11 weeks

At 11 weeks, Ella is simply awesome. My lack of posts mostly has to do with the fact that we are enjoying her so much it is hard to take time out to update the blog. Jim is also on vacation and we are really having some nice family time. But I will try to get back on a more regular schedule of updates soon.
So, as I said, Ella is just the coolest. As of a couple weeks now, she is smiling at us - not just an occasional smile that might have been a reflex but full on smiles. One smile melts your heart and smile after smile pretty much renders you useless as all you want to do is coo at her forever. But that smile she gives when she first recognizes you and consciously smiles AT YOU, just seals the deal on this whole parenthood thing. It's a pretty incredible feeling.

Ella is holding her head up really well and seems to want to get in the sitting position by pulling her head forward. She likes to squirm around, excercising her little muscles and it's only a matter of time before she's rolling around, crawling, walking, dancing around... :)

The last couple of days she has been "talking" - the goo's and gaa's are spillig like mad and she really seems to be communicating. It's so cool to be connecting on this next level. Each day Ella is becoming more and more like a little person. She is awake longer during the day now and can entertain herself. As much as we want to hold her and love her and squeeze her tight all the time, we do try to give her some alone time (which just really means she is in her playpen right next to us :)). She swats at her toys, laughs, and it is hard to step away from her for more than a few minutes at a time because it really is that hard to stay away.

Ella is discovering her hands and lately likes to suck on her little fist. She is starting to grip her toys and has recently also taken a slight interest in her toes and that they belong to her. While still not sleeping through the night, she does usually get a 4-5 hour stretch at some point. Unfortunately, a good portion of this usually seems to be when we are still awake. But, I can say that the lack of sleep is not so bad anymore and occasionally we are rewarded with a longer stretch of sleep.

Ella sleeps in her crib...but also loves to fall asleep with us. Or perhaps, we just love having her fall asleep on us. I love these moments.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a peaceful and happy holiday
Love,

Ella Mae,

Jim & Justina

**Ella's first Christmas was great. We spent Christmas Eve by first going to Jim's mom's and then to my parents house. Unfortunately, Ella was a little overwhelmed and was not in a great mood and was inconsolable. Christmas Day was fabulous however. Ella was on her home turf as we got to host our whole family and she was her usual happy self. We had a super fun time and are looking forward to doing it again next year when Ella will be old enough to open her own presents :)

Holiday Party

Our holidays started with a little Holiday Happy Hour at our house. Jim and I spend a few days putting up all our decorations and Christmas lights outside each year and decided that it was finally time to share our fun with our friends. Ella stayed up with us the night before supervising our meal preparation.

In addition to celebrating the holiday season, we also celebrated Ella turning two months. She was a real party girl, hanging out with our friends and staying up late! We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!

Busy week

We picked out our Christmas Tree with Grandma Marilyn

After decorating the tree, we feasted on fresh crabHappy Birthday to Babcia Beata!

We visited the North Pole!
And rode the carousel!

Ella playing

Ella is making new sounds every day. They are all super cute and as Jim says, I could sit here for hours listening to her :)

(Sorry about the quality of these videos - they were recorded on my Blackberry and I see they come out pretty pixalated so I will try to record with our camera instead)

She did it!

After not having much success with trying to introduce the bottle to Ella, I went out and bought various different nipples hoping she'd latch onto one of them. So today I tried with the Playtex Orthodontic nipple which is the one I thought had the best chance of working. The results above :) Ella drank 2 oz which I quickly found out will not be enough for her so I will need to save my pumped milk in larger amounts. Tonight we will have papa try feeding Ella. I think we are going to be successful!

