letters to my daughter: Month 11

Dear Munchie,

Short for munckin!! You are 11 months old TODAY! Girly, this month has been so fun with you....you are such a joy to us and make us smile and laugh each day. You're always surprising us too!

You are currently obsessed with your push cart! And it is your fastest mode of transportation to get all around the house. Soon, (we think) you will abandon it for steps on your own! You've also figured out how to get up on the couch and love the remotes. We always give you the one that operates the dvd player so we don't end up with the tv scrambled in some way we can't fix!

Your hair is getting longer and you have a little wisp that comes down almost to your nose that I've begun to clip back with little clip. Oh, I can't wait for getting to give you pigtails and braids eventually! People have said it's time for a trim of that but NO way!! Not yet!

You are always babbling, and making noises now. Especially in the car. I also love how every day when I come home, as soon as you see me walk in the door you get SOOO excited that you actually screech! with excitement! It is the cutest and makes my heart melt.

The tupperware drawer is also one of your favorite spots to be! We hang out in the kitchen a lot. You eating habits have changed a little bit but I sneak things into your yogurt or cereal to make sure you are getting a little bit of everything. I think it's the texture of some things that makes them come right back out of your mouth. It's cute but I also want to make sure you are getting a good mix of all types of food. Your favorite food is still yogurt for sure, but beans are a close second, followed by cherrios or puffs!

I always make sure I keep a stash of cherrios or puffs in my purse when we are out and about. Speaking of being out and about, we have become "mall walkers" recently. About 3 mornings week we head to the mall to get in 5 miles!! before the stores open. We are the youngest mall walkers by about 35-60 years I would say! 35 for me and 60 years for you! But those other mall walkers sure do get a kick out of your smiles and scowls too! Yes, sweet girl, you still scowl randomly at times, but it always make me laugh. Taking after your mama there.

Another fact about you right now is you are actually down to 1 nap a day. You get up at about 7am each morning, sometime after lunch go down for a nap that ranges between 1.5 to 3 hours and then go to bed around 6:30pm each evening. I think I am finally ready to blog about your sleeping at night (and not be afraid to jinx it) and say that you sleep through the night until about 6:45-7am the next morning. Sometimes we hear a peep or a short cry out in the middle of the night, but only that and we don't have to go in your room to comfort you, you always seem to fall right back to sleep. I honestly love this schedule. I get good quality time with you in the morning, especially now not having a morning nap and then your dad always gets good quality time with you in the late afternoon/evening before you go to bed, and your dad and I get some evening time for each other as well. I think this works great for all 3 of us!

One of my most favorite things to do is go in a peek at you before I go to bed myself each night. I'll adjust your blankets or just stand there and stare for a few minutes. It feels like a parental privilege to get to do that. Watching your child sleep is good for the soul!

I can't believe it's only one more month until your 1 year birthday! I am having fun planning and preparing for your party. We are going to make it really about celebrating you and your 1st year of life! I am so happy that we both will have these letters to look back on in years to come about this time too.

Sweet girl, you amaze me and inspire me each and every day. You move my heart! I love you so so much and are so thankful I get to be your mama.

love,

mama

p.s. this is my new favorite picture of you. You are in "attack the camera" mode!

Recycling

n our house, it seems like we go through a container or 2 of plain or greek yogurt weekly! I save them cause of course, there are many uses for such things! See some examples below...

We've got a fearless girl on our hands!

a little someone got creative and got her self up on the couch while I was in the other room. I couldn't help but just watch her and see what happened (camera in hand 0f course!). That pantless booty majorly upped the cuteness factor of it all too!

Love this last one!

I love that she's just peering outside, checking things out!

and I love those rolly thighs :)

mama-cuddles!

I love these pictures. They are not perfect, they cut off our heads but the capture so much about the moments. I love getting to play with my girl, and that we don't let where we are stop us! Kitchen floor, eh, no big deal! I love that she crashed on to me and snuggled me. I love my hand wrapping around her tiny body. She is mine! I love how in the second picture my smile is in it. A smile that says so much to me. I love these moments. I love being her mama!

nice winter day for a stroll!

My girly and I on a morning walk. We stopped on her daddy's and my special bridge. The one we spent many of our dating hours on, our initials are carved into, Matt proposed on, and we took wedding pictures on. I hope this bridge will eventually hold special memories for our girl too.

For now, it seemed like a great place to stop for a picture (even though you can't really tell we're on the bridge!)

Getting things done...

Ellie has discovered the tupperware drawer!!

This is her new fave spot when I am doing the dishes.....

or anytime really :)

So much for keeping it in an orderly manner! ha!

