She really is...

...a good baby. Never mind any of the belly-aching that goes on here from time-to-time. I love you Ellie Rose!

-ED

Oh well...

...back to the drawing board. After a couple of nights of sleeping well, Ellie was awake at 1am Sunday morning and 3am Monday morning. Really, it's not that bad; it's just that we've been spoiled by her good sleeping patterns prior to now. Still, we'd really be happy if we could figure this one out.

-ED

What a week

EM can probably tell you better than I can, but for the last week or so Ellie has been waking up anywhere from 1am to 3am. That wouldn't be so bad except she hasn't gone back to sleep without great effort on our (OK, mostly EM's) part. This has not made for a particularly enjoyable week, especially when you consider we've been blessed (spoiled) with a baby that would sleep throughout the night since she was about eight weeks old. Anyhow, Ellie managed to get through all of last night without waking. So now I am hopeful that this "phase" is over with and she'll go back to spoiling us.

-ED

Friends

Yesterday we spent some time with Becky, Jonathan and Payton. Ellie was captivated by her new friend - two years her senior. The food and the company were yummy, and we hope to do it again before too long.

-ED

So cool

So two weeks ago, we began the process of teaching Ellie to self-feed. It's been a slow and unproductive two weeks on that front. We'd feed her a couple of "stars" a couple of times a day, and she'd just play with the rest - pushing and raking them around on her tray, occasionally picking one up and promptly dropping it. Well, that all changed today as not once, not twice, but three separate times she actually picked up a star... held it out at arm's length... sized it up... and then slowly... but surely... put it in her mouth. I clapped and cheered, and she smiled in return. It was so cool! Too bad EM missed it, but I'm sure Ellie will do it again soon enough.

-ED

7M

Coincidence?

Back in September, I had a trying time with Ellie only to be reminded - by cold, harsh reality - that my challenges with the little one were nothing to complain about and, in fact, weren't really challenges at all. Well after last night's "trouble", I am reminded again that we have it good; and, it saddens me to report that Keri Still lost her battle with ALS and now Copeland and Kellyn must struggle on without her. RIP.

-ED

Whew!

EM's home and taking care of getting Ellie to bed. She had to work late and so I had an extra three hours of daddy daycare - on a mere four hours of sleep. It was not an easy extra three hours to say the least. However, as I now type this entry I can hear the sounds of a content baby and so my stress level is coming down. It's really amazing. No matter what I do, and no matter how hard I try, I will never be a match for EM and her boobs.

-ED

Hmmmm

Ellie is fine; wonderful, in fact. I, however, am perturbed.

On four separate occasions now, I have tried to enter Ellie in the beautiful baby contest at Live with Regis and Kelly. On four separate occasions the program acts like it is processing my submission, and on four separate occasions I have failed to receive the "upload successful" message they say should be issued once the process is complete. I've emailed them for assistance and... surprise... I've received no response. So while I am hopeful she's a candidate, I am pretty certain she is not and the failures of the system paired with their lack of helpfulness is disappointing. I like Regis and Kelly, but their tech support, etc., stinks and, as a result, my baby won't get the crown we all know she deserves!






-ED

Apparently...

...we were, indeed, on a roll this weekend. Not only did EM and I accomplish a great deal this weekend (which, I know is not fodder for this blog), but we added another item to Ellie's growing list of firsts. The newest addition came Sunday night when we went to dinner with nanny and grandpa, and Ellie sat all by herself - like a big girl - in a booster seat.

-ED

And another one

We are apparently on a roll with firsts, as we can now add to the list... a band aid from mommy. EM was cutting Ellie's fingernails, not an easy task, and cut the left pinkie nail a little short. Ellie doesn't know the difference.

-ED

On the topic of firsts...

...we have two new additions:

We started the new year by letting Ellie try self-feeding. We bought a product called "Graduates Finger Foods" - little, banana-flavored pieces of cereal. We give her a few each day and she swats them around on her tray, picks them up on occasion and every once in a while she even gets one in her mouth - she's still working on the whole manual dexterity thing; but, it falls under the heading of firsts, nonetheless.

Last night, Ellie rode like a big girl as we went through the grocery store. We strapped her into the front part of the cart with a little device nanny picked up on consignment and we shoved some towels on either side of her for additional support. She handled it all very well as we made a full trip through the store without incident.

-ED

Happy New Year!

From Ellie:

and... Ellie PantHead:

So following up from where the last post left off, we've got much to look forward to in 2008. Off the top of my head, I can think of several things Ellie will be doing this year: crawling, walking, speaking her first words, and celebrating her first birthday. My question is, to those of you with more experience than us, what else can we expect from Ellie this year?

-ED