Ella's Friends

Even though Ella is only 3 and 1/2 months old she already has many friends around her age.

This is Joel. Joel loves Ella. He talks about Ella at home and even knows her car. A while back he saw a green Element while driving with his mom, Brooke, and pointed at the Element and said, "Ella, Ella." When Brooke asked him who he wanted to invite to his birthday party, Ella was on the short list. In the picture Joel is buckling Ella's car seat. Joel loves to buckle all buckles he comes into contact with. Whenever Joel is around I can be sure to find Ella's car seat all buckled up.

This is Zack. Joel's younger brother. Zack and Ella both had the same due date. His mom, Brooke, and I were college roommates so to have the same due date was a big surprise and a lot of fun. Zack was born a week before Ella. We have all decided that they will become great friends.

This is Zoe. Zoe was born in early April. Her parents are Peter and Diane. Ben and Peter play music together often and we all go to church together at Imago Dei. Peter and Diane choose not to find out if they were having a girl or boy so when Zoe was born a girl we were all very excited because at that point we knew Ella was girl and we decided they would both be great friends. In this picture Diane and I had the girls and were taking them to the Beaverton Farmer's Market to see Ben and Peter play music with their group Pocketnopocket. Notice they both have the same car seat. After Zoe was born we were over at her house and Ben was checking out her car seat and stroller. He decided then and there that that would be the system we would get and so Zoe and Ella match whenever we take them out together.

This is Joy. No Joy is not around Ella's age but she is carrying Ella's friend who will be born in about 5 weeks. Joy is having a girl but she and Bill have not settled on a name for their little girl. Since I didn't like calling the baby "baby" I gave her a gag name. We are calling her Tiffany Coco Channel until she is born and we know her real name. I am sure Joy and Bill will give her a much better name than this.

Aigee, Aigoo

Apparently Ella takes after her daddy and loves to talk. Yes I said daddy. Ben is the real talker of the family and Ella is obviously following in daddy's footsteps. She is beginning to find her "voice" in the past week or so. Aigee is one of her favorite sayings. The other day Ben and Ella had an exchange of aigees and aigoos. Ella would say aigee over and over and Ben would say aigoo back to her.

With her voice Ella is also discovering volume. Just about every morning when Ella wakes up she wakes up growling very loudly. She opens her mouth wide and growls as loud as she can. She has this amazingly cute face as she does. I am sure she is trying to say something to us as she growls. Last night we had our home community meeting at our house. Ella was in her Bumbo seat on the kitchen table when people started arriving. She must have gotten really excited with the people arriving because she began to growl and smile at everyone that walked through the door. She got really loud as she did it. It was hard to hear over her. Some times when I am on the phone she does the same thing and the person on the phone will comment on it.

It will be interesting to what her first real words will be!

It's In Her Blood

With a grandma that is a teacher, a grandma who has been a librarian, and a dad that reads 10 books at the same time, it is only natural that Ella would be drawn to books. While she was hanging out in her swing, I got a book out to read to Ella. She automatically grabbed the book and wanted to investigate it. She even began to turn the pages. I have a feeling we will be reading many books together in our future.

It was a touch and feel book with baby animals. These are great books because they have different materials that feel like the animals' skin or fur. That way the kids can "touch and feel" how the animal would really feel.

Our Little Pea Pod

For Halloween the perfect costume for Ella was a pea pod. Before she was born her Grandma Whitney gave her a stuffed pea pod toy. It is so cute that I was determined to find her a pea pod costume for Halloween. I didn't have to look too far. At Target they had all kinds of cute infant costumes for a great deal. The pea pod was there so I bought it for Ella. It is supposed to for babies 0-9 months. I think they should check their sizing again though. Ella was exactly 3 months old when she first wore it and she barely fit into it. He feet were right at the bottom of the costume. I do believe she will be tall like her daddy.

Unfortunately, Ella didn't love being in her costume!

Two happy moms with their pea pod and lion! This is Zack. His older brother turned 2 on Halloween. He had a costume party for his birthday and Ella was on his short list of people to invite. She attended her first costume party on Oct. 25th. Happy birthday Joel!

On Halloween Joel, Zack, Brooke, and Chris came trick-or-treating.

We tried to get a picture of all three kids, but unfortunately, Ella was not going to let it happen. She was far too tired. You can see how she was throwing herself back over the arm chair. She did not love this costume!

Pumpkins Abound

FALL:

Fall means pumpkins, leaves, lots of warm colors, and many festivities. I love Fall and Fall with Ella is even better. For many years Ben and I have talked about how great all the pumpkin patches will be when we have a kid. So many of the activities at the pumpkin patches are meant for kids. Now that we have a kid we go to the pumpkin patches with a new purpose. Even though Ella is only 3 months old we took her to the Bi-Zi Farms to celebrate Fall. It was a wonderful time with great memories. Too bad she won't remember it. :)

Last spring we went yard saling to buy some things for Ella before she was born. I found this adorable outfit on one of our excursions. When I found this outfit I envisioned the day we would take Ella to the pumpkin patch and the pictures that would be taken. The pictures did not disappoint. We got a lot of looks with this outfit. Many people stopped us to comment on how cute it was and I saw even more people pointing at us and jabbing the person next to them to look at Ella. She was a hit in her pumpkin outfit.

At Bi-Zi Farm there was a petting zoo where we showed Ella more farm animals. I am not sure how impressed she was with the animals. Even so I showed her all the animals.

