For Your Viewing Pleasure

Wow. Three posts in three days! Anyway, here's our little one year old!

Excuse the messy hair. She kept pulling out her bow. She won't keep them in anymore.

1 Year Stats

Ella had her 1 year well check today, and I wanted to share. Let's start off with when she was born.

Birth

Weight: 6lbs 15 oz
Length: 20 inches
Head circumference: 14 inches
Teeth: 0 (of course!)
I don't know any of these percentiles*

6 Months

Weight: 15lbs 2oz - 30th percentile
Height: 25.5 in - 30th percentile
Head: 16.25 in.
Teeth: 0

1 Year

Weight: 18lbs 7oz - 10th Percentile
Height: 29 in. - 50th percentile
Head: 17.5 in.
Teeth: 9 (I found a molar coming in while waiting for the doctor)

These stats are a little deceiving. It looks really bad that she went from 30% down to 10%. Six months was the only time she was that high on the chart. Usually she was between 20 and 25%. She dropped down to the 10th at nine months, but that's when she became very active and slimming down. Her doctor is glad she's following the same curve from her last appointment and not continuing to drop.

She's always been in the 50th percentile for height, except at six months. However, I thought she would be 30 inches and not 29. I was a bit surprised on that one.

She's in perfect condition, and for those who knew about it, we think her heart murmur is gone! Her doctor didn't hear it last check-up either, so that's a VERY good sign that is probably gone. It was very scary when at just 2 weeks old, he heard the little whooshing sound.

* For those that don't know what percentile means, it's how doctors compare a child's growth to see if they are on the right track. Being in the 25th percentile means that the child is heavier/longer than 25 out of a sample of 100 other children, and lighter/shorter than 75 of those 100 children.

Birthday Girl!

This time last year, I was is the hospital recovering from one of the best moments of my life. I became a mommy on June 16, 2008 at 1:29am. I was lying in the hospital bed holding her and getting to know her. We had lots of visitors passing her around (mostly family) meeting her for the first time. Besides the fact that it was very painful for me to get out of bed (due to many, many stitches), it was a joy to finally be able to rock my baby.

We got to come home on only her second day of life, and even though the first few weeks were very challenging, I miss them greatly. I am sad that I wasn't able to enjoy them to the fullest. She had feeding and weight loss issues, and I was extremely stressed out about it. I remember spending much time crying and wishing she could nurse better. I came to hate nursing. I didn't want to switch to formula, but it was the best thing I could do for her so she could get the nourishment she needed to gain weight and grow up healthy.

After that, I was finally able to enjoy her 100%. She has grown so much in the short amount of time. She is standing on her own and extremely close to walking. She says many words. But most important of all, she is a very happy little girl. And very goofy! There is hardly a time when she is fussy and crying. She has been such an easy baby.

Craig and I love her so much, and she is our world.

Happy First Birthday, Ella!

I don't have a picture from today yet, but I will post one next. Along with something special (well, to me).

Hairbows

I discovered a new hobby that I enjoy. Ella's hair is getting long enough that I can put bows in her hair. Actually it's been long enough basically her whole life, but it's at a weird point right now. It's too short for a ponytail, barely enough for pigtails, too short to tuck hair behind her ears, but it's too long to look cute down. Plus she's getting some curl in her hair, so to sum up the status of her hair: shaggy and poofy. She has a lot of hair. Oh yeah, the kid will not stay still long enough to fix it quickly. She always ends up throwing a fit. So, I decided I need something easy to put in her hair to get it out of her eyes. And also something to make it extra cute when I'm able to actually fix her hair.

The best solution is to use bows and hair clips. I already have some for her, which I love. But I don't have very many. I have seen very cute homemade bows on a message board that I frequent (Baby Center), so I decided to give it a try! I got the instructions on how to do them online, invited my mom to join in on the fun, and went at it. The picture is of the ones that I have completed so far. I made the two pink ones, and my mom made the blue one. They turned out better than I had expected! They are a little time consuming right now, but the more I do, the faster it will go. I'm excited to make more! I just have to find the time.

11 Months

Ella turned 11 months on Saturday. Just one more month until she's one! It's very bittersweet, though. I'm excited she's turning one and growing and learning new things every day, but then I'm sad that it's happening so fast.

Ella is so close to standing on her own, but she freaks out every time we practice. Sometimes she starts bawling. She is able to let herself down instead of falling on her bum now. But she just doesn't want to stay standing. I know she could if she just wouldn't get so scared! She cruises along the furniture and crawls like a mad-woman. I am definitely kept on my toes. In fact, I had to put the baby gates up yesterday.

When Ella becomes a teenager, I know exactly how she will be. She will be one who is constantly talking on the phone to her friends. She can sit there for an hour just talking and babbling and making noises. Hmm... I wonder where she gets that from? Not from me! It's so cute just listening to her talking and telling her stories!

What makes it even cuter, is that she says actual words! She can say hi and bye (and waves along with it), ow, mama and dada ( and sometimes mommy and daddy), uh oh, baby, and no. She has also tried to say Nash (as in our dog) and Sparky (go Sun Devils!). One time she even tried to say "What happened?". This is not a word she says, but if you ask her "Where's (Mommy's/Daddy's/insert name) nose?" she will point to your nose! We've got a little smarty!

We love her so much and cannot even fathom our lives without her!

Bottles

I got a little sad this afternoon. I was looking at bottles. Ella's bottles. She hasn't used most these bottles for about two weeks.

At her last doctor visit, Ella's pediatrician said he wanted her to totally off bottles by one year. I was a bit shocked. I knew it was coming, but so soon? So, I took the challenge. I had exposed her to sippy cups from time to time, but she didn't really know how to drink from them. I figured it would take a while, so I decided to start right away (I had 3 months at this point). I tried about three different types of sippy cups, and one of them was too close to a bottle, in my opinion. One by one, each one was rejected. I got frustrated with it and stopped.

A couple of weeks later, I discovered that Ella can drink through a straw. It was very exciting and gave me the encouragement I needed. I tried all the other sippy cups again, but she would only drink from one. The one I thought was too much like a bottle because it had a soft spout. It was not shaped the same, so I decided to get her used to that one.

I started out with two sippys and two bottles a day. But the second day of that, she was taking the sippy cups with no problems, so I went cold turkey on her. There was one set back, but it only lasted three days. I had to give her a bottle at night. Now, she hasn't used a bottle in over a week.

I was sad today looking at those bottles. I was about to pack them away forever. Well, until I need to use them again. I was so sad, I couldn't even throw away the ones that are almost useless. My baby girl is almost not a baby anymore. She will be a year old next month.

Any help would be great!

If anyone knows of a part-time job or better yet a full-time position out there let me know. I am looking for a career move and a salary range of at least 40K to start with. Thank you everyone!

PS- My cell phone # if someone does not have it is: 480-292-2179