Elli

Elliana continues to grow everyday. These days we are enjoying watching her "dance" to music. Elli loves dancing and does it about 90% of the time when music turns on. Last Thursday she made my day when I turned around in the car and saw her little head bobbing to the sound of her CD while she was sitting in her car seat! She's the cutest little dancer....she definitely loves dancing and we sing multiple times throughout the day!

Elli is also learning to give kisses. She's not extremely consistent with this, but it makes your day when she actually does give a smooch. Her kisses involve her grabbing your cheeks, pulling you in, and opening up her mouth really wide. We love it!

Elli seems to be more interested in eating than she was last week. I'm convinced that this little girl is working on a tooth. She is getting back into her normal nap routine! Despite my best efforts, Elli absolutely refuses a sippy especially when I put formula in it. This morning I was determined to give her formula out of her sippy. It didn't turn out the way I had plan. She cried and cried. Luckily, she's not the only child that has refused a sippy. I continue to do research on how to effectively transition her while trying not to get too stressed about it.

Playing peek-a-boo! I caught Elli's reaction as I was hiding behind the couch. Little does she know....this game is usually how I get her to come back into the living room when she's crawled out in the kitchen getting into things she's not supposed to!

No baby food tonight!! Elli enjoyed pasta with meatballs and some peas! I made a good decision to take off her shirt before we ate dinner!


Travis and Sarah introduced Elli to Sesame Street this weekend. She loved it and Scott loves showing her clips from the show.

Watching intently on the computer....

And then she decided to use the computer to make her gums feel better! Hopefully a tooth will pop through soon!!

Scott reads Elli her books before bed. Elli loves reading and we read lots of books throughout the day! She is getting to the point where she can make it through the whole book without getting distracted or chewing on the book (she's been teething for quite sometime) :)

We are loving the stage that Elli is in now! We knew that we'd enjoy being parents, but we couldn't even imagine how much fun we'd have! We love watching her grow and develop each day.

By the way, did you notice Elli's Christmas pj's?? 'Tis the Season!! I'm counting down the days to our annual Black Friday shopping trip! Is is sad that this is the day I look forward to each year? I'm excited that Sarah will be joining us for the day this year! Last year I was pregnant with Elli and that slowed me down a bit! Not this year....I'll be ready to go for 8 hours straight....who's with me ?? :)

On The Go

These days Elliana is constantly moving! She loves to explore and find new things that she isn't supposed to have. Elli goes down easy for naps, but doesn't sleep for more than an hour....this is a big change from what it used to be! I am having to watch her at all times now....For instance, yesterday I walked out to the kitchen and all the sudden I started hearing screaming. Well....Elli was trying to get her bubbles in the ottoman and dove head first and was stuck. Today I turned my back to get some helpful advice from our baby book and she had already climbed 2-3 steps (this is the 1st time she's done this....I'm in trouble). She keeps my busy :)

Elli loves walking all around the house (while holding our hands of course). We've been trying to get her to walk only holding 1 of our hands, but she doesn't like that as much and will let go after a couple of steps. It is unbelievable how much she is growing and learning everyday. She is beginning to understand the word "no;" however, this doesn't mean that she correctly listens to us when we tell her this.

Scott is taking to his new role as Elli's hairstylist. After every bath, Scott enjoys brushing her hair to one side and flipping out the back to tame her curls. He does quite a good job. He has even used the hair dryer a couple times which she loves!

The 1st 2 videos were taken about a week and a half ago. I used to stand in front of her walker because it moved so quickly....not these days....she enjoys moving fast!!

Listen to those squeals!!

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I took this video today! She climbed all the way up 2 times and wanted to do it again!

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Elli wanted to give a shout out to her cousin, Kensley who will be turning 1 on Thursday!

Kens, remember the 1st time we hung out together at my house? I was only a few days old!

Look how much we've grown!! I can't wait to come to your birthday party and play with all our.... uhhh....I mean your toys!

Happy Birthday Cousin Kens!! Love, Elli (and Auntie Ashley and Uncle Scott)

Trick or Treat

"Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet, Give Me Something Good to Eat" (We taught Elli to say this before we went trick or treating).

Columbus does trick or treating during the week because they think it is safer than on the weekend. Elli ask if her friend, Siena, could come with us trick or treating. We of course said "yes." We ate a quick dinner at our house, fed the girls, and headed out the door to go get candy.

The Costume! A pretty little ballerina! Do you realize how hard it is to get a picture of this girl sitting??

Trying to get her to sit for a picture! Yeah Right....she wouldn't even sit....off she goes!!

MMMMMMMMMMM......Candy!!

At our first house! Poor Becca (our neighbors daughter) had to sit out in the cold the whole 2 hours of trick or treating!

Elli was trying to figure out why Siena was wearing the bee costume!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

9 months

Happy 9 month birthday Elliana!! I can't believe it has already been 9 months. We celebrated today by going to her 9 mo. dr. appt. Elli weighs in at a huge 16 pounds 13 ounces (10th percentile) and is 27 inches long (25-50th percentile). She continues to be a little thing compared to her same age peers...looks like we won't need to be getting her a bigger car seat anytime within the next couple weeks....I think we might be able to hold off for a couple of months. Elli got a TB test and had the 1st part of her flu shot (we will get the other half of it after Thanksgiving). She cried for just a couple seconds with the shot and TB test but had more trouble when the dr. was checking her over. Elli CLUNG to me after he was done!



