Wordless Wednesday

The Most Adorable Outfit

I've been on the hunt for something cute for Thanksgiving.  Deni and I text back and forth about cute smocked clothes we find, but none of the turkey smocked outfits were that cute. So I went to etsy! I was not disappointed!

Here's what Ellie will be sporting Thanksgiving day!

Check out the shop here for this and more super cute outfits

Isn't it the cutest?!!!

7 Months Old

Ellie turned 7 months old last Monday.  I haven't had a chance or been able to take pictures because she's been sick.  Our pediatrician was on vacation again so we saw his fill in and he said she was fine.  GRRRR!  When our pedi got back last Tuesday, Barry took her in to see him.  I knew she was sick!  I was right!  She has an ear infection and upper respiratory junk going on.  Poor girl!  She still has a terrible runny nose a little cough and watery eyes today.  I think she might also be cutting her top teeth.  She is drooling like crazy and has been quite fussy!

When we went to the dr last Tuesday, they weighed our girl and she has actually gained a little even being sick.  She weighs 16.7 lbs.  She still loves to eat!  She's tried just about every stage 2 veggie and fruit except peas.  She loves pears and squash the best though.  We also tried peaches again and she likes them.  I'm happy about that!  I'm still making a lot of her food, but also buying quite a bit.  I think now that I'm back to work, I'll buy more.  We had to move up a size in onesies, she's now wearing 9 months.  The 6 months were too short. I feel like my baby girl is growing up too fast. 

Ellie is at such a fun stage right now.  She is changing so quickly.  It seems like everyday she does something new.  She started saying "Dada" about two weeks ago.  It's adorable!  She also says "Mmmma" when she sees me now.  That just started this past week.  I love it!

Ellie is crawling.  It's just about the cutest thing ever!  She almost looks like a frog when she gets going.  She started crawling to get the cat and hasn't stopped yet.  ha!  She loves anything paper.  I have some magazines on the bottom of the coffee table and she pulls them off all the time.  She's also pulling up on the bottom part of the coffee table.  I think we are going to lower her crib this week.  I sure don't want her pulling up in there!

She still loves her jumperoo.  She goes crazy in that thing!  She doesn't care for her bumbo much anymore at all.  She can get herself out of it so we just haven't used it lately.  I think she just wants to be on the go all the time.  She doesn't stay still too much.

We are down to two naps a day.  She still takes her morning nap about 9:00 and sleeps for about 1.5 hours.  Then she goes down at about 1:00 for 2-3 hours.  She's been in bed by 7:00 or 7:30 each night and then I wake her up at 6:30 to get ready to go to the babysitter.  I love that she's such a good sleeper!  She has been waking up a little in the middle of the night since she's been sick.  I just go in and give her the pacie and she's usually right back to sleep. 

Ellie has definitely turned into a big time mamma's girl.  While I love this, I also don't want her to feel bad when I'm not around.  When I leave the room she often cries.  When she sees me and is with someone else, she'll reach for me.  She is the light of my life and I certainly don't mind that she prefers me right now.  I know it won't always be like this so I am soaking it up!

Barry took these this morning before church. 

Notice her bare feet?  She will not leave shoes or socks on those cute little feet. 
Since it's been over 100 degrees forever now, I just gave up the battle.  I don't blame her!

We Survived!

Maybe the title should be, "I Survived!"

Today was my first day back to work after a wonderful summer at home with Ellie. I had several breakdowns last week and a big one yesterday. But, this morning I got up feeling ok about it all. I think it was because of a wonderful message my sweet friend Julie sent me on facebook and then followed up with a text this morning. She basically said we aren't bad mommies because we work.  She knows there is going to be some child that will be in our rooms this year that we can minister to in some way.  I think she's right. She also left her sweet baby to go back to work today. We made it through day one, Julie!

I know I had lots of people praying for me and that sure helped too!

Then I came home to the sweetest, smiliest baby around! I just love that girl. I love her daddy too!

My two loves!  Taken in July on Mackinaw Island. 

Now, it's off to bed so I can be somewhat rested for Day 2...

