Elli Loves...

Here are a few of Elli's greatest loves:

-FOOD (any and all varieties...she does prefer homemade squash, but overall she loves to eat...make sure you are not in between she and her bottle as she will knock you down!)
-Patterns: carpet, upholstery, clothing, doesn't matter (she loves to look and touch patterns...especially carpet patterns)
-Her DADDY - he's the coolest person in the whole world; as soon as he walks into a room she lights up and starts smiling and laughing (she especially loves his funny voices)
-Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - especially the theme song and the Hot Diggity Dog dance (I have officially been inducted into the world of parenting as I've has both of these songs in my head for about a month and a half now...over and over and over and over)
-The Itsy Bitsy Spider - she likes to sing along with this one (and usually tries to be louder than whoever is singing it to her); generally all songs are all right with her
-Our Babysitter's Kids: Grace and Chloe
-Standing, kicking, grabbing, chewing, playing airplane, rolling, sitting up - as long as she's moving she's okay
-Her bug blanket - thanks Grandma and Grandpa Mast...she's loved this silky little blanket since she was about a week old
-Football - she does enjoy watching the occasional football game (she also enjoys her Chicago Bear teether...guess which grandparents that came from??)
-Coldplay Lullabies - it's a sure fire way to get her calmed down and to sleep (thanks Uncle Syd!)
-Her Changing Table - we have some of our funniest times on the changing table...I think it's because we are constantly talking and singing to her when we are changing her
-Baths - she seems to like baths but definitely not the being cold afterward part; she's just recently started trying to swallow all of her bath water
-Tags - it's amazing that she can have the funnest toy in her hand and the thing she goes for above all else is the tag; whoever made the 'taggies' toy line must be a gazillionaire

Other fun things we've been up to:

Elli's always been super ticklish but just recently she's really started laughing hard when being tickled. Greg has the touch...she rolls every time. We'll have to get a video of it and post it.

Going to Greg's basketball games. Elli seems to enjoy watching the boys play...until about halftime of the second game at least.

Grace's preschool Christmas concert. Elli was so great during it. She loves to watch other kids...part of the reason why I think she loves Grace and Chloe so much.

Elli's grandparents have come to babysit which is fun for Elli and also nice for Greg and I to get out. We've had a lot to celebrate lately so we've had some nice dinners out.

Greg and Elli had some daddy/daughter time when school was cancelled last week. I'm so grateful that we all three are off until January 5th! We are going to take advantage of this time together...and play a lot of Rock Band (after about two months of trying to validate purchasing this game for our Wii we finally got it...and it is SO much fun...totally worth it!!!!).

I'll try to get some videos and pictures posted soon. I just wanted to post something so that my sister would get off my back about 'being a bad mom' and not updating our blog. Elli is as cool as ever (actually cooler) and we are having so much fun playing and watching her grow. This Christmas already means so much more. I've been reading Twas the Night Before Christmas and The Shepherd's Christmas to Elli on a pretty regular basis. We are trying to share the true meaning of Christmas with her now...it might be a year or two until she gets it though. :)

Giving Thanks!

Aren't we all so incredibly blessed? To have families, friends, jobs, freedom...and the list goes on. I am truly thankful this holiday season for the blessings in my life. Our Thanksgiving was a good one. Elli started on vegetables Thanksgiving day. She celebrated with some carrots...it seemed only appropriate. She is really loving her food and seems to really enjoy the homemade apples that Aunt Ehrin mentored me through. I took the week of Thanksgiving off so Elli and I took a trip to Ehrin's so that she could school me on some baby food making. We made squash, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots and peas. It was pretty simple, cheaper than buying baby food and ended up being fun. Ehrin is definitely my mentor. I call her for every question, issue and panic attack and she calmly guides me through. I am so grateful that she is close to us and watching Elli.

I am also grateful for amazing friends. Elli has so many 'aunts' and 'uncles' in her life. From my good friends and accountability partners Katie and Heather to our much loved cousins Syd, Chris, Sarah and Katie (yes, I am mentioning Katie twice...I just love her so much and am SO excited for her to move right next door to us...come on, you know you want to!!!:) to Beth who is the most generous person I know to our Bible Study friends Justin and Audra. And the amazing thing is I could go on! We spent time with some of those aunts and uncles tonight - Chris, Sarah, Syd and Katie. We are so excited for the Ponslers travels to Ethiopia to pick up their long awaited bundle of joy. We can't wait to meet our newest cousin...we already love him so much!! The boys played Rock Band (or whatever it's called) and Elli seemed to enjoy it about as much as they did. I think they can take their show on the road. Elli and I could totally be groupies. Below Elli is watching Syd playing the drums. She alternated between watching Syd and looking up at Greg while he was singing.

