5 visits in 2 months

 

Ella has been sick since November 2nd! Yes, of course there have been healthy days here and there.  There were actually 3 healthy weeks between her sinus infection and pneumonia diagnosis.  We finished her antibiotic for the pneumonia last Monday and five short days later (yes, the day of her birthday party) she had a low grade fever and a runny nose.  I figured she had another virus and gave her Tylenol.  She acted like herself and was sleeping fine so I wasn't too concerned.  I also was reassured by the fact that her 2 year old check up was Monday so I knew she would see a doctor and I could talk about how sick she's been.  Her fever was gone this morning and her nose hasn't been runny so I was surprised when the doctor looked in her ears and found that she has a DOUBLE EAR INFECTION!  This poor girl just can't catch a break.  She has been to the doctor 5 times in 2 short months.  This is her third antibiotic since the end of December.  I hope we can get over this and then finally stay healthy.  We did hear good news though.  Here are Ella's 2 year old stats:

Height: 35 1/2 inches - 89th percentile

Weight: 28 lbs. 11 oz. - 75th percentile

Head Circ: 49.7 cm - 93rd percentile

Ella has become quite a talker these past few months.  She speaks in 3-4 word phrases and sentences.  She can effectively tell us what she wants, needs, likes, and notices. I'm constantly amazed by her memory.  She is a very sweet girl, but is still full of spunk.  She loves to run and play.  She has also started to love watching movies.  Her favorite right now is Toy Story 3, but she loves The Little Mermaid ("Little Erdaid"), Beauty and the Beast, and all things Signing Time.  She constantly talks about her friends, neighbors, and family members.  She loves to read books and sing songs.  Every time we are in the car she asks me to sing songs from the minute we leave the driveway until we park at our destination.  She also dictates whether she wants me to sing loud or quiet.   She is learning her shapes and knows circle, heart, square, diamond, and star.  She knows the names of colors, but can't correctly identify them.  She counts "6,7,8,9,10" or "6,7,8,10."  She is fascinated with letters right now and loves to watch "the frog movie" which is Leapfrog's Letter Factory.  We are constantly surprised by the new things she learns.  We love our little two year old!

She's TWO!

Ella is trying to show 2 fingers.  It still takes a lot of concentration at this point.

Today we celebrated Ella's birthday with family and some friends.  As always, I wanted to do something simple, but even simple can be overwhelming with such a big family!  For days leading up to her birthday Ella loved to talk about her friends and family members who were coming to her party for cookie monster cupcakes.  Ella started getting excited about birthdays when "Five Little Monkey's Bake a Birthday Cake" was her favorite book.  She used to ask me to read it to her several times each day.  That is how she learned the birthday song and that on birthdays we eat cake.  Unfortunately Ella doesn't like to eat cake which is why I decided to have a cookie monster theme.  I figured that way we could have the cake she knew we needed and have cookies for her to enjoy.  I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to get any great pictures, but here is what I got.

 

Of course Ella kept with tradition and refused to even touch her cake again this year.  She did enjoy being sung to though.  Instead of wanting any of the treats I made she just wanted to sneak the valentine's day candy I set out.

 

Ella was shy until she opened presents.  Even then she didn't show much personality, she just told everyone "thank you" as she tried to open and play with the gifts they brought.

 

Before her all of her guests were even gone, Ella informed me that she was ready for a nap.  She had taken one earlier, but was worn out from all of the attention.  She took a nice long nap and woke up just in time to play with Makaylee for the night while John and Alysha went out.

 

The girls had a great time playing with Ella's new toys including this adorable tea set from grandma and grandpa Kramer.

Ella also convinced Makaylee to play her favorite game: run from the living room to the fridge as many times as you can, as fast as you can. Did you notice the adorable twosie birthday jumper Ella has on?  I saw the idea on another blog and got extremely excited when I saw the fabric on clearance at Ikea.  My amazingly talented mom helped me make it for Ella and I love it!

pneumonia

Poor Ella has been sick all winter long.  She had different colds all through November and December.  Christmas weekend she was miserable so we took her in on the 27th and found out she had a sinus infection.   She finished off the antibiotic the first week of January and has been doing well until this Wednesday.  She woke up with a cough and runny nose.  Thursday she just got worse and this morning I noticed she was having trouble breathing.  We took her in and found out she has pneumonia.  She's on an antibiotic and we'll keep monitoring her breathing over the weekend.  We'll go back to the doctor on Monday to see how she's doing.  Poor baby.  She is miserable.  She just keeps saying in a really whiny, pathetic voice "sick" every time she coughs or we wipe her nose.  It is TERRIBLE having a sick baby.

