My Little Model

Here are some photos of Little Miss E modeling one of my creations. ;)

On an unrelated note, I'm doing a 7 day cleanse this week to rid my system of toxins (not the one where you only drink water with lemon and cayenne pepper- I couldn't do that one for an hour).  I don't know if I can last 7 days.  I was clearly not meant to only eat fruits, vegetables, grains and beans.  I want a cheeseburger.  I almost cried yesterday watching a Food TV show called, "Top 10 Best Bakeries"...what I wouldn't give for a cinnamon roll the size of my head.  I'm really trying though.  We even went on a walk yesterday with Holly and Quinn, and then went on ANOTHER walk in the afternoon with Rylee!

Don't be surprised if you see me alone in Taco Bell with enough food for ten.  Just pretend like you don't see me please.

7 Months Old

 Ella was 7 months old on Saturday, but I forgot to post her monthly update!  You'll notice the monthly sign isn't in either of the photos above...that's because this is what happened the second I set the sign down...

Ella weighs about 17 pounds now.  She eats 5 bottles a day, all about 6 oz. each except her 11 p.m. dream feed, where she will only take 1-3 oz.  We try to give her solids at least once a day- so far, she's had peas, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and pears.

She wears a size 2 diaper and 6-9 month in most clothes (although she still easily fits into 3-6 month sizes in Gymboree and Naartjie).

She sleeps through night, 6:30 p.m. to 6 or 6:30 a.m.  No matter what time we put her to bed, we cannot seem to get her to sleep past 6:30 a.m.!  And at least once a week, she'll wake up at 5:30 a.m. for the day.  Luckily, she'll just quietly talk to herself in her crib until daddy gets her up around 6:15.

She loves dogs and loves to people watch.  Even when she's tired, if you walk her around somewhere like the Spectrum, she won't make a peep while she stares at all the people walking by.  She loves to laugh and is a truly happy baby.  She will let anyone hold her and remains calm and happy even if Gary and I leave the room.  Even though she doesn't have any sort of separation anxiety yet, I think she's a mama's girl right now because she gets exceptionally happy when I come into the room.

She 'talks' more and more each day, and I swear I heard her say 'mama' twice when we were in Vegas!  She is sitting up unassisted all the time now, and only tumbles over occasionally.  We wonder if she will ever crawl because she seems to use rolling as her mechanism of choice to get where she wants to be...she rolls all over the place!  Every time she gets up on her knees, she rolls over.

She brings so much happiness into our lives, and every single day is better than the last.  We feel so blessed to be the lucky ones that get to be her parents.  Life is good.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Of course Sunday, the day we went to the beach for brunch, turned out to be sort of cloudy and windy! Nevertheless, we had a wonderful brunch at The Beachcomber, and Ella saw the beach for the first time (or at least the first time close-up since she's seen it lots of times while driving down PCH)!

View from our table...

Craftiness Part Deux- Flower Onesie

We saw these in a cute boutique in Vegas so I decided I'd make one...

It looks really cute on too, but I will say, it may be better suited for newborns who don't try to pull it off. ;)  Or photo shoots as opposed to all day wear!

Fun Day!

Julie and Ava came to play with us today, and it was so good to see them.  I'm used to seeing Julie everyday at work so I miss her!  Ava has the prettiest big blue eyes, and don't get me started on how good Julie looks only 3 months after giving birth!

This is Ella's "hey, wait a minute sucka" look...

The "HELLO lady, pay attention to me"...

Then she decided she wanted to hug her friend...

But then, she thought it would be a good idea to kick her in the face & head...and grab her pants?...is Gary teaching her mixed martial arts?

Before J & A came over, I let Ella go down with a lovey because she had been crying in her crib.  I went in to go get it out of the crib after she was asleep, and I found her smooshed against her bumper with her arm stuck up behind her back, yet still clutching onto her lovey!

After our visit from J & A, it was time for me to have a mom's night out with Molly and Jennifer...woot woot!  Ms. preggers even drove me so that I could drink...thanks Molly!

Cuteness & Photography

This post is partially a photo drop-off of the utter cuteness that is my little love bug, but also, to admit that I STILL shoot in "P" program mode 99.99% of the time and to beg for a photography intervention!

These were taken with my 35mm 1.8, but they still aren't sharp enough or bright enough (and the room was pretty well lit with natural light).  I wish someone would come into my room and say, you need to shoot with aperture 2.4 and shutter of 1/500 or whatever in this room.  I just can't figure it out!  Admittedly, it's hard to figure out when you a.l.w.a.y.s. shoot in P mode, but whenever I try to shoot in manual, I just get frustrated!  You'll notice these pictures are mostly too dark, and then also some sort of blurry (the feet shots). 

Ella is loving this position lately...halfway stuck under our bed...go figure.

These all turned out slight dark...

And then these are blurry-ish and the color is off or washed out? (But don't you just want to eat those little feet?!)

These two just constantly crack me up...such love.

Are Playdates Really for Babies?

We had 8 other mommies and beyond adorable babies (from 3 months to 14 months old) over today for a playdate, and it was so much fun.  I wish I would have got pictures of everyone.  I had such a great time watching the kids play and chatting with the other moms that I started wondering, "are playdates really for the babies?"  I swear getting together with these girls helps me stay sane.  Luckily, Thursday night is mom's night out so my sanity will *really* be in check this week! ;)

Let the Craftiness Begin- Wreath

About a month ago, I bought all the supplies to make this (but with all white/cream flowers) for Ella's room (from PB catalog):

I finally made it yesterday, but it just wasn't 'right' for Ella's room, and Gary said it would excessively annoying to have those ribbons hanging down in his face all the time!

So instead of wasting everything, I took the entire chandelier wreath apart, and I decided to make a regular wreath for the front door, which I needed anyway since I still had an Easter egg wreath on the door! (Please ignore the fact that our front door desperately needs to be repainted).

And just for fun, our pretty cabbage roses to match the wreath. :)

Stuff

What have we been up to...

*Went to the Angel game with Julie & Ryan (we won...yay!).
*Playdates and mommy group things- went on a walk on Hicks Canyon Trail with 7 other moms, which was really fun...lots planned this week!
*Practicing sitting up- Ella is doing really well.
*Going to the dog park, which both our furbaby and human baby L.O.V.E.

Check out this succession of photos...I think this is evidence that we DO need at least 5 more dogs. :)

*Lounging on Sunday mornings.

*Went to Downtown LA with Julie and got all sorts of stuff to start being my crafty self again!
*Went to dinner with my parents at BJ's, where Ella wore a yellow tutu and hot pink shoes...Thank you Auntie Julie for letting me borrow Olivia's pretty pink crib shoes!  So I decided I would wear my new hot pink thongs to match. ;)