10 months

This past week has not been my favorite. It has been full of whining, screaming, crying, and other terrible behavior. Ella has started throwing tantrums at 10 months! She goes limp and then arches her back until I put her down so she can roll around while screaming at the top of her lungs. It is awful. I thought this started at around two?! I keep trying to tell myself that she is teething in hopes that this behavior won't last long, but there are no real signs of that. I think she is just being extra dramatic. What am I supposed to do? The worst part is that she really only does this when I'm around. Yolanda acted so surprised and just asked, "What is she doing?" when I went to pick Ella up on Thursday and she started throwing a fit while rolling around in Yolanda's living room. Gustavo always says Ella is great until she sees me. What thanks for all that I do for her!

Fortunately she isn't always acting like this. Sometimes she is really adorable. She still LOVES music and dances almost every time she hears it. This past week Ella has started to try more things. Instead of clenching her jaw and sucking in her lips when I offer her food, she has been at least putting it in her mouth before spitting it out. Yes, she is extremely picky. A few days this week she has actually eaten the introduced food. Here is a list of the things we have been successful with at least once in the past 2 months: boiled egg yolk, cheddar cheese, beans, corn, pears, carrots, wheat bread (not white bread though), dry cereal, pasta, peas, apple sauce, all types of treats including peppermint and swedish fish (she would try the candy, but not the diced tomatoes that looked identical to it- how does she know?). A lot of these foods have only been eaten once although they have been introduced a dozen times. She is so incredibly picky, but these last few days she has tried a lot more so I have hope that she'll continue to expand her pallet and become a healthy eater one day. Ella has also become a lot more interested in moving. The last few months she has been pulling herself around by army crawling. A few weeks ago she started adding a few traditional movements in with the army crawling, but this weekend she has been crawling around! She is trying to pull herself up on furniture, but can only get on her knees by herself. She loves to stand up and has a bit of a bruise on her eye from falling down while holding on to her changing table the other night. Yesterday she figured out how to get into a sitting position all by herself. It is exciting to watch her grow and develop even though I know with this new freedom to move comes a lot more potential for trouble!

For Sale

We've decided to try to sell our house. I thought we would live here for at least three more years, but Gustavo feels like we should try to buy a family home while the interest rates are low. Right now we are just trying to sell it ourselves and are asking $159,900. We put the sign out on Friday and made a flyer on Saturday. We have had one person call (we think it was a neighbor trying to size up the competition) and one couple from church wants to come look at it. If we sell we would like to stay in American Fork or move to Lehi since we both work there. We'll keep everyone posted on the process. If you know anyone who is interested send them our way (or to our listing on MLS or KSL)!

LONG day

At 9:30 Wednesday night I started feeling really nauseous. I very rarely throw up so I thought it was odd when I did at 10:00, but figured it was a one time thing. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I spent the whole night throwing up every 15 to 30 minutes. I knew that I couldn't go to work or take care of Ella so at 5:45 I started texting and making some calls. My mom came up at a quarter to 7 and gave me some Finnegren and took care of Ella until Yolanda could come get her. At about 1:30 I figured that I should try to shower. That wasn't a good idea. Standing made me throw up. My mom told me I needed to call the doctor to see if they could prescribe me something. The nurse said I needed to find someone to get me to the Instacare right away. My mom got off work and Yolanda brought Ella back. We finally got to the Instacare at 4:15 and I was feeling miserable. They looked at a few things and decided that I needed an IV because I was so dehydrated. They also gave me some Zofran for the nausea. After all of that I was feeling a ton better, but they wanted a urine sample before letting me go. The urinalysis showed traces of sugar so they checked my blood sugar and saw that it was ridiculously high- 331. They were worried that I had diabetes and that all of my throwing up was my body's reaction. I was told to go to the ER right away to get it checked out. We put Ella to bed at my parent's house right after leaving at 7 and then headed to the ER. My blood sugar was down to 107 when I checked in, but they still wanted to do more blood work. I didn't get back to see the ER doctor until 9 pm. He wanted me to get another IV and more blood work. After 3 hours, so at midnight, the doctor told me everything looked good and that I just had a virus. He prescribed me Zofran and told me to stay hydrated. I was able to sleep through the night (well the 6 hours Ella let me sleep) and am feeling much better today which is a good thing since Gustavo comes home TONIGHT! I love teaching PE, but maybe teaching all the kids is exposing me to way too many germs. I have never been so sick in my entire life. Today is my 8th sick day since school began in August.

9 months

I took Ella to her 9 month appointment today and here are her current measurements:

Length: 29.5 in - 97th percentile

Weight: 19 lbs. 11 oz. - 75th percentile

Head Circ: 46 cm - above 90th percentile

This month Ella has discovered the mirror.  She LOVES to look at herself.  When she catches a glimpse of herself she gets really excited and scoots over to the mirror as quickly as she can while squealing.  Once she gets there she kicks and hits the mirror while talking to herself.  She even gives herself kisses. 

If Ella is sad or whining I just put her in front of the mirror and she lights up.

really?

This morning I was driving down Main Street in AF on my way to work.  When I was stopped at the new light on 300 West I noticed that a police car was behind me with its lights on.  I pulled over as the light turned green while trying to think of any possible reason I was being pulled over.  New registration stickers were on the license plate and I'm always really conscious of my speed.  I rolled down the window and the officer greeted me by saying, "I clocked you at 41 mph in a 30 zone two blocks back at about 100 West."  To which I asked, "Where the speed limit changes to 35?"  The officer stated, "1 block before."  ONE BLOCK BEFORE. While he took my information to write up a ticket I couldn't believe it.  The speed limit changed 10 seconds (yes, I went back and counted) after he clocked me so I would have been going 41 mph in a 35 zone.  I had tears running down my face when he came back to give me the ticket.  While I was signing it he said, "You need to slow down."  Seriously?  Did he really need to say that?  I can't believe that he ticketed me for speeding one block before the speed limit changed.  I always try to drive within 5 miles of the speed limit.  I've never been pulled over for speeding and now I have to pay almost 200 dollars. It is honestly $90 for the ticket and $100 for traffic school.  I can think of so many better ways to spend that money.   What bad luck.  I can't stop thinking about it...

halfway

Hi Daddy!  We hope you had a great Veterans Day.  You'll have to tell us all about Gettysburg.  We love you and are so happy that your training is half way over!  We can't wait for you to come home.

swinging

She is way too cute.