A valentine from Africa

Thank you Grandmomma and Grandaddy for my beautiful Valentines Card! I love it and I really like playing with it.I have a card for you too but it hasn't come in yet so it's going to be late. SORRY!! Big hug and kiss for both of you and I can't wait to see you in May!!!

j/./../f,.kf/.j dfecx [;p cgf/.(from Ellie)

Back to normal

After spending the last half of January and the first few days of Feb. in Nashville with my dad Ellie and I are back home. Papa is doing very well. I took care of him for the first 5 days he was home and by the time I left he was walking on his own and managing to get around. I am so thankful that I was able to be there with him and to help take care of him. Ellie adjusted quite well to being out of town so much. She napped and slept in her pack and play like it was no big deal. Actually, since we were there and in the house nearly the whole time we got on a nice schedule. Ellie is now taking two one to two hour naps every day. One at 9ish and one at 2ish. It is so nice. Oh, she also has SIX teeth now (don't know if I already blogged about this) and is eating mainly solid foods. She doesn't like the pureed food anymore. I guess she figures she should use her teeth since she has them. So she basically eats whatever I eat :-)

I am so ready for some warmer weather. I want to go outside and take Ellie to the park and all that fun stuff. I can't believe she is already almost a year old. I need to start planning her party!!!

Good News!!

Papa was moved out of CCU yesterday and into a regular room. They took him off the oxygen today and he should be coming home within the next couple of days!!! We are so glad he is awake and well. Ellie and I came back up on Wednesday and I was able to spend an hour with him Wed. night while my Step mom watched Ellie and then yesterday Ellie and I spent two hours with him in his room :-) He is in good spirits and is ready to get home. Rocio has spent the last two nights with him and he has really enjoyed that. I am sure that he has been lonely since he woke up. I hated knowing he was by himself in CCU but they were super strict about visiting hours.

Ellie and I did not get to go see him today because it has been SNOWING all day long!! There is at least 4 inches of snow outside. I took her outside to sit in it but she didn't seem too impressed. I think she was too bundled up to enjoy it but I don't want her getting sick. It is so beautiful up here; I just love it!!

Since I've been here I've been trying to teach my little brother to cook. He is 19 years old but doesn't have a clue about how to cook anything other than mac n cheese. Today we made Spaghetti and tomorrow it will be some type of Chicken. I asked him what kind of chicken he wanted to make and he says "what kinds are there?". Too funny! So I showed him the cook book and we decided on a chicken/rice casserole but I think we'll have to change it bc we don't have rice or Cream of Chicken and I'm not going out in this snow to get it. Anyways, while I cook, Ellie has been helping by swiffering the floor. She loves it!

So Ellie's top two teeth have come all the way out and now she has one tooth on each side of those two coming out! She's going to have 6 teeth before she is 10 months old. I can't believe it. She is also getting really good at standing by herself for a long time. When she starts to lose her balance she wabbles back and forth before plopping down on her bottom. She is so stinkin cute!!

Ellie

Ellie is NINE MONTHS OLD! I can't believe we are so close to her first birthday. She finally decided to start crawling around Christmas and is now on the go. She is also pulling up and standing by herself a little bit (the standing part). EVERY opportunity she has she crawls over to something and pulls up. She is so cute. She likes to help me do laundry. She'll stand up by the dryer and take out one piece at a time. She then proceeds to throw the item on the floor; I don't know why, because that isn't how I do laundry :-) She is a very good helper.

She has three teeth that came in on top within the last few weeks so now she is really into eating "big people" food. She has been saying a lot of different things and a lot of times she'll only say it once or twice. She said "grandad", clear as day one time. She also likes to say "play" "cat" "bye" "momma/mommy" "dada/daddy"(one time), and her newest favorite is "gum". I think she is trying to say "grandmomma". As soon as mom went back to Africa she started saying it so that is why I think she's asking for her. We've talked to mom on the web cam a few times and Ellie gets so excited. She starts reaching for the screen and talking :-)

Ellie also loves to read. She will pick her book up and start talking and flipping the pages. She also gets really excited sometimes and kisses the book. She is such a joy and I absolutely adore staying home with her everyday. Stephen sometimes asks me if I ever get tired of staying home with her all day every day and I honestly don't. There is nothing I would rather do. I love taking care of her and playing with her.

She is actually sleeping next to me at this very moment and I think she is going to wake up soon so I better go. I will post some pictures when I get back home.

Papa

My dad, papa, is in the hospital. Last Friday at 3 am he got up and couldn't breathe. They called an ambulance and he was taken to the ER. Well, within a few hours he was in Critical Care. Stephen, Ellie, and I went to Nashville to see him Friday night and on Saturday the doctors said that he was improving so we went back to Birmingham. I was able to talk to him on Saturday and spent several hours in the room with him. Sunday night he had a bad night and by Monday morning he was on a ventilator. Ellie and I came back up on Tuesday morning and I have been here since. The doctors aren't really sure how he got this sick but they do believe that it is pneumonia. Papa has been on a ventilator all week and a couple of days ago they added a feeding tube. He has no idea that I am here or anyone else for that matter. The doctor said that when they take him off the vent he won't remember any of this. This has been a really hard week for all of us and I just pray that he gets well soon. Ellie and I are going to have to go back home tomorrow and I was hoping he would be awake by then but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I've been trying to help my step mom out with the house and errands. We go and sit in the waiting room with her when she's there. Papa is only allowed to have visitors at certain times and they are pretty strict about it. It's so hard knowing that he is up there by himself (even though he doesn't know it). Also, children under 10 are not allowed in the CCU so I've only been able to see him for a few minutes at a time, as Ellie cries every time I leave her.

