Watch Out World! Here She Comes!

Elly in a bowl. Aidan put Elly inside a big bowl and was pushing her around like it was a car.

Here she comes!!

Elly's new "get-away" stance.

Valentine's Day Sweetheart.

Happy Valentine's Day!

O.K. So I am about 3 weeks late in posting this but we officially have a CRAWLER!!

About a week before she turned 9 months old, Elly finally figured out how to get a move on. I first noticed it in the baby class that we attend. We sit on big mats, so they are nice and slick enough for her to figure out how to get her legs moving. Then she would do it on any hard flooring. Finally she's mastered crawling on carpet and she's moving all over the place now!

Thankfully she hasn't gotten too fast. Yet.

We had Elly's 9 month checkup a couple weeks ago. Her stats are now: weight- 19 lbs. 14 oz. (which is 60th percentile) and height- 28 inches (which is 70th percentile). So her percentiles actually dropped becuase her weight at her last appointment was in the 80th and her height was in the 70th. The doctor says this is totally normal though, especially because as they become more mobile, they lose that "baby fat".

Khari and I were a bit surprised at her weight though, we both guessed her over 20 pounds. At her 6 month checkup she weighed 18 lbs. 2 oz., so it was surprising to see she really hasn't gained that much weight in 3 months. She's still not eating a ton yet though, so I guess it wasn't too surprising.

Other than that, not too much excitement here. We are keeping busy, busy, busy. Aidan is over halfway through the school year now, so they are really bumping up the homework which keeps us busy at night. Elly and I are attending baby class every Friday morning and having a blast with that and I'm going to be starting a part-time job at Target next week. I expect life will continue to just get crazier and crazier.

More pictures!

Hands and knees, trying to crawl!

Rubber Ducky, you're the one, you make my bathtime oh, so fun...

Up on her knees! Happy as a clam.

After school. Aidan playing his DS and Elly watching Elmo.

Standing up! Not so sure about this...

I am so far behind in posting the random pictures that we take daily that I'm doing an extra post to include some of those pictures.

You can see in these pictures the progression that Elly has taken in just a month. She is up on her hands and knees and she has begun the beginning stages of crawling. We do see her sneak a little crawl in here and there, but she hasn't really figured out how to keep going. She mainly ends up turning herself over and over until she gets where she wants to go.

Then you see that she can get up on her knees by herself. This is something that she loves to do when she's excited. Typically when she sees Elmo on TV. :)

Now she has begun to stand. She has a little play table that she absolutely loves to stand. The picture was actually taken the first time she stood at it, so she looks unsure, but now loves it and she's learned that she can even let go and stay standing for about 15 or 20 seconds.

I have a feeling we are just a few short weeks away from her being all over the place!

Fun at the Dells!

Daddy and the kids at Wisconsin Dells

Daddy and Elly floating down the Lazy River

Aidan and Elly--of course as soon as he got settled, she started crying. :)

Exhausted after a long day at the waterpark.

Aidan warming up in the family hot tub.

I'm finally taking the time to post the pictures from our trip to Wisconsin Dells.

We stayed at the Wilderness Hotel & Waterpark. For anyone looking to stay in the Dells, I highly, highly recommend this place. We will definitely go back there. For one, we were able to get what is called a "Double Suite" which was 2 queen beds and a pull-out couch which was separated from the queen beds by a 3/4 wall. The room also included 2 TV's, which was crucial for us as typically Aidan wanted to watch something different than the adults in the room

The hotel itself is massive and included 3 indoor waterparks. We never even made it to the 3rd one, as we enjoyed one in particular and visited it twice during our stay. Aidan and Khari hit up all the waterslides, including the Hurricane. At age 7, Aidan is already braver than his mom. He loved every minute of it and we were all exhausted at the end of our stay. In fact, after our full day there, Aidan requested to go back to the room and ended up falling asleep at 7pm and slept until 7 the next day!

Elly even hit the waterpark, however the water was a little cool for her. She did enjoy sitting in the swings for a little bit and watching her big brother splash around, along with the other kids.

Lucky Number 7!

Aidan with his new LEGO Star Wars The Clone Wars Gunship

Aidan with his presents

Aidan and Elly on Aidan's 7th Birthday

Aidan blowing out his candles

Aidan and his Speed Racer birthday cake.

January 12th marked Aidan's 7th birthday. I honestly can hardly believe that it has been 7 years since he was born. You really realize how quickly time passes once you have a child. In some ways I can't remember what my life was like before he and Elly were born and in other ways it seems impossible that I can be old enough to have a SEVEN year old. Before I know it he's going to be driving a car, hanging out with his friends and leaving for college!

Aidan decided that instead of a party this year, he really just wanted to go to a waterpark. He LOVES swimming and the water, so it was the perfect idea for him. His actual birthday was very low-key since it was a Monday. He went to school and got lots of attention there, then I showed up to pick him up with a bunch of balloons (which he loved--he secretly loves the attention) and we headed home to quick do homework, etc. Then we headed over to the birthday dinner of his choice, Red Robin and back home to open presents.

I will post about the waterpark in my next blog post. My daughter seems to think it's time for her to get some attention. :)

Elly 7 month pictures Part Deux

Elly's 7 month pictures!

I'm sorry I am so late in uploading these. Elly is already 8 months old and I'm just getting to this but better late than never! :)

Disclaimer: I wasn't that pleased with how these pictures came out. We went to Target like we did for her 3 month pictures, however it was 2 weeks before Christmas and they overbooked their appointments BIG TIME. Our appointment was an hour late. Plus, we did our Christmas pictures first, so by this time, Elly was just over having her picture taken.

There are a few good ones, so it's good enough but overall, I wasn't very happy with them.

This first set are my favorite ones.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Aidan and Elly on Christmas morning

Aidan and Elly at Grandma's house

Aidan, Elly and Auntie Ekua on Christmas Day.

Elly with her presents from Santa--Christmas morning. Notice she has a bow in her hand. :)

Aidan with one of his gifts from Santa--Christmas morning

Well, the holidays have come and gone. It was a whirlwind as usual. It always amazes me how we spend months of preparation just for it to be over in about 15 minutes. :)

This was Elly's first Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent at home. I made a large dinner and we watched movies.

Christmas morning we awoke to Santa's arrival. I was expecting Aidan to burst into the bedroom at 5am, but thankfully he slept in. He made sure the minute he was up that we were aware there were presents waiting though! So we gathered around the tree and opened gifts in our pajamas. Elly really had no interest in the presents other than the bows. She was obsessed with the bows.

It's funny because if there is a sales flyer, newspaper or magazine within her reach, she will rip it to shreds, but the minute we wanted her to rip open a present she wanted nothing to do with it. Isn't that how it always goes?!

In the afternoon we headed down to Grandma Gwen's house. She prepared a delicious meal and had a huge, gorgeous tree. We opened lots of presents! Needless to say, neither Aidan or Elly were hurting for gifts by the time we were done!

As always, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to have wonderful families and our health and happiness.