Wolfpack Girl

In honor of NC State's first football game tonight I put Ellie in her State attire for the first time this morning. Go Pack!

Ellie and Piggy

Ellie loves her little piggy. It has been in her crib from day one but she has recently started playing with it. One night last week I went in to check on her before I went to bed and she was holding him by the leg fast asleep. This shot is from yesterday when I went in to get her from her afternoon nap. How cute!

Fun in the Mountains

During our trip we were able to visit with both sets of Ellie's great grandparents.

Here we are on our picnic, which was obviously rained out. Thank goodness for Anna & Tim's camper shell!

We took a trip to the fish hatchery after our picnic. The boys loved feeding the fish and watching them jump up out of the water.

Here we are at Franklin Park.

This was Ellie for the last 45 minutes of our trip home. She was obviously done! Other than that she was a perfect little traveler.

Last Wednesday morning Brad, Ellie & I packed up and headed to the mountains for a long weekend. We, along with Tim, Anna, Ty, Ben, & Paige, went to Brevard and stayed at Brad's parent's house while they were away on vacation out west for a few weeks. We had a great time enjoying the nature around us and the great weather. All in all it was a fun and low cost getaway!

6 Months

Weight: 13.14 (20%)
Height: 24 3/4 in. (20%)

It is so hard to believe that half of Ellie's first year is already over! We are loving watching her grow and learn new things each and every day. This month her little personality has just taken off. We thought she couldn't get any more fun, but she has proved us wrong! One of her favorite new activities this month has been eating. She is loving fruits and veggies (except peas). Her favorites so far are sweet potatoes and bananas. She is already eating 3 meals a day and nursing 4 times. She loves drinking from her sippy cup, although she hasn't mastered the art of holding it by herself yet. She has pretty much dropped her 3rd late afternoon cat nap as well. She is getting better at sitting up and has finally mastered the art of rolling onto her belly. One of her favorite songs she loves for me to sing is "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." What a joy our sweet Ellie is!

Ellie on Her Belly

This morning Brad and I went in to get Ellie and we found her on her belly for the first time. She has been trying to make it over her arm for the last few weeks and she finally did it! Yay! This afternoon when I put her down for her nap the first thing she did was roll to her tummy. It was so funny. It's like she got in her crib and remembered, "oh yeah, I have a new trick." However, she was so excited that she wouldn't sleep, she just kept on rolling over and getting frustrated because she didn't exactly want to sleep like that. After 45 minutes of this back and forth I took her out of her crib since she was due to nurse in 30 minutes. After she ate she was so exhausted that she only rolled over twice and then fell asleep on her side. What a funny little girl we have!

Fire Ants

One tough cookie!

Today Ellie and I were walking around outside in the yard and I decided to put her feet in the grass to see what she would do. She kind of kicked around a little bit and then as I was picking her up whimpered a little bit. I looked down and there were two fire ants on her little feet. I immediately wiped them off, hoping that I had caught them before they bit her. No such luck. I took her inside to wash off her feet and that's when I saw the damage those little boogers had done to my sweet baby's feet. There was one bite on her right ankle and 6 on the left foot. I immediately felt like a horrible mother, wanting to go back in time to erase the 20 seconds I put her feet in the grass. I went back outside to show Brad and came back in to call someone for advice. My friend Cheri was the first person I thought of. She reassured me and told me what to look out for in case of an allergic reaction. I began to cry, which lead to her crying (she's preggo so blame the hormones). I felt better. Thankfully, Ellie was acting totally fine like nothing had happened. Just to be on the safe side we decided to call our pediatrician for advice on how to treat her. The lady I talked to was really nice and told us what to look out for and suggested a few options if she seemed to be bothered by the bites. By the time I got off the phone they were already looking better and she was still completely unfazed by it all. Praise the Lord for His mercy in this situation. Tonight we could be dealing with an uncomfortable little girl, but as I type she is sleeping peacefully in her crib.

Hairbows

Ellie's hair has really been coming in the last two weeks or so. Last Friday I was able to put a hairbow in her hair and it actually stayed in! Since then she has worn one at some point every day. I just love it! We'll see how long before she starts pulling them out.