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!

Merry Christmas!

Wow! What a fun but chaotic month! Thankfully I have the next week off so I hope to post some more pictures and videos which are more interesting than my ramblings. Ellie turned 5 months a few weeks ago (I didn't remember on the 13th.. oops!) and she is growing cuter and TALLER by the day. She's wearing some 9 month clothes already and eating all the time. I'm excited to start veggies next month and I'm hoping they will help keep her fuller longer. She's been rolling over on a consistent basis and enjoys hanging out on her tummy more than last month. She's frustrated laying down all the time, but can't sit up yet. She'll do "baby crunches" and try to sit up from a laying down position. She likes sitting in her bumbo, but sometimes gets lazy and sloops forward to play with her feet.
The last 2 or 3 months have been filled with constant razzing sounds. Not fun when feeding cereal! Before the razzing was "ahhs and oyyys" but when she discovered the raz there was no going back. I didn't think she would ever make any other sound again, but recently discovered saying "blah blah blah" was pretty cool too. Thankfully she's been very healthy with the exception of an occasional stuffy nose that comes and goes. Christmas was really fun and busy. We had 3 parties in a row the weekend before Christmas: The Mars extended side, the Mars immediate (hosted at our house), and then the Convey extended. It was the first time my mother's side got to see Ellie, so it was very fun!
Then on Christmas Eve we traveled to the Bailey extended on the very icy roads! We slide into the oncoming traffic lane once, but thankfully no one was there! On Christmas day, we traveled one whole mile to my parents house. We did it up Bailey style with meat and cheese fondue and plenty of extras. By that point, I was pretty exhausted and even took a nap while everyone else played with Ellie. I wish I would have taken more pictures. Before my family's Christmas party, I woke up early (couldn't sleep) and made breakfast. Scott, Ellie, and I opened the presents we got for each other. I made out amazingly, as usual. I got a digital frame, Bunny Tales, the Twilight series, TIM concert tickets, BRAD concert tickets and a few other items. Ellie got a few gifts she already got, re-wrapped (yes, we're THAT bad of parents). At that point, she seemed a little sick of opening gifts anyway. Ellie gave us a nice surprise gift of a diaper blowout while we were opening gifts. Overall, we could not believe how great Ellie was at all the parties. She let everyone hold her, took her naps at scheduled times, and barely fussed! We'll see how she does next year when she's mobile. Now I'm looking forward to a nice long week of NOT WORKING, visiting with friends, maybe seeing a movie with the hubby, getting over my second cold in a row, organizing all of the endless crap around the house, and sleeping!
If you've made it through this post, you've won a prize! Yes, you may babysit Ellie at anytime. You're welcome!

3-month pics

Back in October, our friend Misty took some picture of Ellie. She did a great job capturing her adorable expressions. Maybe next time there will be some more smiles! Thanks Misty!










Oh, we can't forget ODIE

He is good for something

Turn your volume up! You don't want to miss these giggles. Whenever Ellie is at her worst, Odie to the rescue! In other news, tooth #2 poked through! She's doing pretty well and distract herself by grabbing anything and everything and pulling on my hair.

Lots of updates, not-a-lotta time

Ellie had lots of excitement last week. First....
She still loves her MOM



Second...
She got her first tooth! It poked through without a whole lot of complaining. Two days into it was another story. Non stop screaming and hand biting. I feel so bad for her.



Third...
Ellie celebrated her first Thanksgiving! She was such a good girl. She let both of her parents eat dinner without making them hold her. She chilled in her bouncy and watched her cousin play in the exersaucer. Then she took a 2 hour nap!
oops, no pics. I'm a bad Mom.

Fourth...
4-Month appointment time! She is 14 lbs, 14 oz and 26 and 1/4" This puts her in the 94% for height and 68% for weight. Which leads to

Fifth...
First attempt at rice cereal! As expected, not a whole lot landed in her mouth. And guess what? I think these pictures are adorable even though I HATE pictures of babies with food on their faces. Life as I know it has changed forever!