Jan 28

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Bang Bang!

Jan 26

Ellena is 6 months old today! I can't believe it! We are all doing great, although Pops is very ill at the moment. Yuck. It's hard on everyone - I'm sure he misses cuddling with the kids, and the Momma too. :)

Ellena is loving her solid food. She has had rice cereal, banana, avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal and yogurt. Next up, silken tofu. Evan loved this and continues to love tofu to this day. We shall see what the girl thinks. I'm also thinking mango, pear and apple soon...

She is getting stronger every day. She likes being propped up on the futon and watches us or plays with her friends. She also gets bored very quickly when I place her on her blanket looking into the kitchen. It's where she is a lot of the time, so she just wants a change in scenery. But I can't help it - if the dishes or cooking have to get done, it's the only place to put her! Sometimes I switch it up by wheeling in her high chair and buckling her in for a front row seat. She has been doing some scooching, but nothing major. She can also roll over and over and get places. Or she will roll to her tummy, roll back to her back - back and forth and stay in one place.

One of the funnest new things that she does is giggle. Before, she would only laugh when we tickled her. Now, she will laugh when she thinks something/someone is funny. Evan gets many chuckles out of her. For some reason, she thinks it's hilarious when he does his Jim Mora Coors Light 'Playoffs?!' commercial impersonation. "Playoffs?! Don't talk about playoffs! Playoffs? You kiddin' me? Playoffs?!" Classic.

Big, exciting news about Evan. He's been sleeping in BVDs at night! I take him to the potty before I go to bed and the rest of the night he goes on his own. What a big boy he is! I'm so proud of him! Now, he's telling me that Ellena has to stop wearing diapers too and go to the potty on her own. I told her she can't even crawl yet. So he said she should WALK to the potty. Duh, Momma.

Gung Hee Fat Choy, everyone!

Why She Cries

So besides the usual reasons why all babies cry (hungry, tired, overtired, dirty diaper, etc.) I've noticed a few interesting things about Ellena and her crying.

The other night while Evan was showering and Ellena was getting her bath, Evan had a meltdown and started bawling. I was watching Ellena's face and it seemed like she was trying to empathize with him and she started crying too. As if, because her brother was sad, she was sad too.

Yesterday Evan and Ellena woke up from their naps around the same time. Evan was being sensitive and wanted me to carry him downstairs. I placed Ellena in her crib and told her that I would come right back for her. She watched me pick Evan up and turn my back on her. As we walked away from her, she started crying as if her feelings were so hurt and she didn't want to be left out. Heartbreaking!

Here's Ellena with her lovey - Lambie. Aunty Susan gave this to Ellena when she was born, but I only introduced it to her yesterday. And she loves it! I place it in with her carseat and she holds on to her and snuggles with her. So cute. To help Evan feel involved, so that he doesn't just take it away from her, I let him name her. He could choose between Sheepie and Lambie. And he went with Lambie. :)

Jan 12 Pics

Here's Ellena giving a toothy grin.



Here's Evan showing his "BIG Belly!"

Happy Birthday, Pops!

Growing and Growing

Ellena continues to grow so quickly. She's doing well with her solids and has tried rice cereal, banana and avocado. She has picked up on the mechanics of eating and thoroughly enjoys it. The last couple days she has been a grouch. I'm not sure if she's teething (I don't see anything under her gums like the last time) or if she's needing less sleep during the day, but she was fussy during her wakeful hours. I just didn't know what to do with her! Today she was back to her more pleasant self, after only a one hour nap in the morning. We'll see how she does this afternoon - both kids have been down for 2 hours so far... Don't jinx it!

The last couple weeks I feel like she has grown a ton. We weighed her and she's over 17 pounds! Holy cow! I'm having a hard time carrying her cause my arms get fatigued. :)

Happy New Year!

Hoping 2009 is filled with much joy and good fortune for everyone!

We ended 2008 with a big step for Ellena - she got to eat rice cereal! She has been eyeing out our food for a month now, so we started preparing ourselves for the big event. Then, Evan got wind of it and he would not stop asking to feed Ellena. "Momma, I think Ellena wants to eat rice cereal!" After hearing this for a few hours straight, we finally dug deep into the coat closet to pull out the old high chair. She got to have 2 "meals" of rice cereal - first at lunch and then she also joined us for dinner. I'm sure she was quite tickled to be sitting at the dinner table with everyone.

She did really well and ate much more than Evan did when he first tried it. I had some old bananas, so I mashed them up and will try them out this weekend. Fun times!

So to honor our heritages, I made almond cookies yesterday (Chinese) and Evan and Pops popped fireworks (Chinese). This morning, got up early and started cooking. We had mochi soup (ozoni) for good luck (Japanese), somen noodles, and our osechi tray purchased from Uwajimaya that comes with all the traditional good luck/good fortune/wisdom/fertility, etc, etc etc foods. (As you can see, Chinese are all about New Year's Eve and Japanese are all about New Year's day.) Pops and Evan are now at Home Depot and Freddie's for their adventure - getting parts to install a chin-up bar and last minute groceries for our prime rib dinner tonight! And I get to chill a little, clean up the house and let baby girl take a good morning nap in her crib - what a life!