one of ellery's favorite things is her ergo baby carrier (thanks mamaw & pampaw!). it was highly recommended to us, and now that we know ellery loves to snuggle, we are very thankful we have it! ellery will fall asleep in our arms, and if we lay her down in her bassinet, swing or her crib, she wakes up in 10 minutes or less, not very happy she's not sleeping on us anymore! you can imagine it makes it a little hard to get anything done - like dishes or laundry. and though i am all about cuddling all day with my babe if that's what she needs, we also need plates to eat on and clean clothes :) so as i looked into it, other moms recommended putting ellery in the carrier around the house so she can be close and i can get things done. it worked like a charm! e normally falls right to sleep in it.
below are some pictures of e and i getting ready to go on a little walk using her ergo carrier. as you can tell from the pictures, she wasn't so sure in the beginning... this was the first time in her cute snow suit (thanks aunt beth & uncle mike!) the white cushion she's laying in is the newborn head support - it helps her hold that little head up (that hair weighs a lot!) until she gets better control of her head. but once i got her all bundled and strapped in, she was ready to hit the town! i love it because i have my hands free! and both of our favorites - all that snuggling keeps both of us toasty warm :)
i can already tell...ellery is a daddy's girl! and who can blame her?? kyle is such a good dad! he loves playing with little e. he snuggles her right up and soothes her when she needs it (even if that means bouncing forever on the exercise ball - ellery's favorite!) they just have such a special relationship already, and i love watching the two of them together. i thought i'd let you take a peek too :) enjoy!
"daddy come hoooome!! i want to play!"
"hooray! he's on his way!"
daddy's girls!
YAY!!!! he's home!!
playing with my new playmat (thanks momo & papa!)
and even daddy joins in to play with e!
ellery says "i love you dad, but playtime is over!!"
thought i would post a few pictures of ellery playing with some new christmas presents. also, she wanted to give kyle & i a late christmas present, too - a smile!! she has been starting to smile and it has got to be the cutest thing in the world! we're having trouble snapping a picture just as she does it, but i tried :)
maybe it was because there was no snow. or that i got all our decorations up & presents wrapped super early. or maybe it was the fact that ellery was born at the end of november. but this christmas just didn't feel like christmas. we said it was because we got our very favorite present just a bit early :) but still christmas is our top holiday to celebrate, and knowing it was ellery's very first made it even more special.
we were sad not to take our annual "tour of the midwest" trip we do each christmas. with our families in indiana and ohio, we normally took a week off and split our time between the two, but this year was a little different. first off, kyle had just two days off this year (though i am not complaining at all since they were christmas eve & christmas day!). and then with our little bundle of joy being born, we decided it would be best to celebrate in wisconsin. thankfully, kyle's parents, brother and sister were able to join us, too.
so we got ellery all dolled up for christmas eve at epikos. i found her little gold dress months ago and thought it was so cute. i couldn't wait for her to wear it. and though it was a tiny bit big, and she resembled a glittery christmas ornament, i thought she was the cutest little ornament there ever was :) e did wonderful at church and it was fun having kyle's family come to epikos, too.
we spent the rest of christmas eve eating and relaxing. ellery had plenty of hands to hold her and cuddle her. and she loved every second :)
christmas morning we started off by celebarting just the three of us (well four with jackie!), our new family. the first of many many christmas mornings together. and though ellery was a bit sassy that morning, i couldnt help but smile thinking about all the christmas mornings we would get to spend together, hanging out in our jammies, opening our stockings. what a perfect present she is :)
as kyle's family joined us, the rest of the day was filled with food, relaxing, presents, laughs, cuddling & naps (mostly keri & ellery!), and just quality time with each other. ellery was very spoiled this year! the week leading up to christmas, each day we had so many packages waiting on our porch for ellery! each was filled with christmas gifts for ellery! and though she slept through most of the day, and we opened her gifts for her, i know she loved each one and is so thankful she is so very loved already!
and of course, if you know kyle, you know we would of course have to play games!! at the end of the night, before everyone left, we were even able to sneak in a bath time for ellery. she has the best hair after her bath - so fluffy and it just stands on end!
this year i am so thankful for skype!! i so wanted to be able to celebrate with my family in ohio too. it was so hard not to be wit them, especially my mom, for ellery's first christmas. but thankfully, we were able to "see" each other through skype. ethan and landon, my nephews got to tell me all about their new toys. if only you could hug through a computer screen :)
like i said, we couldn't have asked for a better (early) christmas present than ellery. she really is the best. and she's the cutest christmas present i've ever recieved, too :) so from our family to yours, we hope you had a very, very merry christmas!
