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.

It's been a poopy day.

Warning: If you are easily grossed out by the topic of poop stop reading now! I knew it was inevitable, everyone with kids has these stories of being away from home when a huge blowout occurs. I simply wasn't prepared for it to happen today! Let me start off by explaining that since introducing solid foods, Ellie has dealt with some constipation. I noticed she was getting that way again so I gave her some prunes yesterday morning and pears with her cereal last night. This morning nothing had "moved" so I packed some more prunes to give her after church. Well, on the way to church this morning Ellie finally did her business and things were more normal. At this point I was stuck with the prunes so I just hoped for the best.
Fast forward to a few hours later Ellie was playing happily on our bed while I folded a load of laundry. All of a sudden she shifts to one side and I see it...a pool of poop on our quilt. It was all down her leg and foot...ugh! Brad, of course, just happened to be at softball practice so I cleaned it up with out much of a problem.
Fast forward another few hours...
We were on our way to the pool where we were meeting out small group from church. On the way Ellie is sitting happily in her car seat trying to get her feet in her mouth. We get to the pool and I open the car door and go to get her out when I notice something brown above her lip. Then it hits me, "That's weird, Ellie had sweet potatoes for dinner, what's this brown stuff...OH NO!" Then upon further investigation I see poop EVERYWHERE. On the toy she was playing with, her legs, feet (yes, the ones she was putting in her mouth!!!), her hands, and of course in a nice big pool in the car set itself! Oh, what a lovely mess! We ended up taking her straight to our friends, the Wells, house to attempt to clean Ellie and her car seat up as best we could. We gave Ellie a quick wash down in the sink (don't worry Lauren, I scrubbed it really well when we were done, promise!) and got her car seat clean enough to use for the ride back to the pool and then home. By the time we got to the pool it was 40 minutes later and I was starving and exhausted! Oh, what a memorable night it was.

McDonald's for Lunch

Silas, Breandan & Brett taking a break from the playground

Eliza and Ellie

Last week Ellie and I met two of my good friends from college, April and Jennifer, for lunch with their kiddos. The boys had a great time playing in the play land and us girls enjoyed our time together doing what we do best, talking. For years April, Jennifer and I have met up for dinner on a somewhat consistent basis without the little ones. So we had a good time seeing how the kids are growing and changing. We had a nice visit and to top it all off I got some of my favorite McDonald's french fries!

Sweet Girl