bigger and better

I can definitely see why everyone says 6 months is a magical age.  Over the last month Ella has become an incredible baby.  My neighbor had her first baby 5 weeks ago and as I've watched her go through all of the adjustments and hormone changes, I am so grateful to be done with that phase.  It was SO hard for me.  No one ever could have prepared me for all of that.  Ella would scream for periods of at least 3 hours every day along with the typical newborn fussiness.  Starting at about 2 and a half months life started to get lots easier.  By 3 or 4 months I felt like a real person and Ella was getting lots happier.  Now I would definitely say that Ella is an easy baby.  I love it.  She plays well by herself and is just generally a happy girl.  She has started babbling and loves to talk during church or while everyone else seems to be having a conversation.  Once she gets going she progressively gets louder and louder.  We think it is absolutely adorable. Gustavo particularly loves it because she is always happily yelling, "dadadada."  Sometimes it sounds like she says "hi dad."  Ella is also sitting up now.  She's getting quite good, but her dramatic side comes out every time she falls over because she screams and screams until we give her a little love.  She does the same thing if she even slightly bumps into anything while rolling over.  Still no crawling though... I guess I have a little more time before we have to baby proof the house.  

In Florida Ella became quite a mama's girl.  I thought it was just because she was out of her element, but it has continued.  Honestly I don't mind it, but I do feel bad that she isn't always as happy with everyone else.  On Monday I had lots of plans to get things done, but Ella cried and cried the second I put her down.  She was fine when I held her, but it made it very difficult to get things done.  I hoped that I hadn't jinxed myself by saying she had become such an incredible and easy little girl.  Tuesday when I got home from work I noticed a little white spot on her bottom gum and sure enough it is her first tooth!  I can tell it is bothering her because she has had a harder time sleeping and is more irritable.   Every little milestone is very exciting though.  

It is getting much harder to take Ella's picture because she is such a busy girl.  She wouldn't even really look at me because she was so interested in her shoes.  You can see her very focused look while studying the shoes in the middle picture. Hopefully you can see her beautiful blue eyes, just like Daddy's.  It is hard to tell in these pictures, but her new hair is very blonde.  I just laugh because she is going to be a Gonzalez with blonde hair and blue eyes.  I'm sure here hair will go brown eventually, but it is very light for now.  She continues to grow, both up and out.  Her brand new 6-12 month jeans are very tight on her belly and she is quite a few inches taller than the other babies her age that are in the ward.  Everyone comments on how big she is (don't worry Ella, they say how cute you are right after!)  

quarter of a century

I had a great 25th birthday.  It started an hour later than usual because Ella woke up a little late due to the overcast morning and Gustavo took her for almost 30 minutes before she needed to eat.  They came into the room at 8:15 bearing gifts.  Ella delivered me a sweet letter from Gustavo and he gave me the adorable nutrition tracking board I haven't been able to stop thinking about since seeing it on the Rachel Ray Show almost a year ago (check it out here).  After Ella woke up from her morning nap we all went to brunch.  We had a nice afternoon and then dropped Ella off with Yolanda and her abuela who watched her while we went to dinner at Tepanyaki and then saw Julie & Julia.  After we picked Ella up and put her back to bed we had cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory (thanks to Alysha & Bonnie!)  Then to top it off, we watched BYU beat Oklahoma thanks to DVR.  It was honestly the best birthday I can remember.

back to the grind

Two weeks ago I unfortunately went back to work.  My sister-in-law, Yolanda, volunteered to watch Ella after Jessica let me know that she would no longer be able to.  Since Yolanda lives south of us and the school is north, Yolanda comes to get Ella in the morning so I don't have to back track and lose more time with my beautiful little girl.  I really appreciate it because it means I only have to leave 10-15 minutes before work starts and then I just take the freeway from school to Yolanda's house when I go to pick Ella up.  It is a really nice set up.  It will also be great for Ella to establish a strong relationship with her aunt and cousin.    

Yolanda took this picture of the kids last week.  Did I mention how impressed I am with her?  She doesn't even flinch taking care of Gabe and Ella.  I could never do it.  She is so confident and I'm pretty sure she can do anything.  The babies are only 2 weeks a part so she practically has twins.  Ella was fussy until her first nap each day of the first week, but this week she was good.  I think it just takes her a little while to adjust to new situations (she must be like her parents).   

Ella seems to be intrigued by my new position, or at least my whistle.  This job has a million perks.  Honestly, if I have to work there is absolutely no better job I could imagine.  I get to teach without all of the extra stresses and responsibilities of a classroom teacher.  I teach all of the students in the school, which means I get to see all of my past students regularly.  I only work 4 days a week so where Monday used to be the day I dreaded, now I love it!  Ella is only away from home 3 days because Gustavo has Fridays off.  I've only had students for one week and I had a blast playing all day.  This also meant that I got a good workout.  I wasn't sure if I would or not, but I'm moving around almost the entire day participating in different fitness activities.  I think the only downside is that I can see things becoming slightly redundant since I do similar things for 10 classes in a row on a 2 day rotation.  Other than that I have to be creative with space because the gym is also our lunchroom so sometimes I'll be kicked out for assemblies and other things.  I also don't have the gym for kindergarten or the last 10 minutes of one class, but that really won't be too bad.  

