Billy's Surgery

Billy had surgery on Friday for his deviated septum. They also removed two bones out of his nose. He is having a hard time not being able to bend over, pick up Ella, play with her, etc but for the most part he feels pretty good. We appreciated having Lisa's dad, aunt and Billy's mom here to help out with Ella for a day or two so that Lisa could care for Billy. More updates will come.

In the Army...

That's right....Ella is offically ready to join the army! Yesterday morning Billy and I found Ella far away from where we left her. So we put her back on her play mat and watched her to see how she had gotten herself so far away. Lo and behold she wanted a toy and off she went...in a fast and furious army crawl! Our little girl isn't so little anymore and while we miss our tiny little peanut we love seeing her grown and explore! Now its time to baby proff the house!!!

Sparklers, Fireworks and More

We have been very busy since we last posted a blog and Ella experienced many first over the Holiday weekend. Billy's cousin Jonathon was getting married at a Marina at the Jersey Shore, so of course we went! Ella got to ride on a plane for the first time. She handled the trip fine, ours however sucked. Our first flight went from Columbus to Cincinnati...it was fine. Our second flight however was horrible. Lisa didn't have an assigned seat as she had Ella and only certain seats have extra oxygen mask. Our plane was replaced by a much smaller plane so 25 people got bumped...and of course Lisa was one of them. We took an offer for 800 Delta Dollars to fly into Baltimore and then they would pay for ground transportation to Philly (which is where our baggage was going!) Our flight was fine...Ella again did great, but things went down hill from there. Our cab driver was a large man and he kept falling asleep at the wheel. Lisa had to bump him awake. Then we get to Philly (safely thank goodness!) and Lisa's bag is MIA. We come to find that they flew it to Baltimore and it was there the whole time so they said they would have it to use by 5 am the next day. We then had to drive to New Jersey and it took forever. We also had to stop on the way to buy all of our health and beauty aides that were gone in the missing bag. We finally made it to our hotel 8 hrs after our expected arrival. The rest of the trip was great. Ella had her first trip to the beach, New York City, her first plane, cab, train and boat rides. She loved the city and got excited by all of the lights. She was so well behaved and we know that we are truely blessed to have such a wonderfuly little girl. She grows bigger and bigger every day and we love to see all of her new accomplishments. She has her two bottom teeth and several more on the way. She has eaten all of the stage one veggies. She loves carrots the most and dislikes carrots. She also started fruits and has eaten bananas. Not sure she LOVED them, but she did eat them all up. She rolls without any trouble from her back to her tummy (but still cant roll from tummy to back.) She reaches for her toys and tries to scoot to get them. She pushes herself around on her back and does a "back crawl." Ella loves the water and would get very upset when it was time to leave the ocean and/or the pool. She laughs often and is very happy, but when she is mad she is mad. Ella sleeps through the night and enjoys her routine. We have her on a good schedule and she knows and gets very upset. We can hardly believe she is five months old. She is getting so big and while we miss her being tiny we love how interactive she has become!

Happy Father's Day

We had a great weekend. Billy was on a business trip all week and wasn't due to get in til late Saturday so Lisa and Ella took a trip to visit Lisa's dad and Aunt Pat. We had a great time and went to visit Lisa's Uncle Ron so he could meet Ella. She loved him! Ella also got Billy a father's day present (a concret bench with an ohio state decoration on it for the yard.) Billy got home and was so excited to see Lisa and Ella. Today we got up and Billy opened his father's day presents. He got a couple of great dad tee shirts from his nana, a book from his mom, a wrench from Ella and cards. We planed on going to the lake and hanging out on the beach, but changed our plans and decided to go to King's Island and take Ella for her first time. It was very hot out so we spent most of the day in the water park. Ella loved the water and had fun splashing and playing. She pooped out and took a long nap. Overall it was a great day and weekend. We can't wait to take her back to King's Island and let her ride some other rides!

So many things....so little time...

It's already been two weeks since Ella had her first bites of solid food. Saturday she will being to have it twice a day! Ella is offically 19 weeks old. Today she was laying in bed with Lisa and fell asleep. She snuggled with the burp rag which Lisa found to be adorable. Over the past couple of weeks we have been very busy. Lisa had to go on call for work which means she is on 24/7 for 7 days. Thankfully it was a calm week and she only had to go out twice (during non normal work hours that is!) Billy enjoyed spending time with Ella as he knew he would be heading off on a business trip on June 15th for a whole week. We new father's day was quickly approaching. We bought tee shirts for Papa and Grandpa that we needed to put Ella's handprints on...note to anyone reading this...its hard when the child is only 4 mths old! This past weekend was Ella's christening. She looked absolutely beautiful in her gown. We realized how blessed and loved we all are when almost thirty people came to see Ella baptised and to celebrate with us at our home after. This also gave Ella the first chance to enjoy her gift from her mommy and daddy...her very first pool! She loved the water and played with her friends Cameron and Emily. We also enjoyed getting to see Lisa's sister Lori who has been in NY with her new husband for the past couple of months. Billy left on Monday for Florida. Lisa has been very busy at work, but lots of fun things have occured. Ella's first tooth finally broke through the skin and she is knawing on everything. She also found that she can put her foot in her mouth. Ella loves to smile and is starting to recognize her mommy and daddy much faster. She is up to three tablespoons of cereal a day and sleeps 12-14 hours at night. Ella also rolled over for the first time in her crib and was found sleeping on her tummy. On Tuesday night Emily and her mom Elizabeth (who watches Ella during the day) came over. Elizabeth's husband is also on a business trip so we had a mommy play date. We had hoped that Ella and Emily could swim, but as luck would have it storms rolled in. Ella needed a bath anyway so Lisa and Elizabeth filled up the big tub and Ella and Emily "swimed"

Wednesday night was a huge first for Lisa. She went out with Elizabeth for her first girl's night in months and first since Ella was born. They went to see Legally Blonde: The Musical. This was the first time Ella was put down at night by someone other than Billy or Lisa. It was harder on Lisa than Ella, who went down great for her sitter.

All for now...sure there is much more to come!

Yummmy

Ella got to eat rice cereal for the first time. We were amazed at how well she did. It took her a couple of bites then she handle it like a pro. She still got messy, but hardly spit any out. We think she loves it!

Here is the video of her first bites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWODPtYBzVI

4 months old

Ella is four months old today. This meant a trip to see the doctor for a checkup. Ella weighs 12 lbs 9 oz (which is in the 25th percentile for weight) and is 25 1/2 inches long (90th percentile for height) and her head circumfrence is 41 inches (50th percentile). So she is long and skinny. Lisa is just glad that Ella is on the height/weight chart in general because as a child she never made it on. Ella was also given the go ahead to start rice cereal so this weekend we are going to try giving her rice cereal for the first time! We will post pictures when we give her the cereal for the first time!