happy 2 months ella belle!

(be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read all about ellery's favorite - and not so favorite - things from this past month!)

a girl and her giraffe...

i had heard about sophie the giraffe, but never knew what a big deal it was. kyle & i got one for ellery for christmas, and let me tell you, the girl loves her sophie. she loves to stare at it. hear it squeak. and she even loves to taste it. i really don't know what the big deal is - it's a rubber giraffe - but she is all about the soph.

here are some pictures of ellery & sophie hanging out, doing a little tummy time. i think ellery was telling sophie all her secrets :)

here's a picture of e looking so sweet - snoozin', all swaddled (not gonna lie, i am awful at swaddling with just a blanket. thank goodness for our velcro sleep sack & swaddlme!). that time with sophie wore her out! but she still had lots to say, as you can tell from the videos. enjoy!

wisconsin winter wonderland

it's no secret that winter isn't our favorite season...it's freezing. and most times we just feel trapped inside, waiting for spring to get here. thankfully, this winter hasn't been too bad (so far) and we've been able to enjoy it. we notice how pretty the snow is. kyle got a new pair of winter boots. i think wisconsin is starting to grow on us :)

so, in an attempt to actually enjoy winter, ellery joined kyle and i on a little date. we went to alterra for coffee and lunch. and we got to talk and relax. instead of bounce ellery on the ball, while we're half asleep trying to carry a conversation. it was nice. then we grabbed our hot drinks and went for a stroll. though a lot of the sidewalks & trails were still covered in a bit of snow, we just pushed through (and got a workout in the meantime!)

peek-a-boo!!

the alterra we went to is right by the lake, so we got to take in a beautiful view of frozen lake michigan, as well as downtown milwaukee. we watched families sledding & got excited to take e out sledding one day. it really was a pretty day. and just as we were heading back, e let out some cries letting us know she was ready to go!

(side note - on our way back, we got stuck on a trail that we thought led back to where we parked. nope it didn't. that's when e started to cry. so we found some stairs that lead us to the parking lot. and they were blocked off.... so we took e's car seat out of the stroller, kyle carried her & i took the stroller as we climbed over the rope, down the stairs and back to our car. that definitely added to our workout, but we made it back, safe & sound!)

daddy & the bottle

sometime right before e's 2 month b-day, i realized i was tired. exhausted really. ellery is a good sleeper, but i just couldn't get used to the broken sleep (and i still struggle with it ). waking up anywhere from 1-3 times during the night to feed & rock her. it took me forever to fall back to sleep. and shortly after i did, e would be requesting my presence again. i felt like a zombie during the day. a tired, grouchy one at that.

kyle kept urging me to start pumping. i'm not sure why i was so hesitant. e & i had a good thing going with breastfeeding & i didn't want to mess it up. but i realized, seeing as she was almost 2 months, we prob were good to go. so we started pumping. i decided to get a manual pump since i will be home with e & will feed her most of the time. and there was a significant price difference. i thought it would be a hassle & take forever pumping by hand, but really, it's not too bad. and after just two times, i had enough for 1 bottle.

her very first bottle.

kyle & i were excited, and a little nervous, to see how she'd do, or if she would take it at all. daddy grabbed the babe and the bottle, and gave it a try. what do you know.... she guzzled it right down! we were so proud!

what we didn't expect was how special kyle felt feeding her. i always told him how much i loved it, and he gets to share in that now. it was such a special, precious moment. i love those two so much.

so, what's great is, now kyle can feed ellery. and respond to her night time requests :) what's been fabulous is the past 2 sundays, kyle let me sleep in while he got up with ellery, fed her, did tummy time & even had her sneak in a nap all before i woke up, feeling wonderfully rested. i think i'm going to like this bottle business :)

mommy & baby yoga

ellery and i recently started to go to a mommy & baby yoga class at destination maternity. i attended a few classes there while i was pregnant and loved them. if you are a mama or mama-to-be, you should definitely check them out. the classes are free and best of all, a lot of fun for both me & e!

ellery's favorite part of the class is the baby massage, which lucky for her, is the first 10-15 minutes of class. she just lays there and looks completely relaxed. we also do this as part of her bedtime routine after getting a bath, and she absolutely loves it - letting out lots of coos & smiles. her fav is when daddy helps out, too!

the rest of the class is mostly for mom, though ellery joins me for a few of the workouts - like being lifted to work my biceps or laying on my legs as i do crunches. it actually helps a lot - with each crunch, i come up and am greeted by a big smile, as if she's saying "you go mama! you're doing great! i'm just the cutest baby in the world, right?" and other times, she does a little tummy time workout while we do our yoga. though, she normally ends up resting on the boppy with sophie :)

what's even better is katie & scarlett join us for class now, too. scarlett loves it, especially sitting by the mirror and making faces, or checking out what ellery's up to. too cute. now each week, we look forward to mondays for our yoga time!

