Grace was in all her steps. Heaven in her eye. In every gesture. dignity and love. -- John Milton

Before I had a child I believed that several things were more about nurture than nature. One of them being whether or not your child chose to play with stereotypical girl toys or want to dress girly. I felt that if we exposed Ella to gender neutral toys as well as both boy and girl toys, that she would not navigate towards girly things or go through the "princess" phase. That is exactly what we did, expose her to gender neutral toys as well as girl and boy toys with not favoring one over another until Ella was able to start choosing her toys herself. I actually really hoped when I had her that she would never go through the princess phase. Im finding that the older Ella gets the more true the saying is "girls will be girls, boys will be boys". The more she grows the more she navigates towards girly things and really truly is a girl at heart. She chooses toys such as my little pony, la la loopsy, barbies, dolls, dollhouse, strawberry shortcake, the list goes on and on. Im also always so amazed that while these toys are geared towards much older children, she plays with them so appropriately and just as they should be played with.
 On a daily basis you will find her dancing to music......

and yes, at times doing it naked.

Dressing up in dresses, tutus, and ballerina slippers, and asking on a regular basis to have her nails painted.

Also, with the new baby coming I see the little nurturer that she is and will be. When she talks about the baby and all that she will help with, her face just lights up.

Don't get me wrong, my girly girl still loves jumping in muddy puddles, playing with worms, and running and climbing. While I hoped that she would never go through the princes phase, I love seeing her "come into her own", choose her likes and dislikes.  Everyday I see her grow little more into the girl she is and one day the woman she will be.

All smiles

Ella asked that I take a picture of the smiley face that she drew tonight so I figured that I would share it with all of you. While its probably unrecognizable to most, she was pretty darn proud of herself.

19 weeks...

I finally feel like Ive popped and am finally looking pregnant. I look so forward to the stage when instead of looking fat, you finally look pregnant, yet are not yet to that super pregnant, uncomfortable stage. Im not, however, looking forward to the stage where I can no longer sleep on my stomach. Which is just right around the corner. I also am coming to terms that clearly the second trimester will give me no relief from this utter exhaustion. Other than the exhaustion and frequent and suddenly painful ligament, Im feeling great.

She must have moved into a position that I cannot feel her kicking. There has not been much movement the last two weeks. We are looking forward to our 20 week, diagnostic ultrasound next Wednesday. The 20 week ultrasound will do measurements, make sure everything is on track, and look for any abnormalities.

Ella becomes more and more excited about this baby everyday. There is not a day that goes by that she doesn't talk about the baby. She frequently asks if the baby is still in there (in my stomach) and when she will be here. She has become obsessed with the baby's at the sitters, at stores, and on tv. Anytime she sees a baby anywhere she squeals "ohhhh look at that baby, its sooo cute". That is typicallyl followed by "can we have that baby"?

All of us are already very very in love with this little mango in my tummy...

Ella would like to say.....

Today is my mom's birthday.
We wish you a very Happy Birthday! We hope you had a great day and we love you!

(please excuse the sideways videos. I couldnt find the FLIP video camera and my phone would not let me flip the video into the right position)

So I had never heard of a King Cake until about a week ago. As described in card above, King Cake is a Louisiana tradition during Mardi Gras. The cake is shaped like a crown (pictured above) and a little plastic baby is hidden in the cake, whoever gets the piece with the baby is king or queen for the day and receives luck. I have been hearing about it on the radio, news, etc so I was thrilled when my boss showed up with one at work today. I was so hoping I would get the baby. Well come to find out, Servatti's puts the baby to the side for the person buying the cake to place inside and my boss did not realize that! So boooo hiss, no baby in our cake.
Megan and I needed a good laugh during our lunch break so we were playing around with the camera. We got exactly what we needed and literally were crying we were laughing so hard.

Slacker...

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. I have been super busy with my new job and working long hours. It also is amazing what a difference working five days a week instead of four makes. With us spending the last two weekends working on Ella's new room along with grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc. on the weekends, Im finding it hard to find any time in between. All of that on top of pregnancy makes me pretty exhausted and Im in bed by 9 most nights, including the weekend.

This past weekend Grandma Joyce came down to help finish up Ella's new room. We are still working on wiring the chandelier in the room (ran into some complications last night) but other than that we are done. Once the light is up I will take pictures of the finished product to post. Now Ella's former room/baby's room is a complete disaster. All the stuff we were storing in Ella's current room ended up there so that will be this coming weekend's project.

