Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!! We stopped by Grandma Nancy's earlier today to show off our monkey costume. Here I am looking pretty cute! Hands off my banana!
I'm not sure this Halloween thing is all it's cracked up to be...especially when you can't even eat the candy!

Two silly peanuts :)

See no evil

Speak no evil I'm a monkey!
Emma Claire trying to pose for the camera. If only this monkey would cooperate...
I was having a really hard time getting Ellen to look at the camera. I just kept getting the top of her head. So, I decided to get really low on the ground to see if I could catch a glimpse of her cuteness. When I did, I realized what the problem was: Emma Claire's cool red Crocs! How can a girl be expected to look at the camera when she has her eyes on a new pair of shoes!
Hands off the shoes, girlfriend! Thanks to Emma Claire and the Jones family for sharing a bit of their Halloween with us. Hopefully next year's pictures will be a bit better when Ellen can sit up...although by then she'll be mobile!

Baby giggles...

are the best!

Fall Break in NJ

Last week we went to NJ to visit my mom for a few days during my Fall Break from school. Ellen did great again traveling and flying on the plane--even without Daddy! We made it to NJ and had a great time hanging out with Grandma and Uncle Will for just a couple of days.

Ellen got to try out a swing at Victory Park for the first time: She was in love!

The swings were a huge hit.

She stayed in it for over an hour on the first try! Janice & the boys came to see us too. Here's Ellen & her buddy, Teddy.

Jimmy was busy being a big first-grader.

Tommy rocked the swings too!

Gotti taking it easyReading books with Grandma Back to the swings for Round 2 Ellen's motto: The higher, the better

Check out that smile!

She discovered her shadow while swinging...First time on the beach

She just wanted to grab the sand!

First time in a highchair

I'm not sure where this face came from, but she was making it all week long :)

My mom, Ellen & me

There's our week in review. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Emma Claire!

It's official--I must be suffering from the "Self-centered-first-time-mommy" syndrome. I just sat down to post some photos from Emma Claire's birthday yesterday and realized I didn't take a single picture of the birthday girl! Sorry Emma Claire!!!! What a terrible godmother! I will put a link to Melissa's blog after she posts some.

It was a big day of firsts for Ellen though--first trip to the pumpkin patch, first birthday party, first hayride, first time wearing shoes...In typical Tennessee October fashion, one day will be sunny and 80 degrees, the next overcast, windy & 55 degrees. It seems yesterday was one of those windy, overcast, chilly days. We still had fun at the pumpkin patch--icky weather, mud and all! Gentry's Farm is great--it's a working farm that they open during the month of October on weekends as a pumpkin patch and for school field trips during the week. They have an indoor maze & play area in a barn, a huge corn maize, hayrides and more. The kids really had a blast.

Here's me & Ellen hanging out in the SleepyWrap. I know the hood is in her face in every picture--it was a lot colder and windier at the pumpkin patch than it was at our house. Like a terrible mom, I didn't bring her a hat, so hood it was!

Note the consant drool--there better be some teeth coming in soon! Ellen enjoyed the hayride & hanging out with Aunt Melissa:

Trying to "keep up" with all those big kids is tough work:
The required photo with a pumpkin--she was sleeping so this was the best we got!

Thanks to the Jones family for a great day! Happy Birthday to Emma Claire & Chris!!!!!

Birthday Gift

Today was Emma Claire's birthday party at the pumpkin patch. I'll post some photos from there later, but I wanted to share some photos of the present we got her. Recently, I came across two projects that sounded like fun. The first was a set of alphabet blocks that a mom made by taking photos around the house of different objects. She put the photos onto a set of blocks and labeled the names of the objects on the back. The second was a memory game made with wooden blocks and scrapbook paper. I decided to take my own spin on the two ideas and make her a set of blocks with photos of her family on them with scrapbook paper on the back. I saved a bunch of photos off Melissa's blog and had them developed. I ran into some difficulty, though, when I tried to find some blocks. Apparently it is really difficult to find a set of plain wooden blocks! Finally at Toys'r'us I found an all natural Jenga game made with bamboo blocks. I thought I'd give them a try. It actually worked out much better because each set of blocks became like a little puzzle. The scrapbook paper on the back serves as a "control of error" (that's for my Montessori buddies :) so that Emma Claire will know which blocks go together. Anyway, I cut the photos and scrapbook paper into thirds and glued them to the blocks using ModgePodge. I think they came out great and hopefully they will be a fun & special activity for Emma Claire & the whole family! Here are some photos:

Splish, splash, I was taking a bath!