In all honesty, I want to be home with Ella all of the time, but working part time as the PE teacher won't be bad.  I still get to be with her most of the time and Yolanda is making my time away from her as easy for me as possible.  I feel really blessed.  At the end of the year I prayed that what was best for Alysha and me would work out.  We really wanted the job share, but now we both realize that it wasn't what was best for either of us.  Alysha needs a full time salary and PE allows me to be with Ella much more than even being part time in the classroom would have.  It is amazing how apparent Heavenly Father's hand is in my life.  I am so grateful for answered prayers.

spitting

Ella has figured out a new trick- SPITTING.  I don't know if she learned it from Gabe (he is quite a spitter) or from her own exploration, but she started doing it while I was feeding her this week.  It makes dinnertime lots messier, but we don't mind.  Ella had food all over her face along with her stomach and arms.  She also managed to get some on my leg.  What a talented girl! 

One of the reasons we love this picture is because she is holding onto the table.  Ella holds onto EVERYTHING!  She holds onto the bathtub, her car seat, the jumper, her stroller, and everything else she can.  It cracks us up.

Half Birthday

I can't believe our little Ella is already 6 months old.  It goes so fast, just like everyone warns.  When Gustavo brought Ella to school last Friday all of my colleagues commented on how big she is because she is huge!  She doesn't even look like a little baby.  I can't believe it- she can sit in a shopping cart now.  CRAZY.  When we took her to see the pediatrician on August 14th we found out that she is consistently staying on top of the growth charts.  Here are her current stats:

weight: 17 lbs. 4 oz. - above the 75th percentile

height: 27 inches - 95th percentile

head: 43.8 cm. - 90th percentile

At 6 months Ella's personality is continuing to blossom.  We love her laugh and smile, but don't appreciate her high pitched screams!  She can be very dramatic.  Our friend's Kim and Trent came over for dinner the week we left for Florida and Ella's thigh barely poked into the corner of a kitchen chair and you would have thought her life was over.  There wasn't even a mark on her leg, but she cried and screamed.  I fear we have a drama queen in the making.  

Ella is also a sweetheart.  She cuddles with us and melts our hearts with her big cheesy smiles. She loves peek-a-boo, playing in the water, reading/eating books, and grabbing for everything. Ella LOVES paper or anything that she can rip apart and eat.  She still isn't teething, but she loves to play with her mouth.  Ella is constantly biting her bottom lip or sticking out her tongue.  She also loves to suck her thumb.  Up until last week she was consistently taking 3 naps a day that were at least 1 hour long, but lately she isn't sleeping longer than about 30 minutes at each nap.  She started sleeping through the night right before she was 5 months old, but last week she started waking herself up by rolling over.  Once she's rolled over she just screams.  She has rolled back over in the past, but I think she might have rolled on the same side so in her crib if she tries doing that she just runs into the side.  Needless to say we are working on teaching her to roll from her stomach to her back!  Last night she slept the whole way through so I'm hoping that will continue.  Who knows though!  Every time I think we've solved a problem or gotten over something she reverts back for one reason or another.  I guess that is life!  We love watching Ella grow and develop.  Parenthood is definitely the most exciting adventure we've ever embarked on.    

Florida Trip

We had an incredible time on our vacation in Florida with Gustavo's family.  Now that we are back, Gustavo is at Youth Conference, Ella is in bed, and I don't want to unpack or clean so I'll blog about our trip!

I've decided just to make one long post so I apologize for the length up front. 

 

Day 1: The Flight

I was really scared about flying with Ella.  We had a short flight to Las Vegas and then a 4 1/2 hour flight to Orlando.  There were 2 times when she freaked out, but they probably only lasted for 15-20 minutes although at the time they felt terribly long.  Gabe on the other hand was a champ!  He slept most of the time and only complained for a few moments.  He even slept on the trays in front of Yolanda and Shevin.  I kept turning around to see him either sleeping or just calmly looking around.  I was so jealous!

Everyone on the flight commented on how cute and good they both were.  Yolanda and I quickly noticed how much friendlier everyone is when you have a baby.  Lots of people would come up and talk to the kids and then chat with us throughout our trip.  

After the long flight we had a few bumps getting the rental car, but they were all sorted out and we were at Gustavo's aunt Cari's condo by about 9:30.  It was such a nice place to stay; about 15 minutes from everywhere and beautiful!  There were 3 bedrooms (one for each couple).  We were lucky and got to stay in the master bedroom where Ella slept in her pack and play in the walk in closet- it was PERFECT.  She slept really well in her little closet.  I felt like a bad parent quite a few times throughout our trip because it was SO HOT in Florida (who would have guessed that?).

