Play time with Keller

This past Friday Ella got a little play time with her cousin Keller. While it was great to see the Best family and have some time to hang out, it was due to a funeral, and that's never a good thing. However, Ella made the most of it and showed off for everyone there, clapping, waving, and babbling up a storm. Keller is 11 weeks younger than Ella and is lucky he made it out alive. Our little monkey kept trying to use him as a climbing toy, bless his heart! But he was trooper and put up with all her shenanigans.



I promise, Ella did not push Keller over here! He just can't quite sit up by himself and I couldn't snap the picture quickly enough.

Go Buckeyes?

I've been getting a lot of slack for having a million pictures of Ella in WFU gear and none in her OSU stuff... okay, okay, I give up. I tried to get some shots of her in my Ohio State hat last week, it didn't go so well. My baby, who has never complained about having a hat on her head, kept trying to pull it off. And when she wasn't pulling it off she was making an awful face and some weird snorting thing with her nose. I have NO IDEA where she picked that up but we need to put a stop to it because it is not cute. Here are the memories from the attempt to get Ella to cheer for the Buckeyes.

Play date

Wednesday, Ella and I had the Barksdale girls over for some fun. Poor Baity had KinderMusic and her cousin at her house for the morning and missed her nap so she was a bit sleepy through the whole event but we had fun anyway. Because both Ella and Baity are so into everything it was a bit difficult getting a picture of the two of them together. Oh well, you'll have to settle for a couple of individual ones. I think it's fun to get these two together because they have almost the exact same age difference as me and my BFF (shout out to Lanie!!). Lane is 3 months 14 days older than me, Baity is 3 months 21 days older than Ella. Now that I've typed that out it sounds a bit "stalkery"... I totally don't expect Ella and Baity to be BFF, it's just interesting to me to think about Ella's playdates vs. mine 30 years ago. Yikes, I am 30 years old. Ouch! Okay, back to the subject... here are the beautiful little girls.

Baity enjoying her sippy cup

Ella decided that the sippy cup should be hers...

...so Baity took her favorite teething toy, the Tylenol bottle. Served her right!
You know I have to be honest here, I get way more out of these playdates than Ella. The time with my girlfriends is irreplaceable and I appreciate everyone of them and every second of the time they share with me more than they will ever know.

Fall is on the way...

I know, we're two weeks into football season, I should have realized that fall was right around the corner. But for some reason it didn't occur to me till Ella and I headed to the grocery store yesterday. The temp was a bustling 65*. I know, I know, so many of you who are looking at this right now (yes, that's you people from Ohio & Michigan) are laughing at me right now but please remember... I was born and raised here in NC and 65* is downright chilly in my books, get over it. Anyway- I realized I have no clothes for Miss Ella for fall. This could be a problem. Digging through her closet and drawers I came across a precious outfit that her Great Aunt Sue and cousin Jessie sent her when she was born, brown corderoy pants and an adorable collared shirt with matching sweater. So cute and so fabulous that Ella is still wearing 3-6 month clothes! I couldn't resist taking some pics of her in what I like to call her "fall fabulousness."


She is actually standing up by herself here but shaking her rattle with her right hand super hard. By the time I grabbed the camera and was able to snap her picture she was in the process of sitting down. For the record, she was balancing by herself for a good 15 seconds. Lord help me, she'll be walking before I know it.
Just taking a break with her blankie..., which I've started to referring to as her "little one" just like the one I had when I was tiny.

Okay, I'll say it. I've never been a fan of blue jeans on babies. I don't know why, it's just never been my thing. Insert appropriate snob comment here. Fine. Well, since it was chilly again today when we left the house (and Ella's diaper decided to leak yesterday in her courderoy so they were in the washing machine) I pulled out the only other pair of warm pants I could find... jeans. Oh my gosh, SO FREAKING CUTE ON HER! Thank you Stacy and Addie for giving us these at the shower because the whole outfit is precious on her! Again, hooray for my child for fitting into 3-6 months clothes at 9 months. I swear I took 300 pictures of her today in this outfit. Here are a couple of my favorites.



Lastly, sadly I have no pictures from this excursion, thank to Alisha and sweet little Ella James for having us over this morning! Your new house is fantastic and both Ella and I hope to have many more fun play dates with you. Bryan and I cannot wait for our photo session in November! For those of you unaware of Alisha's talent you can see her photos in her blog, linked the left of the screen in the "My Friends Blogs" section. Trust me, she's AMAZING and we feel so fortunate to have her take Ella's pictures this fall. And her daughter (Ella James) is too cute for words. And so tiny! She makes our Ella look ginormous and that's really saying something. So thanks, Alisha and Ella James, for the hospitality. Oh- and the turnovers, so yummy. I had scarfed both of them down before I was at the end of your street! (Rebecca, because I know you're reading this, it was wonderful to see you too but I'm still a little mad I didn't get any of Allie's apple butter- haha!)

