Big Girl Bed

Last night was Ellie's first night in her Big Girl Bed!

This project was never-ending!! Seriously, it made me a bit depressed at how much was involved: painting the bed frame, buying a mattress, a box spring (which needs to be returned since it made the bed way too high), new sheets, a new quilt, a dust ruffle, shams, and a mattress cover, in case of accidents. (Fortunately, we have very generous family members who took care of most of the expenses!) We've been talking to her about the new bed for probably over a month, but it's taken that long to accumulate everything, and for Currie to find time to paint the bed, which he inherited from his grandparents. So, I am VERY thankful that the ordeal is over.

I not only love how the bed turned out, but I love how easily Ellie has adjusted to it. I was worried that she would keep getting out of bed, but she hasn't once! Last night she cried when we left the room (she goes through phases of doing this/not doing this), but it only lasted about 2 minutes. I teared up too. I think it was partly because I thought she might be nervous/scared of the change, but mostly because it seems like this is the last big transition from being a baby.

Anyway, it was pretty fun to be able to lay down next to her and sing and pray before bed. She definitely needs her own space to sleep, so it's not often that you get snuggles in bed (she wakes up raring to go)! Sweet memories:

So, "Ellie's room" is becoming "the kids' room". Hudson still has one night feeding that we need to wean him of before we move him in there, and I wanted Ellie to have some time in her bed before moving him in. I need to rehang all of the wall decor (don't worry, his side will have some blue in it), but otherwise we're almost done!

My Little Huddy Buddy - 10 weeks

*This boy's smiles and coos just melt my heart. They light up his whole face! His eyes, especially, as so expressive. As my brother put it, it seems like he is looking into your soul. :) His first smile was on the day of his baptism, Feb. 19th.

*He's not really on a schedule yet. Generally he likes to eat about every 3 hours, but it seems like that's starting to stretch to 3.5/4 hours sometimes if he's asleep.

*I was super nervous about changing a boy's diaper because I'd heard so many horror stories of being sprayed in the face, curtains, etc. But, I think there were only 2 times that it happened, in the first few weeks. Once he got the wall and once our bed (quilt, blanket, sheets, and mattress cover!) Now, I'm happy to report that this little dude never pees on me!

*I'm not sure how he feels about the paci. He's definitely not addicted. Sometimes, if he's overtired/overstimulated it helps him fall asleep, but most of the time he just falls asleep on his own. We have to hold the paci in his mouth for quite a while before he'll actually hold onto it, and sometimes it seems counter productive because then he'll cry when he drops it.

*He slept 6 hours at 6 weeks; 7 hours at 7 weeks; and 8 hours at 8 weeks. Now he really only wakes up once to eat in the middle of the night. We've been putting him down around 7 pm, so I don't hear from him until around 3 am. Then, he's ready to eat again sometime between 6-7 am.

*He LOVES his car seat. We tend to run errands and get out most mornings, and that's when he takes his best naps.

*The first few weeks I actually had to remind myself that he needed to eat or get his diaper changed. He just doesn't fuss much. Really the only time he gets upset and cries is when he's overtired at night, and that's only started happening in the last week or two.

I cannot get over how easy this child is! Praise the Lord!

26 months

More snapshots of what this girl is up to lately:

*She's been asking "Huh? What?" after everything we say. We've grown tired of repeating ourselves, and realized that it's not that she doesn't hear us. Once we started asking her "What did I say?" she's able to repeat back verbatim what she's heard. Perhaps this is her way to process new vocabulary or concepts? (Any suggestions on how to break this habit are welcome!)

*Her sentences are becoming much more complex. Instead of saying "Ellie hand dirty," she now says, "My hands are dirty, Mommy." She's using 7-8 word sentences and pretty much blows me away every day with her conversations.

*She loves to sings her ABC's and can pretty much sing them on her own. She can identify an "E" for Ellie.

*She can count to 13 (often skipping 8) and her new way of asking for more is to say "four, five, six, seven?"

*In the car she's been asking "Where did --------- go (Trader Joe's, Daddy, church, motorcycle, etc.)? "

*This girl still LOVES to eat. She asks for snacks constantly! Some of her recent favorites are almonds & cranberries, peanuts, grapes, strawberries, and "moo-vees" (smoothies). Plain, European-style yogurt is still her all-time favorite thing to eat. She eats her dinners pretty well, but we do sometimes have to bribe her bite-by-bite with something like bread or grapes.

*She's discovered running, jumping, and is getting more and more confident doing up/down steps independently.

*She likes to use a pen and draw on the back of junk mail envelopes that we use as scrap paper. She says, "I color."

*Ellie is *mostly* potty-trained!!! She rarely has an accident for #1, and accidents for #2 are becoming less and less frequent. Last week I dropped the diaper during naps and her overnight diapers are dry about 1/4 of the time. While I still ask her if she has to go, she's starting to tell us much more often now, and when she says she doesn't have to go, she really doesn't. Yeah!!!

*Current favorite night-time song is "Come Thou Fount". She calls it "water fountain". It's so sweet to listen to her try to whisper-sing along in my ear while I'm holding her during our little bedtime routine. She knows many of the words now. I also discovered that she knows the words to "Jesus Loves Me". I heard her singing it during a time-out yesterday (hee hee)!

*She is such a sweet big sister to Hudson. Sometimes, as expected, she gets a little carried away and is too rough with him (he's already got a scar from her scratching him), but she has definitely included him in the family, often asking as soon as she wakes up, "Where's Hudson?"

Is she cute, or what?! I love this kid!!