Happy Birthday, Ella!

It is so crazy to think about Ella being a year old! The past 12 months have absolutely flown by and watching her grow and figure out the world around her has been a wonderful experience for Bryan and I.

Day to day with Ella is a blast. She LOVES "Jack's Big Music Show" on Noggin, I think it's her favorite. And Bryan discovered that the movie Hairspray will stop her in her tracks. I think it's all the music and the movement... she's also a bit obsessed with Beyonce's video for "Single Ladies." We have lots playdates with our friends and Ella's such a social butterfly. She has never met a stranger and has no problem waving and talking to people she's never seen before, in the grocery store, at the ball games, wherever we happen to be. She now says "hi" when she waves but I don't think she knows what it means, just thatwe say it to her when we see her. So she's just a little copycat. She's really good at waving good bye. Every night when Bryan gets home from work he'll pick her up to say hello and she immediately starts waving bye to me. Pretty much like, "see ya later lady, the fun guy's here now." And she'll get really upset if Bryan doesn't take her with him to change. I think at the end of the day she's had enough of my face and is ready for a change of scenery.

I'm always amazed at how her mind works, these days if you ask her where her hat is she'll pat her head and always points up when asked where the light is. You can say, "where's your blankie?" and she will go find it (provided it's a reasonable task) and bring it to you, also we can say "take it to Daddy/Mommy" and whatever she's holding will be given to the appropriate person. She's a genius right? Ha!

Her party today was a smashing succes, with a speedbump in the middle. We had a good showing of all her little girlfriends and our families with a cake from Dewey's, of course. She didn't do too much damage to her cake though. Ella is really weird about textures, she really doesn't like to pick anything up and put it in her mouth unless it's hard, like a cookie or a cracker. So the mushy icing was not really a big hit for her. Once she tasted it, she liked it, but she was just pinching off tiny bits with her thumb and forefinger. So dainty! We were kind of hoping for the big messy display of most first birthdays but our little princess had a different plan for the day. I have lots of pictures from the day and will post them later this week for you to enjoy.

Happy birthday pretty girl, mommy and daddy love you!

On the move... with teeth!

Yes, I am aware at how long it has been since I've posted anything about Ella and you have my apologies! I have no idea where this month has gone but it certainly has flown by. I can't believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday and in exactly one week Miss Ella will be one year old. Whoa!

In the world of Ella things have been happening so fast it's scary. She is officially walking. She was getting a lot better at it before we left for Jamaica but since we've gotten back it's taken over her life. No more cruising or crawling for this chick! She's hilarious to watch, basically the definition of a "toddler" as she rocks her weight back and forth from leg to leg. She looks like a teeny tiny weeble wobble. We've been putting soft soled leather shoes on her, like Robeez and Bobux because she uses her toes so much for balance. Sweet Baity Barksdale was nice enough to lend us some precious hot pink Puma tennis shoes and we tried them on the other day, knowing that eventually the ground will be too cold for the soft leather bottom shoes. I have never laughed so hard in my life! Ella totally could not figure it out, she'd pick her feet up so high to take a step. Bryan, Aaron and I were cracking up watching her. Of course, it helped that I just had her in a t-shirt and diaper so we could see those cute chubby legs too. We had to put them on her yesterday for the football game because it was freezing out and it was kind of mean of us. She really can't walk in them very well since she can't feel the ground through the soles, so I'm not sure what we'll do from here now that it's so cold out. And for the game, we lasted one whole quarter. Apparently NC is finished with fall and it's eerily similar to a frozen tundra in my opinion. Way too cold to have a baby out, even in 3 layers of clothing, watching the pigskin.

In other Ella news... her bottom two teeth have FINALLY broken through. I swear this poor child has been teething since she was three mmonths old. Really the only difference I noticed in her during the last week of cutting these two was her waking up cranky occassionally. She's usually perfectly content to entertain herself in her crib for a while, talking to herself and her stuffed sheep, for about 15 minutes before I have to go in and get her. Not so much last week. I'm guessing it's because of the teeth. And she's wanted to be held, a lot. Which is fine, except I've got things to do around the house that aren't as easy when lugging around 18 pounds of cute.