Here are a few pics from this past weekend (all pics are unedited cause Im too lazy to get off the couch and my work laptop at the moment. No editting system on this computer)

Grandma Joyce brought some yummy cupcakes from whole foods

While we were at Hobby Lobby shopping for room decor, Ella found a wood lizard she wanted to paint

Ella had abandoned this doll several months ago; however, ever since she found out she was going to be a big sister, spends lots of time with this baby

"Where there is love there is life"

A couple weeks ago we bought Ella a Beta fish as an early Valentines present. She picked out the bowl, a pink castle, pink plant, and pink, purple, and red rocks for the bowl. She named the red Beta fish Valentine. She sat on the table with him quite a bit that first day. She talked to him and tried to include him in what she was doing.

In the past, I have literally had Beta fish live for years. Well of course when buying your child her first fish, luck would have it that the damn thing dies exactly one week later. She saw me scooping him out and asked what was wrong. I said oh the fish got sick. Her response "Awwww poooor fish". Then two minutes later, "Will you go buy a new one now?" I have yet to follow through with that request.

Tonight Ella and I celebrated Valentines Day at home alone since Tom was at school..
Tom and I got her a few books, stickers, card, and suckers for Valentines Day

Daddy left Ella a heart cookie cake for after dinner

He left me a heart cake from a local bakery as well as two Valentine mix CD's. I know it sounds corny but a few of the love songs on the CD brought me to tears. It really was a super sweet gesture.

Ella made daddy a Valentine she can give to him in the morning

She is love.....

Our girl is growing up

So we decided with the baby coming to give Ella a new room. The baby will be taking over her crib and therefore decided the sooner we can make the transition, the better. Sunday Grandma Joyce brought down my twin bed I used as a child. I bought Ella new bedding, dresser, curtains, and pictures from Pottery Barn Kids. I could not believe her excitement. She played in her new room all day on Sunday and talked about it non stop.

I was so proud of her last night which was her first night in her big girl bed. She talked and sang in bed for about an hour but not once did she complain or try to get out of bed. She fell asleep and we did not hear a peep out of her until 7am. She was never much of a mover in her crib so we decided to try the first night without rails and she stayed right in bed without getting out or falling out! She truly is an amazing little girl. I am so pleased to see the wonderful and loving little girl she is growing into, yet at the same time it makes me sad to see how quickly she is growing. Time is flying by so quickly.

Next weekend I still have to hang pictures and a new chandelier.

Winston approves

All tucked in

I also do not remember if I mentioned on here that Ella also night trained back in December and no longer wears diapers at nap or bedtime! We are thrilled to say that since the day we removed diapers at night she has only had one small dribble accident. If she needs to go in the middle of the night she will call out that she has to go pee. Way to go Ella!

And as Flashback Friday, Here's a belly pic from 17 weeks pregnant with Ella

AHHCHOOOOO.....

I have a sick girl at home today

She is absolutely miserable. Lots and lots of coughing, runny nose, congestion. She looks and sounds awful. She attempted to play several times but that only last about five minutes before she had to lay back down. Lots of crying (which never happens) and laying around

And lots of playing on the kindle, which she absolutely loves and does amazingly well with navigating. She loves her touchy books on the kindle which are interactive books that read the words to her as well as she can touch things in the book and they do things

Berries and Bliss

While it has been a very busy and exhausting last week, I could not be happier to be home. This goofy girl is the main reason......

She makes me laugh and smile. And hearing her say "Im so glad you're home mama" at least once a day, most days more, warms my heart.

Soooooo.....

WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE WE ARE..............

Our second little girl will be arriving around July 20th. Yep, you heard me right, another girl!

Ella is so excited about becoming a big sister. She has talked about it constantly since we told her months ago. She talks about how she is going to be a big sister and how she is going to be a big helper. She often randomly asks strangers if they have a baby in their belly and often tells them I have one in mine. Before I left for Nebraska she asked if I would be taking the baby with me, lol.  She had taken a break from her baby dolls for quite awhile; however, since telling her a baby is on the way, her baby doll play has picked up quite a bit. 

We have been reading big sister books which she loves. 

Several weeks ago she announced to us that the baby's name is Zoe. I have no idea where she came up with or heard this name; however, she is dead set on this will be the baby's name. When we found out on Friday that we were having another girl, Ella refused to allow Tom and I even discuss other names. Each time we said another name, she would become upset, cry, and say "no the baby's name is Zoe". We currently have three possible names and I have to admit that Zoe is now in the running. 

While this baby was a COMPLETE surprise for Tom and I we have become quite excited for her arrival. We know that Ella desperately needs a sibling and know she will be the best big sister!