So far behind...

We started this site to keep our family and friends updated as to the going ons of a new baby and tiny family, however as time passes it seems that I type less and less, which is problematic. I realized the other day that in all reality this web site isn't just for our loving family and friends, but more so as a record for us. Time passes so quickly and it amazes me at how quickly you forget.

As a Social Worker I spend  my time with children of all ages. Recently I aquired a 7 lb baby on my case load. As I sat there holding this child I said to myself, "Ella was never this tiny." She was though, how quickly I forgot. At 18 months she is no longer a tiny baby who wants to snuggle with her mom and dad (not that she has been that for awhile, but still.) Ella is independent, intelligent and so loving. The amount of words she can say these days astounds us both. She will say please, more, hair, mouth, nose, eyes, etc. She can easily pick out any animal that you tell her to look for, and at times will run up to the shower curtain in her bathroom, point to the turtle and say "tur tle." When Ella wants something she makes it know. She will now come and grab either of us by our thumb/finger/hand and "drag" us to her destintation. Her most favorite thing to do at night is lay on the floor with Billy and play with her sesame street house and big bird figurine. Ella weighs 22 1/2 lbs, which is still tiny for her age, but big for her. When she is tired she will say "night night" and head to the stairs letting us know it is time for bed. We sing her night night song and she now kisses us both goodnight. In the morning we are greated with not only Ella, but her arms full of her favorite blankies. When music plays she dances, when the phone rings she says, "hullo" and when she is mad she will scream at you and throw herself to the ground. It appears that toddler hood has offically hit the Carlin household. We love watching her grow and are amazed at her grace and loving spirit. We are truly rich people because no person is more blessed than we to have such a beautiful big girl!

Itsy bitsy teenie weenie.....

Summer is here (to some extent that is!) We spent Sunday playing in the sunshine with Ella. We went to the lake and as we walked up to the water she started screaming. We thought for sure she was scared, but we were very wrong. Ella was upset because we weren't getting to the water fast enough. As soon as she was free and able to hit the water she ran full speed ahead. We didn't have swim suits on so we could only go in so deep, but she had a blast splashing and playing with the sand. We got home to an 85 degree afternoon. We put on Ella's itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini and set up the sprinkler, ironically the huge deep lake was a go, but the sprinkler was not in any way.

Ella is now 20 lbs 8 ozs. Her hair is long enough that Lisa can pull her hair back into full piggy tails so today Ella got to sport her first set of real piggy tails.

The Amazing World according to Ella

 Ella is getting bigger and bigger every day. She is finally 20 lbs and can face forward in her car seat. She loves looking out the window and waving to everyone we pass. Ella's vocabulary is growing..she now says fisssh, juice, mama, dada, papa, bye bye, etc. She talks all the time, we just can't understand her most of the tinme. Ella is able to recognize things and point to them when asked. She recognizes dogs, fish, whale, dolphin, elmo, cookie moster, etc. She will also point to her nose and show us her feet when asked. At night after her bottle we will tell Ella it is time to go night night she will run to the stairs and wait for us to take her up to bed. When the doorbell rings Ella will run to the door and say "hi." We are amazed at how much she is learning. We can't wait to see what she does next and how much more she will be able to do week by week. Here are some recent pics of Ella and some of the new things she is doing these days!

Ella got her first ice cream cone and ate it all herself. She was only a bit messy, but LOVED her treat!

Lisa bought this OSU bench for Billy for father's day. This year we finally put it out by our tree in the back yard. Ella now loves to sit under the tree and just enjoy the outside. She looks so grown up to us.

Ella was sitting on the bench talking to the neighbors dogs.

Ella has come to realize that if you turn the knob the door opens. Thankfully she isn't quite tall enough yet to open the door! She also enjoys when we are on the other side and she can "kiss" us through the glass.

 

Ella used to hate when we would put hair things in or bows on her head. She now LOVES to wear her pretty headbands and bows.

Just a little time...

