Life According to Ella

Hey All,

Our little darling (nicknamed "Smushie" due to her favorite curled up position or "Little Stinker" as we have recently been calling her when she is crying) is now 6 weeks and we continue to see amazing amounts of personality in a tiny ten pound body. While squeaking, cooing, and crying are her main means of communication, if Ella could talk, here is what we guess that she would like to tell the world.

1. High end stores are overrated. To get out of spending time in places like Neiman Marcus and high end baby stores, cry so that someone will take you out of them and your parents won't waste money by buying you expensive things that don't fit right and you will ultimately spit up on.

2. To make the most of burping, make a face that looks like your eyes shoot out of your face and turn bright red. It'll freak your parents out.

3. Don't be fans of the French. Everytime Mommy puts me into my French onesie and sings to me in French, I either spit up or cry to show my dislike.

4. If you want to stop crying, have someone bounce you to the point of abuse. I promise it won't make you nauseous, it will make you laugh and smile.

5. You eat better when making a clicking noise.

6. To go to sleep, get a sound machine to listen to and watch an aquarium. Don't forget to put your hands above your head, it helps the circulation.

7. Hands belong on faces all the time, especially when someone is trying to feed you. What else should you do with them when you are my age?

8. If around lots of people, fall asleep and then they won't bother you. Make them wonder if you truly have eyeballs.

9. Dream of good things. It will keep you smiling when you are asleep.

10. If you look cute, your parents won't get mad at you... check me out... (see above for examples of cuteness and below for new photos).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600285617810

11. Life with me is unexpected. Get ready for a bumpy but fun ride ahead! :)

The things that I have learned after a month of Ella

Since Leslie pened her thoughts on Ella at a month I figured I would do the same. It is amazing how much she has changed and grown. She is starting to become our little Chunky Monkey. We have started taking her out into the world and she will promptly fall asleep. I think that fresh air is like a baby version of Ambien. Ella has also found her voice. She squeaks (kind of like what it sounds like when you eat fresh cheese curds), she cries (mainly when she has a wet diaper) and she chatters to herself. She now really seems to be smiling, and not just because of gas.

We had a very fun first Mother's Day with Aunt Jill, Grandma Sharon, and Grandpa Steve. As we all ate, Ella slept, but looked really cute while doing it. Check out the pics by clicking the link below....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600216506000/

Life at One Month

The above is a pciture documentary of our lives thus far. We are all either trying to sleep or making faces at each other to keep our crazy lives fun. :)

Ella is about to turn one month and has already changed quite a bit. She now has fun little things she does. It took me a while to figure out what were "Ella faces" versus what faces babies made (thanks to spending lots of time with other friends' babies, particularly Ella's new friends Kylie Polis and Jonah Stone) but no matter what faces she makes, she still looks darn cute to me. :)

New "Ella-isms" include sleeping with arms up in the air in a surrender mode, not liking to be peed-on diapers (one of the only time she cries), her famous burp face that looks like her eyeballs are going to shoot out of her head, sucking on the side her hand, and smiling alot when she is dreaming (which I like to think is her thinking of what fabulous parents she has!). We'll update with photos of these soon.

Stay turned for pics of our first Mother's Day together as well as her baby naming coming up. She has very girl-y outfits picked out. :)

Cute as a Button?

As Ella's third week comes to an end I have learned a couple of valuable lessons. The first one is that just because we think it is time to change her diaper it is advisable to wait 15 or so minutes. The second one is that a little spit up is cute, a lot of spit up is not! I am not sure how something that weighs less than most bowling balls has the ability to spray that much liquid with such force out of her mouth. She was just head spinning short of the exorcist. If you check out the pictures on the link below please pay attention to two photos. The first where Ella is in her French outfit (courtesy of Les' super duper fun cousins from Geneva, The Cadieux Clan) was taken a mere 20 minutes, one bath and a change of clothes (for both dad and daughter) before the Cute as a Button black onesie.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7822160@N02/sets/72157600181592098/