Sometimes I'll keep her in her highchair

while I do the dishes or cook something,

she LOVES being able to play with all the lids, containers, etc! Silly girl!

cute girl with the morning bed head!

On those nights where it's 5pm and dinner needs to be made

but the girly needs her mama to hold her, this works for us!

(Good thing we have our ninja turtles to stand guard over the stove!)

All the 1st's.......alternatively titled: Am I crazy?!

Oh the 1st child! And of course like most parents, I can't help but make little mental notes and memories of all Ellie's firsts....you know 1st outfit, 1st bath, 1st time eating food, 1st airline wings, 1st steps! etc, etc.......but I have to admit I also finding myself even getting sentimental about some of the other, shall we call them, uh? smaller firsts, yeah that sounds good....

Case in point: last night Matt and I noticed one of Ellie's fingers was red and irritated from what seemed to be a blister worn off so we decided to put a little neosporin and a band-aid on it to help it heal (can you see where this is going??).....Yes, I sure did think to myself this morning, when I removed said band-aid, that maybe I should keep it to commemorate her first "owie"!

SERIOUSLY!!! And I don't think I can even admit some of the other random things/1sts I've also thought about saving!!

Maybe I should have went with the alternative title up there! Oh, and don't worry friends, you WON'T find that band-aid taped inside her baby book when you visit my house! Because of course, all the really special stuff gets put away in pretty box in her closet! hehe!

Oh, and I think it's only fair if you take a turn to share! What's the "craziest" item of your child's that YOU saved to remember a 1st! De-lurk and confess!

And because a post just isn't as fun without a picture, here's one of Ellie taking a bath in her Great-Grandma's tub, which I had to have because I took a bath in that tub when I was her age!! So not a first but one of those things you make your kid do because you did it too!

I love being a crazy parent!

Ellie's 1st Christmas in Pictures!

Don't worry, those aren't all for her! There were 5 grandkids and 8 great-grandkids there!

There's that new smile I mentioned in her 10 mo. letter!

The packaging was way more fun then the presents! Typical I think!

Love the Christmas jammies from Grandma Lida!

Baby Clause! Her great-grandparents picked out this little Christmas outfit for her! So cute!

I wish I would have taken more pics!! But I've got tons of memories in my heart!

letters to my daughter: Month 10

Dear Ellie June,

10 months sweet girl! I can't believe it!! What I can believe is that I am late with this letter again though :)This past month has been so much fun! We just got back from celebrating Christmas in California with your Grandma Lida, Great-Grandparents Linnartz, and almost all of our family on my mom's side. Celebrating your first Christmas was so much fun and we made lots of memories for sure!

Another big milestone for this month with you was taking you on your very 1st airplane ride to California. You did great and even got your own set of wings! You especially loved taking off on the flight home, not wanting to nurse but rather bounce up and down in my lap looking out the window and making excited noises! We were shocked and also thought it was so cute and funny.

At 10 months, you now officially have your top 2 teeth, making that 4 total. And it looks like you will have your mama's gap but don't worry girly, we will get you braces if need be!! And before your senior year in highschool too :) You also are eating everything, and adding more "grown up people" food all the time, like spaghetti or whatever were having for dinner some nights. I think your favorite food is greek yogurt for sure!

As far as moving around, on Dec. 28th, you took your first steps and we were able to capture it on video too! (not the 1st, 1st official ones-but the next time you did it as we got the camera out RIGHT away!!) You are now taking steps from couch to toy, or ottoman or us and it is so fun to see how you do it......slowly and with your arms out, followed by a huge smile for yourself!

Smiling is also what you are doing most of the time. You are doing this squinchy face popeye the sailor man smile I call it but it melts me! Also, you have decided with those top and bottom teeth you like to grind them, which makes your dad and I freak out a bit and also reminds us of nails on a chalkboard kind of sound, so I hope this passes soon!

You're now saying "Da-da" even more than papa and sadly, I can't get you to say mama anymore! But I'm sure it will come back eventually :)

For Christmas, you got not 1 but 2 baby dolls, which are your 1st and you love to drag them around with you and also give them lots of kisses! (Or really just suck on their heads! hmmmm??) It is cute though to see how much you love them.

Baby, You are such a gift to me, to us! We love you so much and are so blessed by you as our daughter! You continue to amaze us and fill our hearts so full!

I love you sweet girl!

Love,

mama

P.S. I also wanted to add, just for remembering sake, that your current nickname (mostly from your dad) is definitely "Boogs!" Sorry girl!! :)