9 month check-up

This morning started with a trip to Northwest Pediatrics for Ella's nine month check-up. How happy was I when the nurse told me there were no shots this appointment?!?! Big relief... with Ella's teeth giving her a fit this week the last thing I needed was to add shots to the equation. Everything checked out great, she's weighing in at 17lbs 3oz and is 27 inches long (tall). Still a bit on the small side, in the 25 percentile on both counts, but right on track for where she should be. We 're giong to start tabe foods this week, I was skeptical since she doesn't have any teeth yet but Dr. Vapne assured me that as long as the food was soft or mushy she'd be fine. So we'll see how that goes. We don't have another check-up till 12 months but Dr. Vapne wants me to bring her in October to get a flu shot. And just to brag on my daughter for a second-- I always get a kick out of going to the dr's office because all the nurses always come in to say hi to Ella and ooh and ahhh over her. Kind of nice when people who see babies all day still think mine is precious :)

Fun with Daddy

To cap off a fantastic weekend of sports the Holcomb fam headed to Bryan Park yesterday to watch the Greensboro College soccer game. Again, it started right about Ella's nap time (I'm starting to notice a theme here) so we went early to try to catch a bit of the first game of the day. We missed it but it gave Ella a chance to get tossed around a bit. So funny! She laughs and laughs when she's in the air! I won't comment on her gut hanging out of her shirt ;) As for GC, they were losing 0-1 when we left at the end of the first half. Oh well, at least Ella got to see some of her daddy's football this weekend too.

New toy for Ella

Since Ella has started walking around while holding on to things she has been on the go constantly. I knew she'd not be happy very long at tailgates if she had to be held the whole time and crawling on hot asphalt isn't really an option, not to mention who wants to hold her the whole time? And everyone knows bending over to hold her hands while she walks starts to hurt after a while so I stopped by Target to get her a walking toy. What a good call! She LOVES it. All last night she walked from one end of the bonus room to the other, back and forth between Bryan and I. It converts to a riding toy as well, and she liked sitting on it but can't quite figure out how to move it that way. I can't wait to pull it out at the next tailgate and watch her go.

WFU vs Ole Miss

Ella attended her first WFU football game this weekend and what a blast she had! Our tailgate was pretty full and she loved being able to talk to everyone and check out all the sights and sounds from the parking lot. We also happened to be parked next to a family with a 14 month old who was kind enough to share her Elmo doll with Ella. I was worried about what she was going to wear (yes, I know that comes as no surprise to anyone) as the one manufacturer who's items I like (Sara Lynn Togs) has lost her WFU licensing and everything in the Deacon Shop for girls is pink. Why? Is pink one of Wake's new school colors? I don't get it. Anyway... lucky for me the dress we got her for basketball season (sized for 3 months) still fits her, whew!


Kickoff was scheduled right at her nap time so Bryan and I were unsure as to how long she would last. She danced when she could hear the music, clapped when everyone else did and even yelled at the refs a couple of times through the entire first half. She probably could have made it through the 3rd quarter but we didn't want to chance it so we headed out at half time. All in all I'd say it was a great experience and I'm glad to know our girl has the chops to hang with the big kids at Groves Stadium. Looks like it's gonna be a great season, Go Deacs!

Are you ready for some football?

Ella Anne Holcomb is!!!!

Baby clothes confuse me

This is totally random... last night I went out with some girlfriends to grab a couple drinks and dinner. Great time, we should totally do it more often! Anyway--- Bryan stayed home with Miss Ella and was in charge of putting her to bed. This morning when she woke up and I went in her room I find her standing in her crib in a Baby Gap sleep sack, that appears to fit her perfectly. Hmmmm, I wonder to myself, where did this one come from? It looks like one we used when she was a newborn, I don't remember buying anymore in larger sizes. So I check the label... my nine month old daughter still fits in 0-3 month pj's from Baby Gap. How can this be? I thougt it was strange that she's still in 3-6 month things from Gymboree but seriously... 0-3 month clothes at this age? Who in the world comes up with these sizes? They make absolutely no sense to me.

Mommy & Me at the park

On Saturday Ella and I headed to Fourth of July park in Kenersville to hang out with some of our old Mommy and Me buddies. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was great to catch up. It was here I discovered Ella's love for swings. Bryan and I took her to Country Park in Greensboro yesterday so she could swing some more. Because I'm a terrible parent I forgot the camera yesterday... but I did have it on Saturday so here are some memories from the Mommy & Me outing. The stroller brigade... from L to R: Irelyn, Camryn, Kira, Caleb, Ella, and Emery
Ella and Emery
Irelyn & Camryn
Ella swinging
Happy as a clam!
Irelyn is the first in the bunch to walk by herself