Beautiful

It's been sooooo nice here lately. Ellie and I have been spending lots of time at the park. When we aren't at the park I am pulling her around in her wagon here on the property :-). She also loves to just crawl around on the grass and play with the dogs. Well I don't know if you would call it crawling. The grass is coarse and kinda hurts so she uses just her hands and feet. She doesn't let her legs touch the ground. It is so funny and cute to see. She has also become interested in walking. She has taken quite a few steps so I think walking is in our very near future- Yipee!!!!

Oh, and the other thing she still loves to do is stand in her rocking chair and go back and forth. She is quite the little dare devil, constantly climbing and lunging off of things, LOL.

Her eighth tooth is coming in, poor thing has had a runny nose and all the other stuff for about a week now. I can finally see the white coming through so hopefully she will be out of pain soon. She's been pretty good with the exception of a couple of nights. One night she woke up THREE times; it was like having a new born all over again.....

I took Ellie to the McWane center last week. I haven't been in about ten years but she has already been once. Grandmomma and Grandaddy took her back in October so this was her second trip. Lucky girl. There is so much to do there.

I just wanted to do a quick update. I'll try to load some new pictures to "my photos" but sometimes it is just so slow!!!

March

Wow, it's already March. Ellie will be a year old in one short month. She has grown so much and I have enjoyed every minute of her (even when I am exhausted and short on patience :0). She is such a sweet and funny little girl. She loves to give Stephen and me hugs and she loves playing games. Stephen will chase her around the house and she just giggles away. It is the sweetest thing to watch them play together. I taught her how to roll the ball so we do that quite a bit. She also has this cheap little baby doll that she absolutely loves and carries it everywhere; in the grocery store, church, the gym, her HIGHCHAIR, crib, she even tries to take her in the bath tub :). She has not started walking by herself yet. She will walk if you hold both her hands and she creeps along the furniture but nothing by herself. I really want her to walk before her first birthday but if she doesn't I'll survive. I'm just looking forward to holding her hand while she walks as opposed to carrying her everywhere. Although, I must say I sure do get some good lovins when I carry her.

Ellie also loves talking to her grandmomma on the web cam. She always reaches for the screen and touches moms face. We try to web cam every day so that Ellie can see her and vis versa. I think it helps a lot with her not forgetting her grandmomma. I have several pictures of mom and Ellie in Ellie's room and she gets really excited and starts smiling and babbling when she sees them. She is definitely grandmomma's girl too :)

We've been doing lots of stuff with our playgroup these past couple of months and I really enjoy it. I also joined a stroller fit group so that I can get a little exercise while Ellie enjoys the outdoors. I just started last week and we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was nice. Ellie held hands with her new friend, it was so cute!!

Other than playing we still go to the gym several times a week and to the church two or three times per week. Ellie has gotten really good about me dropping her off in the nursery at both places. She barely makes a peep anymore. She'll stick her lip out and look like she's going to cry but she normally pulls herself together and doesn't actually shed any tears, which makes it so much easier on me.

Oh, and Ellie went thorough this phase where she didn't want to use her hands to pick stuff up so she would just use her mouth instead. It was soo funny!!

Well, I guess I'll go. Ellie fell asleep on the floor right next to me so I'm having to be VERY quiet.

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.