Our Baby Boy

I had an appointment this morning for my 28-week ultrasound. I'm usually very excited for ultrasound appointments, but I was a bit nervous this time. I knew the baby would be fine and in perfect condition, because he lets himself be known constantly. But I was nervous because on Friday I had my glucose tolerance test and whatever other blood work they do along with it. I knew I probably didn't have gestational diabetes, but, you never know. It can come out of nowhere.

The actual ultrasound went very well, except, now I will have two kids that do things on their own terms! I'm a bit nervous for when he's born. He's very active and very stubborn. He was not very cooperative with the U/S Tech. He was facing my back and would not turn around for her so she could get some good face shots. She got some, but I had to lay on my side. At one point, he turned away as we were looking at his face! Little stinker! Other than that, everything is perfect! And oh yeah! I do not have gestational diabetes. That's a relief.

Here is a picture of our cute little guy!

Half Birthday!

Yesterday, Ella turned 18 months old! And she will be going into nursery on Sunday. Craig and I can't wait. She's a little hard to control in Sunday School and Relief Society/Elder's Quorum these days. She's been ready for nursery for about three months, but we like to follow rules and waited.

She had her 18-month well-check this morning and it was the best doctor's appointment she's had in a while. She's always had some weight issues since she was born, and has been up and down (mostly down) in her percentiles. She has just never been a big eater and is very active. She was born in about the 20-25th percentile, and last appointment (15 months old) she was in the 5th weighing in at 19lbs 1oz. Her height has always been around the 50th percentile, so she's growing just fine.

Well, this little girl has done a lot of growing in the last three months! She weighed in at 20lbs 13oz. Yay! She's gained almost 2 pounds! And she went up to the 7th percentile! That makes me very happy. Now, here's the shocker (at least for me, sort of). She grew an inch and a half. So now she's 32 inches tall and in the 60th percentile! I knew she had a big growth spurt recently, but I didn't think it was that big!

She's developing right on track, not behind on anything. In fact, she's actually ahead in her verbal development. At this age, her doctor said she should know between 8 and 16? words. I don't remember the last number. But she knows way more than that. I can't even guess how many she knows. And he also said by age two, she should know some two-word phrases. Well, she already does that!

Ella is such a little sweetheart, and we are very blessed to have such a good girl. Even though she does have her moments and tantrums. But that's to be expected for a one year old. She loves to dance, and she's very good at it! I will have to post a video of her dancing some time. She also loves babies and kids. I can tell she will be a wonderful and loving big sister. And bossy, too. She even tries to boss around our dog and cat!

This is probably the most exciting, yet sad time so far in her life for me. It's exciting to be able to converse with her and watch her become more and more independent. But it's hard to realize she's not a little baby anymore. She won't let us just hold and cuddle her anymore. It's sad, but I'm glad she is growing up so well!

Cookie...C!

This is Ella's favorite song. She loves to watch the video and she loves for me or Craig to sing it to her. She has also been trying to sing it herself! She says, "Cookie...C!" She say stuff in the middle, but it's just babbling.

This morning, she kept asking me to sing it for her. She came up to me, started dancing, and saying, "Cookie!" over and over until I sang it for her. It was so cute. However, she did this over, and over, and over. The count is now well over 30 times of me singing it to her.

Well now...

That was easier than I thought! Ella is now officially pacifier free! The day I wrote about having to wean her off the pacifier, I decided to try it again. She cried a bit at first, but she calmed down within ten minutes. That night, I was just too tired to deal with crying, so I just gave the pacifier to her.

The next day, I decided to also eliminate her morning nap. It was only an hour long anyway, and she was getting to where she wasn't really sleeping during her afternoon nap. I figured that it was time, and maybe, just maybe, she'd be tired enough to not think about her pacifier. Well, she asked for it, but didn't even cry! And, she went right to sleep! That night, she did the same thing. But, I wasn't holding my breath. I figured she was jut really tired.

Friday, everything went perfectly, and the same so far today! Yay! The funny thing is that now she doesn't have her pacifier, she has become much more attached to her bunny (BunBun). She has been carrying it all around, and asks for that to snuggle with while she sleeps. It is so cute! When I give it to her, she gets this big smile on her face and giggles. Then she hugs BunBun like she hasn't seen it for a very long time.

I am so relieved this is all over and very grateful that it was so easy!

Busy Little Bee

This is how I found Ella this morning when I went in to get her up. That is a long-sleeved (with two sleeves) shirt she's wearing. Apparently she only wanted one sleeve! Silly girl! Her hair is up because she's been teething/sick for a week, and I don't want her hair plastered to her face with snot in the morning. It happened Friday morning and was not fun to clean up!

And yes, she still has the bumper in her crib even though it should have been gone months ago. She doesn't even try to climb out and when I have taken it off, she doesn't sleep because she's either hitting her head and making her cry, or losing her pacifier through the slats and making her cry. The bumper will go when the pacifier goes.

Some time in the next week, we will be working on weaning her off the pacifier. Oh joy. She turns 18 months old a week from today, and that is the deadline I set. Now I just have to gather up the strength to do it. I tried at nap time on Monday, but she cried so hard, I gave in. I hate giving in.

I'm hoping it won't be too terribly difficult because she's not very attached to it. She only really wants/needs it when she goes to sleep. She doesn't use it when she's awake, except every once in a while when she sees it lying around or we give it to her at church to keep her quiet. Sometimes I feel I'm more dependent on it than her! It also kind of makes me sad because it means my baby is growing up! Very bittersweet.

'Tis the Season

I am so excited for Christmas this year! It feels like it's our very first Christmas together. It's not, though. It's actually our third in our marriage and fourth ever. However, it's our first Christmas in our own home, with our own tree and decorations (as measly as they are). Our first Christmas, we were living in Craig's parents' house, and last year we were at my parents' house.

A couple weeks ago, I was really dreading the Christmas season to come. We have a VERY tight budget, and really don't have the money for extra things like Christmas presents. I was expecting a year with no tree, decorations, and very little gifts. Now, I know that's not what this whole season is all about, but when you don't even really have the money to buy gifts for your child and husband, it kind of spoils the feeling.

I'm going to sidetrack here for a bit. During our whole marriage, we have never had much money, mostly stemming from a certain house that I hate. I won't go into it, but things have always mostly worked out. Especially so in the past 10 or so months. We have received so many blessings, I can't (and won't) name them all.

Well, about a week and a half ago, we received a wonderful blessing. We got a very unexpected check in the mail. It wasn't that much money, but enough to be able to give ourselves a decent Christmas without dipping into our budget. Talk about coming in a timely manner!

We got so excited, we went right out (okay, two days later) and bought us a tree and a few decorations. And then a few days later, we started/finished buying Ella's gifts. I have never, ever in my life gotten things done so early! Now we can relax and really enjoy the Christmas season and it's true meaning without the stress of wondering where the money is going to come from.

Heavenly Father has truly blessed us in so many ways. We know that some day, we will look back on the first two or three years of our marriage and be so thankful for the struggles we went through.

I didn't mean for this to be so long, but I just wanted to share how thankful I am for all of the blessings we have received, and how excited I am for the Christmas season. I am also so very thankful for all our family to celebrate it with! There really is nothing greater in life than being with the ones you love to celebrate such a wonderful holiday.