Despite her small size, Elli has been doing a great job eating! Just within the last few days she has really enjoyed eating regular food. My goal is for her to be done with baby food by Christmas! Finger foods she enjoys are: cornbread, grapes, Mellon, goldfish, bread, cheese, doughnuts, french fries, cinn. rolls, oatmeal cream pies, pancakes, mac. and cheese. Although she enjoys these foods, she will occasionally spit them out...it is different from day to day. Foods she isn't quite sure of: pulled pork, hot dogs, green beans, mashed potatoes. We still haven't mastered a sippy cup, as she thinks this is more of a toy and chews on the nipple.


I've cut out Elli's 3rd nap the past week and she has done great!! I'm hoping she continues to do well with only 2 naps!



Enjoy her 9 month photo shoot. It is getting difficult to keep her sitting for good pictures. This is the best I could do....

Time for the floor....

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A couple weeks ago Elli had "school" pictures taken at daycare. We just got them back last week and think they are pretty funny! We are only ordering one of the pictures as we just spent quite a bit of money getting her 9 mo. pictures this past Sunday.....

Her 1st School pictures....

Ummmm.....Yikes! Shake it off Elli....everyone has at least one bad school picture!

Nice outfit....no smile....booo!!

Now, who wouldn't want this school picture hanging on their fridge??

Elli's class
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Elliana is quite mobile and quick! She gets around crawling, but has begun to enjoy her "walker." She thinks she is pretty cool stuff moving around all over the place with this. I have a video that I took yesterday of her squealing while she was moving all around....I'll have to post it if I get around to it this week.

Pumpkin Picking

Elliana continues to grow more and more every day! I can't believe we will be celebrating her 9 mo. birthday next Tuesday....Is this even possible?? Elli has been standing on her own now for a couple of weeks. Each day we see progress with this! We're up to about 15-20 seconds and she is oh so proud of herself when she stands without help! She continues to be all over the place and likes to explore new things which she thinks are toys! She is such a joy to have around!

Currently, Elli is sick and has had a fever now for a couple days. Luckily, she is still sleeping great and we're hoping she feels better soon! She's quite fussy when she's awake and wants to be held. Scott has already offered to stay home with her on Wednesday if we can't get this fever to go away, but hopefully we won't have to worry about that!

We discovered a new pumpkin patch this past weekend! Elli got to pick out her very 1st pumpkin!

Ok....Ok....I have to confess....Elli isn't standing on her own in this picture. I was holding her hand while Nana took the picture....I did some photo shop on the picture and took my arm out. Could you tell??

"I'll take the one in the middle with the sweater on!!"

Elli's cousins got to come spend the weekend with her! Those 3 had a great time playing together. This weekend consisted of a trip to the pumpkin patch, the park, playtime with tractors and games. It worked out great for them to come over to Columbus with Nana and Papa L. We enjoyed having them!

At the pumpkin patch, they had a big tomato growth chart. Vander was a little over 4 feet, Dane was right at 3.5 feet, and Elli was a little over 2 feet! This was the 1st picture of us holding her hands....

And then we let go! She was standing all by herself!

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Yesterday, Elli got to see Air Force One fly into the Columbus Airport. Yes, Scott insisted we go out and watch the President fly in. Not only was I wiping Elli's drool, but I was also wiping Scott's as he saw the plane fly in (j/k Scottie). :) He was in awe of the plane. While we watched it, we got a lesson of why the plane was landing where it was and etc. Scott was a little excited. Little does Elli know....her dad will be pointing out planes to her for the rest of her life!

Dedication

Smiling Pretty for the camera!!

We had quite a busy and fun weekend! Our weekend started off by having our friends, Travis and Sarah, come visit. They got here on Friday afternoon and were able to stay until Sunday afternoon. This weekend, Elli got lots of new clothes from Sarah, Sharon (Sarah's mom), my mom, and Scott's mom. Thanks for all the new clothes guys....she definitely needed them!! I just went through yesterday and cleared out all her summer clothes and put up her new fall/winter clothes!

Here is Elli sporting a new outfit from Sharon! Thanks!

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Saturday, Sarah and I spent most of the afternoon shopping and boy did we get some good stuff! I love it when Sarah comes to town because it means more of my house will get decorated (and because I like spending time with her)! We're almost done Sarah....just a few more visits :) Travis and Scott hung around the house while watching Elli! My parents, grandparents, and aunt showed up in the afternoon. They were able to babysit Elli while the four of us went out for awhile!!

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Elli was dedicated at our church on Sunday. We had many family and friends come for the dedication and then come over to the house for lunch afterwards. Here are just some pictures from the day.....

We got zero smiles out of Elli that day for pictures! I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the people and tired as we missed a nap during the day!

Us with both of Elli's grandparents

The family that made the trip to the dedication

A big group photo of family and friends before the dedication minus a few friends!

Thanks for all of you that made time in your day to come to the dedication or to lunch! Also, thanks for everyone that helped and/or made food for the day!

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On our way to leave for our Monday night dinner with friends. I had to take a picture of Elli in her puma shoes! Auntie Amber and Uncle Jeremy got those for her for Christmas last year and she can now just fit into them!