On the health front, Ella got to take a trip to the doctor 2 weeks ago because of a rash on her tummy. How on earth could my sweet, precious little girl have a rash? Blame her daddy. Yes, Bryan was kind enough to pass on his dry skin. Not only does my daughter look exactly like her daddy she also has eczema like him too. Awesome. We have to cut back on her baths, change her soap and lube her up with Eucerine twice a day, supplemented with prescription hydrocortizone cream when it gets bad. Bless her heart! I don't think it's bothering her yet, she's not scratching like it itches or anything, but it looks awfully painful. She does like to help rub in her lotion on her tummy while laughing at me, which is pretty comical. I can definitely tell the cold, dry weather is not helping either. It's not so red since we've been using the prescription cream but she looks like an alligator in some spots. So we'll just have to beat it into her head that lotion is going to take ten minutes out of everyday of her life from here on.

Because I can't post on the blog without any pictures, here are some random ones from the last couple of weeks, including one from our short but sweet visit with Aunt Lytch... (and before any of you who know how cold it was here this weekend jump all over me, niether of the football pictures are from yesterday. Believe me, she had on waaaayyy more articles of clothing to keep warm and toasty for the 45 minutes we stayed)...

Jamaica me married....

Bryan and I were fortunate enough to join our friends Ron and Jennifer in Negril, Jamaica for their wedding last week. What a time we had! It rained quite a bit, but not Saturday night, when it counted. It was so nice to get away for a while and hang out with friends we don't see very often. The ceremony was beautiful, I'll tell you... if you ever want something done right have Jennifer plan it. We watched about 4 other couples get married Saturday and everyone of them now probably thinks their wedding was lame after seeing this one. It could not have been more perfect! Thanks, Jennifer and Ron for including us in your special celebration!!

Halloween

Bryan and I had to miss Ella's first halloween due some friends wedding in Jamaica. However, my mom was more than willing to get our little one all dressed up to be shown off around the neighborhood. I came up with the stellar idea for her to be a flower... our little girl, who has never given us on second of frustration with hats was not gonna have it. (sound familiar, christina?) As soon as the costume arrived in the mail I ripped into it to try it on her. Could she possibly be more pissed at me for putting this thing on her head? I think not.


I warned my mom that it would be no small task for her to get Miss Ella to cooperate on Halloween. Apparently she likes my mom more than me because not only was mom able to get it on her without a fight, she left the freaking thing on for 3 hours! Even ate her dinner in it. I'm sorry I missed that! Here are some of the photos that were waiting for me when I checked e-mail Saturday morning.

Fun with Granddaddy (and Deacon too!)

Since I was working furniture market my mom was nice enough to watch Ella everyday for us. Bryan actually went out of town for work Wednesday through Friday so both Ella and I spent Wednesday and Thursday night at my folks place, to save mom the drive back and forth from Greensboro. Wednesday night Miss Ella had a ball playing with her Granddaddy and my old toy phone. They kept passing the phone back and forth, each taking a turn talking on it. So cute! And, like always, Ella was following Deacon everywhere he went. We're working on "gentle" with her because when she pets him it's more like beating him. She loves him though, and I think he's getting used to her being in his face all the time! Notice she's rocking the precious halloween dress her Nana made for her.

Getting ready for Halloween

I know it's been so long since I've posted... I was working the furniture market last week and by the time the days were over all I wanted to do was crash. We finaly took Ella to the pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin. She was a bit confused by the whole thing, surrounded by huge orange circles almost as tall as she is!





And of course we had to check out the little pumpkins too, including the obligatory taste test.




Ella recieved the cutest shirt in the mail not too long ago, and she certainly has taken to being "the ghotess with the mostest" this holiday season.


(October 15, 2008)

Just a little practice...

I just came across these pictures the other day and thought they were so cute I had to post them. This was at my family's beach trip last summer, I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Ella and we had just found out she was a girl about a week before the trip. Bryan got a lesson in dealing with little girls from my cousins, Catherine and Claire. Not only did he fix their hair for them, he let them fix his hair too. So cute!! I know we'll be seeing repeats of this when (if) Ella gets hair.

Bath time

These photos aren't anything special but I figured it's bee a while since I've put any pictures of Ella's second favorite activity (second only to eating) up here so here are some fun ones from her bath the other night...

Weekend Fun

Somehow, between parties the last couple of weekends we've still had time for some family stuff too. Most of you know Little Miss Ella is a wiggle worm, always moving. It's a struggle to get her to sit still long enough to drink a bottle. Because of this we've not spent a lot of time reading to her. Lately thought she's started picking up her books and taking them to Bryan to read to her. Why is this? Bryan has never read an entire book in his life! I'm the resident book worm yet Ella would prefer to have her daddy read to her... I guess when she's stuck with me all day she'll do anything to spend some quiet time with him during the evenings. It so sweet to see her sitting there looking at all the pictures while he reads to her. I'm trying to get her to sit with me too, but I'm not holding my breath that will happen anytime soon.

