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!