Ella is 3 months old!

Ella is now 3 months old!

She weighs 11 lbs 6 oz now. I know that because we had to make an unscheduled trip to the doctor recently. Poor baby sister caught Lia's awful cold virus and has been having a pretty rough time lately. She has been sleeping with her mattress inclined to help the drainage, using a humidifer 24 hours a days, getting her nose suctioned with the bulb syringe frequently, taking long steamy baths at night, and using a little baby Vick's to help ease her congestion. After about 2 miserable weeks of being sick, she has finally turned a corner and seems to be getting better.

We enjoyed a few nights of good sleep as her cold cleared and things seemed to be settling back to normal. Then, on Thursday, Ella cried on and off for hours when we put her to bed. Then again on Friday, she cried all night long. We finally determined that she must be getting her first tooth. Lia didn't get her first tooth until 7 1/2 months old, but it seems that Ella is ahead of the game on this milestone! We got some Baby Orajel and that really helped her. After 2 days of never sleeping more than 45 minutes at a time, she took a 4 hour nap today!! I'm so glad my tired little tiger got some relief and some rest. I hope this tooth makes its entrance soon so we won't have to deal with all the sleeplessness much longer!

So, for this month's post, I'm going to borrow some formatting from Melissa's blog about Colin. I love how organized her monthly milestone posts are and want to make sure I keep up with all things Ella as well as Melissa does for Colin : )

Here it goes:

Nicknames: E, Ella Bella, Buggy Boo, Little Sister

Likes: bottles, Sleep Sheep, Johnson's Bedtime Bath and Lotion, Lia, Baby Einstein activity mat, Praise Baby and Baby Einstein DVDs


Dislikes: being left alone, being laid down for her naps, paci when she's hungry

Milestones: Ella likes her night time routine, which now includes a bath, before bottle and bedtime at about 7:30 pm. She is sleeping with her arms out of the swaddle and has figured out how to suck her thumb!

Feeding: Ella eats 5 times per day, usually about 4-5 oz of Similiac Soy formula.

Sleeping: First bottle is usually at 5:30 am, then it's back to sleep until 8:30. Ella stays awake for about an hour and a half at a time before she needs another nap. She takes a morning, afternoon and evening nap.

Behavior: Ella is such a happy, easy going baby! She loves to watch Lia play, smile at Mama and Daddy, and play happily on her mat. She doesn't cry much unless something hurts (like her tooth!)

Playing dress up!

Clothes: 3 month clothes but I think we may be moving to 6 months soon...

Favorite Moments: Ella is adorable when she first wakes up - she stretches really big, then looks up and grins from ear to ear! She also really enjoys her bath at night, and it's so fun to watch her splash around!


Looking Forward To: Getting better at sleeping all night long with no crying!

And here is Lia at 3 months for comparison:

Ella exercising...

Little Gym Funny Bugs Class

This morning was Lia's first class at Little Gym where I did not go in with her. She had graduated from the Mommy and Me classes to the next level, called Funny Bugs, where I sit in the viewing room and watch through the window while she does class with her teachers and friends. She did a great job today! Our old class was 45 minutes long, and this new class is an hour. At the 45 minute mark, both Lia and Sage were over it and didn't really want to participate anymore. After some tears and a lot of coaxing from Ms. Amanda, both kiddos were able to stick it out until the end of class. I was so proud of Lia! I can't believe she is such a big girl these days : ) Here are some videos and photos from class:

Balance Beam and flip!


Bouncy Track


Jumping on the Bouncy Track

The Butterfly Center

This past Saturday, we spent the rainy morning exploring the Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Lia has been sick for over a week and finally showed some signs of improvement, so we decided to get out of the house for a little adventure. Ella now has Lia's cold, so she stayed home with Mimi. Although we missed Ella, it was nice to have a little one on one time with Lia.

Lia had a great time learning about the butterflies, then walking through the "butterfly garden like Dora does." : ) We even made a pit stop at the gift shop on the way out and got 3 great books about ladybugs and butterflies that have been mandatory reading at bedtime every night since!

Checking out the wall of insects with Daddy


Playing an insect game


All smiles : )


Watching real butterflies come out of cocoons!


Whoa - look at this guy!!


Wow! Surrounded by butterflies in the garden












My sweet angel in the butterfly garden!

We had a great time watching Lia explore and get so excited about it all! It's so much fun to see things through the eyes of a child. I am blessed to get to do it so often with my precious little daughters : )

Our first cabin trip

Last week, we took our first trip to the cabin!

