Eleven

That's how many hours Ella slept last night!  You better believe we all feel well rested in this house today!

Watching her play these days is so fun, she is so much more interactive now! She will roll from side to side (sometimes all the way over) to reach for toys and pick them up and then (of course) bring them to her mouth to chew/suck on.

She also really plays in her jumper, she is reaching for the toys and even bouncing up and down.  She seems so big now and I just can't imagine how big she is going to seem in just a few more months!

Faces of Ella

Our little sweetie pie has some most adorable expressions!

And I love every last one!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was Nick's birthday!  He wasn't very excited about having his birthday on a Monday but he enjoyed celebrating with Ella all the same!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I got you a nice card!

And some Michigan shirts for me!  Plus some of your favorite candy!

We also had Nick's favorite birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese and hotdogs!  I offered to make him peanut butter pie, but he wanted a milkshake instead! :)

Happy Birthday Honey, I love you!

Nice Weekend

Yesterday we did go to Cabela's and took Ella into the aquarium part - she LOVED it!  She was just looking all around, so much so that we could hardly get a picture without her head all a blur!  It was pretty darn cute!

Today we took Ella antiquing and she enjoyed her time in her carrier she did really well in the quiet store and we picked up some fun finds with Nick's birthday money!

We had to put Ella's hands out the top of the Bjorn so that she could get at her thumb.

This is Daddy trying to console Ella after he cheered so loudly when the Lions scored a touchdown to tie it up with 5 seconds left.  She was not nearly as happy about it as he was!  Too bad they couldn't finish up overtime in the same fashion!  She said the Lions are just OK!

First Little Cold

So this week Ella had her first cold.  I knew it was coming with being in daycare but I felt so bad for my little sweetie.  She had a runny nose and a little pitiful cough :(

Now that Mommy got Ella's cold I am sure she had a little sore throat as well.  She got her first dose of infant tylenol and she seemed to enjoy the bubble gum flavor.  We realized that was probably the first real taste of something other than formula that she has had!

This of course meant some sleepy days for us since no one sleeps well with a cold.  But with some saline for her nose and the cool mist humidifier she seems to be mostly all back to normal!  Now if only my cold would go away!

This is Daddy's birthday weekend so we will be watching lots of football and going to Cabela's and probably having some macaroni and cheese and hotdogs :)

3 Months Old!

Our sweet little Ella is already 3 months old!  I can't believe it!

Ella weighs 13 pounds and is 23 inches tall (although I did that on my own and it might be off since I can't imagine she hasn't grown since last month)!  She is still in Costco size 1-2 diapers (still the best!) and in 3 month clothes, but we are starting to transition to 6 months clothes, anything that is long sleeve I am buying in 6 months but sometimes I have to roll up the sleeves a little, it depends on the brand.  She continues to be a happy, content baby!  She is consistently sleeping through the night now which is really great, she loves her sleep just like her Mommy!

She has completely stopped needing a paci because she can content herself by sucking her thumb.  She puts herself to sleep most nights, we just wrap her up with her arms out and she falls asleep pretty quickly with no crying.  We are so lucky!

Weekends

Weekends are my favorite, and this one was a perfect one.  It is some great fall weather out!  Ella let us sleep in until about 8 both days which feels amazing.  Yesterday we got going and hit up Costco for some "necessities" which happened to include Halloween candy and Christmas wrapping paper.

And we also stopped at Target because we have tons of 6 month clothes for Ella but not many long sleeve things?!  So now we have some extra's... plus Ms Anna asked me to bring a sweater for Ella to keep at day care.  After that we watched the Michigan and Michigan State football games... one of which was good, and one of which was terrible :(

I'm a little too small for this Dad!

Today Nick did some yard work - we have a lot of leaves down already - and I have done a lot of laundry.  I also went through all my clothes and cleaned out and organized and now have 2 big bags for donation.  I cleaned out Ella's closet too, washed all her 6 month clothes and packed away some 3 month things that she won't wear again in the cooler weather.  6 month clothes are still a little big on her depending on the brand, but she is almost out of 3 months!  We are definitely in transition though which I just can't believe!

Ella hasn't rolled over since the once, but I know she will be regularly soon, she gets on her side all the time.  Today she rolled on her side and picked up her toy and rolled back!  She has been playing with her rattle ball too, she likes to put it to her mouth and stick her tongue through the holes :)

In other news, I found this picture on Nick's phone from our cabin vacation and realized that Mom and I are twins :)

Can't believe tomorrow is Monday already!  We are going to be in Michigan again before I know it!