Also Nana and Grandpa were in town working on their house in Sophia so Ella got lots of time outside to explore the new place.

Birthdays, birthdays, birthdays

Our last 2 weekends have been chock full of birthday bashes for Ella's friends. For some reason we're surrounded by fall babies!

On September 27 we headed to the Burch household for Addie's 1st birthday. Cupcakes for all! Stacy had set up a pumpkin painting station for the kiddoes, Ella is too young to enjoy it but she sure did like watching the bigger kids participate! She mostly pushed Addie's toy around the yard and danced when Baity would push the lion's nose to make it sing. My girl loves to shake her booty!

Ella dancing with the lion She's waving at somebody here.

Sweet Ellison Soto painting her pumpkin

Addie in all her birthday glory

Caroline Perez enjoying her cupcake

Precious Baity Barksdale. Those eyes kill me, they are so freaking blue!

Ella actually let us put a party hat on her and she kept it on forever. I can't believe it didn't drive her crazy.

Ellison wanted to share her cupcake with Bryan.
Cutie pie, Ella James Schwanke.
The cool cupcake pinata. I had never seen one of these before but the kids pull off the ribbons one by one to make the candy fall out-- a bit safer than having a bunch of toddlers swinging a bat around! [September 27, 2008]

The following weekend it was off to Caroline Perez's 2nd birthday party. What else but a "Backyardigans" theme for this precious little one! Complete with a mini bounce house and balls! This thing was the perfect size for little ones, in fact I told Bryan we should get one and put it up in the house since we can't get Ella to play in the pack 'n' play but we couldn't get her out of this one!

The birthday girl in the ball pit, and of course she's sporting a pink tutu!
Ella's first birthday party casualty... she sliced her finger open on Bryan's beer can. Don't get me started on how it happened, sometimes I wonder what dad's are thinking. Anyway, once she realized she had to sit still so we could keep a paper towel on it to stop the bleeding (I swear it was like Old Faithful) she was pretty cool about it.
Ella James and Ellison took their turn in the bouncy house/ball pit
Caroline about to blow out the candles on her giant cupcake. Ella and Addie enjoying the view from their daddy's shoulders
Ella James trying to figure out how the bubbles come out of the wand. Bryan was incredibly patient with her but she never got it. I tend to agree with her, it's much more fun to have someone else do it for you!
Caroline and Allie going after the pinata. For those of you who no nothing of the world of Noggin, this is Uniqua, a main character on the Backyardigans. I have no idea what kind of animal she's supposed to be and no idea where the writers came up with the name "Uniqua"
The girls were having some trouble so Caroline's daddy, Tony, came to the rescue to get the trap door open
Addie and Ellison wanted to make sure there was no candy left on the ground! [October 5, 2008]

The last party of the weekend was to celebrate Riley Brundage's 3rd birthday. What a sweet girl! We arrived a little late due to Ella taking an extra long morning nap Sunday. What a sight we arrived to. The entire backyard was taken up by a huge bouncy Princess castle. And kids running around everywhere. Ella was in hog heaven with so much activity to watch. Riley is so good to Ella and such a good big friend. When we got there it was like the bouncy castle and all her friends disappeared, Riley was so intent on playing with Ella! I swear, she is the sweetest! I will say however, never in my life have I wanted to discipline someone else's child so badly. Not Riley, of course. This other little girl, who had to be at least 6 or 7 kept opening Riley's gifts. Carrie, Riley's mom, was trying to read all the cards as Riely was opening, so her mom could write down who gave what, and I was picking up the discarded wrapping paper so they woulnd't have trash all over the back yard. But it was impossible to keep up because there were like 4 kids opening presents. After about 5 minutes most of the parents had pulled the kids out of the circle, except this one little girl. Who just kept tearing into all of the presents. not only did Riley miss out on opening a lot (which is super fun and important when you're three!) but Carrie's mom had a hard time keeping up with who brough which present because I kept finding cards in bags the other little girl had opened and we had no clue what went with what. I'm warning you all now... if any of your kids show up to Ella's 3rd birthday and start opening her presents (especially if they're old enough to know better) I will hurt you. Not your child, but you. Don't say I didn't warn you ;)
Riley talking to Ella

Ella enjoying some pizza crust.
The Birthday Girl about to blow out her candles
Little Miss Logan Brundage
Riley's super cool Butterfly Wings that light up and play music.

Okay, this conludes the longest post in Holcomb family history. With all the parties behind us it's time to start planning Ella's for the end of November. I cannot believe she's almost 1!!!