Thursday, January 30, 2014

Ella Kate- 15 Months

Ella Kate turned 15 months old on January 10th.  I stand amazed at how much she has learned this month!!  I mean, she picks up on EVERYTHING!  So, I thought that I'd share how her 15 month check-up went and what she's been up to.

EK had her 15 month check-up on Thursday, January 16th.  She is still not a fan of the scale that she has to stand on now and constantly reaches out to picked up.  We saw the nurse practitioner at this visit and she shared EK's height and weight percentiles...EK weighed 20.4 pounds (10th percentile) and was 30 and 1/4 inches long (25th percentile).  Needless to say we have a petite little girl!  Guess she gets that from her Mommy. HAHA!  She was such a little clown at this visit.  She wanted all of the tongue depressors from the jar and liked checking mine and her Daddy's mouths, as well as hers, with them.  She also loved to hear the sound they made when she threw them down on the floor.  As the nurse was showing us her height/weight percentiles on the computer, EK tilted her head and clapped for the nurse.  As the nurse listened to her chest and back, EK "prisilly" grabbed the stethoscope and gave it back to the nurse.  Then it was time for the nurse to check out her tummy and other body parts.  As EK waited, she started banging her head against the wall and laughing.  I promise we don't abuse her!  She had two shots at this visit and will go back again at 18 months for another check-up.

We haven't been up to much this month...just trying to stay warm.  We do not like cold weather and EK doesn't like when she can't go outside.  She is constantly bringing us (and my mom when she's with her) our shoes so we can go outside.  She just doesn't understand that it's too cold some days.  We were really hoping for some snow, however, so that we could see her play in it but that didn't happen.  I am so thankful for these two days off with her so that we don't have to travel on the icy roads and get her out and about in this weather.

There are so many things that EK has learned/is learning and I try to make notes on my phone so I won't forget them when I finally blog.  I just never want to forget these moments.  Here are LOTS of things she's been up to:

*Clapping!  She loves to clap for herself when she does what we ask her to.  Or when she accomplishes what she wants to do.  Almost every time that we let her get on the couch (after some whining) she claps for herself like "YAY! I did it!".

*Tilting her head.  This has become a favorite thing of hers during mealtime.  We don't really know why she does it but we always do it back to her to make her happy.

*She understands a few commands even though she can't verbalize them.  She knows "Drink some juice", "Let's get a bath", "Let's eat", "Get your ball", "Get your pig", "Where's your bear?", etc. She also knows when Daddy's home.  As soon as she hears his key in the doorknob, she takes off to the kitchen filled with excitement.

*When she wants out of her highchair, she knows to lean over the side and yell.  HA!  She also will walk to her highchair when she's ready to eat.

*Remotes.  She loves carrying them around and mashing all of the buttons.  We have three remotes in our living room and she knows which one to use to watch Youtube videos.  She hands it to us and says "Bird" (burr).  I'll get to the bird fascination in a bit!

*She likes "Ring Around the Rosie" and knows how to step side-to-side and turn in a circle while we sing.  When we say "Ashes, ashes" she bends her knees getting ready to fall down.

*She also loves to fall down in the floor (on purpose) and hear us say "Did you fall down?".  She gets so tickled about it.

*She's starting to get very picky about her food.  She used to eat ANYTHING, especially fruit.  Now she doesn't like it as much.  She loves McDonald's hamburgers though and would probably eat one everyday if we'd let her.

*If you ever decide to tell her "NO" be ready to be screamed at for a few seconds.

*One of my favorite things to do is watch her on the baby monitor during nap time or night time.  She sleeps in the craziest positions.  Most of the time she has one of her legs propped up on her bumper.  When she wakes up, she likes to throw everything out of her crib (animals, paci, blanket, etc.).  She also likes to reach out to her suitcase that we have stored beside her crib and grab things we have sitting on top of it.  When she's tired of that, she will sit on her crib bumper like it's a bench.