Sam Update

I want to thank all of you who commented on my last post.  You were so sweet and many of you had me in tears. I love that our community of bloggers all stick together to support one another!  It meant so much to me!

No one around here is a pi11 pus.her or a dr.ug addi.ct.  Those are the pills that Sam has to take twice a day.  Thankfully the vet ruled out leukemia.  After all the tests they've run in the last 2 weeks, he called his specialist friend in Dallas for a phone consult.  He believes Sam has some sort of an auto immune disease that is causing the hemolytic anemia.  He's lost a lot of red blood cells and they are not regenerating on their own.  These two vets put their heads together and decided the course of treatment for Sam and it includes all those pi11s twice a day.  My vet wants me to call him everyday and give him an update on Sam and then take him in once a week for new lab work.  He is hoping this can help him turn the corner, but said there is no guarantee.  I am praying it works! 

Sam's on a large dose of steroids each day and that gives him more energy than he's had in the past.  Well, yesterday we had rain, yes I said RAIN, in Texas!  The storm clouds were a glorious site!  Ellie was napping so I went outside on the patio and sat just to watch and wait for the rain.  My thermometer said 81.  I couldn't remember when it had been 81 degrees.  Sam sat our with me too.  He's supposed to stay cool and calm so he doesn't usually get out much during the day with the heat.  I knew he was loving it as much as I was.  He even seemed to perk up a bit and get his throw toy.  Of course I didn't really throw it much for him since he's not supposed to exert himself.  But, I did get this shot with my phone.




(You'll notice our grass is like straw. We gave up watering because it was still dead. Now we've just embraced the dead grass.)

Thanks again for all your sweet comments! 



-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My (other) Baby is Very Sick

Sam is very sick.

My normally happy, at times rambunctious 5 year old boy has not been himself.  It started with a lot more sleeping than normal, which I attributed to the heat.  Then he refused to eat much for a day or two.  After a coupled days of him not acting "normal" I planned to take him to the vet when Barry got home from work.  Before he got home Sam was having trouble walking.  It appeared he just lost control of his legs so I took him right then.  I had to carry him and lift him into the car.

His blood work came back with dangerously low levels of iron and red blood cells.  They keep dropping every day even with the medicine and injections the doctors are giving him.  They are trying to figure out what's causing this.  They've done all sorts of tests and yesterday they ran some more tests because the vet now things he has leukemia or some type of bone marrow cancer.  :(   We will know more this afternoon.

My heart is broken.  I know to some he's just a dog, but to me he's my first baby.  I got him when he was 6 weeks old and only weight about 7 lbs.  He's been with me through a lot of crazy hard times.  He's sat with me and licked me when I was crying.  Right now he's so sick and there is nothing I can do about it. 
I just think about all the things I had planned for him and Ellie.  They are supposed to be best friends!  Am I crazy that I love my dog so much?  Maybe to some.  But, right now I don't care.  I just want him back to his normal ball obsessed self.  At this point I wouldn't even hide his ball. 

Cuteness Overload

I realize I'm a bit biased, but I think she's just the cutest!   I love these pics...even though they aren't the best because they show her personality.  She almost always has a smile on her face and laughs all the time!

6 Months

I know I'm a couple weeks late with this post, but between our vacation and Ellie's pediatrician going on vacation we didn't get in to see him until Wednesday.

She is doing great! She weighs 16.3 lbs and is 26 1/4" long. She's in the 50th percentile for both. At her 3 month visit she was only in the 25th percentile. It's those solid foods.

Ellie eats cereal, although she doesn't much care for it. She prefers her veggies and fruit. She has tried green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, peaches, and pears. Squash being her favorite. Maybe because that came right out of daddy's garden. She hated the peaches. Maybe we will try them again sometime, because peaches are just about my favorite! I'm making a lot of her food, which has been super easy! She also still takes four 8 oz bottles a day.


Check out those teeth!

