Ellee 365: days 126 - 132

126 days old.

127 days old.

128 days old.

129 days old.

130 days old.

131 days old.

132 days old.

4 months old!!!

Okay so this is a little late... :)

Ellee 365: days 123 - 125

123 days old.

124 days old.

125 days old.

sleep.

We are having sort of an issue with sleeping in this house.  Miss Ellee just does not like her bed.  for the last few months she would only sleep if she was in bed with us.  Which has exausted me!  I don't sleep very well and I don't think she sleeps very well.  She doesn't sleep through the night.  I have been told that she should be sleeping at least 8 hours in a row but, she doesn't.
Every night she starts out in her bassinet but, no longer than 2 hours later she will end up in my bed.  She will wake up crying.  I try to rock her back to sleep and then put her back in her bassinet but she will just not have it.  So, she ends up in my bed because I'm just so tired and want some sort of sleep.
I have been told by several people I should read the book On Becoming Babywise: giving your baby the gift of night time sleep.  I was told it was amazing and worked wonders on getting babys as young as 6 weeks to sleep through the night.  I ordered it a couple of months ago but, just wasn't finding the time to read it.  Well the other night I was so frustrated about Ellee not sleeping in her bed and through the night that I decided I need to make time to read it.
Last night was the first night that I went along with the bedtime "plan" in the book.  I put her down in her bassinet when she was sleepy...she went to sleep.  But, then an hour later she woke up crying....I cheated at first...I picked her up and held her until she calmed down and then put her back in her bassinet.  She immediatly started crying again.  This time I just got back into bed and let her cry.  I have to say this is the hardest thing ever...listening to her cry was horrible!  But, the book says that there is nothing wrong with letting her cry herself to sleep.  She cried for 20 minutes before she finally went to sleep....and she slept for about 4 hours until she woke up....I say this is progress!  When she woke up she just fussed a little and I let her...she eventually fell back to sleep and didn't wake up for another couple of hours.
Tonight was a little harder....I put her down and she started crying....she cried for probably 45 minutes before she finally fell asleep...I had to leave the room.  We will see how long she will sleep.  The book says it will take about 5 days or so to see her sleep pattern change.  It has you establish a daytime schedule to help with the night time sleeping....we will see if this works....I will keep you all posted.

Sweet dreams!!  I'm off to bed! :)

giggles

I meant to post this yesterday....
Friday, I came home from work and was changing Ellee into her PJs and she giggled!!!  A real giggle!!  She has done this sort of weird laugh thing before...almost like she is catching her breath with a smile but, Friday she actually giggled!  It was so funny/cute/amazing!!  I think she waited til I got home from work to giggle at me!  I then told her that she has to wait to do all her firsts til I get home from work.  She isn't aloud to do them unless I'm watching/listening! :)

breakfast.

Miss Ellee enjoyed her breakfast!!

(if you click on the image it will blow it up so you can see the photos better.)

Ellee 365: days 120 - 122

120 days old.

121 days old.

122 days old.

all smiles!

apparently miss ellee likes watching mom cook. :)

Ellee 365: day 119

119 days old.

mr. penguin.

Ellee is starting to figure out her hands and feet. Last night we had her on her playmat and she was kicking the penguin. We think that is her favorite toy...that and the mirror. But, last night she didn't just kick mr. penguin she started grabbing him which we had never really seen her do. She is starting to grab at everything! her clothes, blankets...and of course my hair! :) I try to keep my hair tied back now. :)

Ellee 365: days 112 - 118

112 days old.

113 days old.

114 days old.

115 days old.

116 days old.

117 days old.

118 days old.

Vancouver Pumpkin Patch 10/22

So, I should have posted these a long time ago....but, life has been so busy since I have gone back to work.

Ellee, Aunty Sarah & I made the 2 and a half hour drive down to Vancouver, WA to visit some friends.  We went to their local farm to get pumpkins and go through their corn maze.  It was a lot of fun!  They had a HUGE pumpkin patch and a really cool corn pit.  They also had a haybale maze and a haybale pyramid.
After playing in the corn pit for a while we went through the haybale maze and then took a tractor hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.  After we picked out our pumpkins Aunty Sarah washed them off with their pumpkin washing area.  The only bummer about the trip was the corn maze was closed.  I guess it was only open on the weekends. :-(  
Click on the link below to check out the pictures!

Bi Zi Farms - Vancouver, WA

There are also some pictures when we went to the Maris Farms corn maze in Buckley, WA

Ellee 365: days 105 - 111

105 days old.

106 days old.

107 days old.

108 days old.

109 days old.

110 days old.

111 days old.

Ellee 365: days 98 - 104

98 days old.

99 days old.

100 days old.

101 days old.

102 days old.

103 days old.

104 days old.