*Some of her favorite toys right now are her teddy bear that she got for Christmas.  She walks it around and hugs it and loves to eat his nose.  It's so sweet when she cuddles it.  We always say "Love the bear" and she squeezes it as hard as she can.  She loves books, especially ones with animals in it.  She has a picture book that her KK & Granddaddy gave her for Christmas and loves to sit and look at all the pictures in it.  She also loves the animal book from her Grandma & Papa Greg that makes animal noises.  And you can almost always find her carrying around her picnic basket and eating the toy food inside.

*Washing her hair.  This is something I've been doing in front of her for a few days but today she did it herself during bathtime without me showing her.  I told her to "wash your hair" and she reached her hands up to her head and moved them back and forth.  SO CUTE!!

*OK- now back to the "bird" topic.  EK has always loved watching the birds out the patio doors at my mom's house.  She constantly says "bird" (burr) when she sees them outside.  Her nursery also has some birdie accents on her hutch, on her curtain rod, and a few picture frames.  She wakes up saying "burr" and goes to bed saying "burr".  It's quite an obsession.  When she sees our phone she says it, wanting us to show her videos and pictures of them.  She has figured out that we can watch Youtube on the TV and knows which remote to give us so that she can watch Youtube videos of birds.  When she looks at her books, she knows which pages in the book have bird pictures on them.  She even calls her goldfish crackers a bird.  Hunter said we can get her a pet bird...I say NO!!

*She still loves to play with our phones and knows how to scroll through the pictures and videos.  I think she likes watching it move from one picture to the next.

*We have almost broken the "no paci" during the day.  Just got to get my Mom on board with it.  HA!  She still has it at nap time and night time.  She takes anywhere from a 1-3 hour nap during lunchtime each day.

Ella Kate has learned MANY new words this month and of course still says some old ones she's learned.  Here are all the words she can say:
*Daddy (Daa-deeee)
*Mama (Ma-ma)
*Bye-bye (byby)
*Bird (burr)
*Ball (baaa)
*Kitty (kii)
*Again (gin)
*More (moh)
*Woof (woo woo)
*Brady (Bwadee)
*Book (boo)
*Fish (iss)

I haven't taken many pictures this month, but here are a few of our growing little girl.  :)

 Reading her animal book before church!





 Oh, I could just eat those cheeks!!



















Looking for birds out the kitchen window.

 She found the bird on this picture frame!  And is trying her best to reach it.





Sweetness!


 The teacher in me hope she always loves to read!






Thursday, January 2, 2014

Thanksgiving, Christmas, & Happy New Year

It always seems like the end of the year goes by faster and faster each year.  This holiday season kept us very busy traveling and visiting with family.  But, that's what the holidays are all about.  With that said, my to-do list is a mile long of things I wanted to do over the holidays but didn't get to.  Oh, well, I will take it day by day.  One of the things on my "to-do" list was to update Ella Kate's blog since it has been almost two months since the last update.  Here's what we've been up to...

As I posted in an earlier blog, Ella Kate had been taking steps here and there, but once she fell to the floor- a crawling she went.  She got pretty darn fast at it, too!  Then, the day we got out for Thanksgiving Break (Friday, November 22nd), I walked into my Mom's house to pick her up and she was EVERYWHERE.  It's like she had been saving up all those steps to show off all at once.  And since then- well it's been an adventure to say the least.  We pick on how prissy she walks all the time- she has both her arms pulled up by her chest and her hands tilted like a little priss pot!  I keep saying I'm going to hang a purse from her arms to go with that prissy walk! :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving lunch at Uncle Jesse & Aunt April Scott's house.  Ella Kate loved it there because she had four kids to entertain her! :)  That night, we went to my grandma "Maw's" house and had dinner while Hunter and Brent went "Black Friday" shopping on Thursday night.  I know it's weird, because I'm the one who loves to shop, but Hunter loves doing this each year.  I want no part of the madness.  We also put out our Christmas decorations over Thanksgiving holidays and to my surprise, Ella Kate didn't really mess with the tree.  There were two ornaments that she insisted on taking off each day- they were both picture ornaments- one of Hunter and I on our wedding day and another of Brady.  She has really gotten into looking at pictures in the frames around our house.  She will carry Brady's picture around and say his name and make a barking sound.  It's the cutest thing!  I loved decorating the house and especially her tree- it's my favorite one!  So girly!!

