real.

After about six weeks of craziness, the tears dried up and the anxiety went away. Ellie’s forty five minute nursing stretches shrinked to twenty and I began to get a little more sleep at night. My c-section seemed to have completely healed and I was feeling fairly strong again. My mom started recovering from her surgery and Ellie started smiling.

I think back on that time of such heady emotion and I am just blown away by it all. I had never experienced such strong emotions before or lack of control over them. Now I find myself feeling quite comfortable in my role as a mother. It seems almost like second nature when I take care of Ellie. I feel like I have finally become the person that I so arrogantly assumed that I would be right from the beginning.

Eleven months

Dear Ellie-girl,

Today you are eleven months old. Just one more month until we celebrate your first birthday! It is hard for me to accept that you are moving from babydom into toddlerhood. Yesterday, we went over to your cousins' house to play and, although you were the youngest, you felt you could do everything they did. On the first try, you figured out how to motor around on the little push car. But then you saw your cousin on the big wheel and decided that was more your style.

You were sick a lot this past month and I was beginning to worry you were losing too much weight. But this past week you bounced back and the daycare ladies said you were starving and that I needed to send more food. They wrote down everything you ate for lunch: Gerber Graduate meal (includes peas, chicken, and pasta), jar of diced fruit, top half of hamburger bun, and about 6 ounces of peas from the kitchen. And that was just lunch! Your dad took you to the doctor this morning and you weighed 19 pounds, 10 ounces so I guess you aren't wasting away. You really enjoy feeding yourself now so I try to make the majority of your meals finger foods. I get a little worried, though, because you shovel everything down so fast. While one hand is stuffing your face, the other is loading up with more food. Good thing you now have four whole teeth to chew with!

You are a super fast crawler and love when I chase you around the house. You will start giggling like mad and crawl even faster until you collapse on the floor in a heap of giggles. I have so much fun playing with you. You like when I hold your hands and walk you around, but you prefer to walk on your tiptoes. Ever since you learned to pull yourself up, you have been doing the tip-toe standing thing. I think you are going to have some killer calf muscles.

I think soon you will be walking and I am told you will find even more things to get into. I find that a little worrisome because every time I turn around you have discovered something new. Like these crayons that I didn't even know I had. Apparently, purple is your favorite flavor.Despite all the illness, I have loved spending your eleventh month with you. We were able to do lots of cuddling, lots of playing, and lots of laughing. And I enjoyed every moment of it (even all the vomiting and diarrhea). Happy eleven months, Choo-choo.

Love you forever,

Mama

The zoo!

I remember one summer, back when I was still in high school, Tom and I went to the zoo. As we walked around, I noticed all the parents with their children and thought to myself, "Someday Tom and I will bring our kids here." Well, today we took Ellie to the zoo! She seemed more interested in watching other people than watching the animals, especially the other children. But, she would point to any bird-like creature and excitedly declare, "duck!" All other animals were referred to as, "dog!"


My favorite was the baby elephant. He was nursing and seeing it made me miss my nursing days. Just a little bit.

Sunday in (blurry) pictures

My mom is in town this week to watch Mark and Rosie's kids while they are on a cruise (lucky!). Even though Ellie hadn't seen her in three months, she totally knew her grandma and spent most of church trying to climb up on her lap. After church we went over to Mark and Rosie's house for the traditional Sunday dinner of pot roast and mashed potatoes. Mmmm. For some reason, all of my pics I took today were slightly blurry. I am, of course, blaming my camera.

Here we have Ellie and Kolby enjoying a game of peek-a-boo. I particularly like the last pic because they both have such devious expressions.And here is Leilani when she realized that her shirt matches the wall. Oh the fun to be had!

And Sabrina playing with the kiddos. I am sure I wasn't that patient when I was in my third trimester.And finally, my adorable mother...doing who knows what. Ole!

Another tooth! And by tooth, I mean TOOTH.

I was flipping Ellie upside down this morning and caught a glimpse of a shiny white tooth poking through on top. I went in for a closer look and the sucker is HUGE! As big as both bottom teeth combined! It also looks like her other top tooth is pushing through as well and looks to be just as big. So, question for the mommies out there...did your baby's top teeth come in freakishly large?

