Emsley at 5 Months

First of all, I need to thank my sister Jenn for another beautiful blog design! I adore the "happy" colors in this design, it's definitely here to stay for quite a while. :) Jenn, you are amazing!

Oh my word! I simply can not believe how quickly time is flying now. Our little Emsley turned 5 months on the 11th! 

Em, here's what you've been up to this month: 


~I would guess that you weigh somewhere between 14 and 15 pounds now. We'll find out your stats for sure next month! People still comment on how quickly you are growing and how chunky you are. Although, you seem to have stretched out and grown a lot longer this month too. You are growing like a weed.:) 


~You are still wearing size 2 diapers. Believe it or not, I think you'll need to be in size 3 diapers soon enough.


~You currently wear 3-6 month clothes and some 6 month clothes. I can't believe how quickly you are growing through sizes!


~I don't know what happened, but you broke my heart this month when you decided you were done nursing. I fought this so many times but finally gave in after a whole week of you screaming at the breast. I guess you decided you like the bottle best. :( I'm now pumping so that you are still getting some breast milk and you take a bottle of breast milk and/or formula 4-6 times a day.


~You are beginning to stare at our food like you want it. Just a few more weeks and we will be starting solids! I bet that will be a happy day for you. :) 


~You still sleep in your bassinet in our room. You are a rock star sleeper! You typically sleep 10-12 hours through the night! Your naps are still somewhat inconsistent, but in a typical day you take one short nap in the morning, one LONG(ish) nap in the early afternoon (1-2 hours) and another short nap before bed time. You still seem to love your sleep but you are also becoming very curious about your world. 


~You love when people talk to you. You really like to smile back and coo and blow raspberries. You also blow bubbles a lot when you are happy.

~You giggled for the first time this month and it made my ears and my heart happy! Although most of us can work really hard to get a giggle out of you, nobody makes you laugh like your sister Elliana! Half the time Ellie isn't even trying to make you laugh, but you just love to watch her and giggle.

~You are beginning to outgrow the bouncy seat and you only enjoy the swing sometimes. I think you prefer to be on the floor or the exersaucer. We started you on the exersaucer this month and you LOVE it! You also prefer to be anywhere that you can get attention from your siblings and your parents. You have made it clear that you will not be ignored! :)

~Speaking of your siblings, your relationships with both Ellie and Ethan continue to grow. You are always watching them and I can tell you can't wait to run around and play along. 

~You roll over from your stomach to your back all the time now. Mommy and Daddy saw you roll from your back to your stomach for the first time this month! We've only seen it once though, and you haven't done it again since. You are definitely working on it!

~You hold your head and your chest up really well when you're on your stomach now. 

~You are definitely teething. You drool a lot and recently you've been biting down hard on anything you can get your hands on. Believe it or not, you really like to bite on your own hands and fingers.

~Speaking of getting your hands on things, you are getting very good at reaching for objects, grabbing them and bringing them to your mouth. You'll put anything in your mouth. You especially love to grab your mama's hair. I am not a fan. Ha! 

~You continue to be laid back and easy going. If you are well fed, rested and changed you are such a happy girl. The key is getting you well rested though. ;) I think it is hard for you to get a good nap in with your loud and active siblings. 

~You still love to be held and cuddled. I LOVE it! Please don't ever outgrow this Emsley (yeah, right). 

~We continue to call you "Em" all the time. Even Ethan refers to you as Em. No other nicknames have really stuck.

Emsley, I can not believe that next month you will be 6 months old! Where has the time gone? We are all enjoying you so much! We are loving getting to know you more every day and getting to see your beautiful smile and your infectious giggle.

Monday Miscellaneous

This is one of those "I have a bunch of random thoughts about nothing posts". Don't say I didn't warn you. :-)

Caleb and I were looking at our bed a few weeks ago and were admiring loathing it. We had the same duvet cover and sheets that we got when we were married 7 years ago and it was definitely time for a new set. One afternoon last week the new duvet set and pillows arrived and Ellie helped me set it up and surprise Caleb when he got home. We're loving the new look!

 

I realized after I put up these photos of the bed that I've done a very poor job of documenting the many, many, many home improvement projects we've done since moving into our house 4 years ago. There are so many I could show but I'm afraid I don't have pictures for all of them. My goal is to do a better job of taking before and after pictures from here on out.

 

The weather has been so beautiful around here. I just love being outside in the fall when it starts to cool down. Even just taking a walk to look at the gorgeous colors in the trees makes me happy. :)

Since the weather has been so great, the kids and I have taken many trips to the park in the afternoons. I'm enjoying these two so much lately my heart could burst. I love spending time with them and I mostly love watching the two of them interact. Sure they have little sibling spats every once in a while, but for the most part they are best of friends and truly enjoy each other.

 

I had a sudden realization the other day that I am WAY past the half way mark between Ellie's birth and starting school. I'm now less than two years away from her starting kindergarten. Along with that came the realization that once that time comes, my every day, all day time with Elliana is over. Be still my heart-I may have to go cry now.

 

It's hard to believe, but our sweet baby Ethan will be turning 18 months old this week. His vocabulary is really taking off right now. He tries to repeat every word we say. Although probably only 50% of his words come out crystal clear, we know he understands us and he definitely has improved in communicating with us. Here's just a small list of words he says all of the time; Ellie, Mama, Mommy, Dada, Daddy, Elmo, Bobo, Papa, Nana, Abby, Night-Night, Done, More, and Ball. He loves when we ask him about sounds that animals make and we love asking him to show us where his nose, mouth, eyes, ears, hands, feet and hair is. He's gotten really good at this game. I hope to get this on camera soon.