December flew by and Christmas was upon us before we knew it.  We had so much fun with her this Christmas and I'm sure each year will get more and more fun.   She did open a few gifts, but mainly liked taking tissue out of the bags.  I was late on my wrapping this year- I waited until a few days before Christmas because I was afraid EK would try to open the gifts under the tree but she never messed with them- much to my surprise.  We had Christmas at the lake with the Bass Family the weekend before Christmas.  We rented cabins at Mistletoe State Park and had a wonderful time.  We also went to "Lights of the South" to see Christmas lights while we were there- it was amazing!!  On Monday, December 23rd, I took EK back to the doctor for a check-up to make sure her ear infection had cleared up from a couple of weeks before.  This was her first ear infection, but she is one tough little girl.  I always heard horror stories of how kids would cry and scream when they had ear infections, but she never did that.  We just noticed she wasn't herself and was running a temperature so we took her to the doctor to be safe.  She didn't like the doctor looking at or touching her ears and screamed during the visit, but that was it.  They gave her Amoxicillin and it cleared right up.  At her check-up her ears were all clear! :) :)

On Christmas Eve, we stayed around the house for most of the day and then went to the Christmas Eve Service with Hunter's parents, Aunt Sarah, and Brent at Reidsville Baptist Church.  I had a small little incident of candle wax dropping on me because my sweet EK decided to rip the paper that was supposed to catch the wax.  HA!  We ate some yummy taco soup at Hunter's parents house that night, opened our annual Christmas pajamas, and then back home we came to get ready for Santa.  Our poor Santa had week-old poundcake and a cup of milk.  We just didn't have time to make cookies.  On Christmas morning, Ella Kate got her Santa stuff before we went to Hunter's parents.  I think she was afraid to touch it because she had been told not to touch so much stuff over the past month.  She just stared in amazement.  It's so fun watching her facial expressions.  After that, and Hunter and I exchanging gifts, we went to Hunter's parents to have early morning Christmas with them.  EK got a huge sock monkey there and many other goodies- including some adorable clothes from Aunt Sarah and Brent.  Then it was back home to get ready for lunch at Memommy & Granddaddy's.  After lunch and presents, we went to my Mom's house and had Christmas with my family.  Ella Kate got a wagon that she can pull to hold all of the leaves and pecans she picks up outside at Grandma's.  She got lots of presents there, too- including some baby Frye boots from Aunt Julie.  Ahhhh, I love them!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families who love our little girl as much as we do.

The Friday after Christmas, we drove to Atlanta for a quick visit with Hunter's "Pop".  He was down from Kentucky and staying at Hunter's Aunt Amy's house.  We met them for lunch at The Varsity and then went and checked in at the hotel in hopes that EK would take nap.  That didn't happen so we swung by the mall real quick before heading to Aunt Amy's house to spend time with them.  The next morning we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel with the family before heading home.  I love Christmas time but boy is it busy!!!!  This week, we've mostly relaxed and stayed around the house- cleaning and taking down Christmas decorations.  We had a very low-key New Year's Eve.  We cooked dinner and then rented a movie.  EK made it to about 8:00.  We actually stayed up until 1:00 watching the movie.  It was nice to be home with those I love most.

Now that the holidays are over for a while, here's a few things Ella Kate has been up to...
Ella Kate still loves a phone to play with and has even gotten Siri to look up some information for her on print shops and dogs.  She likes to watch videos of herself on my phone and she will also hold it to her ear like she's talking on it.  She has learned to walk to her highchair when I ask if she wants something to eat, picks up her juice when we tell her to "drink", and has started signing "more" a few times.  She has really gotten the "reach my arm out" down pat when she wants something.  She doesn't like getting dressed, but loves to put on shoes.  She loves fruit and really most anything we give her to eat.  We will let her start experimenting with a spork soon.  She knows that it goes in her mouth, but getting food from her tray to her mouth will be interesting.  She FINALLY began drinking whole milk and is now drinking it without adding any water/formula to it.  She has her two bottom teeth and a top side tooth has also broke through this week.  She still doesn't have her two front teeth! :)  She walks non-stop and has even ran a few times.  She weighs a little over 20 pounds now.  On our trip to Atlanta, she probably walked around Aunt Amy's house 100 times.  When we were getting ready to leave, she put her hands on her back like it was hurting from walking so much.  She's such a little clown and we love the free entertainment.  Her favorite toys are balls, her new teddy bear, her piggy bank, and a puppy dog that she pulls by the string.  She also likes anything that she can dump out of a container.  We are working on taking the paci away.  She hasn't had it during the day for the past two days- only during nap and bed time.  Wish us luck!!

