Lately Ellie has become much more vocal. Of course, it is never when we are trying to get her to talk, like on the phone or during video chats with family. But sometimes she will go on and on, sometimes really loud. I sometimes wonder if she thinks she's really talking the way we are. It makes as much sense to us as we probably do to her. I know babies don't have much self-awareness, but sometimes I wonder if she realizes she's a baby, if she wonders why we don't use pacifiers, wear bibs, or cry when someone leaves the room. Or why we don't think it's as fun as she does to just lean back and kick our feet for hours on end. Although I think she assumes we do like all the same music and books she does since we listen to and read them over and over. And it appears to her that we get as much of a thrill out of peek-a-boo as she does. So maybe she does think we're all the same.
But I digress. This is a small sampling of Ellie's chatter. This is her quiet, just woke-up-when-she-wasn't-supposed-to-yet talk. Sometimes she does this in her sleep. If she does it when she's awake, I know I have little chance of getting her back to sleep. It's a trick she likes to whip out twenty minutes into a nap or around bedtime. I think she knows it's hard to resist. The best is when she's half-awake and sort of delirious. She'll go on and on like this, but seems almost a little drunk or something. We know we should be putting her to bed, but she's too entertaining, chattering and singing.
I think the wakeful pattern has resulted from being fed in her sleep--we've had to resort to that again since she's having so much trouble eating still. (We're taking her to a specialist on Monday, so hopefully things will improve there.) It's been a lot of work keeping this baby fed and getting her enough sleep, but then we get times like this and it just makes our day.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
The Mother's Day Gift that Wasn't
The following is a very sad story.
We tried. We really, really tried. Some kind friends of ours took some lovely pictures of Ellie for us. First they agreed to babysit for us for our anniversary. Then when we showed up at the end of the night, the couple told us they had taken some pictures. Some fairly professional pictures at that. (I guess he had toyed with the idea of being a professional photographer at one point--next time we ask them to babysit, Ellie might "coincidentally" be in her best dress.) So they burned a CD of the pictures and gave me a copy. I thought I might just have time to get prints made and mailed off to grandmas for Mother's Day. I went and got prints made. 5 by 7s, 4 by 6s, wallet sizes. The works. They looked awful. They were cropped wrong, the coloring and shadows were off. The pictures were so pretty on my computer. So I called the store and they told me they would do an exchange for reprints. I tried again the next day. I got the reprints--a bit better this time. The next day I went to the post office. We were really cutting it close. All this took me clear to Thursday. I thought maybe if I did priority mail, maybe I would get them out on time. The post office closed half an hour early. This was not meant to be. Looking at the reprints again, I was glad I didn't send them. They still weren't great. So until I can find a place that will print these out and do them justice, Ellie's grandmas will have to enjoy the pictures online. Plus you can just choose which ones you want now, or I can send you a copy of the CD and you can just go crazy making you very own Ellie collage or something. Knock yourself out. Happy Mother's Day.
P.S. The black and white pictures can also be in color if you want.
We tried. We really, really tried. Some kind friends of ours took some lovely pictures of Ellie for us. First they agreed to babysit for us for our anniversary. Then when we showed up at the end of the night, the couple told us they had taken some pictures. Some fairly professional pictures at that. (I guess he had toyed with the idea of being a professional photographer at one point--next time we ask them to babysit, Ellie might "coincidentally" be in her best dress.) So they burned a CD of the pictures and gave me a copy. I thought I might just have time to get prints made and mailed off to grandmas for Mother's Day. I went and got prints made. 5 by 7s, 4 by 6s, wallet sizes. The works. They looked awful. They were cropped wrong, the coloring and shadows were off. The pictures were so pretty on my computer. So I called the store and they told me they would do an exchange for reprints. I tried again the next day. I got the reprints--a bit better this time. The next day I went to the post office. We were really cutting it close. All this took me clear to Thursday. I thought maybe if I did priority mail, maybe I would get them out on time. The post office closed half an hour early. This was not meant to be. Looking at the reprints again, I was glad I didn't send them. They still weren't great. So until I can find a place that will print these out and do them justice, Ellie's grandmas will have to enjoy the pictures online. Plus you can just choose which ones you want now, or I can send you a copy of the CD and you can just go crazy making you very own Ellie collage or something. Knock yourself out. Happy Mother's Day.
P.S. The black and white pictures can also be in color if you want.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
and-a-half
Ellie turned 6 months on Monday. She's still having some hard times with feedings, but she really seems to be enjoying herself a lot of the time.
It was quite a feat to get a picture without her hands in her mouth. She has been teething for what feels like forever now. No teeth are popping through yet, but she will clamp down--hard--on anything she can get into her mouth. I have a bruise on my hand as evidence.
