The Long Month - June 23, 2012

Here we are, SIX MONTHS after Small Ferrell arrived in our lives.  I just honestly don't know where the time went.  Even though everyone always says it and even though it's completely cliche', this has been the fastest six months of my entire life.  I know I keep saying that, but I am overwhelmed with that fact.  I keep trying to laso the days and slow them down somehow.

One day I noticed that Ella's tummy had slimmed down a lot.  She didn't feel any lighter to me, so I weighed her and sure enough, she had gained.  I blew it off but then on her six month birthday, I measured her.  Now we not only know why she chubbed up in May, but also slimmed down in June.  She grew 3 1/4 inches in one month!!!!  This is definitely the biggest growth spurt she's had yet.  Our little grower has been very sleepy as well so now it all makes sense.

Here's her slimmer tummy.

Our sweetness can sit up almost all by herself now.  She does for a bit but then wobbles over.

She is still fascinated with her feet, especially if there are bows on her toes.

She always has a lot of visitors.  The usual ones are her grandparents, her Uncle Steven, Aunts Jerris & Caron, friends The Screamers, The Thomas's, and Miki from next door.  This month, our nephew, Cory, came home from college.  He just graduated.  Hooray.  So that was a special treat to have Brennan & Cory both here together.  Ella loved seeing them.

Grandma helped her learn to crawl.

Great Aunt Neva came by also!  We loved seeing her and Ella had a blast getting so much attention from those two all afternoon.

Ella is so much fun now.  Before, we loved being able to cuddle her.  Now she is so active.  She loves playing with her dad and I can already tell that he is the fun one. I'm trying to catch up.

She still loves reading.  We went to the library this month and got a library card.  We checked out 5 books.  She really enjoyed them. 

Sitting up and loving her feet again.

Aaron and Ella play together so much.  He is really good about helping her calm down for bedtime as well but he is awesome at playing with her and getting her to giggle. 

This kills me.  She really loves her daddy.

Small Ferrell started really eating this month.  She is completely intrigued by everything we eat.  So much so that I feel guilty for eating in front of her, even if I just fed her.  We figured out that she loves banana yogurt juice, baby peaches, bananas, pears, applesauce, cherry applesauce, and mashed potatoes.  Sweet potatoes are a no-go.  She finally figured out the tongue thing.  Now she barely misses any food and isn't messy at all unless she decides to blow bubbles.  That's her favorite thing to do now.  She has blown bubbles since she was about three weeks old but now she does this, lips together, spitting bubbles thing.  She gets really happy if you do it back to her.  It's really cute.

Her smile is so beautiful to me.  She smiles the biggest and prettiest at her daddy as evidenced below.

Small Ferrell is still trying to crawl.  She almost has it but goes in reverse instead of forward.  She has the strength but just can't put the hands together with the feet yet.  She gets pretty irritated at her lack of forward progress after a few minutes.  This month she learned to flip over from her back to her tummy, though.  So when she gets fed up of not being able to crawl, she just flips over and over.  

We celebrated Aaron's first Father's Day this month.  I really appreciate the dad he is to Eleanor.  What a relief to not have that to worry about.  She's a lucky baby and I am so happy for her.

My parent's old friends, Carolyn & Russell came to visit.  They enjoyed seeing the baby and my parents enjoyed showing her off.

Small Ferrell and I went to Arkansas with my parents for Decoration weekend.  We visited Aunt Mary, Uncle Jerry, and my cousin George.  We also drove all over northwest Arkansas visiting my dad's relatives and the cemeteries where his relatives are buried.  We saw his very first school and Ella got her picture with her Papa next to it.

While we were at Aunt Mary's is when Ella attempted to roll over back to front for the first time.  She just couldn't get that hip the extra millimeter.

She was entertainment for everyone on the trip.

She is such a happy baby.

When we got back from Arkansas, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo with the Hunt girls. 

Ella loved the aquarium the most.

We went to several of my friends' daughters' games.  My friend, Marnie, made this outfit so that Ella could cheer on her daughter,  Gracie, at her kickball games.

We attended more 5k's and each time she just has so much fun looking around at all the people and the scenery passing by.  She falls asleep and usually wakes up when Aaron gets near the finish line.  He thinks that all the cheering wakes her. 

Aaron went to California with our exchange students for a week.  Ella & I stayed home and completed projects, played with the animals, and had Alex and Jordyn Hunt over.  We went swimming at her Grandma's pool for the first time. 

We went shopping with Aunt Jerris, we visited Aaron's Aunt Joy and Uncle Teddy, and we checked on my niece and nephew's dog, Abilene, while they were away for work.