Big day

Ella and I had a big day yesterday. I had a dentist appointment in San Francisco that I was determined to keep so that we would have to get into the city. I wasn't sure if I should drive in or take Bart but decided there was something comforting about having the car to return to just in case Ella (or I) needed it. So off we went into the big, busy city after a 7 week absence. Mind you I have not NOT been in the city for this long since I moved here in 2000. We parked by Jim's office where he met us and we showed off Ella to all his coworkers. It was nice for me as well since I know most of the people there. It was strange being back in the office I once worked in but really nice to see friends I hadn't seen in a long time. Then we went by my work and said hello there. Afterwards, we met up with Kate for a nice lunch (wine included!) courtesy of my wonderful husband. Aunt Kate was wonderful and watched Ella while mama had her teeth cleaned. The day ended with us all meeting up with Jim and a couple friends for a little happy hour. It was a fun day and Ella did great. We are now not afraid to go into the big, bustling city again :)

My sweet girl

We had our doc appointment today and Ella is 23 3/8" tall (taller than 90% of girls her age) and weighs 12 lbs 4.6 ozs (weighing more than 95% of girls her age). The doc said she is perfect (and of course I think so too!)
Ella also got her first 4 immunizations - 3 shots in her thighs (notice the Charlie Brown band aids above) and one orally. She did fine with drinking that one down but the shots made poor thing cry like she has never before. It just about broke my heart! Luckily it didn't last too long and she feels fine so far, though maybe a bit more fussy. Ella and I went shopping afterwards and she ended up with a couple new little things :). Next appointment is in 2 months - and unfortunately, 4 more shots then. But for tonight, extra kisses for my sweet girl.

7 weeks today

On our walk today

Ella is 7 weeks today. Every day she spends more and more time awake and is practicing new sounds and expressions. Mostly she is just practicing being cute :) Tomorrow we have her 2 month appointment during which she will get 4 different immunization shots - poor baby. I am curious how much she weighs (I think around 12 lbs) and how much she's grown (I say about 2 inches). We are still not getting consistant stretches of sleep but most nights she does start with a 4 to 4.5 hour stretch in the evening, meaning we can get 3 or so hours of sleep if we go to bed early. Of course as the night goes on the stretches get shorter. Sleeping in is a thing of the distant past. Forget sleeping in, sleeping more than 3 hours is a thing of the past. But certainly all worth it :)

Baby's first Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year...but this year, the hit of the party was Ella of course. The grandmas did a nice job of sharing Ella holding time and Aunt Laura also got some quality Ella time. Ella debuted two dresses - one from Kate (thank you!) and one from Babcia Beata. A true fashionista already! We had a delicious smoked turkey and too many amazing side dishes to count (including one of my favorites, oyster stuffing courtesy of my dad). We "camped out" on our couch the night before so that Jim could start the smoker at 2:30am. The turkey cooked for 12 hours and was simply awesome.
We also celebrated my brother's birthday a day early since we were all together. Happy 17th Michael!

Little girl

My little girl in her first dress

Tummy time with papa
Ella loves bath time now

Ella practicing with the bottle

I just started pumping on Saturday to start storing up some milk so Jim can feed Ella and so we can eventually go out sans baby. We have made plans for our first outing without Ella in mid December and my mom will babysit. So, we needed to introduce Ella to the bottle. She wasn't too into it but I am not worried, I'm sure she'll get the hang of it like she did before my milk came in.

Ella loves the lake

Hanging comfortably on the porch with papa

Water baby - going for a ride in the boat
All snuggled up with mama and papa

Checking out the dock

With Uncle Steve

Ella was awesome at the lake. She was just as easy to take care of there as at home, loved being on the boat, taking in her surroundings, and meeting Uncle Steve - and I think Uncle Steve enjoyed meeting her just as much! Sure the drive up and home took a little longer as we had to stop to feed but other than that we had a great time and can't wait to go back!

My crazy brother

I'm thankful my first child is a daughter. Sons do crazy things like this.

One month today!