Please pray for his recovery; We are all ready for him to come home. Ellie and I will come back up to take care of him when he gets out of the hospital. Rocio (step mom) works every day and I want to be sure he is o.k.

Christmas is almost here

The tree is up, the stockings are hung, now all we're missing are the gifts under the tree. We have had a pretty busy month. Ellie is enjoying the Christmas decorations and loves playing with the ornaments. I had a cookie exchange this past Monday and invited all of my mommy friends that are stay at home moms (bc it was in the middle of the day). We all had a lot of fun. Ellie has been a little sick, as have I, so she was pretty much stuck to me like glue :-) She is such a momma's girl and I LOVE IT!! She is getting so big, although she is still a very petite girl like her momma. I guess that's the only thing she got from me because she got her blue eyes from her daddy and she looks just like my mom.

Ellie has been waving bye bye, clapping, playing patty cake, and making the "number one" sign. It's funny because I have always held up my index finger and told her to "wait" and then out of the blue she started doing it. It is sooooo cute!! She's also saying "mama", "dada", "grr", "baba", and all the other two letter sounds. She is very vocal. She isn't actually crawling yet. I think she may skip it all together. She will go a couple of crawls forward but that's it. She mainly goes backwards and then rolls to get where she wants to be. Every time I turn around she is under a piece of furniture :-)

Ellie and I joined a Mommy and Me playgroup and have been enjoying that. We went to gymboree with the group last week for the first time and it was pretty fun. I think I'll wait until she is crawling or walking before I take her back because she pretty much just played with a ball and I have balls at home. I don't necessarily feel like paying $10 for her to play with a ball :-) There is a little girl in the group that is a week younger than Ellie and Ellie seems to like her. Oh, I have noticed, now that we are around other children, that Ellie is quite aggressive. If she wants something or someone, she goes for it. There is no holding her back. Her personality is in full swing and I love it. She always wants kisses from mommy, lets you know what she feels, loves her daddy and grandmomma, and is very sweet. Even when she is exhausted she is quite sweet. Yesterday we were at a Christmas party/meeting with my mom and Ellie was so well behaved the entire time. All the women kept saying how good she was and how cute she is :-) She is so sociable, I love it!

Well, I better go so I can put up a couple of pics. We are supposed to be at a Christmas party this very minute but Ellie has decided that today is the day she is going to take a long nap and I am not going to wake her up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

November

Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. We have been super busy around here. Mom and Bubba came home at the beginning of October. Ellie took to mom immediately and warmed up to Bubba within the week. I threw a surprise 50th birthday party for mom in the middle of the month and it turned out so good. I worked so hard on it and the work paid off :-) She said it was the best birthday she has ever had.

Last month lots happened:

~Ellie went somewhere without me for the first time (McWayne center with grandmomma)

~ Ellie started sleeping through the night

~ I stopped nursing Ellie at 6 months and 1 week

~Trunk or Treat with Breanna and Jaida. Ellie dressed up as a pony (SO CUTE)

~ Grandmomma and Grandaddy took Ellie to her first Football game while Stephen and I went to an Auburn game

~Ellie got 2 bottom teeth

~First time on the carousel ( with daddy at the mall)

~We went to visit my nephew Haven and spent the last half of the day with him at school. That was a lot of fun. I got to eat lunch with him, sit with him in class, and then go to recess. All the kids loved Ellie and they all wanted to hold her.

~Stephen and I went out alone for the first time in three months (and lots since; grandmomma and grandaddy are taking good care of Ellie for us :-)

~ Started back at the gym

~Ellie started sitting up alone

I am sure there is much more but that is just a quick rundown. Ellie had no problem going from boob to bottle but lately she has been having some problems with her poopsies :-) Sorry if that is TMI. I am working on getting her on the right formula so we'll see how that goes. I feel a little guilty for taking her off breast milk now that she has a red tush but I was just so tired of nursing. If you've ever nursed you know that it is very demanding and it gets tiring.

It has been a circus at our house for the last few weeks. We had the entire back exterior wall torn out and it is being put back up so the house has been a wreck and very loud. On top of that I came home from out of town to find out that the water heaters busted and there was water all on the bottom floor. So, that was no fun.

I have gotten Ellie on a schedule for everything; naps, food, bedtime. She is taking short naps but at least they are naps. If I'm tired and lay with her then the short naps sometimes turn into LONG naps and that is always nice.

Stephen is doing good. He is about to start playing flag football on Sunday so that will be fun to watch. Also, I think he is going to try and start caddying on Saturday mornings; that will be a lot of fun for him. He loves being on the golf course and it's also good exercise.

As for me, I am taking the Alabama Prospective Teachers Test next month and need to start studying...I joined a bible study on Wednesday mornings and have been teaching Mission Friends on Wednesday nights to preschoolers. Also, I am getting involved in a mommy and me play group and am very excited about that! I LOVE staying home with our precious baby girl and am so thankful for my husband. He goes to work everyday so that I can stay home and take care of our daughter.

Well, I'm going to go to bed so I'll blog again soon