5 Months

Ella is 5 months today. I can't believe it. Where does the time go?!?! Ella is doing very well. She amazes us more and more everyday. I love watching her experience new things. She is now 13.3lbs and I am assuming about 26 inches long or so. Ella is still waking up at night but normally its only around 3am and then she goes back to sleep until 6:30am. She is really good about her bedtime though. When its 8:30pm she is ready. As far as her napping goes, that is a different story. She will take about 3 naps a day and they are only for about 30-45 mins. I am hoping that part will change!! She is still turning over from back to front and has only turned back over to her back a few times. I think she is still trying to figure it out. She loves being on her stomach b/c I think she really wants to crawl. She gets so mad that she can't go any where once she has turned over so she gets very frustrated. I keep telling her it will happen oneday just be patient!! She is VERY chatty ha! She will just talk and talk. I wonder where she gets that?!?! I tell Eric all the time we are in trouble when she really starts talking. She laughs and smiles constantly. I guess its a GREAT thing to have a happy baby b/c happy baby makes happy parents. She is still enjoying her cereal. Her new thing with that is she thinks its very funny to do "motor boat" while she is eating. So you can imagine what that is like, food is every where. My mom said I did the same thing. I can only imagine once we start veggies what my walls are going to look like. This past week MeMa (Eric's mom) came to visit. I think her and Ella had a great time together. It was very nice to have the company and especially the home cooked meals!! As you know I am no cook so its so nice to have breakfast, lunch and dinner cooked for you EVERY day!! Thank you again MeMa for coming to see us. On Friday Kari, Scott, PawPaw and Dylan came to see us. They went to see the Wiggles in Nashville. Ella did not go b/c we felt she was too young to enjoy it, but maybe next year. On Saturday we took Dylan and Ella to get their pictures made together. They turned out really cute. Other than that we are all doing well. Eric is doing really well in his new position here so we are very proud of daddy. As far as mommy, I am good. Working from home and really enjoying it. I have the best customers so it makes my job a lot of fun. I feel very blessed to be able to stay home with Ella. Hope everyone is having a great summer. We miss and love you all.

Our Weekend

We had a nice weekend as a family. Friday we went to dinner and came home and crashed. I guess we came off a long week after a holiday weekend the week before. On Saturday it was so pretty but HOT!! so we took Ella to the pool with my friend Sara and her girls. Ella got to go in the baby pool for a little bit. I think she is starting to like it a little bit more. She loves her bath time so I am sure she will enjoy the pool more as she gets older. Today we went to church and out to lunch. Ella has finally figured out that when we are at restaurants she wants to be out of her car seat. She wants to sit up at the table with us, I think she feels left out ha. We really enjoy her company however she is becoming a pistol to take out to dinner. She will fuss until we give in to her and let her out. I am trying not to spoil her and do this every time, but we are in a restaurant and I feel bad for other people trying to enjoy their night out. Its amazing how much she has picked up on just in 4 mths. She wants to drink out of our cups with a straw I might add and wants to hold her spoon when she eats her cereal. She REALLY wants what we eat but that is not happening for awhile. I guess breast milk could be pretty boring everyday ha! I give her a bottle everyday with breast milk just so she will take a bottle from someone else in case I need to go out. Her new thing with that is she holds the bottle herself. I have to assist of course but she will hold it with both hands and chug away!! Ella was having a fussy day today so we decided to take her to the park here. Its the "Charlie Daniels" park and its so nice. I was amazed at everything they had. Here are a few pics from our day at the park. We were in our play clothes so please excuse how we are dressed. I promise Ella dresses to the "T" usually but I didn't want to change her since she was already being Miss Fussy Pants!! All in all Ella is doing great. Amazing us more and more everyday with everything she learns. We love her to pieces and look forward to each day with her and what it has in store for us!! Its always something.

YUMMY!!

Sunday was a BIG day for Miss Ella. She got to have her rice cereal for the first time. I was planning on waiting a little longer, but when we went to Dr for her 4 month check up they suggested her wait until she was closer to 6 months UNLESS she was "interested" in our food and/or was able to hold her head up. Well the entire time we were in Florida she was trying to eat everyone's food. HA! She was always trying to grab at everyone's plate and would get fussy that she was not eating so I figured it might be time. Well she LOVES it!! You would have thought we fed her a steak dinner. I am sure it was to her considering she has been exclusively on breast milk for 4 1/2 mths now. I always heard they won't finish the first bowl the first time you give it to them and she ate it alllllllll. It wasn't much anyway but I was still surprised she ate it all!! I think she had more on her than what actually went in her tummy. You will notice she doesn't have a bib on b/c she was trying to eat that too so we had to take it off! ha She is just loving her cereal. I can only imagine what she will do with fruits and veggies at 6 months. That is all our excitement for now. We are planning on having a laid back week and weekend since we have been so busy. Hope all is well with everyone.

4th of July

Well let's see where to begin with all of our new adventures............. Well we flew out Wednesday morning to see MeMe and PopPop in Florida. I was a nervous wreck about how this was going to work with me and Ella on a plane together, but she really impressed me. I knew she was a laid back baby but she proved herself to me for sure. She feel asleep from the minute we hit the run way to when we landed coming and going!! When we got to Florida we went by PopPop's office so they could meet Ella. They all loved her and I think she enjoyed herself as well ha! We then went to my parents house and relaxed. I was exhausted at this point and it was only noon! Then PopPop (my grandfather) came over to meet Ella!! I didn't know he was coming over so that was a nice surprise. We got some great pics of them together. Ella really liked PopPop. Later that night my friend from High school came over with her little boy. Ella and Powers had a great time together and then Ella passed out!! She was so tired from all the excitement in one day! On Thursday after a visit with Sara and Will we headed to Amelia Island. My Aunt and Uncle live there and all our family was in town for the holiday weekend. It was Ella's first "real" visit to the beach. On the 4th the plantation has a HUGE parade and everyone decorates their golf cart. Ella was in her first parade and you can see how excited she was! ha She fell asleep the entire time. That evening we cooked out and enjoyed a wonderful fireworks show. Again, Ella fell asleep so I watched them from inside which was nice and relaxing. Saturday we had a day at the beach. Ella came down for a little bit. Mainly for pics of her "toes" in the sand. All in all we had a very nice visit with all of our family. Ella enjoyed meeting everyone and can't wait to go back.

All LEGS!!

We went today for our 4 month check up and Ella did GREAT!! She is now 12.4 lbs and 25 inches long. She is all LEGS! We had 3 shots done, which is never fun for mommy or Ella. I have all of her shots broken up b/c I refuse to have 5 shots given to her all at once. Its a personal thing and it has worked out well. So we will be going back next month to get the remaining 2. The Dr said she is looking great and growing "beautifully" well. We were pleased with our visit. We have not started cereal yet and that will be something we introduce eventually. Probably closer to when she is 5 mths. Everything else is going well here at the Manchir house!! Ella and I leave tomorrow for Florida. We are going to visit MeMe and PopPop and head to the beach for a few days. We are also going to visit some of mommy's childhood friends so that they can meet Miss Ella!! Hope all is well with everyone and we will post pics from the 4th when we return!