What a fun year it has been watching her learn so many new things.  She has grown so much this year and every new stage gets more and more exciting.  We are looking forward to the new year and what 2014 will bring!  Happy New Year everyone!

Below are some pictures of our favorite moments from the past couple of months...

 Before church one Sunday.  She had just taken her bow out and was giving me the "look"!

 Thanksgiving Day.  Checking out the dog at Uncle Jesse & Aunt April's.





 Having fun with Abi!



 Saying a little prayer before heading to church.

 Cousins in the tub at the lake the weekend before Christmas.

 Hadley & EK.  They are about 6 months apart.  :)

 Ready to see the Christmas lights.

 EK & Cousin Macy

 Blowing kisses :)

 Checking out all the lights on the hayride.

 Christmas at Mrs. Wanda Blair's. 

 All of EK's grandparents and her special Nana Linda came to watch EK meet Santa at Mrs. Wanda's!

 The "Ella" picture.  Sweet girls.

 "OK, I've had enough of Santa.  Someone come rescue me."

 "Well, let me have one last look before I go."

 Walking around like crazy before we left for her check-up!

 Christmas Eve Dinner at KK & Granddaddy's house.

 So cute!  EK, Aunt Sarah, & Brent on Christmas Eve.

 EK's Christmas pajamas from KK & Granddaddy

 Many of you saw this on Facebook Christmas Eve night.  I wanted to take a picture of EK before she went to bed.  But all she wanted was her milk that we took away to take this picture.  :(

Week-old poundcake and milk for Santa- only the best for Santa at the Davis house! :) HAHA!

 Santa came!  OH WHAT FUN!

 Boots (and monogrammed socks of course) to match Mommy.

 Stocking stuffed with goodies.

 Walking in to see what Santa brought her.

 She smiled and smiled at it all.  :)

 Staring

 Playing with her new piggy bank.

 Loving the new teddy bear her Daddy insisted on getting her this year.

 She loves the little animals and person that came with the barn.

 Helping Mommy open gifts.  Her and her Daddy made me a calendar with her pictures in it. 
So thoughtful!

 Going through her stocking at KK & Granddaddy's house Christmas morning.

 She got a dump truck!

 Laying in the floor at Memommy & Granddaddy's house at Christmas lunch.

 Our little family of 3!

 EK & Memommy!  I think she liked her glasses.

 Playing inside the bag at Memommy & Granddaddy's house.

 Love this little tradition- each of the Scott's picked out a book for EK.  :)

 New wagon at Grandma & Papa Greg's house.

Into cousin Cade's presents.

 Baby Frye boots- ahhhh! :)  Thanks Aunt Julie!

 Christmas night.  OK- no more bedtime photos for this girl!

 First time eating at The Varsity.  Friday, December 27, 2013.

Sleepy girl on the way to the hotel!

 Rocking away at Aunt Amy's house.

EK had to take her dog for a walk when we got home from Atlanta.

 Her beautiful tree.  

 EK's bookshelf all decorated for Christmas.  She had lots of fun playing with this nativity this year.  The camel even had to have surgery from where she tore his head off. 

 EK's Radko ornament for this year.  It's called "Sugar Shack".

 EK's Hallmark ornament from her Grandma & Papa Greg.

 Sunday, December 29, 2013- EK's first trip to the chicken houses.  She loved it.

This is the link to EK talking to the baby chicks...So funny!

New Year's Eve bath time.