Thanks Sarah and Chris for the Pumas...Elli's kickin' it in them for sure! :) I never thought I would have shoe envy toward my six month old!

Speaking of six months...HAPPY SIX MONTH BIRTHDAY ELLIOT! I took her for her six month appointment today and everything looks good. She's still pretty much off the charts for her weight, but she's now up to 12 lbs 6 oz! The funny thing is that she's technically not in 6 months clothes if you go by weight alone (most we have start at 12 1/2 lbs) but as you can see from the picture above she's already getting too tall for them. Do they make baby clothes in 6 month waist and 9 months length??? The doctor seemed to approve of everything we have going on with Elli including her development (sitting up by herself, grabbing things and switching hands, the feeding schedule she is on, eye contact, etc.). She also commended me for continuing to nurse Elli as she's been with me since the beginning struggles with Elli's weight...my goal was to get to six months and we made it! Who would have thought we would be able to do it!?!? When the doctor got to Elli's legs as she was checking out all of her joints she must have hit the tickle spot because Elli started cracking up as the doctor was moving her legs in circles. It was so funny. The next thing: talking. The doctor said she should be working out mamamama, dadadada, babababa any day. I'm betting on the mamamama first. :)

We are so thankful for Y-O-U! Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!

Elli's Big Adventures!

Elli had a busy day today. She and Greg went to Daddy Boot Camp, which is a class for expecting fathers put on by our hospital. Greg went before Elli was born and got a lot out of it. They ask 'veteran' dads to come in with their child and impart wisdom to those in the class. The class is three hours long. Apparently Elli did very well...she was the only girl in the class of 20 or so. I am so proud of Greg...Elli just loves him to pieces so I'm sure he had some good advice. (Side note: Greg picked out Elli's outfit so she wore her 'I LOVE DADDY' shirt.)

Cereal...here we come! We tried cereal this afternoon for the first time. Elli made some hilarious faces. It was too funny. She maybe ate 1/4 to 1/2 of a teaspoon. We are going to try again tomorrow.


I promise I'm not strangling here her...I was trying to keep her head still.


Greg also put together the ExerSaucer (thank you Wodicka's...it's the coolest!!!). Elli got in it and loved it!! She found the mirror and just sat there smiling and talking to herself. It was priceless. There are moments like those that make me so grateful to be a mom...and specifically, to be Elli's mom. She's so much fun.



Thanks to the Nicholsons for allowing Greg and I to have a date night last night! You guys are the best...Elli loves her Mamaw and Papaw!


Here are some other pictures of what we've been up to.

Elli's a BANANA

It's been a while since my last post. Not much has changed, Elli keeps getting more fun and is continuing to grow so tall. Elli got to spend some fun time with her grandparents this week. The boys (a.k.a. Greg, Syd and Chris) went to Detroit for a Coldplay concert on Monday and Tuesday. To help me out Greg asked my parents to come on Sunday and Monday and his mom to come on Tuesday. After my parents left on Monday night I swear she was looking all around for them and was super ticked when all she saw was me. I'm pretty sure she got really spoiled Monday and Tuesday. That's what grandparents are for! Thanks mom, dad and Sally!! You guys are the best!!!

I went to support group yesterday morning to get Elli weighed and was discouraged when she only gained 3 ounces since last week. Typical gain is 4 - 6 oz. When I talked to the health care professional there she whipped out her trusty book and read an excerpt about banana shaped babies (versus apple or pear shaped) are those babies that are longer than average and skinny. They have hyper-metabolism and are usually always on the move, burning more calories quicker than most babies and typically growing in height more than weight. So, I am not going to start worrying again and will just believe that Elli is a banana. :)

Elli is teething...I'm 100% sure. She's got all the symptoms especially that of being unpredictable. I feel so bad for her and am looking forward to seeing that first tooth.

Here is a video and some pictures...

This was at our church's Harvest Party on Halloween. The little boy below is one of the candidates for Elli's future husband! :)

Elli and I both have on our Bears shirts and brown yoga pants before the Bears game! :)

HAPPY FIVE MONTH BIRTHDAY, ELLIOT!!