Small Ferrell's 6 Month Stats:

Height: 28 1/2 inches!!!!! That puts her in the 95 percentile! Super growth spurt!

Weight: 15 pounds, 14 ounces

Sleeping: Still sleeps well. Lately, she wakes a few times through the night but just for a moment. It might be from teething or her rapid growth spurt.

Eating: She loves yogurt, applesauce, cherry applesauce, key lime yogurt, and mashed potatoes.

My Friends Call Me: Still all the same nicknames. Eleanor, Ella, Chubberson, Dolly, Squeeky Girl, Ella Dove, Small Ferrell, Baby Love

New Discoveries: Ella loves Papa's watch and since taking note of it, she seems to notice other people's watches quite a bit. She really likes the animals now and actually giggled at Mack, our dog, this month. It was so cute!

Her Accomplishments: She can almost sit up by herself, she pulled herself up to her feet using my hip while I was lying on my side, she can almost crawl, she can crawl backwards & she can pull herslf up to her knees all the time now. She continues to reach for us a lot now and that just steals my heart! She is so vocal and so beautiful. We are at a new level of cuteness. We got her a bouncer seat last month and she enjoys that for a while. She is a tummy time pro!

I can't imagine what the next six months holds for us. We have had so much joy because of her already. We feel like the luckiest people in the world

The Month of Chub & Smiles - May 23, 2012

Here's our smiley FIVE MONTH OLD!!!!!  This month, our sweetness has gotten so much chubbier.  Her dad calls her Chubs, Chubberson and Little Chubs all the time.  Eleanor is just so cute we want to eat her up!  She has changed so much this month.  She is still very vocal.  Now she has added this growling noise that she does when she is very excited and there are lots of people around.  She loves people!  She loves the horses but still doesn't pay too much attention to the other animals unless a chicken Squawks loudly.  Ella smiles most of the time now.  Even for the camera!  She is really only ever unhappy if she is tired.  Then she wants her bed or else.  My fault.  We always know if she has had enough sleep because when she wakes up rested, she is incredibly happy and talkative.  If there are any whimpers or tears, we help her back to sleep.  

We spent a lot of time outside again.  We went to Gracie's kickball games, went to the Haslet Rodeo, visited family, helped her daddy in the shop, played with the horses, went on walks with the neighbors, went to Briley's soccer games, had Gracie after school to play with and went shopping and sight seeing.  We started our 5k's again.  So Eleanor got to ride along in her stroller with her daddy.  Even pushing a stroller, Aaron is very fast.

She loves to wake up and snuggle, climb and grab Daddy.  She pinches his face and neck.  She smiles bigger and seems so happy. 

Aaron keeps saying that *this* is the baby he thought would be born.  Thank goodness she wasn't this big!  He says now that she is chubbier she seems a little tougher.  I agree.  We think she gets cuter every day, too.

We take a "Friday Picture" of Small Ferrell every week to show her growth.  We chose a laundry basket to do this in because when Aaron's nephews were little they played in their mother's laundry basket.  Looks like she is already outgrowing this one.

Daisy is, and has always been, very interested in this baby.

She enjoys watching Mickey Mouse in the morning.  Here she is really enthralled in the show.

Her smiles, and faces in general, light me up.

On Mother's Day we visited my mom and then had Aaron's mom over for dinner.

We played at the park in between.

Here they are, watching Tangled again. 

This was my blessing dress and shoes.  My mother saved them for me and they are still in great condition.

She ditched the shoes.  Ella is not a shoe fan.

This is why.  Toes taste too good to cover them up with some silly shoes.

We got her all dolled up and took stuff outside to take pictures.  She's grown so much so I wanted to capture her smallness while we still could.

Small Ferrell's 5 Month Stats:

Height:   25 1/4 inches

Weight:  14 pounds, 13 ounces

Sleeping:   Longer naps than I would think but that means she's growing!

Eating:  After eyeing my chips one day and then my mashed potatoes another, I gave her some mashed potatoes and she loved them.  We tried some fruit and juice this month.  Still working on how to eat so we just try a little every few days or so.

My Friends Call Me:  No new names.  All the same nicknames from before.  Eleanor, Ella, Ella T-bone, Ella Bells, Ella Dove, Baby Love, Baby Monkey, Chubs, Small Ferrell, Dolly, Squeeky, Cupcake, Squeekerson, Chubberson, Sweetness.

New Discoveries:   So much!  Toes in mouth, toys in mouth, everything in mouth.  She noticed her books more, cartoons, the horses, her stuffed animals (she really enjoys looking around her nursery,) and other children.  So many changes this month!

Her Accomplishments:   Turns over a lot some days, can get up on her knees, likes tummy time and can do an inch worm crawl pretty much anywhere she wants to go.

