Two Years Ago

Ella Kate Newman came into our lives two years ago today at 1:29am. She was 6lbs 15oz and 20 inches long.



She has been such a little joy to have in our family and has the cutest and sweetest personality.




The beginning of her life wasn't problem free. The girl did not like to eat much, so in the first few weeks of her life, she had a little weight problem. At two weeks, she ended up losing a few ounces. But after supplementing with formula, for a weekend, she finally surpassed her birth weight. However, she has always been in the lower percentiles. Right now, she's probably only about 23 pounds. She's just a petite girl.

At four months old, she was admitted to the hospital with a bad and fluky UTI. I think it might have even turned into a kidney infection. The doctors were not very clear about that part. It got that bad because the fever she had was masked by the fever she got as a reaction to her shots. She was pitiful looking in the hospital bed.


Here are some more pictures of Ella growing up.

Ella at six months old

Ella at ten months old

Ella's first birthday


Ella at 18 months

A couple months ago, Ella got a big girl bed. She loved it before we even opened the box! She loves being able to get in and out of her bed all by herself. I think this was the easiest transition we've ever done with her!

Here she is just a month ago eating cake with her daddy. Messy hair and all.

And here she is today, on her birthday.

I can't say enough of how much we love her. She is just growing into a beautiful girl inside and out. She is smart (sometimes too much for her own good), loves to sing and dance, and she loves Elmo! Happy birthday, Ella!

Three Months Old

This cute little guy turned three months old on Sunday. As you can see in the picture, he loves to chew on his fingers. It's very cute and he makes very loud sucking noises when he does it. Thankfully, his thumb has not solely made it into his mouth yet and let's hope it never does!

He is a goofy little boy and is so easy to get to smile! He laughs every once in a while, but not too often. He also loves to talk a lot! Just like his sister and daddy.

Caleb is still a great sleeper! He naps about two or three times during the day and for the past couple weeks or so, he's been sleeping through the night! I put him down for bed between 9:00pm and 9:30pm and he wakes up between 5:30am to 6:30am. He has even slept until 7:30 once! When he wakes up, I feed him and then put him back down to sleep (for my sake) and he then sleeps about another hour.

He is such a sweet and even-tempered baby. He really doesn't cry very often either. He has his days sometimes, but he is usually a go-with-the-flow type of guy. I feel so lucky that he is so wonderful! Especially with a very active toddler running around the house! We all just love him so much, and we can tell he loves us back. Especially his big sister!

I also want to say happy birthday to my nephew Matthew. He turns six today! He is a very smart and good kid and also has the best imagination. A couple of years ago, he was into swords and the like (still is). He would imagine anything into a sword. Especially sticks. One day as he was playing around, he came up with a great name for a sword: Importation Long Sharp Sword. Matthew cracks me up! And thanks to him and my sister, Caleb has a very large wardrobe!

Dancing

This morning, as I was going to go in to clean the kitchen, I decided to put on some music. We have music channels on our satellite, so I browsed through looking for a good channel. I like oldies, so decided on a classic rock channel. As i was starting on the kitchen, Ella seemed very interested in the music and started to dance a little. Then I got the idea to put off cleaning the kitchen for now to have some fun with Ella and dance with her. Now, I am not a dancer and have no coordination whatsoever, but it doesn't matter when you're dancing with an almost two year old. It was a lot of fun and a good workout too! She was trying to do what i was doing and had a big smile on her face. It was so cute. After a while, she decided it would be more fun to just watch me dance by myself. So she stopped dancing. I felt a little silly dancing by myself, so I tried to stop a few times. But, Ella is a very bossy child. She kept telling me to dance as she went back and forth between the family room and her bedroom. Finally, after about the tenth or so time, I went into the kitchen to start cleaning. She wasn't happy about that, but she got over it fast when I opened the dishwasher. I swear she must have a radar built in to tell her when that thing is opened! Anyway, here is a video of Ella dancing to the song 'Hotel California' by The Eagles.