Our Sweet Pea

We had such a fun weekend. There are a ton of pictures included in this entry because Elli is finally starting to smile when the camera is on (or maybe we are getting better at snapping her smiles). Greg had his Fall Break so he was home on Thursday and Friday. I took a little time off on Thursday so we could go to the pumpkin patch. It looked like one of the last nice days for a while, so we wanted to take advantage of it. Elli was awesome the entire time and she looked so cute in her little pumpkin outfit. Grace wore this pumpkin outfit for her first Halloween.

Lots of smiles! :)

We also spent some fun time with family. Friday night and Saturday morning we spent with the Nicholsons. Elli loved playing with Papaw and Mamaw. Mamaw was even good enough to give Elli her much needed bath.

Then we went to my grandparents to show off our costumes...again, so much fun. Grace was a beautiful princess and Owen was a knight in shining armor. Aren't they so cute!?!? I call Elli 'sweet pea' all the time so when I saw this costume I just had to get it!!

We went to my cousin Kelly's for the second annual Halloween / chili get together. Elli was sweet pea-ed out by the end of the night!! :)

Elli's got such great grandparents! I love to see all of them with her...she loves them so much (and vice versa I do believe)!!

So Big!

Here are a few pictures of Elli. She's getting so big...before long she might actually be wearing 3-6 month clothing! :)

She's holding her own bottle now. Here's the proof:


She likes sitting in her Bumbo seat...well, actually...she likes chewing on her Bumbo seat.

We were celebrating after the Bears victory today! This is her first ride on daddy's shoulders. She thought it was pretty fun when Greg bounced up and down with her.

Go Bears!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPAW!

Elli is watching Bears football in the above picture. Something about football...she can't pull her eyes from the screen when it's on. I wish I were kidding.

I love when Elli gets to spend time with the Nicholsons. She doesn't see them as often as she does her other grandparents (I'd hate to think how many miles my parents have put on their car these last months), so it's fun to get pictures when we are all together. I have the cutest nieces and nephew for sure!! I think Addie's going to be a cheerleader...check out that pose! We all had our Bears gear on (we won't even talk about the one second loss...devastating) on Sunday for Papaw's birthday!

Neon Badge of Courage

I took Elli to get her four month shots taken care of this morning. Definitely a necessary evil. It was pretty awful for a while but she's rebounded quickly. Here are her neon badges of courage. :)

Elli has found her feet and boy does she love them! I put her rattle socks on her and she tried for quite some time to stick them in her mouth.

Elli is a daddy's girl through and through! Superwoman!!

Long and Skinny!

Week two was another success. Apart from Elli and I catching a cold we all three had a good week. Elli gets even awesome-er every day! :)

She had her four month appointment today and this is what we found out...

*she's a genius

*she's perfect

*she's very advanced for her age

Okay, those were just my findings...not necessarily the doctor's words...here's what the doctor told us:

*she's 95th percentile for height - over 25 inches!!

*she's 5th percentile in weight - no worries about her weight...maybe she just has Greg's metabolism!! YAY!!

*she's right where she should be with advancements - rolling, grabbing, cooing, etc.

*she had a serious growth spurt over the last two months

*no need to rush the solids...she suggested we wait another month due to some recent studies about introducing food and allergies (I'm secretly glad about this because I personally wasn't ready for solids but was going to move forward if the doctor wanted us to)

*she has angelic features...these were the doctor's words exactly!!! :)

Seriously, Elli is so freaking awesome. I am so glad I have Fridays with her. All she's done today is smile, talk, giggle and nap. I can't get enough of her.

She's rolling and moving around even more these days. Ehrin said that she was able to roll from her belly to her back, but I haven't seen her do it yet. So far she just rolls from her back to her belly and then gets ticked off that's she's on her belly. We put the sleep positioner back in her crib because she kept rolling over and waking herself up (and then wakes us up because she's ticked off that she's on her belly...it's a vicious cycle). I don't know how she does it, but she's never where we put her down...she's usually at least 180 degrees and a foot away from where she was laying when we put her to bed. She's definitely a mover and a wriggler.

We are going to the pumpkin patch tonight for our family night. The weather is awesome today so I am really looking forward to it. I hope to post lots of pictures soon!

Week One...SUCCESS!