this week was all about mama & ellery time! this was the first full week that the two of us were home alone together, and we had a blast :) we played, we danced, we dressed in cute outfits (with accessories to match of course!), i gave ellery a bath by myself, and we even survived kyle being gone all day & night for his first on-call shift since ellery was born. and of course, every day we couldn't wait for kyle/daddy to get home!
enjoy some pictures (and videos if you can handle my baby talk!) from our girly adventures during ellery's fourth week :)
morning playtime
almost every morning ellery & i would start off our day with a little playtime in her nursery. now i know why i worked at gymboree for a year and a half in chicago, singing silly songs & dancing around with a clown. i can sing all those silly songs & do all the activities with ellery! that really comes in handy during our morning play sessions :) this week, we worked on tracking (following an object with her eyes), grasping (holding onto an object), rolling over from her tummy to her side, back, and eventually back to her tummy (we're not that far yet), and holding her head up & moving it during tummy time. whew, that sounds like a lot of work for our little sweet girl, and it is! but she is such a trooper and did such a great job.
tracking:
grasping:
"hello, this is me"
tummy time:
my favorite - doing tummy time using a mirror! i put a floor-length mirror on the floor & rolled up a blanket to use as a bolster to support e's neck. i put her on her tummy so she could look in the mirror & do tummy time at the same time. she was fascinated! and those little chubby cheeks - i can't handle the cuteness!!
baby connection class
last week we started going to a baby connection class offered at the hospital where we delivered. basically, it's a group of moms that get together to chat, ask advice, and have an excuse to get out of the house! it's led by the sweet lactation consultant that we met when ellery was born. it's been good to go to so i can meet other moms. this past week, we had a holiday party - we brought in treats & dressed up the babes in their cutest outfits. i had bought this little dress awhile ago for ellery (from baby gap of course!) and was so excited to have a reason for her to wear it. i think she looked pretty stinkin' cute if i do say so myself :)
grocery shopping
to get ready for kyle's family to come for christmas, ellery & i took a trip to the grocery store. i'm still trying to figure out the best way to shop as baby girl comes along... i put her seat in the cart, but you can tell, that doesn't leave a lot of room for the groceries! and putting the car seat in the actual seat of the cart scares me a little. i think next trip i'm going to try carrying e in our ergo baby carrier - that way i have a whole cart to fill, my hands are free, and ellery gets to cuddle up on my chest & take a nap! but she was an excellent helper this shopping trip, making sure i didn't forget anything! we also stopped to chat with a sweet woman who worked there, and we got to tell her the story of how i started the whole labor process right there in that grocery store!
girl time
ellery and i got to catch up with several girlfriends this week too. first, we had breakfast at city market (yum!) with erin & katrina. katrina was in young life last year but graduated - it was so so great to see her & chat! katrina was very excited about baby ellery while i was pregnant, so it was fun for her to finally meet the baby she had been talking to while in my belly :) - though ellery was asleep the entire time we were there! and erin, who is so incredibly sweet, got our whole family christmas gifts - matching smartwool socks!! we love em' and still need to take a pic in our family socks :)
leah stopped over as well to drop off a little present... matching hats for ellery and i that she made!! so so sweet :) and what's even more amazing & cute... the hats match our purple socks that erin gave us. we are going to be decked out in our hats & socks, i love it. thank you leah!!!
dad's home!!
each day, ellery & i couldn't wait for kyle to get home! some days i could just tell e wanted her daddy - she would be a bit fussy, and as soon as kyle got home & cuddled her in his arms, she calmed right down. she's a daddy's girl :) and even though kyle worked all week, we still snuck in plenty of family time!
i printed off some black & white flashcards for ellery & she loves them! kyle loves to show them to her - she gets so focused, especially on the striped ones, and makes the funniest faces!
most nights since ellery was born, we got in the habit of eating dinner on the couch. so we decided to have a little romantic dinner at the table - and a certain little snuggle bug just had to join us :)
each year before christmas, kyle and i decorate a gingerbread house. i have no idea how we started doing it, but it's a fun little tradition we love doing. we were excited for ellery to join in on the fun, though the first night we tried to make it, she wasn't so into it. we got the house at least put together, and threw in the towel. the next morning, we all woke up ready to go! we turned on the christmas music, grabbed the icing bags & candy, and went to town on that house! the last picture cracks us up - i'm sure ellery will grow to love decorating gingerbread houses as much as we do, even if it wasn't her favorite this year :)
kyle & andrea have been married for five years but still feel like lovey dovey newlyweds. 11.28.11 changed our hearts forever. the day our sweet ellery annabelle was born. these are the stories of our little family.
always first, we love God and would be lost without the fullness of His grace. our motto for our marriage, and now our family, is "trust his perfection." this is our journey as we learn to trust Him more each day, as husband and wife and now as a daddy and mama.