This girl rolls wherever she wants to go. I can't turn my back or she'll be in another room. She is also scooting all over. She even scoots on her back. She will arch her back and inch along like an upside down inchworm. It's so funny to watch. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. I don't think it will be long before we have a crawler. Which I am in no rush for! That only means she will be into everything and she will be getting too big. When she first turned 6 months old she was a little wobbly at the sitting, now she's got it down.

Her favorite things are her jumperoo. I had a friend give me hers and let me tell you, Ellie loves it! She goes crazy jumping and screaming in that thing. It's so fun to watch her. She still loves her activity mat and swing. Although she doesn't spend much time in the swing anymore. We had to put the bouncy seat away because she was trying to squirm out of it. Have you noticed a pattern? She doesn't like to stay still too much. She sits in her bumbo to watch her Faith Baby DVD if I am getting lunch or dinner ready. We have three of them, but we only watch them about twice a week. She loves them. They have puppets and she laughs and smiles at the puppets. Especially if they pop up out of nowhere.

Which leads to another funny thing about our girl. She loves to be startled. She just laughs and laughs anytime we catch her off guard and startle her. She will jump and then just cackle. It's the cutest thing!

She's still wearing size 6 month clothes. The footed pj's we put her in at night are starting to get a little bit short and I think we will need to jump up in sizes soon. I realize it's 110 degrees here in TX, but with the AC on at night, I still put her in footed pj's. She doesn't have a blanket in her crib and I don't want her little feet to get cold. Speaking of feet....do any of you have babies with stinky feet? Well, I do! Miss Ellie has very stinky feet. Only right around her toes. So I think it's because she keeps her toes curled a lot of the time. She hasn't been wearing shoes or socks much because it's just too darn hot!

Little Miss is still in size 2 diapers. I see the diapers changing soon. I'll just use up what we have and then order more. Did I mention we use amazon and are part of the amazon moms program? I've told all my IRL friends about it! I've found it to be cheaper than buying with coupons. I get 30% off my order, no sales tax and free shipping right to my door. I enrolled in the program and they send out diapers automatically each month unless you tell them not to. Which I generally do. With us being on vacation and getting so many diapers at our showers, I haven't ordered consistently each month. Some months I order 3 boxes, other months 1 box. It just depends on how many I have from my shower in the size she is in. You can change your order at any time. I highly recommend it. We use Huggies and I get them cheaper there than any other place I've tried. (I get no incentive for telling you about this. Just wanted to pass along some good mommy advice.)

Other kids have become very interesting to Ellie. She loves to watch them, and smiles all the time she is around them. She also loves our cat! CB is 15 and for the longest time showed zero interest in Ellie. But, in the last month, she has decided Ellie isn't half bad. Ellie will "pet" her and shows her some attention so CB is always near her when she plays on the floor. Ellie and Sam have made up. She loves him again. He has been very sick though. I take him back to the vet today. I'll update on that more later.

Ellie "talks" nonstop. It could be because we talk to her all the time. She's also discovered her voice. As in screaming and squealing. She loves it!  She especially gets excited if we clap and cheer for her.  It's just the cutest thing ever!  This week she also started saying "da da da da da" over and over again. Barry was thrilled of course because he just knew she was saying his name. ;)

She's still sleeping like a champ! She's still taking 3 naps a day. I'm trying to transition her to two because when I go back to work I don't want really want her sleeping in the evening when we have time with her. She goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up at about 7-7:30 in the morning. Then takes a nap at 9:00. She sleeps about 1.5 hours and then is up to play and eat until around 1:00. That nap is her longer nap. She sleeps anywhere between 2-3 hours. If she sleeps 2 hours she'll take and evening nap.  It's usually about 45 minutes.  If she sleeps longer we can usually keep her up in the evenings. This girl loves her sleep!

Ellie had her first vacation in July and returned home just before she turned 6 months old. She and I spent 17 days with my family and friends in Michigan. They got to love on my girl. It was wonderful. So hard to come back. Daddy joined us after the first week. He said it was the hardest week ever being aways from his girl(s) so long. I think it was just the one girl in particular. ha!

I realize this is long and most of you probably didn't read it all. That's ok. This is so I'll remember all the details as Ellie gets older.

Wordless Wednesday