2 months

Ellie turned two months old on September 26th!  And of course, the time is just flying by.

2 months old!

Little smile

Big grin!

Big sis thought we needed a prop

Claire wanted to take pictures too

Ellie had her 2 month check-up on Tues October 8th, which was really 2 months and 2 weeks.  Here are her stats:
Weight:  11lbs, 2 oz.  50th percentile
Length: 23 3/4  90th percentile
Head: 38.8 cm  50th percentile

Claire at 2 months was 22 in. and 9 lbs.  Ellie is closer to a 4 month old Claire.  At 4 month Claire was 12 pounds, 23.5 inches, and head circumference of 35.7 cm. 

Sleeping:  Elizabeth has started sleeping through the night!  Seriously!  My 2 month old sleeps through the night.  How crazy is that!  She has been working up to it by moving her night time feeding back from 4 to 5 to 6 over the course of a couple weeks.  Then on October 2, she slept from 10 to 7 am.  In the week since then she has kept it up, going to sleep between 9:30 and 10 pm and sleeping until 7 or 8 a.m.  She wakes up to eat and will sometimes go back to sleep for another hour or 2 (or she sleeps in the car as we drive Claire to preschool).

Developments:
The baby acne has finally cleared up!  It was a good 3-4 weeks before it went away.

Ellie is holding her head up like a pro these days.

She smiles more and more often.  She also has a great pouty lip.  Sometimes she goes from smiling to pouting in an instant.  Poor girl just doesn't know what she wants!  She is also a wiggly worm.  She has long been wiggling enough in her crib to move from the middle where I put her to one end or the other.

 Now she can wiggle her way off the changing mat (set on the floor) if we let her hang out for a while.  In the swing, she wiggled down a little bit and started leaning to the side a little dangerously one day so we've reached that point where she needs to be buckled in.

She continues to love watching the ceiling fan, as do most babies.  Sometimes I find her smiling and cooing at her reflection in the mirror above her swing, which is quite amusing!  She's gone back to being a pain in the car lately.  She was cranky in the car at the beginning but then got much better about it.  She's now reverted to her old ways.  I'm not sure if she has more trouble falling asleep, wants to be able to see people and can't, or if she just doesn't really like being in the car or her carseat.  But a crying baby and chatty (or cranky) 2 year old make for some long rides!

Claire says "I giving the best hugs!"

Comparing foot sizes

The many faces of Ellie

Miscellaneous September photos

Just hanging out

Snuggling with afghans made by GG-Ma

We crafted a rocket

Posing in her auntie onesie

Morning smiles

She didn't believe that the bike pump wasn't a pogo stick

Playing outside

What are those things at the end of my feet??

Caution: student driver

Beep beep!  Outta my way

Sleeping beauty

This play mat is not big enough for the 3 of us!

Sleeping with the souvenir Grandma brought from Disney

Ready for school, with a few Disney souvenirs along for the ride

New England trip - September '13

Maine/Massachusetts/New Hampshire - September 19th-24th, 2013

Our friends Sally and Nate invited our group of college friends for a weekend at a lake house owned by Nate's parents.  We took them up on their offer and turned it into a tour of New England!

We flew into Maine on Thursday evening and stayed at my aunt Dori's house.  (Thanks to my dad she is also known as Irod, which is Dori backwards).  My dad and his cousin Jimmy also happened to be in town.  Saturday we headed down to Sally and Nate's house so we could spend some time with our friend Dave, who drove up from Conneticut.  That evening we headed up to the lake house in New Hampshire.  We stayed there until Monday afternoon, when we headed back to Maine.

 Ellie's first plane ride!

Air travel:  Ellie and Claire both did great on the flight up and back.  Claire is well entertained by games and videos on the ipod.  And she's old enough that missing a nap doesn't wreck her for the day.  Ellie was happy with all the white noise and hours of being held!  She slept most of the time.