Top 10 of 2010

2010 was an eventful year.  Looking back I can't believe how much happened.  

Here is our top 10 of 2010

10. Gustavo received his scuba certification and was able to go diving over 20 times during his 5 week deployment in the Caribbean.

9.  Ella celebrated her first birthday!  

 

8. We almost sold our townhouse, but ended up renting it instead.

7. I left my dream job as a part time PE teacher at Meadow Elementary to stay at home with my sweet Ella (the best decision I ever could have made).

6. We built our home and moved in July 11th.

5. We immediately went to work trying to make the new house our home.

4. Gustavo traveled all over the United States with his new position as an analyst in counter drug.  He was gone for about 10 weeks in 2010.

3. We had a blast spending a week with the Kramer family in Fairview.

2. We celebrated my 26th birthday by attending The Lion King at the Capitol Theater.

1. The week of Thanksgiving we found out that we are having our second baby in July 2011!

We look forward to a busy and very exciting new year.

heartbeat

Today I went to the doctor to hear my baby's heartbeat!  Everything sounded great.  My due date is July 30th.  We're so excited for our little family to grow.

Much Needed Haircut

Ella has crazy hair.  Part of it is curly while most if it is straight.  In addition, she has multiple cowlicks throughout her hair.  For this reason she has pig tails every day.  Her hair had become pretty long so I wanted to get it cut, but was worried about whether or not it would look good down.  Finally around Christmas time Ella started really fighting me when I'd try to do her hair so for the first time on Christmas Eve we took her out with her hair down.  It looked pretty crazy, but she was happy.  Ever since I've been counting down for this much needed haircut that we finally got today.  Here are the results.

As you can see, I should have gotten it cut MUCH sooner.

The Rundown

We get to celebrate Christmas 4 times each year. Here is this year's rundown:

#1 This year we celebrated Christmas Eve with Abuelo and Abuela.  Ella was so spoiled; she got a pony, slide, and castle.  She couldn't believe all of these new toys belonged to her. 

#2 Christmas morning we woke up and opened presents as a family.  Gustavo taught Ella about Santa and showed her the candy in her stocking along with her presents.  She loved her candy so much that she refused to let go of it until we let her eat some.  Ella was thrilled by the baby doll set Santa left (especially the baby bottle and food).  Ella also got the Beauty and the Beast dvd and hasn't gone a day without asking to watch it.  Up until this point the only thing she has ever cared to watch was Baby Signing Time.  After Ella opened her presents we got dressed and headed down to Provo.
#3 As a tradition, my sisters and I always make Christmas breakfast.  At 10:00 we all met at my parent's house.  We enjoyed eating together and opening presents.  The vacuum and cute headband Grandma and Grandpa bought Ella was a HUGE success (can't you tell?)

#4 As soon as Ella woke up from her short nap at my parent's house we headed down to Nephi.  We arrived around 2:30 and spent the afternoon and evening with Gustavo's dad's family. Yaya, Cary, and Sigfriedo were her from Puerto Rico and they went down to Nephi with Gilda and her two children, Natalie and Robert.  We enjoyed a traditional Puerto Rican meal and then opened presents together.  Again, Ella couldn't believe that people were giving her more things.  Grandma and Grandpa got her a new bike.  At about 7 o'clock we headed back home to finally relax.  It was a great holiday spent with all of our family.

Gustavo's brother Laz was in Virginia for Christmas, but he and Allie came and stayed with us the following week.  Ella fell in love with her uncle "Gaz" and Allie.  She was so spoiled with attention from 4 adults all day long.  She is still sad they are gone and talks about them every day.  We can't wait to see them again soon.