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers this week! My first week back at work was amazing...so much better than I could have hoped. I have such peace of mind that Elli is being loved and cared for in my absence - Kelly and Ehrin were as great as I knew they would be. I received daily hour by hour reports from each of them which I loved! :)

Elli is such a big girl. She is rolling all over the place and moving all around. She's always been a terrific sleeper and continues to sleep through the night. We are starting to put her to bed earlier which makes me a little sad - a little less time with her in the evening but she is so tired by 9:00 now. Elli doesn't talk too much...unless she's talking to her daddy. For whatever reason Elli loves to talk back to Greg and he just cracks her up. She giggles and laughs when he uses his funny voices and tickles her. I've studied Greg and tried to copy him but don't have the same effect...apparently I'm just not nearly as funny. Elli's also grabbing and pulling things (e.g. my hair). She's really starting to control her arms and hands now.

I don't have any new pictures - I need to do better about this - I just wanted to thank you all for thinking about Greg, Elli and I. We had an amazing and very blessed week...and now Elli and I get to spend all day together tomorrow since I have Fridays off. I've been counting down for tomorrow all week and it came so quick.

The Summer of Us...

As my 'summer break' is coming to an end I've been overcome with emotion. My first emotion is gratitude. I have been so incredibly blessed to spend these last four months getting to know Elli and experiencing all the ups and downs of becoming a mother for the first time. I also feel grateful that Greg and I were able to spend Elli's first couple of months together as a family. The timing was really a God send (literally) and I'm so glad that Greg was off for the summer when Elli arrived. I can't imagine how people do it on their own...kudos to all of you! I also feel so overwhelmed by all the love and support I've received from our family and friends. We haven't wanted for anything these last few weeks - from gifts for Elli to dinners for Greg and I, people have been so generous and thoughtful.

As I figured, I am also feeling sad...almost 'bittersweet'. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things at work - I have a job that is satisfying and work with people who constantly make me laugh, so my sadness isn't about going back to work. I think it's more about missing out on what I've so enjoyed these last few months - I haven't missed anything when it comes to Elli. Pretty much every cry, every coo, every laugh, every everything I've been there for. When Elli was waking up from her first nap yesterday I went into the nursery to get her because she was fussing a bit. As soon as she saw me she scrunched up her eyes, laughed really loud and gave me the biggest smile. I am sad that I might miss some of those belly laughs. I have to remind myself often that I am lucky enough to have Friday's off and that it's my day to spoil and love on Elli...and that I am going to be a better mom and wife for working (I've learned that as much as I've enjoyed being home the reality is that I am not stay-at-home mom material). I am so lucky that two people who I adore more than anything are going to be loving on Elli in my absence. Our babysitters - Ehrin and Kelly - are terrific moms and amazing people. I feel so blessed that the schedule and timing is going to work out...definitely a God thing.

My other range of emotions include guilt, excitement, and about fifty other things that are hard to put into words. I am lucky that I have a lot of working mothers to look up to...both at work and in my personal life.

This has been the best summer of my life. I love being a mommy. I love that God blessed me with the child He did - Elli - who is such a good and sweet baby. More than anything I would say that this has been the summer of us...and such a blessed summer it was.

Nicholson Friday Family Fun

We are starting a new tradition at our house...Friday Family Fun Night. I was mentioning to my accountability partners that it seems like Greg has been so busy since school started and he's going to get even busier once coaching starts. One of them suggested that I get really intentional about family times as well as date nights for just Greg and I. I kept thinking about this idea and asked Greg is he was up for a weekly family night for just the three of us. He was game and we created a few rules...

1. The whole family has to agree on all of the rules.

2. No boxing, sparring, fighting, arguing, etc.

3. At least two Fridays a month must be dedicated to just the three of us hanging out.

Sub-rule: Pizza is encouraged, but not mandatory.

We ended up walking about a 1/2 mile to a little pizza joint by our house...the Pizza Shack by the Tracks. It is truly a shack and the service was about as hole in the wall as it comes, but the food was yummy and Elli was awesome on the walk there (on the way back Greg carried her most of the way...she must have been tired of her stroller by that point). Once we got home we put Elli to bed and Greg and I busted out the Monopoly game. We had so much fun...and I took Greg for all he was worth...literally! Having all four railroads was my key to success. :) We tried to take a silly picture to commemorate our first Family Fun night. Not sure if you can tell but Elli was not thrilled about this pose.