Every year, Philip goes on a hunting trip at the farm with a bunch of guys from work. This year, we went over a day early and got all settled in at the cabin. We had a great time with our two little girls! The next day, Philip headed over to the farm for the weekend for his hunting trip. The girls and I stayed the week at the new cabin.

Lia loved her big girl bunk beds and slept wonderfully in them. Ella did really well too. We set up her pack n play in the guest room, and she settled in well for the most part.

When Lia woke up on Thursday, she had a runny nose and I figured that she caught something at school on Wednesday. Well it turns out I was right. Sage and Colt both ended up sick too : ( Lia's cold kept getting worse all week, and we ended up at the doctor in Dadeville on Tuesday. Lia was such a good girl at the doctor's office, so I let her pick out a treat at Rite Aid while we waited on them to fill her ammoxicilin. She chose blue and green nail polish, and we did mani/pedis in her new room when we got home : )

During the trip, we got to visit with family and friends. The girls had so much fun getting loved on by Mimi, Grandaddy, Aunt Ginny, Aunt Rachel, Harrison, Aunt Elaine, Lauren, and of course Uncle Cliff!

It was a rough week with Lia so sick (and now it seems that Ella has it too.) Between Ella being awake so much (as babies tend to do) then Lia waking up all night with her cold (she ended up in bed with me a lot), no one got much sleep. I wouldn't have made it without all the help from my mom! Thanks Mimi - you are a lifesaver!!

Even with the lack of sleep, we had a great visit. We love the new cabin and can't wait to go back again soon!!

Even though she was so sick, we still managed to have tons of fun in the bath tub! I got her Vapor bath, which seemed to ease her cough and congestion, so I let her stay in the tub as long as she wanted every night - we even ate dinner in there a few times!



Ella spending quality time with Aunt Elaine and Grandaddy


Fun on the activity mat with a cozy fire going in the living room


Harrison and Lia watching TV with Uncle Cliff


Aunt Rachel loving on Ella and Lia : )


Uncle Cliff helping Lia put on the new Dora dress up clothes that Aunt Ginny brought her. She loved them and the Dora microphone too!


Uncle Cliff and Ella


A bottle from Mimi


My sick angel at the doctor (we had to bring Little Zebra along too)


Manicures and pedicures after the doctor


Ella all bundled up for the cold weather


My two sweet girls fast asleep in my lap on the plane headed home

Nana and Papa's visit

Last week, Nana and Papa came out for a long visit. It was wonderful to have them for so many days! Lia got so much great quality time with them. She had so much fun playing tickle monster with Papa and playing school with Nana! We were glad they got to spend time with Ella too. She was all smiles getting to know Nana and Papa : ) Thank you both for coming out here. Please come see us again soon - we miss you so much already!!

Petting the animals after lunch at Clay's


Hanging out with Papa


Ella and Papa "talking"


Lia playing with Nana

2 Months Old!

Our little Ella is already 2 months old! She is such a happy, easy baby. She is a great sleeper and a good eater, and she goes back and forth between breastfeeding and bottles with no trouble at all. Last night, we moved her upstairs to her own room. She woke up once around 3:30, but I was able to get her back to sleep with the paci and some snuggling, and she slept until 7:15! Here are some of the things we want to remember about this age:

-Eats 7 times a day, usually about 3 oz of formula or 25 minutes breastfeeding
-Stays awake about 1 - 1 1/2 hours at a time
-Naps for 1-2 hours in between each feeding
-Dropped her middle of the night feeding at only 6 weeks old!
-Likes her Baby Einstein Activity Mat and watching football with Daddy
-Loves to smile at Mama, Daddy and Lia
-Starting to "talk" a little, likes to talk back and forth with Mama
-Already had to move her to 3 month clothes because she is too long for her newborn stuff
-Uses a paci at nap times but doesn't seem to like it much any other time

Ella at 2 months old


Lia at 2 months old (they look a bit more alike in these photos than they did in the 1 month pics)

We love you so much sweet girl!! We are so blessed to have another beautiful baby girl, and we can't imagine life without you!

Ringing in the new year

For New Year's Eve, we left the girls at home with Nana and Papa and went out for a night with friends. We all met at Tiffany's house and took a limo out for dinner at Tila's Mexican Restaurant and then a bar called Prohobition to count down to the new year. We had a great time! Thank you so much to Nana and Papa for babysitting so Philip and I could have some overdue adult time : ) Happy New Year! Looking forward to an amazing 2012!!