ONE YEARS OLD 💛

Roxana B. Photography

I never did get around to doing an update for Ella at 12 months. Probably because I was glued to a couch trying not to throw up! haha Did you see the news? Yes we are expecting baby number two! It is why I have been absent recently, but thankfully the second trimester is here and I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER.

So this update will be more of a 12 - 13 months update. I am debating on how often to keep doing these. So much happens in a month that I think I should keep them up monthly, but is that tedious? Anyways, Ella has changed and grown SO much in the last few months.

Ella's Stats at her 12 month appointment

Height: 29 inches 47%

Weight: 18 ' 12 15%

+ Ella started walking shortly after her first birthday! She had been taking steps for weeks prior but September 7th she officially walked. I was actually able to catch it on camera thanks to the fact that our phones are constantly on us! haha I was in the kitchen and she just stood up and walked right towards me all while eating a cracker at the same time. Multi-tasking, that's our Ella! haha She of course has been non stop since, and is getting fast.

+ Ella still loves to talk on the cell phone, and brush her hair. She is imitating EVERYTHING now! It is so funny to see the things she will pick up on. The other day I was blowing on some of her food because it was hot. When I handed it to her she started blowing on it before she ate it, it was so stinking cute. She is learning more and more every day by watching us.

+ Ella is obsessed with dogs. A few months ago she kept making this funny sound and putting her mouth together in a little O. We couldn't figure out why she was doing it. Finally I connected it to when the dogs in the neighborhood are barking. We are surrounded by dogs and I hardly even notice them but Ella sure does! She gets very excited every time she sees a dog, and starts to imitate them by trying to "woof." She can even say Doggy now!

+ Another word Ella says is Baby! It sounds more like Bebe but every time she sees her baby dolls she says baby and will give them a big kiss and hug. It melts my heart every single time. She is so sweet and tender with her dolls and stuff animals. I think what makes me so happy is knowing she has learned to treat them that way because that is how she treated. She is loved and kisses and hugged.

+ Speaking of kisses, Ella will pucker up her lips in the most adorable way to give you a kiss if you says, "KISSES!" It makes my whole day and I often ask her for kisses because it is the absolute best thing ever! :) And sometimes if you are really lucky she will just come right up to you and pucker asking for a kiss herself. *HEART BURSTS*

+ For her birthday my parents got Ella this bike that is used for therapy but also to help encourage babies to walk etc. I don't even know what to call it. Here it is HERE. But whatever it is, we call it her bike and Ella LOVES riding it. We go outside almost every day and she scoots herself all over the front yard. When she gets bored of that she gets off and wants to just go for a walk. We have been taking her on evening walks around the neighborhood and it is the cutest thing.

+ I breastfed Ella for a few weeks past her first birthday. It was hard for me to stop breastfeeding her, but I just couldn't keep going while being pregnant. It was taking all my energy and I was already so sick as it was. Ella was ready and we slowly weaned through the month of August and so it all happened very nicely and naturally. She is now drinking whole milk and I just can't believe she is so big with her sippy cup of "adult" milk haha While I miss cuddling up with her and breastfeeding, we have substituted that with taking her into bed with me and Trevor and having her cuddle with us as a family. It is one of my favorite times of the day!

+ Ella has six teeth! She has her two front teeth, and her four bottom front teeth. She is honestly such a trooper with teething. She always sleeps through the night but when she has a tooth coming in she will sometimes wake up for a little relief. Its been interesting not being able to breastfeed her to comfort her which was her go to if she ever woke up, but now I just give her a bottle for a little bit, hold her and put her right back down. So grateful for such a great sleeper! This next baby will probably make up for it haha

+ Now that Ella is getting older she is so much more expressive. She can tell me when she wants something by signaling to the fridge or bringing me her sippy cup. I love when she does this! It is exciting to see them learn and progress. 

+ Ella has had a runny nose here and there but has never really been sick. Well that finally caught up to us when there was a pretty nasty bug going around the community. I felt so bad for Ella, she was throwing up and had a really high fever. Ella already runs warm, and so when she gets a fever apparently it will always be really high (she has had two now and each time she climbs up to 104.) We ended up having to take her to emergency because she was doing so bad and her heart rate was really high and they were worried. We ended up being sent to Primary Children's and it ended up being a really long night all for nothing haha. I say nothing because they were trying to figure out what was wrong because she wasn't showing symptoms yet for a bad flu and they were worried it could be a number of other scary things. She had to get tested for UTI and a bunch of stuff to basically have them tell us to wait and see if these other symptoms show up in the next few days... which they did. Blah. We were just happy she was fine and they were able to get her fever and heart rate down. But man she sure made up for not being sick her first year in that one night! haha 

+ Another really cute thing Ella does right now is throwing herself back on the large ottoman of our couch so that I will tickle her! haha It is her signal to me she wants me to tickle her and she let's out the largest laughs when we do this little game. She will also throw herself down into pillows or blankets so we will shake her and shove her more into them. It is really cute seeing her play and initiate these games with us. She also does peek a boo, and high and seek.

+ Ella loves music and dancing! She does a mixture of head banging and swinging her arms back and forth. She really is such a joy, she is always smiling, clapping, and dancing when there is music or something going on that she likes. She also just chatters on and is being super vocal, laughing, and squealing. We just love it.