I just realized the other day that even with all the photos we have of the little one, I didn't have any photos of her in the bath. So, here are a couple of Ellen hanging out in the bathtub. She loves the bath!

She's 4 months old!

Our baby girl turned 4 months old this week!

And she's growing like a weed! She went to the pediatrician yesterday to have her well baby visit and get some more shots (thanks to Daddy for taking her!). The doctor said she's doing great and has strong head control. She's up to 15 lbs. 6 oz. (83rd percentile) and has grown to 26 inches (95th percentile). If I wasn't 100% sure that we were her parents, I might be a bit skeptical--I don't know where she's getting that height from--neither of us :).

She's become so social lately. She loves talking, smiling and engaging with people. She's always a hit at church with the people around us, flirting & smiling for them. She is grabbing at EVERYTHING! When we read a book, she is trying to grab the pictures off the page. If I am wearing a patterned shirt or she is sitting on a patterned blanket, she is trying to grab the design. When she hangs out on her activity mats, she loves grabbing the rattles & other things. It's so much fun to watch her learn & explore. She's also discovered her toes this past week or so. Anytime you put her down either on her back or sit her in her chair, her hands immediately go to her little feet!

We are still doing a combination of nursing and bottle feeding. We usually use glass bottles and she is always trying to grab at it and hold it while we feed her. But since the glass bottle is pretty heavy, I haven't really given her an opportunity to hold it herself. The other day, though, we were running a bit late for church & I was trying to get ready, so I popped her in her chair for a minute while I got dressed. All of her bottles were in the dishwasher, so we were using one of the drop-ins that we had laying around & she can hold her own bottle! So big!
She's also been doing a great job sleeping. We always start our routine aroun 7:00. We do bath, eat, sleep--very calm, very simple. Sometimes she falls asleep while eating, sometimes I put her down awake & she falls asleep on her own. Either way, she's always asleep by 8:00 at the latest. This past week she's started sleeping until 4:00/4:30-ish. Then we get up, nurse & a have little snuggle in the comfy chair until I have to get up at 5:30 for work. It's been working out pretty well-hopefully she'll keep it up! Speaking of sleeping, she just woke up, so I better run! We're heading out to Emma Claire's birthday party at the pumpkin patch today so look for more photos later!

The Reverse Turtle

Well, it's official. She's rolling over! While this is definitely one of those first milestones that parents look forward to, I'm not so sure about it. It seems that at night whenever she rolls over onto her stomach in the crib, inevitably I hear screaming and come into her room to see a little peanut squirming and flailing around on her stomach just like a turtle when it gets stuck on its back--hence, the term "the reverse turtle." We've even begun using it as a verb--when JP hears her crying in the crib, I'll hear him call up the stairs, "Is she turtling???" So, I've decided we are going to need to start some turtle therapy to either get her more comfortable on her tummy or to teach her that she can just as easily roll back onto her back instead of all the screaming and flailing. We'll see how it goes...

She's big!

We girls all know how important a good pair of jeans is! I've decided that first pair of jeans = a big girl!

We took our first "hike" today with Guinness at the park. Ellen was bit overdressed for the occasion, but lookin' pretty cute. Thanks to Pam & Duncan for this a-dor-a-ble outfit--so sweet!

I can't believe she will be 4 months old in a couple of days...

Further proof of her big-ness--look at that grip!
I've also heard a rumour that she's rolling over. But, like the Loch Ness monster, I'll believe it when I see it!