Open up those Golden Gates...

...California here we come. Or actually we already went and we're back in Boston.

Last weekend we took a long weekend and jet setted out to Santa Barbara for some quality time with grandparents and great-grandparents. We had a great time, and Ellie was a rock star.

Ellie with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Van

Four generations of Calvetti (apparently I didn't get the memo to wear pink!)

Not only did she sleep the entire 6-hour flight out to CA (and back to Boston) but she was charming, and full of smiles and giggles for her great-grandparents, extended family, and friends. We took red eyes both to and from CA so the plane took off right around her bedtime and she had her own seat so things were definitely in our favor for the plane travel.

Ellie also experienced a lot of firsts:

• Her first airplane ride
• Her first restaurant highchair
• Her first time to the beach (the sand...not her favorite)
• Her first trip to the zoo (the gibbons were her favorite)
• Her first time seeing a real life caterpillar (a Monarch butterfly caterpillar no less)
• Her first piano lesson

Although it wasn't a restful vacation for us at all, we had a great time and really enjoyed seeing my side of the family.

Ellie and the entire maternal side of her family (except Aunt Susie, but we can photoshop her in).

Only a month until we travel to Chicago so she can meet the Harrer side of the family! I'm sure Ellie will be a rock star then too! She truly is an awesome kid!

5th month photos

So, I finally got around to posting photos from Ellie's fifth month on our flickr account. Things have been so busy that it was almost a month before I uploaded the photos from the camera!

There are some great photos of Ellie. It's amazing how much she has changed in the past month.

We are currently out in California visiting my parents and my grandparents. I'm sure we'll have some great stories and photos to share when we return.

Enjoy.

5 months old

I'm so excited that I can sit for my monthly dolphin photo!

and I got my highchair yesterday...although my mommy says I have to wait another month until I can have solid foods (she's afraid between starting foods and travelling it'll be too much for me and I'll stop sleeping again).

4-month checkup

So a couple weeks ago Ellie had her 4-month checkup. The doctor was very happy with her development, weight, and laugh. She weighed in at 15 lbs 6.5 oz and was 25.5 in long. We are still rocking the 75th + percentile in height and weight. Our head circumference, well, we are still up around the 90th percentile (we blame her father for the large head...). I'm a little late writing this, as she is almost 5 months old, but better late than never.


This past week, my mom was in town to nanny while Aunt Susie headed over to Cambridge, England for a seminar. For the fourth we had some burgers and hotdogs at our place and then headed over to the Cambridge side of the river to see the Boston fireworks. Ellie slept through the whole thing, which is just as well I guess.



So for an update on some of the things we are into right now:

• Not sleeping. She reverted to sleeping only a couple to a few hours in a row (thus my previous post). There were theories including, developing motor skills, teething, mising me (now that she isn't coming to work with me), afraid of the dark, napping too much during the day, not napping enough, putting her to bed too late, hungry...
• Not sleeping on our backs. As soon as I put her down for bed, she rolls onto her stomach. There isn't much we can do. While she sleeps a little better, its still not great.
  
• Tripod sitting, she can support herself while sitting. She's getting more erect each day and relying on her hands for balance less and less.
  
  
• Talking, lately Ellie has been talking up a storm. Sometimes she will "babble" for 20 minutes after waking up (before she starts hollering for one of us).
• Petting Mallie. Well, she enjoys grabbing Mallie's fur. Fortuntely Mallie seems to realize that this Ellie and is pretty chill with it.
• Holding our own bottle. This past week, Ellie started holding her own bottle. She can't hold it for the whole feeding, but will for most of it.
  
• Taking out the pacifier (by herself) and prefering her fingers and even her thumb.
• Laughing. Ellie laughs at everything now. If you haven't already, check out the video below.
• We love all the new toys and books Grandma V and Great-grandma Dolly bought her.

We are getting ready for Ellie's first plane trip out to Santa Barbara in a few weeks, should be exciting! Hopefully we will average more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night before then.

And some adsditional photos:

Us on the fourth waiting for the USS Constuition to return.

Ellie in a beret that my parents brought back from their trip to Europe.

Sitting!

Ellie's wearing Aunt Susie's sunglasses while we are strawberry picking.

Dear Great-Nights-Sleep,

I know it’s been over a year since we last met. I too, long for our quiet, restful, dream-filled evenings and mornings together. It isn’t that I don’t want to continue our relationship, oh how I do, it’s just that my life has changed dramatically recently. Don’t worry, it’s changed for the better, however, I fear that we can no longer continue our nightly affair.

You see, about a year ago I found out I was pregnant. Yes, that’s when it began. I was kept awake with a mixture of worry and excitement. Then the heartburn began. As my pregnancy developed I could no longer get comfortable easily. Well, then I had that pesky PE exam, remember those nights of dreaming about taking the exam? No, of course you don’t. Around the time of the PE my bladder seemed to shrink to the size of a thimble and I was up multiple times a night to use the restroom. At Christmastime again I lay awake with anticipation; you see the big day was rapidly approaching.

Ellen was born in February and the difference between night and day didn’t matter. Although she has slept in stretches of a few hours during the night, Ellie hasn’t yet learned the beauty and joy of your visits. She wakes multiple times in the night and requires my attention to feed her or soothe her. I hope that soon she will sleep for longer stretches or through the night. However, I fear that “soon” is a relative term and it will be a while. She is only four months old.

As much as I miss your visits and how happy you make me, I know it will probably be years until we can continue as we used to. As much as I will miss our relationship, Ellen is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me. I will mourn the passing of our relationship and will look to Ellie’s little smile to help me cope without you.

Until we meet again,

Ann