15 Month Checkup

I took Ella in to the see her pediatrician a couple of days ago for her 15 month checkup. She weighed in at a whopping 22 lbs 3 oz which is in the 25th percentile on the regular growth chart and OFF the chart for the Ds growth chart. She is 30 inches long which again is 25th percentile and OFF the chart!! Not bad for a little girl who wants nothing to do with solid foods. I guess that formula is working for her!! We actually have an appt with the OT next Tuesday to FINALLY start working with her (or is it me) on getting foods in her. I admit I have practically stopped trying but know I need to buckle down and do it. It is just so easy NOT to worry about feeding the solid foods.....but alas.....!!! We will be taking a 2 week road trip in a couple of weeks so I am thinking now is not going to be the time to start trying...do you agree??? We are going to do a follow up hearing exam sometime soon. I haven't noticed any noticeable hearing loss but she has not passed a test yet so we need to do one. Time to check the thyroid too so during her next blood draw for the oncologist....we will include this. So...other than the BIG worry of leukemia rearing its ugly head, she is doing awesome!! We will still continue with the monthly blood draws to check her platelets and look for any BAD cells. This translates to every 4 weeks, I have to expect the worst but hope (and pray) for the best.

Ella is PRACTICALLY crawling. She doesn't do it consistently but here is her latest attempt...probably one of the best so far. I am thinking that if I am going to keep posting videos...I really should invest in a video camera. My regular camera just doesn't cut it!!

California Beach Girls

The girls and I hadn't really done much of anything the last couple of days so today we decided to head to the beach. I don't like to be there all day so we let Ella have her nap and then hit the road about 2:30pm. It's about a 50 minute drive so it was about 3:30 when the girls feet finally hit the water. That is the perfect time to go. Weather was perfect, parking was great as the "all day-ers" were leaving. Parking is important because when it is just me and the kids, we don't have as many hands to carry since someone has to carry Ella. (strollers DO NOT work well in the sand) So the big girls swam and boogie boarded for THREE hours straight...did not get out of the water at all except when I asked them to for a picture!! As for Ella, she played in the sand, played in the water, got lots of sand in her mouth, took a nap, drank a bottle, and played some more in the sand!! There are many things to complain about in California, but being able to take a short drive to the beach and have PERFECT weather is not one of them.

Can you see all the sand in her mouth??!

Worldess Wednesday -But look at her shirt!!

Where's Your Head???

So why is it that kids will do things all the time for you but as soon as you put a camera in front of them, they make you work for it? Ella has just recently started doing a few things on command such as hands to head and hands to nose, and waving "bye-bye". She does it regularly now so I thought I would get it on video.....boy did she make me work for it!!! At the very end of the first video you will see how close she is to crawling!!! Sorry once again for the poor quality and the fact that you have to listen to me say "where's your head" about a million times.

Happy 4th of July

A Few Fun Videos

Sorry that the quality of the videos isn't very good but I thought it was cute how Ella was cracking up in the swing one. Also, in the second one it is pretty funny how she grabbed the camera strap out of Abbey's hand. The third one if of her first time getting to play in a kitchen cupboard. We are at Papa and Grandma's and she is really enjoying the tupperware cupboard. Sorry if they are a bit long, as big sister Abbey is taking the videos. Just thought you might enjoy seeing Ella in motion instead of only in still pictures.

Thanks and Another Mini Vacation

First of all, I really want to thank all of you for your answers to my car seat question. Although I must admit that I am still a little confused. Just like anything, all pediatricians don't agree on things. So it sounds like you have all been told a variety of things regarding when to turn the kids around. It gets a little harder for me because Ella currently weighs 22 pounds so she isn't quite as small as some of the other little kiddos. I am thinking that I will just have to find a happy medium and go with it. I just don't know that I will be able to wait as long if she continues to grow in length and becomes too long to face backward. I simply can't imagine how they will extend the guidelines to 30 to 35 pounds with out the the kids being too long.

So this last few days we went to visit my parents in Lake Havasu, AZ. It is only about a 4 hour drive so we are able to get away for a few days during my husband's weekend (he has 3 to 4 days off a week). Ella has been out on the boat before but the water was getting cold last October so she didn't actually get to swim. This time it was 108 degrees so the water felt wonderful!! We spent most of our time just floating in the channel and then went on a boat ride to let the big kids do some tubing. Ella loved every minute of the lake except wearing that darn life vest. It is bigger than her and she can barely move around in it. That coupled with it being so hot and having to wear this bulky thing....I don't know how anyone could stand it. But as you can see from the pics below....she fell right to sleep in it when we were on the move. The pictures are pretty self explanatory except that the one of her foot is suppose to show pruned she got.