Happy Birthday!!

My baby turned ONE on June 11th! I cannot believe that a whole year has already gone by since we brought her home from the hospital. I remember thinking after the first week of having her home that we made it a week and we were all still alive. I'm glad that we've made it one year with our little drama queen! Ellie is "crawling" all over the place these days, but still not bearing any weight. I called Kids on the Move (physical therapy for kids), but I'm still waiting to hear back from them. They are going to come to our house to assess her and then hopefully will have some good ideas to help her use her legs. The doctor did not have an explanation for why she is not bearing weight because usually babies that can't bear weight can't crawl, sit up, etc. She can do all of those so we know it is not a muscle tone problem. I think it is an attitude problem and the doctor said that is probably what the case is. Oh Ellie...

Anyway, we had a little birthday party for her at the park with some of her friends.

Here are the babies chillin on the blanket.

Gracie and Ellie playing with some of her new fun toys!

My Little Beauty

A fabulous girl in my ward, Shannon Hadden, took some adorable pictures of Ellie last week for me. They are her 12 month pictures and I'm in love with them. Here are a couple of my favorites.

I loved Shannon and would recommend her to anyone! She has a blog with some of her work if you want to check it out. http://shannonhaddenphotography.blogspot.com/

I'm taking her to her 12 month check-up tomorrow so I'll update again with her stats and what the doctor says about her non-bearing weight legs.

Look Who Is Moving

Ellie FINALLY starting moving forward on Friday! (Yes she is 11 months old just in case you were wondering.) She has been good at the backward thing and going in circles, but never could really get the forward thing down. :) On Friday the crawl was really awkward and looked like it took a lot of effort. It looks a little less awkward today, but she still is kind of slow at it. I'm so excited that she has learned how to move because she seems to be a lot happier now that she is a little bit more independent. Now if she can only get the bearing weight thing down...

(Sorry the video is a little long and you have to hear my voice.)

Easter and Tulips!

We went up to Idaho to spend the Easter weekend with my fabulous Aunt Shirl and Uncle Winston. It was so nice to get away for a couple of days and just relax. I'm pretty sure I gained 20 lbs. because of Shirl's great cooking skills. Seriously, that is pretty much all I remember doing. Okay, not really, but we definitely did NOT starve that's for sure. I didn't take that many pictures, but here is one of her eating one of her favorite meals, Mac & Cheese. (Notice how the only pictures I have are of her eating.)

Today the weather was in the 70's and so we took the opportunity to go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. Side note, Utah is so weird because last week we had snow and 40 degree weather. It was awful!! Then this week it is supposed to be SUNNY and in the 70's! I can't get too excited though because knowing how crazy the weather is here it will probably be snowing next week.

Anyway, the Tulip Festival is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't take any pictures of the scenery, so I stole this from my friend's blog. (Thanks Heather. She doesn't even know :))

 

My favorite tulips...

I know what you are thinking, Ellie's head looks huge in this picture! 25th percentile my butt! And Poor Gracie was done.

I had to throw these pictures in because I love the dress she is wearing in them. Jill gave this to me for my baby shower and I have been waiting forever for Ellie to finally fit into it. She wasn't cooperating very well, but trust me, she looked so cute! Thanks Jill!

Gap Toothed

Ellie has been pretty miserable the past couple of weeks because she is getting 4 teeth on top! Poor little girl. Two have broken through now so the past couple of days have been a little better for her. I love it though because I'm pretty sure that normally babies get the middle two teeth first. Leave it to Ellie to do something her own way on her own time (bear weight, crawl, etc.) The two middle are coming in too, but have not quite poked through. Here is the unveiling of the Gap Toothed Princess. Excuse the food all over her face.

 

In other news, Ellie's hair is finally long enough to do something with. Marie was watching her the other morning and when I came back she had put her hair in a little pony! I tried to do it the next day and it did not look as cute when Marie did it, but it still was pretty cute. I guess I just need more practice. :) The other pictures are just because she is a cutie.

Oh, in case you were wondering, she still is not bearing weight on her legs. She has shown some slight signs of improvement, and I mean slight. She touches down with her tip-toes every now and then, but mostly she throws her hands up in the air, pushes her little bum out, and sticks her chest out. I'll have to take a picture of it because it is hilarious. One more month until therapy...

9 Months Old!!

I know what you are thinking...2 posts in the same day! I feel the same way! No, but seriously I cannot believe 9 months have already passed! I am starting to feel like she is not a baby anymore because she seems so big to me. We had her 9 month check-up last week and here are her stats:

Length: 28 1/2 in. (75%)

Weight: 18 lbs. 7 oz. (50%)

Head: 43.7 cm (25%)
Basically, she is still long (no longer 90th percentile), average weight, and a small head. I don't believe the small head thing because in every picture it looks way bigger than the rest of her body. By the way, sorry that every picture on here looks the same, but I was getting sick of Blogger and trying to upload pictures. Next time I will have some better ones. Oh and I didn't know how to edit them on Greg's computer.

These are just a few pictures that shows her crazy hair. It is very thick and I think it is starting to get some curl. I love her hair!

Oh, Ellie still does NOT bear any weight on her legs. She is way behind considering that is a skill most 4 months old do! Come on Ellie!! Personally, I think she is just being lazy and will do it on her own time. The doctor gave me a number to "Kids on the Move," which is physical therapy for small children. If she still doesn't bear any weight by the time she is 11 months old I will have to take her to therapy. Everyone pray that she does. I bought her some cute little shoes from Target for her to walk in this summer, but Greg kindly reminded me that she will probably not be walking by then. I mean she can't even bear weight, let alone stand up holding onto things. How will she ever walk?! Oh the stress you put me through Ellie. :) Good thing you are cute.

If you look closely you can see she has her bottom two teeth! I thought she was teething while we were in AZ during December, but she didn't get them until last month. Oops! She actually is getting two more on top. Don't worry they are not the two front teeth. They are the ones on the side so she will have a major gap in the front. I can't wait to take a picture of them! I love my little Ellie!

St. George!

Ok, I have been a horrible blogger! Sorry! Thanks for the kick in the butt by a few of you...you know who you are. :)

We actuallly went to St. George a couple of weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to post about it. Oops! Anyway, we went to St. George (southern Utah) for a weekend. It was just what I needed. I had been feeling tired and overwhelmed and in desperate need of a break. St. George provided just that for me. The weather was beautiful and I loved the people we went with! This is a picture of Ellie eating at In-n-Out. Unfortunately she didn't get to enjoy a hamburger, but she did get a delicious turkey and rice baby dinner. Sorry Ellie.

One of the days we went out in the desert to this beautiful red rock place. There was a little sand pit that the little kids went to town in. It was funny because at first I was holding Ellie while all the other kids dug and threw sand around. If you know me, you know that I am a little OCD when it comes to being clean. It drives Greg crazy, but I can't help it! I couldn't stand the thought of Ellie being covered in dirt and sand for the rest of the day. I know it is ridiculous. Finally I talked myself into letting her play in it and I'm glad I did because Ellie loved it! She picked it up and then would drop it and yes, occasionally eat it. She didn't like the taste, but that didn't stop her. Luckily, the sand was very soft and very easy to brush off. Just my kind of dirt! I loved St. George and will for sure be going back sometime.