Giggle Basket

Lots of recent cute developments in her 7th month!

• Clapping! She'll clap on her own and back at you if you start it
• She often waves, but we're not sure if she knows what she's doing
  
• More mobility - scoots backwards and turns around very well
• Performs planks - just to make mom jealous
• Chatter box - lots of da-das and many other noises that sound like Odie, icecream, and good-day
• Teeth - she is on tooth #8 (bottom right). The top 4 came in over the last few weeks. What a nightmare!
• Shows her displeasure more often and with increasing volume
• Gets really excited when we walk in the room
• Laughs hysterically at Odie.
• Blows food on her mom - especially green beans
• First ear infection
• Still loves bath time
• Makes motorboat noises
• Makes garbage disposal noises
  
• Makes kissy noises
• Sits unassisted
  
• Not eating bottles well - too many places to go and things to see

DA DA your hair is greasy

Love ya even though you stink

I'm sooo cute

Baby vs Beagle

Too busy for a title

Last week was a whirlwind as usual! We had a really great Valentines day thanks to my wonderful husband, cheese fondue, and wine. Scott surprised me with Carrie Underwood tickets even though we agreed on no gifts, but to his credit, he bought them way before he agreed on the no gifts. Adding to the awesomeness of the gift, the concert date falls on April twenty-turd, which is our dating anniversary. Unintentionally, we celebrate our dating anniversary more than our wedding anniversary, probably because travel is cheap in April. We took a cruise 3 years ago, went to Mexico two years ago, went to Chicago one year ago, and this year we'll be at a concert. Now that I think of it, each year is getting slightly less exciting and maybe next year we'll find ourselves at Chuckecheese when the 23rd rolls around. Anyway, it was very sweet of him! We also made cheese fondue and enjoyed some yummy wine we got at Robinettes. We bought a case right before I found out I was pregnant, so we've been having fun making up for lost time over the last couple of months.

Ellie had a very exciting week and took her first step toward an exciting career in marketing. She started the day hanging out with some coworkers while I presented the new covers at our sales conference. Later in the day, I exploited her in another presentation about a Bible geared towards new moms. She did SO good. She just looked around while I held her and talked about the Bible. She added some "ba bas" and razzes at the perfect times. She fell asleep in my arms at the end while the rest of the team finished the presentation. I mainly used her cuteness to detract some attention from myself, but I think it added at lot to the presentation. I've been pushing her toward a career as a pharmacist, but maybe marketing will be her thing! I was so nervous that she was going to freak out, especially after being at work for a few hours before her big moment and missing her nap, but it was perfect! I wish I would have remembered my camera!

I can't believe she is 7 months old! She is waving bye-bye and giving high-fives, but only on her own terms. She is wiggling around on he tummy more and I don't think it will be much longer until she is crawling. She still has no interest in sitting up on the floor. She just wants to stand, but if i can get her to sit, she starts reaching for everything. She loves to eat her solids and attacks the spoon so violently she sometimes misses her mark and ends up with food all over her cheek. She is getting her two front teeth, which makes for 6 total. The left one is mostly through and the right is sooo close. Hopefully we'll all be a little happier and less fussy once that is done.

6 month stats

At Ellie's 6 month appointment last week she weighed 17 lbs 4 oz and measured 27 3/4" which put her in the 60th percentile for weight and 96th for height. She just got her 4th tooth and it has been a struggle for everyone. Now she has one on top and three on the bottom. On top of having a cold since Christmas, she seems to be in a lot of pain from her teeth, especially in the evening. Besides hanging out with Odie, she's been enjoying her sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, apples, and pears. I even made my own batch of sweet potatoes over the weekend and have about 32 servings in the freezer. Speaking of the weekend, it was so nice to have a relaxing one. We took her to the mall to distract her and she picked out some new outfits from Old Navy. It was a great way to gear up for the rest of the week.
On Monday, Scott helped me with dinner. He was slicing an avocado when I heard him scream. He tried to clean the wound and apply pressure but the bleeding would not stop. The next few hours were quite dramatic. He raised his arm, he lowered his arm, he laid on the bathroom floor. He'd move around for awhile, reinspect the damage, but then lay down because it made him so nauseous. After not much improvement and a consult with google, we decided to go to urgent care. We dropped Ellie off at her grandparents because I didn't want to expose her to more germies. Once we arrived we had to wait for quite awhile because a little kid came in right after us that couldn't breath. I chose not to go into the exam room with Scott and stayed in the waiting room to catch up on Twilight. Don't judge me. About 2 hours later, Scott came back and said I needed to drive. He lost consciousness when they numbed him for the stitches. I was thankful to miss that part of the experience. I'm the last person you want around in an emergency situation. :) We picked up the wide awake Ellie and tried to put her to bed. She was up at 2, 4, then 6. Not the best way to start an extremely busy week! We're really looking forward to the weekend!