It's also really hard to get a picture without her tongue hanging out. Once those teeth do come in, she might be in for a bit of a surprise. She is turning into quite the ham. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's the same baby we brought home with us six months ago. She is turning into such a little person with a mind of her own. She is developing distinct preferences in music and literature. It's very clear when she likes a song or doesn't, and the leading contender right now for favorite book is The Belly Button Book (thanks again, Wrathalls) or any of the tiny Sesame Street books with Grover in them. Not much of an Elmo fan, but we can read those others over and over again.
See? She will bite anything close to her mouth. Seriously, after all this time, we better get half a dozen teeth breaking through and just not have to deal with it again for a while.
She's also been enjoying lots of time outside. And she is getting more and more fun to dress up. She actually wears whatever hats or headbands I put on her. She even leaves the sunglasses alone, which is good for the hot, sunny days we've been having.
Lots of dress up.
Lot and lots.
Apparently, this is Daddy's idea of dress up for her while I'm gone. Not entirely sure how this all came about, but I think he was trying to get her to stay asleep.
This is a picture mostly of the two of them trying to ignore me taking a picture. Ellie was having a really hard time one night with her teeth (or lack thereof--swollen painful gums, I should say). She really loves being outside. You can't tell in the picture, but we were having quite a spectacular rainstorm that night. So Brady pulled up a stool to the balcony door and they just sat there for a really long time watching the rain. She calmed right down and was pretty peaceful the rest of the night.
This post is already getting too long, but we haven't posted videos for the grandmas in a while. Ellie really loves seeing the videos our friends and family post on their blogs, and I realized we hadn't been taking any videos for quite a while. So here are a couple of Ellie on the changing table--her happiest place on earth. The first one is her favorite pass time, kicking. It makes it tricky to change a diaper sometimes. She will do this for as long as we let her.
The next one is Brady getting her to laugh. It's not the best sample of her laughing, but you get the idea. He usually gets her ready for bed at night while I rush around trying to tidy things up and get everything ready for bedtime and the next day. This is what I overhear. It's usually too irresistible for me to keep going with dishes or whatever and I have to come in and see.
So that's what we've been up to lately. Still no job yet and things are coming down to the wire with dissertation stuff for Brady, but we're hanging in there. Ellie seems to have more personality every day and gives us a reason to smile in spite of the nerve-wracking waiting and working. Kind of hard not to smile back at this.
It was quite a feat to get a picture without her hands in her mouth. She has been teething for what feels like forever now. No teeth are popping through yet, but she will clamp down--hard--on anything she can get into her mouth. I have a bruise on my hand as evidence.
It's also really hard to get a picture without her tongue hanging out. Once those teeth do come in, she might be in for a bit of a surprise. She is turning into quite the ham. Sometimes it's hard to believe she's the same baby we brought home with us six months ago. She is turning into such a little person with a mind of her own. She is developing distinct preferences in music and literature. It's very clear when she likes a song or doesn't, and the leading contender right now for favorite book is The Belly Button Book (thanks again, Wrathalls) or any of the tiny Sesame Street books with Grover in them. Not much of an Elmo fan, but we can read those others over and over again.
See? She will bite anything close to her mouth. Seriously, after all this time, we better get half a dozen teeth breaking through and just not have to deal with it again for a while.
She's also been enjoying lots of time outside. And she is getting more and more fun to dress up. She actually wears whatever hats or headbands I put on her. She even leaves the sunglasses alone, which is good for the hot, sunny days we've been having.
Lots of dress up.
Lot and lots.
Apparently, this is Daddy's idea of dress up for her while I'm gone. Not entirely sure how this all came about, but I think he was trying to get her to stay asleep.
This is a picture mostly of the two of them trying to ignore me taking a picture. Ellie was having a really hard time one night with her teeth (or lack thereof--swollen painful gums, I should say). She really loves being outside. You can't tell in the picture, but we were having quite a spectacular rainstorm that night. So Brady pulled up a stool to the balcony door and they just sat there for a really long time watching the rain. She calmed right down and was pretty peaceful the rest of the night.This post is already getting too long, but we haven't posted videos for the grandmas in a while. Ellie really loves seeing the videos our friends and family post on their blogs, and I realized we hadn't been taking any videos for quite a while. So here are a couple of Ellie on the changing table--her happiest place on earth. The first one is her favorite pass time, kicking. It makes it tricky to change a diaper sometimes. She will do this for as long as we let her.
The next one is Brady getting her to laugh. It's not the best sample of her laughing, but you get the idea. He usually gets her ready for bed at night while I rush around trying to tidy things up and get everything ready for bedtime and the next day. This is what I overhear. It's usually too irresistible for me to keep going with dishes or whatever and I have to come in and see.
So that's what we've been up to lately. Still no job yet and things are coming down to the wire with dissertation stuff for Brady, but we're hanging in there. Ellie seems to have more personality every day and gives us a reason to smile in spite of the nerve-wracking waiting and working. Kind of hard not to smile back at this.
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