The animals seemed interested in Ella.

The donkey was very friendly.

Pumpkin head.

Someone was very tired after picking out our pumpkins. It is amazing how she can just sleep anywhere. Here she is hanging off of mommy in the baby bjorn sound asleep.

After we got back from picking out our pumpkins, Ben washed them at the pumps they had provided. The pumpkins were very dirty right out of the field.

Here is the farming family. We were tractoring! (That was for you Amy)

Family photos are great! I love that we are a family of three now. Really it is four. Hudson couldn't go to the farm with us.

The back of the pumpkin outfit had the jack o' lantern on it. That was the best part.

Every year we have a Pumpkin Carving Party. It is a blast. We eat yummy foods and then pull out the big blue tarp and carve pumpkins. It is great to see all the amazing pumpkins people create. This year was another great party.

I wonder what Ben will create this year!!!

Ella enjoyed the party from her bouncy seat. She was the cheer leader that encouraged everyone. If anyone needed an idea for their pumpkin they could use Ella's bum for inspiration!

Here are all the pumpkins after they were carved. It was a great show this year. Ben's is the second from the left. Any ideas what it could be. Think Arrested Development. It should remind you of one of the key things from the show. Watch out for hop-ons.

All the happy carvers!

Baby Lessons

I just put Ella to bed. She is such a sweet heart. She most times will just go down when she is tired. I think she is tired today. Yesterday was a big day for her. We went to the pumpkin patch and then had a big pumpkin carving party last night. She partied with us and then feel asleep in auntie Sarah's arms. I will be doing more posts this week with pictures so be sure to check it out.

We measured her today and she was 24.5 inches long. That is one inch longer then her doctor's appointment that was a month ago today. I can't believe how fast she grows. I love it and hate it at the same time. I love each new stage and hate that she is changing so fast. I feel like I don't really have time to enjoy a stage before she is off to a new one. I have noticed lately that she is really seeing her hands. She has been sucking on them for weeks but now she is really seeing them. She was looking at her feet the other day with such wonderment. I know it won't be long before she is playing with her feet. Some times I look at her as she watches things and I just wish I could hear what is going on in her head. And then I wonder how she thinks. Is it in words or is it in some unique baby way. It would be great to know what a baby feels or thinks as they discover the world around them. My friend Brooke was just commenting the other day about how all things are new to a baby. They don't know what a tree is. They haven't felt the wind on their skin or experienced any of the simple and ordinary things we adults just walk through. It is all so new to them. I wish I could have those experiences now as an adult so I could really appreciate the trees and the wind on my skin.

This last week when Ella and I were in Tri-Cities I was amazed at how babies can make us stop and enjoy life so much. Simple things that they do are more entertaining and fulfilling then our favorite movie or TV show. My mom had taken Ella into my old room to make the bed and she put her in the pack n' play while she made it. The pack n' play has a mobile with animals hanging from it that spins while music plays and lights flash. Ella was entranced. My mom called my dad back to have him see how much Ella liked the mobile he had just got to work and before we knew it my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, and I were all crowded around the pack n' play watching her. At that moment there was nothing that could take us away from watching this baby discover the animals and lights above her head. I was struck by the thought that a baby can make us come together as a family and how she is able to slow us down to savor the quiet moments before rushing back into the craziness of life. I know babies are a lot of work and caring for them can be exhausting, but really I feel like Ella slows me down. I can not rush her when she is eating nor can I help myself from just gazing into her face at times. Before Ella I felt I needed to be on the move to get things down. Now I stop more to simply look into her face. It is one of the best activities I do in my day.

Here is Ella out at in the field with Grandpa Whitney checking out the pig pen with her bacon onesie on.

She looks so sweet when she sleeps.

Ella decided she needed to sleep in Daddy's spot.

Her feet were a little chilled so I put on her ducky slippers to match her ducky onesie.

This is the adorable yellow windbreaker that Auntie Sarah got Ella. Perfect on a crisp Fall day.

Her Face

Before Ella was born I wasn't sure how I would spend my days once she was here. When I thought of my days I couldn't imagine how I would be completely satisfied staying home and hanging out with an infant who couldn't speak back and that needed her diapers changed. In the back of my mind I wondered if I wouldn't get a little bored staying home. I wasn't sure how other mothers stayed home and wondered if I could do it.

Since Ella was born I have been anything but bored. I love being with her. I can spend a long time just looking at her face and watching her observe her world and learn from it. She is sucking her fingers now which I find the most amazing thing. A year ago I didn't think a thing about sucking fingers and now I look forward to her doing it. I also love the sound of her laugh. I am not sure if it is technically a real laugh, but it sounds like it and it is adorable. This morning after she ate at 5:30 she spent about a half an hour laughing at the slates in her crib. They must have been real funny! There are a lot of funny things in Ella's world right now. She laughs a lot and I love it. I love a lot of things about her and I would take far too long to list them all.






Some times Ella's hair is a little crazy. She has more hair then most babies her age and after nursing it can be crazy. This is such a time.

When we were shopping for Ella's room, Ben found this for her wall. He found it very appropriate for her since she has been given to us by God. Ella has found the sign very funny. It is just above her changing table and every time I put her on the table to change her or dress her she looks up at the sign and laughs. A friend of mine said the other day that she thinks when her babies look into no where that there are angels watching them and they are laughing at the angels. I wonder if she is right.