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

Ellie Laughs at Daddy

Ellie Laughs at Daddy
Originally uploaded by AHarrer

Nick got Ellie laughing and was able to videotape it. Its hilarious listening to her laugh. Sometimes I'll get her to laugh, then I'll laugh at her laughing, and then she's laughing at me laughing...a vicious circle!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

I'm Four Months Old Today!

What a Busy Week!!

Despite the weather (its been pretty cold and rainy), summer has begun in Boston. This past weeks is a testament to the numerous activities we have going on in and around the city!

It started off with the Charlestown Mother's Association's Touch a Truck Day. They filled a parking lot with almost every truck a child (or father) could want to climb on, climb in, turn on a siren, or stare in awe at. There were bulldozers, concrete mix trucks, semis, police cars, a firetruck, ambulance, limo, UPS truck, etc. We had a great time, although we went during Ellie's nap time, so she didn't get to experience the trucks.

Then later in the week we went to the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl. For a small fee, it is eat all the ice cream you can stomach. Please note that I'm still off dairy, however, with some advance planning and unfreezing I was able to enjoy the festivities. Nick, again, ate 13 scoops of ice cream. We were only there for about an hour!

Below is a photo of Nick triple-fisting!

Friday night my good friend from Santa Barbara, Phil, was in town. Phil is a professional musician and was playing a gig. Susie, Nick, Ellie, and I all went. However, it was a little too loud inside the venue for Ellie, so Nick took her just outside the doors. He heard the show, but didn't get to watch. The group, The East West Quintet was fantastic. Plus it was great to get to see Phil again!

Saturday we went to the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in central Massachusetts. This is Eric Carle's 80th birthday and the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Yesterday they were throwing a birthday bash so to celebrate Ellie's first favorite book, we took her. The gallery of art of his as well as from Virginia Burton and from the Winnie the Pooh books was a great collection. The party was also a lot of fun.

Sunday was the Bunker Hill Day Parade. Boston celebrates Bunker Hill Day, in honor of the Battle of Bunker Hill, in which during the revolution we were able to kill hundreds of British, and lose the battle, but it is still celebrated. The parade is so much fun, especially during an election year (like this year). There are about 50 bag pipe bands which walk the route. The parade winds throughout Charlestown and lasts about 2 hours.

Ellie was fascinated by the drum and bugle corps, does this foreshadow anything?

Pfew, what a week!

In Adult News

So while our lives are completely consumed with Ellie-doings, there have been a couple events in our lives that I thought we would share.

Nick got promoted! He is now producing the 5pm show. He was doing the 4pm, which is an hour long show and he competes against Oprah for viewers and ratings. Now he is doing a 30 minute show, and doesn't have to be into the station until 9:30am (which will be a great thing once Ellie is in daycare!).

I updated my cell phone. I went from a bare bones plain old school cell phone, to a fancy new iPhone! Nick was sick of me using his phone, so we went and got one of my own! I'm pretty excited to have a quick way to show off pictures of Ellie, play some fun games, and check e-mail. The iPhone is a pretty cool piece of technology.

We just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday. Aunt Susie babysat on Saturday night and Nick and I went out to a nice dinner at my favorite restaurant. Then, some friends texted us to say they were randomly downtown and asked if we wanted to hang out. So we hung out on the water with friends until Susie called and said she couldn't get Ellie to settle down (it was bedtime), so we ran home to find Ellie sound asleep.

Six years! So much has happened. I've graduated with my masters and received my PE. We've moved from Urbana to Boston. Nick has worked at two different TV stations (jumping from like market 83 to 5!). We've travelled all over Europe. And we have Ellie, the best thing to happen to both of us. I'm so excited to see what the future holds for all three of us!