18 months old!

Little Ella is 18 months old! OY! Where did the time go.....trite, but true. When we went to her 18 month check up they said she is ahead both physically and verbally and then they told me her weight is in the 10th percentile. Such a skinny-minnie. The doctor gave us clearance to try to give her cows milk again to see if her body will accept it now. He said her diet is perfect, regardless of her skinniness (that was good to hear!) We'll try whole milk and see if we can plump this baby up...we asked if we could give her half/half and the doctor gave us a resounding "no!" Hopefully the whole milk will be enough.

The pediatrician said we have to get her eyes checked by a pediatric opthamologist since he saw an irregularity so we'll keep everyone updated on that.



Here is a list of Ella's burgeoning vocabulary. We only count words that she says frequently and in context. It seems like every day she picks up a new word or two.

Says: Juice, Mommy, Daddy, Bye, Hi, Please, Amen, Bottle, Doddie (Doggie), Nainy, Eye (while pointing to her eye), No, Yes, Yeah, Don't, Dirty, Hey, Nanna (Banana), Two, Three, Nine (yes...she waits in silence when someone is counting until after 8 and then says" NINE!") , uh-oh!, Cheese, Night! (when it's time for bed), bubble, ball, meemee (monkey), Ella, why, baby, Pierre. Can count to 3 by herself. Occasionally strings together two word phrases like "Bye-bye please".

Likes: Singing, Doggies, Babies, watching "Jack's Big Music Show", playing with her cousins, coloring with crayons, bouncing on couches and beds.

Hates: When people try to do things FOR her. The independent streak is really coming out.

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My Day Today

OK...I think you all know how I have been morning-sick like crazy and then on top of it I had a root canal go wrong and needed emergency oral surgery where they cut in from the side of my gums to fix the root canal problem. WAY WAY WAY more painful than the actual root canal. Keep all of this in mind as you read the following tale of woe:

This morning before 9:30 AM the following chain of events occurred....

While I was changing Ella's poopy diaper the smell was too much for me and I started throwing up. I had already removed the old diaper and wiped her all clean and I couldn't leave her on the changing table so I put her down and ran to the bathroom to toss my cookies. While I am throwing up she runs into the hallway and pees onto the floor.
I finish up the barfing and grab her to take her into the nursery before she starts frolicking in the pee. I clean her all up, put on a diaper and clean clothes. I then set her down and go to the hall to clean the pee.

Before I can get to it she runs past me and slips in the pee (we have wood floors) and gets all the new clothes covered in urine. At this point I burst into tears! I finally get myself together and have a little talk with Ella about my needing her help during this hard time. I re-clean her, re-dress her, clean the pee up, clean the throw-up and get a load of laundry started. I gave Ella her lunch, put her for her nap and throw-up again.

I then call me Mother-In-Law and arrange a little Ella and Grandma time. She came right after the nap...sweet relief!

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"Such A Little Thing....But the Difference it Made was Grave." -Stephen P. Morrissey

Quite a week for me ladies....quite a week.

My morning-sickness has gotten WAY worse prompting me to go to the Doctor twice and to have mounting anxiety that I was having triplets (Kezia planted that suggestion in my head)! Not that a muiltiple birtn would be bad, just that we would have had to sell our house and buy a bigger one...literally.

Some really good things came of my Doctor visits.

-We have a duedate: April 2nd, 2007
-We have 1 (and only 1) baby
-We have a picture of our little "cocktail shrimp"
-I got 2 bags of IV fluid to hydrate me
-I found a medicine that I am not allergic to that helps with the sickness. Raglan.

Also during the week I had emergency oral surgery and I have another one scheduled for this Monday....a root canal...SO FUN!

Here's a picture of the littlest member of our family. Yep...that tiny white blurb in the tiny black circle in the upper-right hand corner.




How can something so small have such a BIG effect on my body???

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School Days!

Today is Matt's first day of school at the University of Utah Masters Degree program. We packed his new school-bag last night with pencils, pens, a notebook and a crazy math-wiz calculator. We arranged his lunch money and I even tucked a little secret card into his bag so he could find it sometime during the day. It was just like preparing for the first day of Kindergarten....but with more debt.

I have not heard from him yet today, but I am sure the first day is a whirlwind. In a way, I am a little jealous. I have always loved school and sitting home today with morning sickness and a toddler who found out how to climb over the toddler gate and navigate the stairs in silence, made me long for freshly sharpened #2 pencils and squeaky new books. Maybe someday I will go back...I really hope so.

But for now, our focus is on Matt and doing whatever we can to make sure the next few years are successful and prepare him for his career in Health Administration. I know he will do great!

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Nursery Nightmare

Ella is about to turn 18 months old and that means during church she can go to Nursery and that means HEAVEN! I can actually get something out of my church meetings again!

We have taken her to Nursery before and just stayed in the back the whole time. Each week I did this she never even glanced my way again and just threw herself into the activities with gusto. I was pretty sure we weren't going to have a clingy, sobbing baby when the real 18 month mark was met. Well, yesterday I tried taking her, staying for a few minutes and when she was engaged in play I snuck out quietly.

When I went to pick her up after church the nursery worker said she sobbed for the first hour and spent the second hour saying....."Bye Bye Please? Bye Bye Please?" over and over again. She said the little voice was almost too much for her to take, but she stayed strong and kept Ella in Nursery for the entire time.

Not the smooth transition I imagined!!! Hopefully next week will be a bit better!

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Ella's new t-shirt. What do you think?

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