6.2 months

Wowzers, I can't keep up with this thing anymore. Apologies to my faithful readers, whoever you are! I hate to disappoint. I can't believe my baby turned 6 months on the 13th. She is just so much fun. Her new trick is rolling across the floor, landing on the wood section, and ending with a scream. She doesn't do this very often and is very content to lay on her back playing with toys. She's not sitting up yet, but i think it is more that she chooses not to. =) She also makes a cute new pucker/fishy face, and says BOB BOB BOB while sucking in her lips. She loves her jumperoo and takes baby hops while playing with toys. We aren't supposed to start solids (except cereal) until the next doctors appointment which is in two days, but this last week I started feeding her baby apples and pears. Shhhh, don't tell! I think she liked them. She's pretty into her rice cereal. I tried to sneak some baby oatmeal as a replacement, but she spits that right back at me.

You can really see her bottom teeth here:


We had THE BEST weekend. On Saturday, Scott and I went to see Brad Paisley. He is so wonderful, I think I have a crush! Not bad to look at - dorky, hot, and talented! I think he's short though. He puts on an amazing show! We also saw Miranda Lambert. I'm not as familiar with her music, so I was surprised when I recognized most of her songs. The opening to the opening act was Justin Moore, but we missed him because we had poopy service for dinner. Oh well.



YUMMY!
On Sunday, we had Ellie's dedication at Mars. It was a really nice service, but in typical Scott/Rachel fashion, we got to the part where we had to read the covenant we wrote and Scott digs into his pockets and comes out empty handed. I panicked, but he ran out into the coat room area and came back lightning fast. Thankfully it was in his coat pocket. Whew! After the service, we hung out at our house and had cake and snacks. Ellie just loves watching her cousins goof around.

Where is my floor?

Our smallish house has been overtaken with Ellie toys. She loves her exersaucer and jumperoo, though cant rotate in either very well. She can barely touch the bottom with her tip toes.

We had a rough week with her first cold. I'm not sure who started it, but Scott, myself, and Ellie have passed back and forth some kind of crud over the last few weeks. One night was pretty bad and Ellie had to sleep in her car seat in our room in order to breath.


She is still very cute and smiley! She's mixing vowels and consonants. Sometimes it sounds like she says "ut-oh" and "ma-no!" She also roars at us and loves it when we roar back at her. She wants to stand (supported) but isn't very close to sitting on her own yet. We've been having some sleep issues, but last night was great. 11ish hours in a row! We haven't gone more than 5 in a long time. In a few short days, she'll turn 6 months! It is sooo sad!

Odie is doing well. Not a single diaper incident this year! He wanted his picture in the blog, so here we are hanging out in his room, practicing the duck face.

My first play by play

3:59 - awake to screaming
4:02 - feeding away. So happy there was not a 1:00 last night
5:00 - after a few attempts, baby is back to sleeping
6:00 - Mom is asleep... ahhhh
8:30 - Awake!
8:31 - Promise myself to go to bed earlier tonight
9:00 - Beautifully hot husband makes mom breakfast: french toast and coffee. lots of coffee.
10:30 - Mom and Ellie visit Katie and Alison. Force the kids to be friends.
12:30 - Meltdown! Time to go home. the almost 6 month old runs the show!
1:05 - Home, fed, and baby napping. Big dilemma, do i nap or clean the rot that is my house?
1:15 - nap wins
1:30 - d-mit! phone rings. Mom is up. Scott is leaving to help a friend move a refrigerator
3:00 - baby is up and fed. Start the endless rotation between bouncy, jumperoo, exersaucer
4:00 - Rice cereal time baby! Party in my tummy - yeah!
4:15 - Baby seems content to sit in highchair and play. Mom runs around and starts to clean rot
4:20 - KaBOOM, there is an explosion more than likely coming from someones pants
4:21 - Pick up baby. The evidence is already showing all over the seat. Yep, it is everywhere.
4:22 - BIGGEST MESS I've ever seen. I always get the good ones. Start the wipe down.
4:24 - Still working on it. Nooo, just got on her face somehow.
4:25 - filling up the tub
4:35 - clean baby! napping baby
4:40 - pre-rinsing multiple layers of soiled mess before throwing in wash. wash on HOT
4:44 - glance at the mirror, yep it got on my face too! A quick wash will do!
4:45 - Finish cleaning, start on dinner. Enchiladas AGAIN. Thats like the 3rd time this week. What was I thinking.
6:00 - My baby, oops husband, comes home, my other baby is up. We give thanks and eat.
8:00 - Hang out, play with baby, party-party. Baby is fed and in bed.
9:00 - Watching Julie & Julia, bowl of ice cream in hand
10:00 - All the food looks AMAZING. Must make popcorn. Maybe some M&Ms
11:30 - Feel guilty for all the food consumed. Google diets involving ice cream.
12:15 - Didn't I say I was going to bed early tonight? Night folks!