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!