Most of her baby hair fell out the past month but her dad noticed that it is growing back quickly and very thick.  Much lighter in color.  She smiles, laughs, giggles, coos, jabbers and growls.  She just started reaching for us from her bouncer.  So sweet!  She tries to give kisses now and hugs us.  She is drooling so much, has swollen gums, chews on everything but still no teeth.  She gets more beautiful every day. 



The Month Outdoors - April 23, 2012

Four months have gone by since this sweetness arrived.  Basically, she loves to be outside so much so that, unless it is raining or unbearably hot, I bring her outside often.  She loves to lie on a blanket and watch the leaves blow.  She might be my child. :)  This month was spent mostly outdoors.  We took lots of little outings around town as well.  I worked the horses more this month than I have since Ella was born.  Usually I work them while she sleeps in the mornings but sometimes I bring her along to watch from her stroller, parked safely in the round pen.  We spent a lot of early evenings in the yard, on her new blanket Grandma Elaine got her.  She watched the world from her swing while I worked out in the driveway or did work in the back yard.  We went to Decatur with Aaron and watched him mow and listened to the birds.  We went to lunches with Marnie and Kandice, visited grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, met our friend, Arun's, family from India at the airport, went to an Easter Egg hunt, and shopped together.  Her dad plays Teletubbies for her when she gets upset, which is usually only at bedtime if she is a little over-tired.  Mostly, our sweetness is wonderfully happy.

She had to get shots this month.  That broke our hearts.  We stayed in the room at the doctor's office for about 20 minutes after the shots just consoling her and nursing her.  I am very grateful that Aaron and I share the same ideals about caring for her.  We didn't design it that way.  We butt heads on a few things in life, but parenting has come naturally to us both and, happily, our instincts so far have been very connected and in tune with one another. 

This is our girl outside while I worked out.  She smiles all the time but usually not for the camera until this month. 

Oh, by the way, she has figured out this tummy time thing and now she digs it.  She rolls over all the time from her back to her tummy.  She loves her toys, especially this inch worm toy that moves as she pushes it.  She loves the wind in the leaves and clouds rolling by.  She will just giggle and smile at the leaves and clouds. 

These were my grandmother's irises from her yard in Salt Lake City.  My mother retrieved some and planted them in her own yard in Justin, Texas for years before she split them with me to plant at my house in Haslet, Texas. 

My dad always takes Ella around their yard to show her the flowers.  He really enjoys his time with her and he can always get a smile out of her.  He picked out her Easter outfit.  I loved it.

We took some more bluebonnet pictures at a spot Aaron found on our way to Decatur.  Ella had just woken up.  I love her face!

Here we are at the Haslet Easter Egg hunt.  After so many years of living here and working at this event, it was surreal to be here with my own daughter.  I couldn't stop smiling.  Ella got to meet a lot of my park board friends.  She also met the Easter bunny, played by a Berryhill girl.

There's that smile.

Tummy time?  I got this!

She found her feet!!!  So cute!

Small Ferrell's 4 Month Stats:

Height:   25 inches

Weight:    13 pounds, 2 ounces

Sleeping:   Still sleeps well but started stirring a little through the night.  Might be a growth spurt or she seems to get a little hot.  She's a furnace like her dad.  Her best sleep is her morning nap.  She sleeps so soundly and stirs so little that I continue to check her breathing.

Eating:   She is a great eater!  She nurses very well and likes a sip of bottled water on occassion.

My Friends Call Me:   Eleanor, Ella, Ella T-bone, Dolly, Sweetie Girl, Ella Dove, Ella Bells, Chubberson, Squeeky, Squeekerson, Baby Monkey, Baby Love, The Sweetness

New Discoveries:   Ella found her feet and grabs them anytime she is on her back or in a chair now.  She is really great about grabbing things and has a tremendous grip.

Her Accomplishments:  She can sometimes say, "hi," and "da-da," by mimicking me if I repeat the words a lot.  She jabbers a lot of other sounds.  I spent a few days counting her sounds and she has over 30 different ones she makes on a regular basis.  She is a very vocal baby.  She started practicing sitting up.  I am amazed by her strength and her abdominal muscles.  She loves her dad.  She likes us to sing to her, she loves books and having us read to her.  She really likes bath time. 

I am beyond grateful to get to spend this time with Ella.  Aaron works very hard so that I can be with her all the time.  This month, I ran the Warrior Dash, which required me to be away from her for 4 hours; our longest time apart yet.  When I got home, she smiled at me and stared at me for the longest time.  My heart swelled and I knew she missed me as much as I had missed her.  Aaron kept her so happy while I was gone.  He watched Tangled with her and Diana.  I wish I had a picture of that.