SUPER FUN ELLI NEWS: She rolled over yesterday! Elli seems to really enjoy laying down and being talked to (i.e. on her changing table) so I put her on a blanket in the middle of the floor yesterday morning and as we were playing she rolled over on her side a few times. I went over to my sister's to hang out with her, her kids and my mom yesterday afternoon and as Elli and Owen were laying on the floor together she rolled all the way over. I wasn't sure if it should officially count because her arm was stuck under her, but my sister said it did and my sister has been my baby coach for the last year so I take her word for gold. Elli showed Greg when he got home from school yesterday...although it wasn't as good as her roll at Ehrin's. She's getting so big, and of course she's a genius and way advanced physically and mentally for her age (written like a proud mama, huh?!).

We celebrated Greg's birthday with his family on Sunday afternoon (bummer about the Bears). The Nicholson's were very gracious about my futile attempt to cook a big meal (the meatloaf was overdone, the potatoes were underdone, but the deviled eggs were delicious - yea!!). Addie enjoyed our jumperoo...she was jumping like crazy and quite adorable. We were so glad to be able to spend some time with her. She just gets cuter and cuter.

As I was cooking dinner last night I glanced out the window to see what Greg and Elli were doing and saw them on the hammock. I think both of them were pretty near a nap. When I saw them together my heart gave me love pangs (an articulate way of saying that I got overwhelmed with love). I'm the luckiest girl in the world...being a mom is the most amazing thing and having Elli has made me love Greg even more, which I wasn't sure was possible.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is Greg's birthday. All he really wanted was a Bears victory. I'm so bummed for him that it didn't happen. We do, however, have some cute pictures of Greg and Elli sporting their Bears outfits. I put Elli in her Chicago Bears cheerleading outfit for church this morning to suprise Greg (he gets to church early to practice with the worship team). We thought she looked pretty cute.

We hung out with my parents and sister's family on Saturday. Grace's preschool participated in a parade on Saturday afternoon. She was too cute...and grandpa was quite a sport pulling her in the wagon. Grace was great at flashing her big blue eyes at the other parade participants to collect candy. We had quite a pile by the time it was over. Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures of Grace (I was taking video instead). Here's a cute picture of Ehrin and Owen as we were watching the parade go by.

Babies, babies everywhere...

We had pictures taken at our church for the directory on Sunday afternoon, so we snapped a few pictures of Elli in her robe as we were getting her ready.

Elli's 3 Month Pictures

We took Elli to get her three month pictures on Monday morning. After a late night of screaming on our victorious Bears I wasn't sure I was ready for it...thankfully (I'm being very selfish here) my parents plans were cancelled and they came to offer me moral support. Unfortunately, the pictures ended up being when she should have been napping and she was super sleepy and then super mad about it. Despite Elli's not so happy mood I think we got some really great pictures. I am a tad bit biased, I do realize this.

If you are interested in seeing the pictures I'm hoping you'll be able to log-in using the following information...

To get started, click below and enter your Customer Name (Carrie Nicholson):https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0567102541JCP or go to http://www.smilesbywire.com/ and enter the following:Customer Name: Carrie Nicholson
Access Code: LTPP0567102541JCP

You'll note that you have to spell my first name wrong in order to get in to the site. Let me know what you think! I will have the pictures on September 20th so I'll be passing them out in the next couple of weeks!

Weigh-ins and giggles...

I took Elli to be weighed in this morning and she is officially at 10 lbs. Woo hoo...double digits! I've been tracking her weight gain for the last couple of weeks and she's been exactly where she should be. Yea! I finally feel like we can breath easy...it's been a struggle to get Elli to gain weight but this last month has felt so much easier...and Elli has a leg roll! Greg and I celebrated that leg roll! I keep telling her this is the one time in her life that thunder thighs and lots of rolls are quite adorable, but I respect the fact that she prefers a slim figure. Hopefully she has her daddy's metabolism.


I was raising holding Elli up and laughing today and she giggled at me. I kept doing it and she would give me a short laugh each time. She giggled a couple of weeks ago at Mamaw Sally. I loved it.


Here's a picture of Elli during her tummy time yesterday (which she pretty much hates...it's only second to when I read to her...unfortunately for her, I'm not going to stop doing either). It's hard to believe that she is going to be three months tomorrow!!