Saturday, July 23, 2011

10 and 11 month update

We are up to our eyeballs in boxes and our time in Oklahoma is rapidly coming to an end, but that is NOT a good reason to neglect our monthly updates. I can't believe that 2 months have already passed...and Miss Elliott is doing so much that I don't want to forget.

  • She is wearing 12-18 month clothes and sometimes she can wear 18-24 months. 2 words...big girl. :)
  • She is in size 5 diapers which seems crazy big to me, but size 4s were getting tight and she started have multiple blowouts. Those of you with kids know one blowout is too many blowouts...especially when they are eating normal food and have such stinky poo. Sick!
  • She still loves to eat and wants only food she can feed herself (except yogurt). She still loves cheese, all fruits, yogurt, cheerios, but some of her new favorites are scrambled eggs (she will eat 2 in the morning...with cheerios and a banana), lasagna, meat loaf, and pretty much anything else we're eating.
  • I decided to take her off formula and bottles cold turkey. Before you think I'm cruel, we ran out of formula about 3 weeks ago, so instead of buying more and slowly transitioning her to milk, I just decided to totally switch. She didn't really like milk for about the first week, but I just offered it to her frequently. Our pediatrician said it didn't matter if she drank a drop of milk because there are so many other dairy products babies can eat.

  • However, after about a week, she started drinking more and more milk. Yay! She hasn't seemed to miss her bottle one bit. Now her paci is a whole 'nother story. I cringe to think about taking that away.
  • She started crawling like a champ and pulls up and cruises on EVERYTHING! She loves her new found freedom. We like it too, but a crawling, extremely inquisitive baby and a house full of boxes and chaos is not always the best combination. You can imagine.
  • She doesn't really like toys as much as playing with everything she is NOT supposed to have...TV remotes, cords, outlets, plastic. If it looks slightly dangerous, she MUST have it.
  • She babbles constantly but we're still not making out a lot of words. She says "dada" constantly (she LOVES her dada), has said "mama" occasionally, and says "wow" (or something that sounds like wow).
  • She has SO many funny faces now. Her favorite is giving people a closed mouth smile with a wrinkled nose. So precious.

  • She is still taking two 2+ hour naps daily.
  • She sleeps from 7:30 or so pm to 7 am...unless we're on vacation, because who sleeps in on vacation? She never cries in the morning but she has discovered how to get books from the side table through the slats in her crib so we typically find her "reading" in the morning. So funny!
  • She will make funny faces at people, sometimes give them 5, but she typically wants to stay with mommy or daddy.

  • She loves waving and clapping...so cute!
  • She does throw the occasional fit when you take something away from her. It is shocking to see such a small child be so ugly, and has definitely caught us off guard.
  • She also went through a hitting phase this month (especially in the face) which also includes scratching. Not a good thing. We tell her no or hold her hands. She actually seems to be getting much better. Her cousin said she had "Wolverine claws" if that tells you anything.
  • She still loves to read and especially loves books with peek a boo flaps.
She is getting big SO fast and we can't imagine life without her!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Guess what?

For those of you who don't know already...I'm pregnant! I had all these lofty aspirations of announcing it on the blog by putting some cute picture up of Elliott with a shirt that said "Big Sister" or something else creative. Then I realized, I am NOT in a season of my life where I can be creative. So boring announcement it is!

I am actually 15 weeks today and our due date is December 28th. No, it wasn't an accident but it wasn't a total surprise. Does that make sense? We weren't necessarily planning on getting pregnant this soon but it took me a long time (at least it felt like a long time for me) to get pregnant with Elliott and we decided we would rather get pregnant a little early and maybe try to prevent the whole "trying" phase.

Here are a few of my thoughts of this pregnancy versus the first one:
1. It's amazing how quickly I started showing. The first pregnancy, I was able to hide it for a long time. This time around, I feel like I took the pregnancy test and then my clothes wouldn't fit. Shocking! I look at least 20 weeks pregnant right now...literally. Kind of crazy. I know other women have said the same thing, it's just weird when it happens to you.
2. It's amazing the different response I have gotten this time around. My first pregnancy, everyone was excited! This time, people act shocked and say things like "you know how this happens, right?" Wow, really?! I guess it must be because I'm still totting around a baby, but it still is a surprise to hear.
3. It's amazing how little I have been able to focus on this pregnancy. I was a nervous wreck my last pregnancy. I analyzed every symptom I had and drove myself (and probably those around me) crazy. I was always secretly jealous of women who loved being pregnant because it was such an emotional and mental struggle for me. This time around, chasing an almost 1 year old around the house and moving across the country really takes your mind off of it. So much more enjoyable!
4. It's amazing how NOT fun it is to me to be pregnant during an Oklahoma summer. I have been pregnant for TWO consecutive Oklahoma summers. Yeah, I did not think this through. As if the summer isn't miserable enough, add a little extra weight and nausea...it's pretty fantastic. :)

I'm sure there are other things but those are the main things I have thought about. We are really excited and feel very blessed to be having another kiddo even though it can be slightly overwhelming to imagine. Miss Elliott has been such a tremendous blessing to our lives and we're thankful to be adding to our little family of 3.

Monday, July 4, 2011

It's a...


My sister had her gender reveal party the weekend before we left for Florida so I never got to post the results. Please notice the cute banner I made for the party. :) I know, I'm creative...what can I say (and if you really know me you'll know how NOT true this statement is).
The wives tales said boy...
the crowd said boy...

but the cake can't lie...it's going to be a GIRL!!
We are SUPER excited about this because girls are totally awesome...not that I'm biased or anything. Plus, they have way cuter clothes. I'm just saying. Marcus and Lacey are going to be great parents! I'm so excited for their little girl to get here!
Cute pic of Kev and I.
The family without Josh and Anja. We were sad they missed it!
And how could I not put a picture of Elliott on here...because she's the cutest! Love this girl!