Best Mother's Day Ever

I want to start off by saying Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all those moms out there...new and experienced. This year was especially special for myself, not only because it was my first Mother's Day with Ella, but because Ella decided to finally roll over for the first time!! We have been anxiously awaiting this moment for a few weeks now and finally she decided she was ready to show off her moves! I don't know which of us was more excited, but I do know I rolled her back over about 3 more times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke :).

Ella has also begun to sit up on her own. She started this the day before before Mother's Day (5/10/08). She holds herself up pretty well until she wants to grab a toy or gets excited and her extensors (back muscles) kick in and throw her off balance. She's pretty excited about sitting up as well and if even if prop up on her back will bring her head forward like she's doing an abdominal crunch until she rolls up to sit up. Needless to say she is making mine and her father's stomachs look pretty bad right now in comparison. Along with all the movement milestones Ella has also begun to talk a lot more....and not just to the fridge. She loves to hear us sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and will usually laugh with the hand gestures.

Ella had her 4 month Dr. appointment on 4/9/08. It was confirmed that we still have a mini-giant! She weighed in at 16lb 11 oz and 26.5 inches continuing to put her in the 97th percentile for both. Dr. Karstens asked how we liked having a 6th month old already :). Ella also received her second set of vaccinations. Gabe was able to come with to this appointment and I think he sort of wished he would have left the room when he saw the needle they were about to jab his daughter with. He had to see Ella cry, I mean really cry with actual tears, for the first time since she was born. Fortunately we all live through the shots and were able to calm her down soon after.

Once we got home Ella napped for the most of the day and woke up just for a bit later in the afternoon. I was resistant when she woke to give her more Tylenol because she didn't seem like her legs were bothering her.....boy was I wrong!!! About an hour after that we woke up to go the CSS baseball game and she began a hysterical cry for about a half hour until the Tylenol kicked in. After that she was fine from there on out, but I think it took a while longer for Gabe and I to recover.
The last weekend in April we were able to see some of our friends taht we don't get to see nearly enough thanks to a baby shower that my friends Liz, Diana and Tukey put on the shower. We met up at Blackwoods for brunch and hung out for a couple hours, or course opened wonderful gifts and put away some food of course.


It was really great to see some of our friends that our out of town whom we haven't seen in a really long time, or those friends that we just don't get to a lot of even though they live in town here with us! The pic is of Liz and her son Tommy who happens to be Ella's boyfriend and also our Godson. Liz and her husband Greg (Greg is former teammate of Gabe's on CSS baseball team) our Ella's Godparents as well. We love getting to see Tommy and how much he is changing so fast! He was a bit jealous of his mommy sharing hugs and kisses with Ella, but he warmed up to the idea eventually and even shared some hugs and kisses with Ella himself.


The following weekend was Gabe's birthday and I had planned a weekend of golfing and a Twins game with our friends Tukey and Tyler. Ella came with us down to there house Friday night and there she was able to spend some time with them and the rest of Tukey's family which included her adorable nieces (Haley pictured here with Ella and her younger sister is Lauren). It was great to see them all and they were all so excited to see Ella and how fast she has grown!

The following morning we met my mom and she brought Ella back up to St. Cloud for the weekend so we could go golfing and go to the Twins game. While up in St. Cloud Ella was able to meet her Great Grandma Arliene (my mom's mom) and her boyfriend Duane for the first time. They had been in Texas since last Oct/Nov, so had only seen pictures of Ella up until then. My cousins Hunter and Callie along with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Brad ventured up there as well to see Ella for the first time. It sounds like they had a great weekend of visiting and playing together. They must have because when we went to get Ella on Sunday she slept the entire ride home and went to bed when we got home and slept through the night!
So last weekend I left for a night for a Bachelorette party for our friend Rikki in the Twin Cities which meant Gabe was on full time Daddy duty for approximately 24 hours. I have to laugh because while I was preparing to leave on Saturday morning Gabe decided to dress Ella, or attempt to at least. I am always anxious/nervous to see what Ella is going to be wearing when she comes out of her room with her Daddy, especially when they are in there for almost a half hour! Needless to say it was interesting to say the least.

Poor Ella must have caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror because as you can see by the pictures she was crying and I am sure was trying to figure out why her mom would let this happen to her. He had completely covered her in pink....not necessarily matching, just pink. I laughed the hardest when I realized he had put the onesie on her that said "Don't Laugh At Me, Daddy Dressed Me!," how appropriate!!! These are pictures from that traumatic experience for Ella, not to humiliate her, but as proof to her father in case he tries to deny this abuse in future years :)

Fortunately, the rest of the weekend went well for both of them and they had a fun day of shopping for Mother's Day and watching golf and baseball much of the time.