Maine:
Thursday evening my dad picked up us from the airport and we had dinner out with my aunt and grandfather. Friday we went to downtown Ogunquit for a little window shopping and to enjoy the nice weather.  Claire got to go to her first toy store and her first candy store!  Then we visited my grandfather and went to lunch with everyone.  Friday evening we had a lobster feast with friends and family at my aunt's house, courtesy of chef Paaps.  We neglected to pull out the camera most of the time so we have few pictures.  Kicking myself about that! 

Modeling her gift from Auntie Irod

Blowing bubbles with Irod

 

Stylin'!

Paaps snuggles an Ellie burrito

Shopping in downtown Ogunquit

Claire gets candy from her first visit to a candy shop!

Ellie with Great Grampa

Taking a walk to buy corn

Boston-area

Saturday morning we headed down to the Boston area to Sally and Nate's house where we met up with them and Tim and Dave.  We had lunch and walked to the park.  The boys played video games for a while and us girls entertained Claire in the backyard.  And we took no pictures. 

New Hampshire

Saturday afternoon we headed up to lake house at Newfound lake in NH.  We added Kate, Kyle, and Chris to the group.

Awesome view from the house!

Moonlight on the lake

Saturday evening we had a fun evening of dinner in and chatting by the fire (once we got the girls to bed.)

Sunday we headed out for a hike.  I had forgotten my wrap for wearing Ellie, so I improvised with her blanket.

Ready to head out

Heading up the trail

We made it!

Claire gets a piggy-back ride

After the hike we had lunch in a small town nearby.  Kate, Kyle, Chris, and Tim left that afternoon.  That left us and Sally and Nate.  We had dinner out at an Italian restaurant that Nate likes.  Sally and Nate, who are expecting a little girl in February, got a little preview of what eating out with kids is like.

Monday morning we went for a walk by the lake.  It was unexpectedly cold and very windy!  But we even found a playground.

It's just a little windy

Big girl swing

Swinging with Daddy.....

....and with Nate

Gorgeous view of the lake

Monday afternoon we headed back to Maine.  Ellie fell asleep in the car and Claire was even quiet enough for to fall asleep as well.  I woke up a little later when Ellie started crying.  Jeff was trying to get her pacifier in and asked for help because he didn't want Claire to wake up.  I did a double take!  Claire, asleep in the car??  That hadn't happened for months!  And Jeff got experience what I think of as truly dad plight - everyone asleep in the car except him and he has to pee!

Sleeping beauty

So we had an awesome whirlwind tour of New England and a great time visiting our friends and family.  It's always so fun to spend time with them all but also so sad to have to leave them.  I'm sad that we didn't get any group pictures of our friends or more pictures of my Maine family.  I guess it was just a little too chaotic managing the needs of two kids to remember to bust out the camera.

6 weeks!

  

6 weeks old!

The first of many matching outfits??

Ellie turned 6 weeks old on August 6th.  And she continues to be a pretty easy baby.  I refer to it as hitting the baby jackpot!

Routine - Her little daily "schedule" is not too much changed from the 3 week report I gave.  Some mornings she is up at 7:30 or 8.  Other mornings she sleeps in until 9 or 9:30.  She is awake for longer and longer periods, up to an hour or two now.  She naps off and on in the morning.  Some afternoons we can get her to settle in for a multiple hour nap, especially if we put her in the swing.  Other days she just can't seem to settle in and cat naps.  These seem to be the days that she is more fussy.

She will eat on average every 3 hours during the day, but it can vary from 2 to 4.5 hours.  She eats a little more often in the evenings to tank up for overnight.  She is usually out for the night between 9:30 and 10.  Then she will sleep until sometime between 3:30 and 5:30.  She eats for 15 minutes or so and is back out for 3-4 hours until she is up for the day.  Mommy has no complaints about this schedule!  (Well, except that she worries about her milk supply staying up without the overnight demand).

Developments - Ellie seems to be right on track with her early milestones.  We have cooing and smiles!  Unfortunately, we also have baby acne.  Some pretty serious acne popped up right at 6 weeks.  Poor thing!

Overall, we are so happy to have our little Ellie girl here and so thankful to be able experience one of those "easy babies" we had heard speak of.  :)