5 Months

How does each month seem to fly by faster than the last?! Our little girl keeps exceeding our expectations of development and cuteness!

Pacifier update--- Our girl LOVES her pacifier! Sometimes she wakes up and as long as she gets it back, she falls back to sleep. This prompted us to teach her to put it in her mouth herself. We started working with her by using her own hand to find the pacifier and guide it back to her mouth. If she wants it, we hand it to her instead of simply putting it in her mouth. She caught on pretty quickly. Sometimes she still has trouble twisting and turning to get it straight and if she gets too frustrated, she won't but she's getting really good with it! If she didn't wiggle so much during the night, we'd load her crib with them in the night for her to find herself.

Starting solids--- We started on solids when Ellie turned four months old. She'd been watching us eat for too long and had begun waking up once during the night for 'the party in Ellie's crib' as I call it (she'd wake up and just play with her feet and talk for several minutes before falling back to sleep---pretty entertaining but not a habit we'd like to continue at 2am). The doctor seemed to think she might be starting to get hungry and starting solids would help. We started with rice cereal in the evening for about 10 days. Unfortunately, our usually regular baby became quite constipated. We decided to switch to oatmeal and see if it would help---it did! After the 10 days, we stuck with oatmeal in the evening and started veggies around lunchtime. We wanted to begin with veggies before fruit so she wouldn't refuse the veggies after receiving sweet tastes. So far: green beans are a no- she literally cried; peas- one day, no and the next meh; carrots went well; sweet potatoes are a hit; acorn squash- no;  avocado- good. We're going to circle through the veggies again before we start the fruit and hope they go well!
I've been making my own food so far and am pretty happy with it thus far. I don't mind making it as I can find the time in the evenings and am already buying the food for Steve and I. This way, I know exactly what is in Ellie's food and it seems to be cheaper so far.

Sitting up!--- Big girl decided she wanted to sit up last week! We were watching the Little Mermaid (which she loves!) and I usually hold her up, but this day, she wanted to do it herself. She leans over on her hands and stays for a short time but I have a feeling, it'll be no time at all before she's really sitting up on her own! She's growing way too quickly!

Everything goes straight to her mouth these days!

Big girl : )

Heaven gained a new angel...

This week we will say goodbye to my wonderful Grandma Chism. I've dreaded this day and none of us were prepared for this so soon. Last Thursday was likely one of the hardest days of my life and I know when I see her at the funeral this Friday will be worse. It came as a complete shock causing all the thoughts of "I wish I had...."
I talked to my grandma more than some of my best friends. We were incredibly close and spoke every couple weeks just to check in and catch up. I didn't see her as often as I would have liked but she was a huge part of my life. It's always the little things that mean the most--- eating Krispy Kremes until we felt sick when I had a random craving while pregnant (about 2.5, ha), she taught me to make her famous caramels, bonded over our love for scrap-booking, swapped recipes and cleaning tips (cleaning tips always came from her; Dad would say that Grandma mopped the floor until the water in the bucket was clean!), and just chatting like friends.
My grandma was certainly one of a kind! You never had to wonder what she was thinking; she told you. You never had to wonder if she approved; she let you know. I never wondered if she loved me; with all her heart. My grandma certainly did her share of complaining and didn't get along with everyone but goodness, the woman knew how to love. She thought the world of her sons and grandchildren and would tell any stranger how they all walked on water. I can remember taking her to a doctor's appointment while I was pregnant with Elizabeth. She couldn't contain herself from telling a stranger on an elevator that I was carrying her precious fifth great-grandchild and what a wonderful mother her granddaughter would be. After Ellie was born, she told me every time we spoke what a great mother I am. It means so much to know I made her proud.
While I can regret not taking a picture the last time my grandma held Elizabeth or calling her last week for the last time, I am trying my best to focus on all the wonderful times we spent together. I did learn to make her caramels so I can make them at Christmas for grandpa and our family to enjoy. I told her I loved her and heard her say it often. I have a picture of her holding my baby girl. I know she's now at peace and in paradise.
I could not be more thankful that Elizabeth and Landyn met their great-grandmother. Elizabeth snuggles with the blanket she made her each night and my brother and I will be sure they both know what a wonderful woman she was. My grandma loved Elizabeth and Landyn and couldn't wait to watch them grow. I'm thankful my grandpa will be able to do so. I have no doubt that we will all see her again one day in Heaven. I miss you already, Grandma and hope you're living it up pain-free with your mom and dad in Heaven. Wait for us. We'll see you again someday :)

Ready for football season!

I love having photo-shoots with Elizabeth so here's some adorable ones of Daddy's little Bears fan....

4 Months already?!

I cannot believe how quickly our baby girl is growing! She's developing and learning and it makes us so proud! She's developed the most beautiful little giggle. She gives it to us at the most random things now and isn't consistent with it yet but it makes what we thought was giggling before nothing to compare and the giggles we do get even more precious. She LOVES her feet! Especially when it's time for a diaper change, she wants to grab tightly to her feet and either rock back and forth or pull them to her mouth. She's still talking and smiling like crazy---our happy little girl.....unless she's sleepy or tired!

Follow-up with the doctor--- Our doctor says Elizabeth is doing great! I swear everytime we go, she shows off! Today she rolled over for the doctor after lifting her head up high yet again and wanted to stand on my legs while we talked about her. She's too darn cute. 

She weighed in at 13 lbs, 8 ounces (50th percentile) and 25 1/4" long (85th percentile)---long and lean!

Sleep training is going pretty well actually! We're sticking with the routine of bath, feed, read then in bed between 8-8:15 and she's doing really well with it. We're not being strict about it but letting her tell us what she needs. If she's sleepy before our normal start of 7:30, we start earlier. If she's content, we start later. Letting her get overtired is when we run into problems. With naps, she tends to get fussy after being awake about two hours. When this happens, I lie her in her crib and if I time it right, she falls asleep. I've had to do a few 5 minute sessions of crying it out but not too many times. She's not very interested in me rocking her to sleep anymore, which is apparently a good thing : (

Starting cereal tonight! We'll introduce rice cereal in the evening around 6 tonight (she feeds at 4 and 8).  She's still EBF (exclusively breastfed) but we'll begin introducing solids gradually. Fingers crossed that all goes well!