Smiley bear

Ella Mae turned one month today. We visited Babcia (Grandma) Beata, who couldn't get enough of her little Ella. I can't believe my little butter bean is already a month and that just a month ago I was giving birth to her. She is the sweetest. To celebrate her "birthday" we are headed up to Clear Lake for the weekend to introduce her to her home away from home. I can't wait to show Ella our wonderful lake. She will also get to meet Uncle Steve. It is going to be a very exciting weekend for our little one.

Growing baby

My lovely daughter is growing with each day. We have gone from newborn size diapers to size 1 diapers. Does it really go by so fast??
We had our first restaurant outing on Friday. We went for lunch to our favorite Indian restaurant and sat in the corner, close to the door - just in case of a melt down. Luckily there wasn't one - success! :)

We have 2 baby carriers but one is a bit too big for Ella at this point and the other I can't figure out how to wrap. So, after looking at slings and other carriers, I finally gave in and bought a Baby Bjorn. Everyone who has one swears by it. As you can see, Ella seems to like it alright. It was nice to have some free hands to do a few things when she simply just would prefer not to be put down. It's really a win/win - I get to have her close, she gets to be close - all while having a couple free hands.

Pup update

I realize all my posts have pretty much been baby related and our poor pups have not even received an honorable mention. Both Foxie and Benny have been really great with Ella. They seem to understand she is a tiny thing that needs to be approached rather slowly and gently. Benny has been really great - he has been sticking close by wherever the baby and one of us is. Foxie as well, though she didn't seem to pay as much attention to Ella at first as did Benny. They both go up to her and smell her, tails wagging away. I think the three of them will get along just fine :)

That's my hubby!

With the rainy season ahead, my darling husband has taken on creating a path around the back perimeter of the yard, where the pups (namely Benny) run.

This creates a terrible muddy mess so we thought creating this path will do the trick. To prep, Jim had to dig a 4" deep path (about 28" x 50' long!), put in bender board, and lay down anti-weed paper.

So far he has carried flagstone, about fifteen 70 lb. bags of sand/gravel to go underneath the flagstone, and 3 bags of smaller stone to fill in the cracks and we are only about halfway done.

The first half has come out great and today Jim is carrying more bags of sand in the pouring rain. He is very determined and one heck of a worker!

Happy Halloween!

Love,

Jim, Justina & Chili-ella Pepper :)

Things I've learned so far

Ella is now just a little over two weeks and with each day we learn something new. For example:
1. Just because something works one day, doesn't mean it'll work the next to quite down baby.
2. Built-in-bra tank tops are the best when it comes to feeding - quick and easy access.
3. You are lucky to have a two hour stretch of time to get something done. Sometimes, those stretches don't even come.
4. Cloth diapers - so far mixed reviews on this as I have not been as vigilant in trying them as I had hoped. The moment I put one on, Ella has a tendency to pee which wakes her back up and the cycle starts all over. Disposables are certainly much easier but we have already dealt with a bit of diaper rash - thank goodness for Desitin. We have been trying cloth in between which helps with the diaper rash. The jury is still out on how this will work.
5. Everything is on baby time and not sure where the hours go. Getting out of the house requires more time but the car seat, the car, and the stroller all work like magic in getting Ella to fall asleep.
6. There is nothing better than seeing Ella content.

My favorite moments

Last Friday we got to spend the day with papa. After not getting much sleep, Jim decided to stay home with us. It was a treat for us to get to spend extra time with him. Luckily Jim's work schedule is pretty flexible and he is home usually between 3-4pm when he goes in by 7am. We love our afternoons but getting a whole extra day is extra great. We went to see Grandma Marilyn and washed and vacummed our car - something that needed badly to be done. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves very much.
Which brings me to my favorite moments: seeing my husband with my daughter and how he looks with and at her. He is such a natural and I LOVE seeing them together.
My other favorite moment is the minute Ella stops feeding and falls asleep on my chest. There is such comfort in having her this close to me and I cherish every single minute - I know it won't last forever so I am going to drink up as many of these moments as I can :)