a visitor from the south

over martin luther king jr day weekend, ashley came up north for a visit. for those of you who do not know ashley, we met in dominica as kyle & her husband ryan went to med school. we quickly became friends (thank goodness because i don't know if i would have survived down there without her!) and also business partners, as we sold bread & other baked goods. and as the "bread ladies" left the island, we have been visiting each other in different cities and states ever since. miami. atlanta. chicago. nashville. columbus. and now, we have added milwaukee to the list.

not only did i love having ashley here, but ellery loved it too! you can tell she loved snuggling with ashley from the picture below :) for most of her visit, since it was cold (ashley would say it was absolutely frigid!!) & snowy, we had the perfect excuse to spend a lot of her time here just relaxing, chatting, and playing with ellery. ashley also taught her a new trick - ask e what a snake says, and she would stick out her tongue! i love it.

we did actually get out of our pj's and off the couch :) we went to lunch at city market, took a trip to target (which took us about 3 hours to get out of the house to do!), went to church at epikos, and played trivia. on the day ashley left, kyle even watched ellery for a couple hours so ashley and i could hang out just the two of us and stroll around the mall. what a wonderful husband i have!

ellery was especially excited about her new outfit ashley brought for her - a super cute & soft minky gown with her monogram on it. ashley helped give e a bath, we styled her hair in her signature "i just put my finger in an electric socket" look, and then put on her new dress. she looked absolutely adorable, just a little bit like a southern belle.

thank you so so very much ashley for visiting us all the way up here in wisconsin, in the middle of winter! we can't wait to see you again soon!!

paci or no paci?

we recently started giving ellery a pacifier...well tried to give her one. as you can tell by her chubby cheeks, the girl loves to eat, even if it's just for comfort. so i wanted to try & see if she could suck on a pacifier before falling asleep instead of eating before nap times & bed.

well, the first time we tried it, which is when i took these pictures, she spit it right out and started crying. i kept offering it to her, until she got the idea that she was supposed to suck on it. i was so proud of her, though i thought it looked so silly in her mouth. well, she thought so too... after a few minutes, she spit it out and then did a major spit up all over the place. ellery:1, paci (as kyle calls it): 0.

since then, she's taken it a few times - when crying in the car or making a fuss at the grocery store. but for the most part, i think she knows it's not the real thing... and she gives me these looks like, "really mom, you think that plastic thing would trick me??"

mom's natural beauty

i picked up this little shirt and sweater for ellery, and couldn't help but take a few pictures. she was being such a happy girl. i don't know what's better - those cheeks of hers or that smile! i could just eat her up!

good mornin' sunshine

ellery is such a cutie pie when she wakes up in the morning. it's one of my favorite times with her. when we unzip her out of her sleep sack, she always throws her arms up in a big stretch. then she makes these crazy faces, sticking out her tongue, all the while cooing and grunting. and then, the smiles come! and lately, she gets so happy when we tell her good morning, she puts on a big smile then starts saying, "hoo hoo" like a little owl. so so cute.

we thought we'd give you a little peak into one of our mornings. daddy was there, which was extra special. enjoy the videos below (and please try to ignore my baby talk :) at least ellery loves it!)

daddy does a little dance to get ellery smiling... and little did he know i was recording it :)

ellerys "junior" babysitters

starting around the beginning of january, i started watching our landlords' daughters for a few hours after school. i watched ingrid & lucy during the summer as well, so they got to see my belly grow & were so excited for ellery to arrive. and really, though i'm the one watching them, they are such great "babysitters" to ellery while they're here! they love to hold her, talk to her & play with her. they even pick out e's outfits for the week & help stuff inserts into her cloth diapers. they are such sweet girls & ellery is having a lot of fun while they're here. (well, when she's not snoozing away!)

lucy & ellery

ingrid & ellery (she was getting just a bit sleepy...)

that's better :)

one day, the girls wanted to play in the snow...

so, ellery & i joined them!

i thought our house looked pretty cute with all the snow! ellery's first home :)

ellery & her big girl bed

oh sleeping. i feel like sleep, eating and dirty diapers are some of the most talked about topics among new moms. and i have lost a lot of sleep just thinking of ellery & how she sleeps...really.