Poor Ella is a great sleeper (she takes 3 naps and sleeps through the night) when she is put down in her bed, but she doesn't sleep otherwise.  There were a few times when she finally gave in and napped while we were out and about, but they were definitely rare and usually very short.  

She fell asleep at the airport while her daddy was feeding her... 

(his joke)

Day 2: Magic Kingdom

Emily and Laz flew in from Virginia on Friday morning so we headed off to The Magic Kingdom.  I've only been to Disneyland once and that was way back when I was in sixth grade so it was TONS of fun to go to The Magic Kingdom.  It took us a few minutes to figure out how to work our situation with the babies, but we quickly found out that we could get two baby swap passes for each ride.  Each pass allowed up to 3 adults to go through the fast pass lane so one group of 3 stayed with Gabe and Ella while the other 3 went quickly through the line.  We then switched places.  This was SO NICE!  

We got to ride pretty much everything we wanted to.  Ella and Gabe were even able to go on the Haunted Mansion ride!  The baby swap passes made it so convenient that we even went on Splash Mountain 3 times since it is Laz's favorite.  We stayed at the park until it closed at 11 o'clock so we could watch the firework show.  It was worth watching even though it made it really difficult to get out of the park with all of the traffic.

Day 3: Hollywood Studios

I was excited to visit as many of the kingdoms in Disney World as we could even though I didn't know much about them.  I loved the way Hollywood Studios was decorated and enjoyed lots of the rides.

I don't know why I am smiling in this picture though.  The Tower of Terror is by far the scariest ride I have ever been on.  You go up in an elevator just to drop, be raised up again, drop, raise up again, and drop.  This happens at least four times and is AWFUL!  I don't ever want to ride it again.  It was definitely terrifying!

Hollywood Studios is full of great classic hollywood buildings and stores.  One area has different sets so we had someone take a picture of us in San Francisco.  I really loved the movie sets.  They made me want to live in the 30's and sing and dance like the characters in Singin' in the Rain.  Emily quickly reminded me of the inconveniences of that era- namely plumbing.  I'm not sure she convinced me to change my mind though.

The Pixar area was also great.  Who doesn't love Pixar movies?  Ella got to ride with us on this cute Toy Story ride.

Day 4: Typhoon Lagoon

On our fourth day we just wanted to relax so we headed to a Disney water park, Typhoon Lagoon.  When we walked in we were excited to see that Ella was the BIG Kahuna!  It was very fitting because this was definitely one of her best days.  She loves the water.  We went out in the wave pool and Ella laughed each time the tide rushed in and got her.  This wave pool was awesome because it was set up like the ocean where one huge wave is created and people ride it and play in it as it ripples through the pool.  This day was just what I needed because it was relaxing and cool.  

Day 5: Animal Kingdom
Again, I was really impressed by the set-up and decorations of the Animal Kingdom in Disney World.  Nothing compares to Disney.  We rode some fun rides and enjoyed our last day with Emily and Laz before they flew home that evening. 

 

Day 6: Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure

We spent the day in the Islands of Adventure park in Universal Studios where I rode this:

I'm pretty proud of myself, in case you can't tell!  I was feeling very brave and didn't get too nervous in the line because the people behind us and in front of us were really scared.  In fact the woman in front of us had never been on a roller coaster before (I'm not sure I would advise this as your first one).  She texted someone to say a prayer for her while we waited in line.  After we got off she said she was still shaking and they bought the picture because it was so funny.  

This whole park was great.  There were tons of fun rides and the child swap program Universal Studios has made riding everything even easier than Disney World.  We had a blast.

One of the islands is Seuss Landing.  It was so cute!  I thought of Alysha the whole time. Even the garbage cans were great.  They were bright green with this quote from the Lorax "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."  I love Dr. Seuss (don't we all?)

Day 7: Blizzard Beach

Although we had lots of fun throughout our trip at incredible amusement parks, I was ready to relax (and I had a pretty bad headache from all of the heat and crazy rides).  We headed off to another Disney water park, Blizzard Beach.  I really enjoyed relaxing and playing with Ella.  I just love to watch her splash and have fun in the water.  She is definitely my little water baby.

Day 8: Coming Home
By Thursday we were definitely ready to come home.  Ella was really great on this long day of traveling.  We had 2 flights again so she had lots of time in her stroller and in the plane.  This time she only cried for a few minutes and slept for almost and hour (ironically there was a crying baby in front of us who woke her up).  We had a great vacation and really loved spending time with our family.  Now I guess it is time for us to get back to our regular life... and unpack.

packing

This week I'm packing for...

DISNEY WORLD

We leave Thursday for a week with Yolanda & Shevin and Laz & Emily (Gustavo's siblings).  I'm excited, but let's all say a little prayer that Ella is good and we don't mess up her schedule too much.  I really hope we don't come home with horror stories about the plane ride! 

 I've been looking forward to this vacation all summer, but also dreading it because it means summer is over.  My school meetings start the day after we get home.  It is so sad.