10 Months Old Today!

Our cutie pie turned 10 months old today.  It's so hard to believe that we are honing in on her first birthday.  How did this ever happen?!  Ella is just such a sweet, adorable baby.  She is still this itty bitty thing, but both Ron and I love it.  It is so fun to still have a little baby to hold and cuddle after all of these months.  Ella definitely has developed this playful personality.  She loves laughing, giggling, and smiling and still loves her older siblings to death.  Lia and now even Logan can get her laughing on a regular basis.  Ella is still an extremely active baby who I thought might be walking by now...but we aren't quite there yet.  She turbo crawls with impressive speeds and walks along furniture like a champ!  We have caught her taking a step between pieces of furniture like her high chair and Logan's high chair, but she is yet to take one out into the open.  She is also the wiggliest worm around.  Changing her diaper or clothes or holding her at the dinner table or at church has become an Olympic sport for Ron and me.  Ella does NOT like sitting still.  Heaven help us when we hop on a plane next month with her.  Not looking forward to that one!  She also popped her third and fourth teeth this past month--the middle, top ones.  Ella babbles all the time and started saying, "ma ma ma ma," on a regular basis (much to my satisfaction).  She also has continued to sleep well at night and only requires a pacifier plug-in and a quick rub on the back whenever she does wake up which is a massive relief after we had to retrain her to do this in December.  Ella continues to try and eat all sorts of new foods from strawberries and blueberries to mashed potatoes and Vienna sausages to French toast and bean and bacon soup.  Besides eating a fruit baby food mixed with a rice cereal every morning for breakfast and a meat and veggie baby food for dinner, she now eats only table foods.  However, Ella is still struggling to master the sippy cup.  She has very little interest in drinking out of it and when she does drink, she ends up spitting most of the water out.  Ugh.  So who knows how the introduction of whole milk will go in two months.  We shall see.  Until next month...

Crazy Bed Head

This is how my crazy boy, Logan, woke up this morning with fly-away hairs on both sides of his head.  He rocked this "do" all day long and it just cracked me up every time I looked at him.  Oh Logan.  You are something.

My Girls

Lia and Ella were playing together under the kitchen table this morning when Lia called to me to take a picture of her laying in Ella's lap.  This is the cute shot I got of my two, adorable, smiling girls.  This is the kind of stuff that just makes my heart melt.

A Winter Beach Day

Since Lia had school off today for MLK, I decided to take my two older kiddies to the beach--rain or shine!  So we left a napping Ella home with a sick Ron and headed out to Dash Point on the Sound for the morning and had a great time!  We lucked out and had NO rain and even some sun breaks throughout our time there.  We enjoyed playing on the beach and on the play ground, ate a picnic lunch, and wandered out onto the pier to see someone pulling in their crab pots!  It felt so good to just be outside on the beach breathing in that fresh air.  If only we could do this every week...

Logan and Lia playing on the playground.

Swinging away with the Sound in the background.

Making sand "birthday cakes" on the beach.  We have been making these since Lia was a toddler.

Eating lunch in the pavilion.

An attempted mommy-kiddo selfie! :-)

Lia took this picture of my boy and me and did a great job!

Strolling out onto the pier.

GO HAWKS!

Well, it was quite a game today!  It gave Ron and me a few extra grey hairs, took a few years off of our lives, and nearly gave us heart attacks, but WE WON!  Our boys pulled through like the champions they are in the fourth quarter AND in overtime and NOW we are headed to the Super Bowl!  Our inner 12th man couldn't be more thrilled!  Let's see if we can be the first back to back Super Bowl winners for the first time in ten years.  GO HAWKS!

The adorable picture Lia drew after the game tonight of a Seahawks football player (#12) catching the winning, touchdown football.

Super Logie

Logan's awesome Aunt Austin and Uncle Robbie gave him the coolest gift for Christmas--a super hero cape with a lightening bolt and a capital "L" on the back with a coordinating mask.  Since Logan's knowledge of super heroes is limited, he was a bit confused as to what to do with this gift at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea once we explained that he could run around the house and leap off furniture with it on.  Needless to say, Super Logie was quickly born in our home after this chat.  The BEST had to be last night when he came streaking into the family room wearing NOTHING but his cape and mask.  I almost died laughing, but for obvious reasons did not get any pictures of the event!  However, I did manage to get a few in the office today when he was jumping off the couch over and over again while Lia was drawing at the desk.  It was so cute!  I'm just bummed that all of the actions shots came out totally blurry.  I need to get a better camera one of these days so that I can properly document his super hero activities!