Both Ethan and Elliana have grown like weeds this year. I had Ellie try on some of her fall/winter clothes from last year and although everything fits the same around her waist, all of her pants are very short on her. I'll be curious to see how Ethan has grown at his 18 month check up this month.

Ebay and I have a love/hate relationship. Most of the items I buy for my kids on Ebay end up being exactly what I hoped for. Recently I tried buying some clothes on Ebay to save some money and with the exception of 1 shirt and the earrings that I bought, everything else turned out to be a big fat fail. Turns out that even if you know your exact size, it's not enough. I finally gave in to the fact that an adult's body is much harder to dress than a child's. From now on, I must try clothes on before I buy them. Seems obvious to me. Shoot.

 

My side of the family rarely NEVER goes on vacation. We are currently trying really hard to schedule a vacation for some time next year (2013). We have 10 adults and 6 kids in the family. 5 of those adults are opinionated, emotional women. It's already been an adventure trying to plan and schedule a vacation.  I'm holding on to the hope that a vacation will happen and we WILL all enjoy it. ;) It could happen... right?

 

I'm going on a women's retreat with the ladies from our new church this coming weekend. While I'm ecstatic to be spending another weekend in our beautiful Colorado mountains in the fall (I've been in the mountains 3 out of the last 4 weekends), I don't know anyone really well yet. I decided that if I was ever going to make new friends that this is as good a time as any.

 

I'm also singing on the worship team for the first time next weekend. There's nothing like jumping in with both feet. I'm nervous, but I'm SO excited to have the opportunity to sing again. It's been too long.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, ours is off to a good start. :)

Ellie's Growin' Up

When I look back at pictures of our beautiful little Elliana when I first started this blog, I almost can't believe she's the same person.

She still has a larger than life personality, a mousy voice, a strong will, a love for people and life and a smile that lights up any room. But in many ways she is not the same person, and she's definitely no longer a toddler. She is a little girl, through and through.

The closer to age 4 that Ellie gets, the easier she gets. Although she's like any other 3 year old that cries, whines and throws fits when they don't get their way, those moments are becoming less and less for us. Ellie is finally understanding the idea of discipline; why we discipline and what actions require discipline. She also now understands that she only gets rewards for good behavior.

Don't hear me wrong, I never wanted to change the person that God made Ellie to be. I love her for who she is-strong will and all. I just always prayed that God would use her strong will for good, and today that is still my prayer.

I'm loving the things I'm seeing in our Ellie. She is compassionate and she has a big heart for others. She has a way of bringing a smile to almost anyone. She loves Jesus and isn't afraid to talk about Jesus to anyone-Christian or not. I'm so proud of her and I'm excited to see how God will use her in the future.

Here's a few little day to day stories of what makes Ellie so fun and grown up lately.

When Elliana was a baby and toddler, she wasn't very good at entertaining herself or sitting still for anything. Now she loves to color, do puzzles, or watch a movie in her room all by herself. Or, she loves to play with Ethan, chase him around and mother him. :)

She LOVES to help out with any household chores Caleb or I need to do. She hangs out with Caleb while he mows the lawn, she tries to help me fold laundry, and she loves to help me cook or bake. Anytime I go to the kitchen to start whatever I'm making, she pulls up a chair and asks how she can help!

 

Elliana has her own sense of style now, and most mornings she wants to pick out her outfits by herself. To my surprise, I often times love what she's chosen to wear. That girl has better style than I do. ;)

 

 

I had been talking about organizing Ellie and Ethan's clothes. I wanted to box up the shoes and clothes that don't fit anymore, and go through some used clothing we'd been given and put the next size up in ther drawers and closets. I was busy cleaning the kitchen when Ellie asked me what shoes don't fit her anymore. I was preoccupied and didn't know why she was asking so I just casually listed a few pairs of shoes that don't fit her anymore. The next thing I knew, Ellie came into the kitchen and showed me that she had boxed up the every exact pair of shoes that I was going to box up. I was amazed!

Every so often, Ellie acts like she's older than she is. I wouldn't call this a good or a bad thing, but often it makes me laugh.

This past weekend I was driving with my kids and my niece Devyn to her family cabin. I had given both girls some grapes when we picked Devyn up. After a while Devyn asked for some more grapes. Then Ellie piped up with "Oh honey, I'm SO sorry but I ate all of them." Yep, Devyn is 4 years Ellie's senior and Ellie called her honey.

Later in the car, Devyn said she felt carsick and needed to vomit. I was so proud of Devyn as she waited until I was able to pull over (it took a few minutes) to hop out of the car and do her business. After we were back on our way Ellie kept asking Devyn if she was okay, if she needed anything, and to be sure and let us know if she needed to throw up again. :)

Elliana likes to "parent" Ethan too. She calls him "Dear" and "Sweetheart" and tries to care for him or get us when she can't help him. It's adorable and hilarious at the same time. She'll often say "Oh Ethan, what are we going to do with you?!" Ha ha.

These days Ellie likes to count and do simple crafts. She talks all the time about turning 5 and starting school some day. She likes to talk about the things she'll be able to do when she's 5, like getting her ears pierced and finally being free of a carseat.

I've had a few people talk to me about how ready Ellie is for preschool. Although I know this is true, and that she would love preschool, I'm just not ready to say goodbye to these toddler days yet. To have my Ellie gone for a good chunk of every day. As it is, she's already growing up too fast.

 

 

And don't think I'm neglecting this adorable face, I'll be doing a post on him soon. :)