Party Girl

This past weekend we attended Charlotte Zollinger’s 1st Birthday. It is hard to believe that she is one. Her mother Kristen , my sister and I grew up together. We have pictures of us as babies together, pictures in the bathtub as little girls, going on vacations together, birthday parties throughout the years, highschool and college graduations, and weddings. Kristen was the first to find out she was pregnant last year and didn’t find out what she was having…then I found out I was pregnant a couple months later and we knew it was a girl.. then Jen a couple months after that and they knew they were having a girl. So when Charlotte was born we thought it was ironic that the next generation of girls is going to grow up together in similar fashion as their moms.
Ellia slept through the first hour of the party but woke up in time to see Charlotte opening her gifts! It was raining hard when we arrived but cleared up allowing us to still have a good time. Poor Charlotte is allergic to wheat, milk, and eggs so Kristen had to make her a special smash cake to enjoy. I keep wondering when Ellia will get hair like Charlotte, however Charlotte had a great amount of hair when she was born.

After opening gifts, we had Charlotte, Ellia, and Samantha all interact together. It was cute to see how they each got around… Charlotte crawls, Ellia scoots, and Samantha shimmies around on her stomach like an army crawl. We then took a picture of us moms with the girls.. we have been trying to do this at each get together and it all started when we had our baby bumps.

Well we are getting closer and closer to reaching the 11th month mark for Ellia… which means we are getting closer and closer to her turning 1!!!!!! These days she loves to hold on to anything that allows her to walk. She is pulling herself up into a standing position at daycare and another tooth has popped up next to the other two she already has. She is getting smarter and smarter when it comes to getting around to what she wants. She loves to eat chicken pieces, avocado , peas (still) and cheese. A couple of weekends back we went to the Strip District to shop with friends Dave and Lauren.. it was like taking Ellia to the Zoo. Woolies was a fun time!!!!

With fall here, it is time to break out the warmer cloths. I also have to still decide what Ellia will be for her first Halloween. Any ideas???? Vader and her interact more and more… she laughs at him all the time and tries to grab onto him to pull herself up. In the mornings she will scoot herself over to his gate and tempt him with her toys. It will be interesting when she actually starts following him around.

Ten Months and counting...

Last Friday the 11th Ellia turned 10 months! She is starting to pull herself up more and more. Sometimes this causes problems when she falls over a little and bumps her head. She also walks now when you hold her hands. Look out Vader here she comes! She also LOVES peas.. either baby food peas or regular peas. She is becoming so much more independent too.. wanting to pick up food and feed it to herself as well as drink from her sippy cup without any help. And she gets into everything she is not supposed to as she adventures around the room “scooting” and trying to pick up lint off the floor. She always wants to see what you are doing or help out as demonstrated in her reviewing this past week’s mail. She will get up on her knees and rock back and forth but hasn’t wanted to crawl yet. That is okay with me because I can catch up to her scooting.

This past weekend we tried to place a bid on the house we liked; however the agent wasn’t what we expected and the offer we were going to make was “too low” according to her. So we will just see what happens with that property but for now we are going to stay happy with living where God wants us!
Ellia and I also attended cousin (or aunt) Wendy’s shower. We had fun seeing everyone in the family and I enjoyed getting time with Magerie. Ellia enjoyed time with Nana, Aunt Kelly and Aunt Kristin, seeing Aunt Sandy, and hanging out with Great Grandma Angelo. We got to finally meet Cousin Gracie. I just love all of her hair! We are teaching all the girls about weddings already! Oh and Cousin Jen even held Magerie!!!! She never holds babies and claims to be scared of them but I think she looks like a pro. Ellia got to have some fries, chicken fingers, a taste of Mommy’s eggplant, and also some of Nana’s green beans and chicken marsala.. haha.. not like we gave her a lot or anything. She just wants to try whatever anyone is eating. She squawks at you like a little bird waiting to be fed.



Oh and this week I gave up breast feeding with Ellia. I guess I did pretty good for going 10 and a half months. My supply got low and it just wasn’t satisfying her anymore. I kind of got sad about it but I love not worrying about when I am going to pump.
This weekend Daddy and Mommy get to go to bowling! Our”once every other weekend” night out. Also we are going to hang out with Nick and Angela to celebrate Angela’s birthday. Fun times continue!!!! Time is always fun when you get to hang out with this little girl!!! Love ya all.