Back on Track

As I have mentioned in a previous post, Ella came down with three colds in a row starting the middle of November.  This ruined our wonderful, nighttime routine that we had worked so hard to establish due to the fact that Ella could no longer just take her pacifier in the middle of the night because she was too stuffed up to suck on it and breathe at the same time.  As a result, she would immediately start crying and would need to either be rocked back to sleep or nursed to sleep each time this happened which could be many times a night.  This made for several rough weeks for me over the holiday season as I would be exhausted every morning and would refuse to take an afternoon nap while the two "babies" were napping because I had so many items to check off of that Thanksgiving and Christmas to-do list.  Since I am the type of person that needs some decent sleep each night, it was pretty brutal.  And by the time we had gotten Ella finished with her third cold and finally healthy by Christmas, we had created a baby that now needed to be rocked or nursed back to sleep EVERY single time she work up in the middle of the night.  Argh.  This same thing happened to Logan during the fall that he was the same age as Ella...so although this was familiar territory to us, it was not one that I wanted to go back to because it meant that we needed to have Ella "cry it out" for a few nights to break this nasty habit.  This was also another reason why we opted to stay home from Priest Lake so that we could take care of this before Ron had to go back to work.
And, so last Sunday, we took a deep breath and put Ella to bed, bracing ourselves for a rough night.  And it sure was.  She woke up around 2 a.m. and after refusing to take the pacifier from both Ron and me, we shut her door and let her cry.  And it lasted for 1 hour and 40 minutes.  It was awful.  We stayed awake the entire time listening to her and watching her on the video monitor.  But then she finally stopped crying and fell back asleep and slept until the morning.  Feeyooh.  As was the case with Logan, the next night wasn't as bad because Ella only cried for a little under an hour.  I was so exhausted from so many bad night's sleep and the Christmas season that I actually fell back asleep during this hour which is unheard of for me.  And then a miracle happened.  Ella went back to her normal sleeping routine the very next night.  Yes, that's right.  She started taking the pacifier and going back to sleep without a peep every single time she woke up from that point on.  I couldn't believe it as Logan took a good week to get to this point.  I was so relieved.  And so a week later, I am happy to report that Ella is back on track and I am finally sleeping well for the first time in almost two months.  Hallelujah.  There's just one catch...I just came down with another cold and Ella's nose started running today.  Oh dear.  Here we go again.

The Week After Christmas

This is the first time in five years that we haven't gone out of town for the week following Christmas.  With the exception of the one year that we were in South Carolina attending Ron's brother's wedding,  we have gone up to my parents' cabin in Priest Lake with my entire family to play in the winter wonderland that is usually up there this time of year.  However, like many states in this part of the country, there was zero snow on the ground leading up to Christmas which started to make me wonder if it would be worth it to make the trek this year.  In addition, Ella has been sleeping horribly for the past six weeks and we did NOT want to put her in the same bedroom as Logan for five nights.  Just the thought of doing that made it not worth it for Ron and me.  So, after going back and forth for a few days, we decided to take a break from Priest Lake this winter and stay home instead.  One of the many things I have learned from my few years as a mother is that there are "seasons" for everything and right now, it's a difficult season to travel....and sometimes it's worth the sacrifice and sometimes it is not.  And this was just one of those times that it was not worth it.  And I digress.  

So with the decision to stay home, Ron and I made the commitment to get the two older kids out of the house each day before Logan's afternoon nap.  Most days, one of us stayed home with Ella, but we really had a good time and Lia never asked once when we were leaving for Priest Lake (which is amazing considering that girl's memory and awareness of all events scheduled on the calendar).  So here is a quick rundown of our week at home.

On Friday, December 26th, I packed a lunch for Ron and the kids and he took them to two parks and a picnic in sunny, 40 degree weather.  Unfortunately, I didn't think about asking him to take any pictures, so we do not have a "record" of this first outing, but they had a good time and got some well needed Vitamin D and exercise.  

On Saturday, December 27th, Ron took the kids to the bounce house play in the mall for a few hours.  Lots of jumping and screaming were had by all.  I'm just glad they were just able to get out of the house and blow off steam.  Here is my Logie boy coming down one of the many giants slides that he loves to tumble down.

Our darling Lia at the bottom of another slide.

We took the day off on Sunday for church and the Seahawks game before resuming activity on Monday, December 29th.  Ron took them to see a matinee movie of Pixar's latest film--Big Hero Six.  This was Logan's first time seeing a movie in a theater and he loved EVERY minute of it.  Ron bought them popcorn and root beer and they had a grand time being entertained by Baymax and the gang.  Ron said that Logan was glued to the screen the entire time, barely moving and barely responding to any question directed his way.  So funny.  I wish that I could have seen this.

On December 30th, I took the two kids to play at the Tacoma's Children's Museum for a few hours.  As always, we had a good time running around and playing with all of their amazing, interactive toys and activities.  

Logan and Lia inside the cool ball at the front of the crazy, modern pirate ship.

The kids playing inside the large nest found underneath the slide.

Wednesday, December 31st, was our first entire family activity.  As I mentioned in the previous post, all five us drove up the pass to play in the snow at Alpental.  Although it was a frigid 15 degrees outside, the weather was stunning and it was just fun to be up in the snow sledding with our kids.

Logan and Lia getting ready to go.  They can be so adorable when they get along!

Sibling sled run.

On Thursday, January 1st, we drove down to Lacey to walk around Cabellas for the first time ever.  I had heard about how cool this sporting goods store is and how fun it is for children to explore...and the rumors were true!  Logan and Lia LOVED it!  Here they are trying out the scoopers in the store.  Logan was in heaven.

Lia giving it a go.

We were amazed by all of the stuffed animals everywhere.  Here are the kids with the giant sea lion.

Logan and Lia with the deer.

Cute kids in a tent.

On Friday, January 2nd, Ron took the kids to the Pt. Defiance Zoo for the morning.  They had a great time wandering all over the place and were amazed at all of the tigers that have come to the zoo since our last visit.  Here is Lia posing "next" to one of them.

Since it started raining while they were there and I didn't think to pack them an umbrella, Ron taught the kids the art of wearing their hoods and tucking their hands in their pockets while walking.  He said that Logan looked so grown up and cute while doing this.  Here is the picture he took of our boy walking along in his camo pants and jacket.

Lia and her blue, dinosaur drink that Ron finally gave in and bought her (if I had been there, this would not have happened...so it was her lucky day that I didn't come)! ;-)

On Saturday, January 3rd, Lia started her swim lessons again in the morning and then had a play date with her friend, Addyson, in the afternoon.  We all drove to Maple Vally that night to attend a late New Year's party with a bunch of Ron's former co-workers.  It was  good day, but nothing I felt was picture worthy.  And there you go.  That was our week following Christmas.  I'd say the kids did pretty well for staying home.