Routine

All in all things have fallen into a pretty good daily routine around here and I think we have adjusted to day care pretty well.  Ella is amazing and continues to sleep through the night so I wake her up about 15 minutes before we need to leave to change and dress her and then we are on our way!

I tried to wake her up to feed her one morning and it was a disaster, she was just not ready to eat!  So now I let them give her her morning bottle and I let her sleep.. plus I get a little extra sleep too!  Once we get to KinderCare Ms Anna takes over loving on Ella.  She usually takes time to tell me how great she did the day before and how advanced she is.  Sometimes she brings her out into the main room to show off "her baby" to the rest of the staff.  They can't believe how happy she is :)  (I mean duh, she gets to live with me and Nick!)

I try and leave work as close to 5 as possible and drive the 2 minutes to go pick her up and we head home.  They have typically fed and changed her right before I get there so at home I get something to eat and then we play and cuddle and she tells me all about her day.  Once Daddy gets home one of us makes bottles for the next day and packs them up.  Around 9 we give her another bottle for the night and then it is off to bed!

Ella loves sucking her thumb so much that we have stoped swaddling her with her arms in and we just put her to bed wrapped up and sometimes wide awake.  Nick and I usually stay up for another half hour to make sure she falls asleep and then we are off to bed too, just to wake up at 5:30 and do it all over again!

I sure do miss her during the day, but I think we are both adjusting, plus it makes the weekends even more enjoyable!

Ella ROLLS OVER!

Today is a BIG DAY!  Ella figured out how to roll over for the first time!  She didn't know what to do when all the sudden she ended up on her stomach!  She stayed with her face into the carpet for a bit before she finally picked her head up and gave me this cute face.

We also had another good conversation tonight...

Such a cutie pie!

Labor Day Weekend

A week late but I wanted to re-cap

Ashely, Jeffy, Molly and Oscar arrived just in time for the MSU football game and pizza on Friday night!

The babies had on matching onesies - so cute!  Molly seemed so big and Ella seemed so small again next to one another.  We had a lot of fun watching Molly try and play with Ella.

Saturday we just hung out and watched football all day and chatted.  I made sandwich for 12 which fed us for lunch and dinner and also taco dip and Nick made his buffalo chicken dip, so we had lots of snacking going on - which is pretty much what football Saturday's are made for!

Sunday we went to the Brewer's game!  Ella and Molly did great all in all!  We had to cover Ella's ears during the cheering and fireworks for home runs... which I'm pretty sure there were at least 5, and I think more.

She even had lunch at the ball park... but then pretty much slept on daddy though the game :)

better than peanuts and hotdogs?

The Hunds

The Latinens

Nick, Ella, Liz, Jeff, Ashley, Molly

Ashley let me know that Comerica Park hands out first game certificates so we went to guest services to see if Miller Park did and walked away with a free momento for the baby book!

Don't worry - the Brewers are just her NL team - Tigers are still first!

After the game we went downtown to Rock Bottom for some dinner and while we were waiting Nick played a game of Jenga with some locals who appeared to have spent their afternoon at the bar... it was entertaining!

Monday the Latinen's had to pack up and head home.. but not before Oscar had some fun with one of Lucky's toys, good thing she has LOTS!

Chatty Cathy

After her bath today Ella sure had a lot to tell us about her day!

The Big Day

Yesterday was a pretty big day around here.

I had to venture back to work, which meant that it was little Miss Isabelle's first day at day care.  It was hard but we made it with no tears!  I had a lot of anxiety on Monday but Nick reassured me that they would take good care of her.  For some reason the drive in was the hardest part but once we got there I felt ok about it all.  She was already smiling at Miss Anna by the time I left, so I think that helped.

It was one day payroll at work, which means super busy, so the day really went by pretty quick.  I hung up lots of pictures at my desk and even got to go out to lunch.  When I went to pick her up she was smiling and happy to see me!  They said that she did really well and was talking and smiling all day. :)  That night she was super talkative and happy and telling me all about what a good day she had - so I'm pretty sure she is in good hands!

Today would have gone just as well, except someone (AKA me) got all the way there and then realized the nicely prepared and labeled bottles were still at home in the fridge.  So I had to drive all the way home to get them.  In order to prevent making the same mistake twice I decided to enact the 'chip clip system' a la Grandma and Grandpa's View.

And in fuzzie news... a kitty thought that she found a good hiding place... fail!