New Favs

Ellie has hit some recent milestones. Crawling, pulling up, using a sippy cup, eating cheesy poofs and cheerios and playing, playing, playing.

She loves to crawl all over the place and will barely sit still any more. She loves to crawl all over the kitchen when Jim is cooking. Another favorite target is the cat. RC is not so sure about her recent ability to move about. He tries to hide on top of the ottoman, but low and behold she learned to pull up about three days after learning to crawl.


After RC...


but he escapes.


Daddy has to separate the "children".


Did you see me, I almost got him!

Ellie also loves her new found talent of feeding herself. She loves the Gerber lil crunchies that we refer to as cheesy poofs. She could eat the whole can if we let her.







She is not as crazy about cheerios. She likes to pick them up and toss them around, but only eats a few at a time.

Ellie is also not as excited about her sippy cup. She would much rather sip out of a cup than use the sippy cup which proves to be very messy.



Ellie loves to play with her toys. We found these great boxes for her toys and she loves to grab them, turn them over, crawl over them, and generally make a big mess.



We also got a baby pool for her this weekend and she went "swimming" for the first time Sunday. It was a little cold at first, but she really liked it. I have a feeling this is where we will spend most of our summer afternoons.






Heading to the slide!


Weeeeee

And They're Off...

Ellie had her first annual Kentucky Derby party the first weekend of May.
Here is the picture from her invitation.



We drank Mint Juleps (or juice boxes, depending on age), wore fancy hats and had a good time with our neighbors and friends.

Ellie is not a ship!

Goggie and Ellie


We had Ellie baptized the other weekend. Just to clarify, she was not christened, you do that to ships. My bad, but good ole wise Grandchuck set us straight.

Ellie was baptized at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbus. It is the church where my mom and dad were married, where I was baptized and where Jim and I were married. I am so glad we made this decision.

I was sitting in the pew during the service and it just felt right. It was ok that Ellie was babbling away and I was so happy to be surrounding by so many of our friends and families. It was truly a blessing!

Afterward we had a little get together at Baba and Grandchuck's. Jim and I decided to do the food ourselves. I would like to take some credit, but it truly was all Jim. He really is amazing in the kitchen! It was a wonderful day and I am so touched by all those who were able to join us on this special day for us. What a wonderful first Mother's Day for me!

All the pictures from the church are on my mom's camera so I will post those when I get a copy. Until then, here are some pics that I took.


Enjoying lunch on the front porch


Ellie and her precious Columbus friends!!!


Moms and babes

Ellie, What's that in your mouth?

Well last weekend was the pits! Ellie was fussy and cranky all weekend. I thought maybe it had to be some of the new foods we had been trying. That I had maybe fed her something that made her tummy upset. And then low and behold Sunday morning Jim let's her chew on his finger and painfully discovers another tooth! So that explains it. Now we have a shark who lives among us! She has three teeth and man can she bite...hard!!!!

In other news, Ellie is now crawling! Exciting, yes, but not so much for momma. I personally think she has been taking lessons from the cat. She tends to pounce as opposed to crawl. She rocks back and forth and then leaps forward onto her hands. I will try to get it on video. But this new found talent means that she likes to wonder around the living room to discover new territories.



We have really enjoyed the beautiful weather recently. Jim and I have been able to take Ellie for a cocktail stroll in the evening after he gets home from work. We have cocktails and she strolls! We have also been able to spend sometime playing outside. Ellie loves to sit in the grass and pull it up.




Eating the grass




Ellie was helping Jim plant our herbs. Please note the outfit she has on. Her daddy got her dressed that morning...oh my!


She loved playing in the water...


And this is what happened when we fell in the water

We will be heading to Columbus next weekend to have Ellie christened at the church where we were married. She will either be wearing the christening gown that I wore or one that Goggie's father wore, my great-grandfather. Just depends which one she can fit in.

Here's a preview...


And a few other recent pictures.







Just kidding. This last one is of me when I was little. See any resemblance?!?!

Catching up

Here's a quick update of recent events.

I drove way too much for four weeks in a row.

Ellie and I went to Columbus.
Mom and Dad agreed to keep Ellie for two weekends while Jim and I went turkey hunting.






Daddy couldn't let Eelie stay away for 2 weeks so we drove back to Mobile for a visit. Carter, my sister made the trip back to Mobile with us.


Eliie and Aunt Carter

Then it was back to Columbus and on to Darlington for our second hunting weekend. The weather was bad so we left early to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents and went hunting at my Uncle's.

Then we headed back to Darlington to get Jim's truck and back to Mobile. Confusing, I know!

Baba came to spend the next week with us in Mobile. She helped me clean out Ellie's room and trade out the clothes she had already out grown. Then she kept Ellie for the third weekend in a row but this time down here.

We were able to have another successful hunt and returned early. Unfortunately we returned to plumbing issues, apparently we had roots growing in the pipes which backed everything up into the house. Fun, I know!

Then we returned to Columbus for Easter. We enjoyed spending time with my family even though we were the only ones from my generation that were there. We missed everyone who was away!


Elli and her great-grandmother, Goggie



Four generations





Grandchuck and Baba with Ellie on Easter

So we've done a lot of driving, hunting more than I thought we were going to be able to do this year, and enjoyed seeing friends and family in Columbus.

This is a picture from Ellie's 6 month portraits.

6 months and counting

Ellie is now 6 months old. Hard to believe and I have no idea where the time has gone.
I have to apologize to anyone I have not talked to in the past week to 6 months. I have not been the best at staying in touch and if it weren't for facebook I might not have any friends at all. This mothering thing has proven to be a bit harder than I expected recently. I am so grateful to those who have helped me along the way.








A little update on our little monster. Monster, you read correctly. Ellie has become a monster over the past month, six weeks, two months, I don't even know when it began. She stopped sleeping through the night, on most occasions, and has started screaming bloody murder each night at bedtime. Jim nor I have figured out what is going on. She is growing and gaining weight as she should, so we don't think anything is seriously wrong. Is she too tired, does she get too hungry, who knows?




We are both about to pull our hair out so we are trying to figure this out. Currently we are working on her schedule. We are trying or have tried to wake her up at the same time each day, get her to bed a little earlier, more closely monitor how much she eats, and adjust her feeding/playing time. So far, no big change although we did have one night that she went down without a peep and one night that she slept through the night, but of course these two happenings did not coincide.



But other than that, Ellie is wonderful. She is a joy (during the day) and always happy (except at bedtime). Here are a few highlights:




*sitting up and playing with toys
*chewing on everything
*Ellie has two teeth
*loves to go on walks
*loves watching RC, our cat





*only crawls backwards
*babbles and giggles



Ellie and I are headed up to Columbus at the end of the week. She is going to spend the next two weekends with Baba and Grandchuck while Jim and I go turkey hunting. We will be back in Mobile with Aunt Carter part of next week and then Baba is coming to Mobile with us the following week. Grandchuck will join Baba in Mobile the third weekend while Jim and I run away to the woods one more time.