for ellery's first month, she either slept in her newborn sleeper right next to us, or she slept with us in bed. co-sleeping seemed to be the only way any of us were ever going to get any sleep. plus, kyle and i love to cuddle, so it's only natural that ellery's a snuggler, too :) so, i read up on co-sleeping (such a hot topic right now), deciding if that's what we were going to do, we were going to be as safe as possible.

soon, someone started to get a bit squirmy and wasn't really sleeping as well with us as she was before. so, kyle proposed having e try out her crib. well in my mind, that's her big girl bed. i mean, it's so big! and she's so stinkin' cute & tiny! i felt like she was moving off to college, when really, she was just moving about 15 feet away to her nursery across the hall from our room. i was a little dramatic. but we gave it a try.

the first few nights (1/8 & 1/9) she slept for 4 to 5-hour stretches at night, longer than she had ever slept before. we continued to lay her down to sleep in her crib, and though some nights she ended up back in our room, for the most part she did great! though i was hesitant at first, thinking she was growing up too fast, seeing how well all of us were sleeping those nights, i knew were doing the right thing for our family & ellery.

then the next week, she decided to be a bit sassy. she no longer loved her crib. she went back to sleeping in smaller chunks. and some days, the girl barely slept 5 minutes during the day. as soon as i would lay her down, she'd pop up thinking she just slept for hours. needless to say, all three of us were exhausted.

on 1/17, we had a breakthrough. since ellery wasn't sleeping well that day & wouldn't go down for the night, we decided to skype with my grandparents in florida. my mom was visiting them that week, so we got to talk to all three of them, which was so fun. mammaw & pampaw instantly fell in love with her chubby cheeks :) i told them our sleeping predicament, and pampaw decided to try & help out. he started singing to her, and within the first few lines of the song, she was out!! it was absolutely amazing - and adorable!

the most amazing part is she slept from 9:30pm-9am that night, waking up once for a half hour to feed!! her first time sleeping through the night!!! it has been her best night of sleep to date! we told pampaw to be on stand-by every night in case we need him again!

so, ellery has mostly been in her crib, though it changes from night to night whether she sleeps for 5 hours or wakes up every single hour. i've looked into a lot of different sleep theories - cry it out, parenting your child to sleep, no-cry sleep solution etc. a lot of times i just get overwhelmed by them, feeling like i'm doing something wrong or there is so much more i could be doing. but then all i do is look at ellery and remind myself we just need to figure out what works for her, not what everyone else thinks works. i think she likes that idea :) hoping for a good night of sleep tonight!

ellery's 1 month appointment

our little girl is growing so fast! we went for her 1 month appointment on january 9th, which really, we went when she was 6 weeks so just a little over a month old. and, on that same day, i went for my 6 week postpartum appointment. a day at the doctors' offices - what fun! ellery and i were actually pretty proud of ourselves. we made it to both appointments on time, and even managed to sneak in a trip to the mall in between. and thankfully, both of us checked out great!

ellery is one growing girl, and from the numbers, we can tell she is still an awesome eater! she was in the 90th percentile for both her weight (10 pounds 15 ounces) and her height (22 1/2 inches). kyle says it's a good thing she's packing on the pounds & getting taller at the same time, instead of being short & a little chunk! i think she's carrying a lot of that weight just in her chubby cheeks :) love em! she was also in the 50th percentile for her head circumference.

this was also her first appointment she had to get a shot. and let me tell you, i think i hated it more than she did! she got her first round of the hep b shot at the hospital, but thankfully she was whisked away and we didn't see the shot. but this time, i was right there for her, and though the dr. & nurse said it wouldn't be too bad (i mean really, who loves shots??), ellery cried as soon as they poked her! thankfully, after i fed her and we left, she wasn't fussy or overtired. and plus, she looked super cute with no pants and her mary jane socks while she got the shot :)

meeting gg & great grandpa frank!

ellery was so very excited to meet her gg (great grandmere) and great grandpa frank! so excited that she couldn't do anything but fuss the whole time they were here... i think as soon as we said, "she's such an easy-going baby," ellery set out to prove us wrong! i guess she just has to be sassy every once and awhile :)

despite ellery's sass, we had such a great visit! gg scooped ellery up and walked, talked, and rocked her. it was so sweet. great grandpa frank was such a natural, you could tell e was nice and cozy in his arms! we even ventured out to have dinner at saz's, which kyle claims has the best ribs you'll ever taste!

we were so thankful gg & grandpa frank made the trip up to visit and meet ellery. our only complaint - we wish they could have stayed longer. and even though ellery was fussy, she loved every second she was in their arms. thank you for visiting gg & great grandpa frank. we love you!!