sledding

One of our neighbors is moving which I am sad about. However they gave us a purple sled that Ella tested out today. Ryan said it's an excellent sled and she went rather fast down the hill and then hit the fence. She had a blast. Her cheeks were bright pink when she came into the house and was sporting a gigantic smile on her face. She still loves the wild weather... snow, rain, and wind.

4 month stats

Leia's 4 month well appointment was on December 14th. Two shots later she was happy to leave and go home.

Length- 26 1/4 in.

Weight- 15 lbs. 15.8 oz.

Head Circ.- 17 in.

What does that mean? Well, in the past 2 months she has grown 1-3/4 inches. Ryan can now sing to her the Fatty Lumpkin song... Two foot two, eyes of blue, fatty lumpkin, fatty lumpkin. Her weight has increased by 2 lbs. and 13.7 oz. I thought it has been harder lately to lug her around. Lastly her head circ. is 1 inch bigger.

A cute story to end this post: Last Sunday she was hanging out on the floor for tummy time. I looked over to check on her and she had rolled over to our Christmas tree. I then joked that Leia was our first Christmas present... the best Christmas present ever!

Calling doctor Ella

This picture makes me laugh. It looks like Leia is trying to get away before Ella tortures her. Too bad Leia can't crawl. Her only way of leaving is either rolling away or a pick up by mommy.


A few days ago Ella was playing dress up. We pulled out the doctor clothes and she had a blast, especially when Leia became the patient. Poor Leia needed a few shots, had her temperature taken, etc. She is in good health now thanks to Dr. Ella.

4 months old

This month has been all about the hands. They are constantly in her mouth unless she's trying to get something else in there. She is definately more drooly which has caused more outfit changes for the both of us. Other than that she has been eyeing my food and trying to grab it. You can't have it yet baby!

This is my spot!

Since September I have been trying to get rid of a fungal growth, ring worm, Ella has on the back of her leg. After four topicals didn't get rid of it, she now takes an oral medicine. She has been on it for a little over two weeks and finally the spot is going away. She likes taking the "pink" medicine and knows she needs to take it every night. She won't take the medicine unless she is sitting on her bed next to her Dora blanket. Since she has been dealing with it for a while, we refer to the growth as her spot and ask her if we can see the spot to check if it is going away.

Anyway, yesterday we went to see a dermatologist, at the request of Ella's pediatrician. Once her name was called, Ella got up, walked over to the PA and exclaimed, "This is my spot!"... as she stuck out her bottom and pointed to it. Needless to say, all of us got a kick out of that. The woman wanted to keep Ella there for the rest of the day, basically to entertain everyone. The appointment went well. The spot is disappearing but she needs to keep taking the medicine. I have learned these things are nasty and take a while to clear up.

When the appointment was over, as we were leaving the office staff gave Ella a small orange plush puppy. She was so happy. One of the other patients asked Ella what she was going to name it... she replied, "orange puppy."

I am so into the needs of my children that I overlook a lot of the cute things they do. I'm glad when other people point them out to me.

decorating the tree

I have come to realize that I am not a patient person anymore. Something happened down the road and I get frustrated a lot easier than I use to. Anyway, this " ah ha" moment happened while attempting to decorate the tree with the kids. Imagine the kids brimming with excitement they just might pop if you touch them. Then there's me, who is very particular about how the tree should be decorated. So I am trying to fend off kids while I put on the lights, beads and ribbon. It didn't work out too well. Christmas spirit had left the building. Luckily the mood changed and I gave in to Jonathan putting ornaments on the tree. Towards the end Ella would hand Jonathan the ornaments while he decided where they should go. I just had to take a few deep breaths and go with the flow. After all, it is just a tree... that's what I keep telling myself anyway. In the end everything worked out. We have bare spots here and there mostly because Jonathan puts ornaments on in clusters... I found three stuck on one branch. We had a mini lesson about decorating a tree which helped some. It is nice to look at the tree, especially when it's lit. Slowly other decorations have been added. Yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our home.

Mommy needs to start acting like the weather and chill.

rainy day fun

Ryan and Jonathan had Monday off so we decided to head out and get our Christmas tree. Never mind it was raining or Ella had a huge fit right before we left. This was the only time Ryan would be free the next few weeks so we dealt with the rain and enjoyed our family tradition.

It was a nice drive to the tree farm. We arrived right when the farm opened and were actually the only people there looking for a tree. It took us a little longer to find a tree this year...rain was not affecting our judgement or was it? About twenty minutes later all of us agreed on one Ryan originally picked out. The tree was cut, trimmed and attached to our car ready for the drive home.

Leia chillin' in her car seat.
Ella and Jonathan amusing their Mama by posing for some pictures.
Our traditional family picture with "the" Christmas tree. WE are all a bit water logged but happy.

This is when we first started looking around trying to find our perfect tree.