Ella's B-day!

Hard to believe it has been one year.......

But, this Friday Ella will have her first birthday! A few things about Ella at one year old....
She doesn't walk yet and, in fact, refuses to stand. If you try to get her to stand she will make herself go completely limp. Matt and I tend to have very cautious children and neither of our boys walked until well into their 13th month. She is generally a friendly baby and loves attention. Luckily, she gets a LOT of it from her brothers who both adore her....sometimes too much. It is often hard to carry her around because both of the boys are tugging at her legs and trying to kiss her. She usually enjoys new people and will let most everyone hold her, but occasionally she meets someone who rubs her the wrong way and immediately starts screaming (we think it has to do with how deep a person's voice is). She loves her Daddy and smiles and lunges for him every time she sees him. Certain things however, MUST be done by Mom. She will not eat or go to sleep for anyone else, including Dad. Her favorite toys are rattles and she shakes every toy she picks up to see what kind of sound it will make. She is not a picky eater, but we recently discovered that she gets very ill from gluten, just like her brother Gavin (he is very excited to have another gluten-free kid in the house). Most everybody calls her Ella Bella. I don't know why we even tried to go with a different middle name for her, Ella Bella just seems to roll off the tongue. Matt and I also refer to her as "the Hoover" (because she eats anything left on the carpet) or just "the girl". She definitely gets spoiled by her Dad and I because of her tender feelings. She isn't left to cry nearly as often as the boys were. She is adored by everyone in our house and we are all excited to watch her grow!

Will the real Santa Claus please stand up.....

Last weekend our church had its annual Christmas party and both of the boys got to sit on Santa's lap and rattle off their wish list. They were both very excited about it! Then, on Saturday, we were at TJ Maxx doing some Christmas shopping and Santa and Mrs Claus walked into the store. Gavin and Abe got to shake his hand and Mrs Claus gave them both a little stuffed reindeer. On the drive home we were talking with Abe about how lucky he was to see Santa twice in one week since Santa must be really busy right now. He said "Mom, that wasn't the same Santa, that was a new Santa." Trying to perpetuate the fantasy, I said "Abe there is only one Santa Claus." Gavin took my word for it immediately and tried to help me convince Abe that it was,in fact, the same Santa. Abe didn't say much about it on the rest of the ride, so I thought we had done a good job convincing him. But, this morning he came to me and said "Mom, do you think both the Santa's know what I want for Christmas?"
Oh well, I tried!

Walking Webster's....

Gavin is always on an information hunt. His brain is like a rolodex of information and he is constantly trying to add to the files.
The result of that is a really smart, but compulsive, boy. One of his newest learning tools is asking us to define words. For instance in the last 24 hours I have had to come up with definitions for: nosering, piercing, babushka, language, OK, including, soda, science, etc. I honestly don't know where he hears some of these words....I don't think that we have even said the word babushka in the 6 yrs since he was born. Once you give him the definition he usually asks you to define the words that you used in the definition to the original word....it's a vicious cycle! I'm thinking about buying a pocket dictionary and keeping it with me at all times because I am honestly not smart enough for most of his questions. He'll probably make a killer scrabble player someday though!

Snow Day!

Yesterday we had our first significant snowfall of the season. We had some flurries earlier in the month, but nothing that stuck. We didn't get much yesterday either, but the ground was dusted with white. So, the boys insisted on pulling the sled out. We have a little hill in our back yard that is just perfect for 4-5 year old sledders.....not too steep, but enough to give them a thrill.
We spent about 20 minutes putting on the gear. Snow pants, boots, mittens, hats, coats, etc. Then they headed out. They went down the hill about 4 times and then wanted back in. I think this is one of the natural laws they fail to teach you in school. Children will stay out in the cold for about 1/3 the time it takes you to put on all the clothes and about 1/8 the time it will take you to clean up the melting snow and put away all the snow clothes. It was worth it though to see the look of joy on their faces as they went flying down that hill!

Ella's first word!

It's official! Ella said her first word today. She learned to wave and say Bye-Bye. It actually sounds more like "Ah-Dye", but we know what she means.