It's amazing how in the beginning babies charge so quick and you have a thousand things to write about, now that Ella has hit toddler hood it seems that while she continues to do new and exciting things I haven't felt the need to write about them...How crazy is that? Ella continues to amaze us everyday. She is getting so very tall (thank goodness she got that gene from Billy!) Things that we used to be able to push out of reach are now fair game to Ella's tiny hands. We can also tell that Ella is going to be a very loving mommy some day. She loves carrying her babies around the house and giving them lots of kisses. Ella talks all of the time, we just can't understand her yet. Ella's feet are growing at what seems a crazy fast speed, but Im sure a size five shoe is normal at her age, right? Ella loves to be read to. She will grab her book and drag it over to us. She then turns her back to us, scoots back and sits on our laps. She is offically off of her prevacid (again) we will see if the reflux is gone for good. Everyday she amazes us with something new and we can't wait to see what she does next!

Way overdue

We have been so busy lately that I have fallen behind in my blogging. Things have been hectic with a trip to Florida and then to Toledo for Easter. Billy was working so Lisa and Ella had a great time exploring Orlando. Ella got to go to Sea World for the first time. She loved all of the animals. She even touched a sting ray. Ella would go all day and then crash in the afternoon for a good nap. On our last day before we flew out we took Ella to Disney. It was Spring Break and so crowded. We managed to ride Its a Small World and Ella loved it. She also enjoyed meeting the Princesses and Minnie's house. Right as we were heading out it began to rain cats and dogs. We were soaked, but Ella laughed and laughed like it was the most funny thing that had ever happened in her short life. For Easter we went to Toledo and Ella got to enjoy some quality time with her grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, and cousins. We are preparing for another month full of craziness, but are hoping May will be less crazy than February, March and April were/are. Pics of Easter will be up soon!

Ella runs...and we follow

Ella has offically become an active toddler. She runs around and around and loves when we chase her. She is also loving to give hugs. Ella loves going to the nursery at church. She says byeeee as we leave and runs with a big smile to come to us after service. Ella did really well on the trip to Las Vegas to visit Aunt Lori. She loved seeing all of the people and the lights. Ella eats more and more big girl food. Yesterday she only had one jar of baby food, everything else was big girl food! Ella now has 10 teeth and loves to show them off. We are still working on a bigger vocabulary, but she is trying hard to say more words. She says hiii and byeee byee, bie (bites), wuff (dog), ohohoh (monkey), baa (baby). The rest of her words are mubles, but she knows what she is saying. When we ask her to show us something she holds it up and if we tell her to bring it to us she will. If we tell her it is time for night night she goes up to her bed.Ella also has a new game she loves....putting on mommy and daddy's shoes! We love watching her grow and also loves to sit and talk about how far she has come. We can't go out without being told how beautiful she is. She has made us realize that it is more important to be at home and playing with her than running around. Ella is the light of our life and we are thankful everyday that we get to be her parents.

A year in retrospect

Today is our beautiful little girl's first birthday. We can hardly believe how quickly it has gone and how blessed we are to have her in our life. She came into the world , a week late, with a head full of hair and ready to go. She held her head to move it to the side our second night in the hospital. By five months she was crawling and now at a year she is trying hard to run everywhere she goes. She has gone from a soft cry to a loud one and now says "hiiiii" "byeeeee byeee" and makes the sound of a monkey when she sees one. She waves and even managed to climb out of her crib. She has become a travler and in her short life has been to New Jersey, New York City, Atlanta and South Carolina. She has been on plane rides, boat rides and in a cab. She saw the ocean for the first time when she was 5 months old. Lisa saw the ocean for the first time when she was 17 years old. She is one of the happiest little girls and we love how she makes us laugh everyday. We miss out little tiny baby, but are loving see her grow and change with each passing day. Below are pictures of Ella from a few hours old to her first birthday

Newborn

One Month

2mths

3 mths

 

4 mths 

 

5mths

6 mths

7 mths

 8 mths

9 mths

10 mths

11mths 

1st Birthday