On to other news, I was interviewed by the local paper last week for one of my teen programs. It was sort of a last minute interview and I wasn't informed of it until that actual day. So, of course it was a day that I was looking particularly rough...hair up in ponytail, almost no makeup...you know the drill. Of course, the interviewer insisted on taking a few pictures of me to include with the article. The paper came out this week and Cody called me first thing to ask if I had seen it. He informed me that it was "the worst picture ever!" but not to worry because "no one will recognize you." Um, yeah, I have already had two patrons tell me that they saw my picture in the paper.

Give me

Instead of pointing to things she wants, Ellie will just hold her hand out, palm facing up. She does this when she wants some food we are eating, or if she wants to be lifted up, or if the remote control is out of her reach. Here she is demanding that I lift her up onto her zebra toy.
Of course, this morning she only wanted me to lift her on it so she could practice her dismount technique.
Once again Ellie is wearing an outfit that she wore 5 months ago:
All of this pictorial evidence clearly shows that I really do need to go shopping for Ellie and, no, it is not ridiculous that I spend my lunch hour at Target every day.

Photo fun

Ellie loves looking at her photo album. Usually, I will sit down with her and point to the people and overly enunciate their names and then she will point to them and say "Ah Da!" I really need to make her a kid-friendly photo book that she can play with whenever she wants. The photo album that she is looking at here was given to her when my BFF and favorite coworker, Cody, came to visit me in the hospital right after Ellie's birth. Even though Cody is deserting me in less than two weeks (to move to boring, hot, dry Arizona where he is sure to be miserable without me), I still love him!

And just for kicks, I realized that I dressed Ellie this morning in the exact same outfit that she wore 5 1/2 months ago!

Lazying along

This was a very uneventful weekend. I pretty much just laid around the house the whole time, hanging out with Ellie-belly. I may or may not have showered. I know I switched to a new pair of pajama pants at one point.

I started giving Ellie her formula in a sippy cup this weekend and she seemed to really like it. After she would down most of it, she would drag the cup all over the place, banging it on tables, the tv, my head, etc.

Ellie is a bit obsessed with her Sit n Spit Zebra these days. Now that she can actually ride on it (as opposed to standing in front of it, bouncing up and down) that is all she wants to do. She can't get on it by herself, but Tom taught her how to dismount so she doesn't crack her head open. Her other favorite toy is one of Tom's guitars.

Here she is getting caught red-handed:

Here she is right after I tell her "no":

See? Not spoiled at all. I actually don't care if she plays with it (because someone in this house needs to), but I sometimes just like to tell her "no" because her reactions are so funny. If she is in a good mood, she will just shake her head back and forth and smile. If she is cranky, she will flap her arms in frustration and go "ehhh!" in a really angry sort of tone. And if she is really tired (like in the picture above), she will just cry. And of course I just laugh and take a picture of it so I can prove to her in the future what a great mother I was.

Like a panting dog

When I was young, like 3rd grade young, I had to get my tonsils and adenoids out. The night after my surgery, I found myself alone in the hospital and totally panicking. One of the nurses gave me something to help me sleep, but it actually ended up making me more wired, so the nice nurses let me hang out in the nurses station with them all night and suck on Popsicles. The next morning, my teeth started grinding together. And I wasn't doing it. Then, my mouth stretched wide in a weird grimace and my tongue started hanging out. I thought this was very strange, but I wasn't really scared. It turned out that I was having an allergic reaction to the medicine they had given me to sleep and I ended up having to stay in the hospital for an additional night. I can still vividly remember that feeling of not having any control over my facial muscles.

***

A few nights ago, Ellie woke up around 12:30 screaming. Since, she never wakes up during the night anymore, I knew something was wrong. I figured she was just experiencing some teething pain and so I gave her some Motrin. When I went back to bed and told a sleepy Tom that I had given Ellie some Motrin, he reminded me that he had given her some Tylenol when she had woken up at 9:00. The next morning, Ellie started sticking her tongue out. And not just sticking it out, but hanging it out and drooling on herself. She hadn't done that before, not so repeatedly, so I immediately thought back to my childhood stay in the hospital and started freaking out about Ellie having some allergic reaction to the Tylenol/Motrin (see? I told you I am a drama mama when it comes to Ellie). But, she seemed to be breathing fine and really quite happy so I just decided to keep a close eye on her. Three days later and she is STILL doing the tongue thing! I think she likes the way it feels to rub her tongue across her new bottom teeth. She looks a little crazy, though, so I am counting on this just being a passing thing.