Yes, that is the nickname of choice right now! Sorry girly :) Another month, another letter, and late as usual. I just need to accept it! I know you won't care one day when you read these that they were sometimes a little late!
I thought it would be fun to write about a typical day with you right now. It will be neat to do this from time to time and see how it changes. So here goes:
You wake up about 7:00-7:30.....sometimes a little earlier but as long as you aren't crying or really upset, I don't go into to your room and get you until at least 7:00. I am always greated by jumping up and down in your crib! It's super cute to see your excitement. We go straight to the couch to catch up with Matt & Meredith while you nurse for a little bit. When you finish you always sign to eat. I put you in your highchair and cut up 1/2 a banana for you to eat while I "cook" the rest of your breakfast, which currently is a Bob's Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal that the other half of the banana goes into. After breakfast it's a diaper change and then dressed for the day.
I usually leave the each nights dishes until the morning and I do these next while you play in the tupperware drawer or lug around your current "purse" (which could really be anything that has a handle or strap you can hook on your shoulder). You love to put things in and take them out of your "purse" over and over again. You also like to pull my apron down from where it hangs, carry shoes around the house, and check your high chair for crumbs to scavenge during this time!
Then we are either off to run an errand, meet up and play with a friend, go for a walk, or to story time at the library. Some days we just stay home and find new places to play in the house, recently it was the space between the closet and the bed in our room! Anything and anywhere can be fun with you girly!
By 9:30ish most days you are ready for a snack, sometimes a string cheese, sometime some raisins or a piece of mama's homemade bread. I've learned not to leave the house with out rations!
You always seem to be ready for lunch at about 11:15, I think I could even set my watch by you on that one. A little whining and I ask you if you wanna eat? and I always am answered with the eat sign and you walking to your highchair.
At 11:30 your Grandma Miller shows up to watch you. Somedays when I say "bye-bye" I get blown kisses, somedays I get tears and arms reaching for me! I know it's hard but have also found it's best if I just leave quickly and wave back to you when I am out the door. Your Grandma tells me you are always done crying by the time I start the car, so I know you're fine. Besides, I know you always have so much fun with your Grandma! You and I are both so blessed she takes care of you each day!
I know you play a lot while I am gone! I hear about your new tricks all the time! Most recently climbing up onto the shelf of the tv cabinet that holds your toys. I've seen it too and you are always soooo proud of yourself to be up in there. Your Grandma tells me you also are pretty consistently ready for your nap at 1:00. I am not sure how long you sleep to be honest and I think it varies from day to day.
Your dad gets home about 4:45 and spends some one on one time with you until I get there. Somedays when I get home you greet me at the door with a huge smiles and shrieks of delight! Let me tell you that is the best homecoming welcome ever! Other times, I walk in to find you playing next to your dad and just watch you for a second or two before you turn around and realize I am there, but when you do, I get the same response as if you were at the door! It is the best sweet girl!!
By then it's about 5:15 and you are ready for dinner! I put you in your chair and get you started with some food, while I make dinner for your dad and I. You eat most of your dinner while I am cooking ours since you are ready by that time. Sometimes you hang out in your highchair while I finish up cooking or sometimes you get out and play some more but when your dad and I sit down, we always put you back in your chair and pull you up to the table with us. You always want some of what we're eating as well. In fact, tonight you ate almost 1/2 of my dinner!
After dinner, we usually strip off some of your clothes or just let you run around in your diaper for a bit until it's time for jammies. By 6:45 or 7:00, we can tell your tired and it's time to get ready for bed. One of us will change you, double up your cloth diaper and put your jams on.
Then I get to do one of the most special parts of my day, a time when I just really feel like a mama, I soak it up. We plug in your night light, layout your soft fuzzy blanket in your crib that you like to lay on top of, turn on the white noise and I settle us in the chair in your room. You nurse and we rock. I rub your back, you stare into my eyes, and it is nothing but you and I in that moment. It's quiet and full of so much. Our nighttime routine only lasts about 10 minutes but I love every second of it. Once you are done nursing, you snuggle on my chest for just a minute and then I lift you into your crib. I lay you down and you always turn your head towards the wall and position you hand a certain way and I cover you with your baby blanket and my own baby blanket from when I was a baby too. It is the perfect ending to each of our days.
And there's just one last thing I do each and every night before I finally go to bed, which is creep back into your room, turn on your monitor, re-adjust your blankets if I can with out waking you!, and just get one last look of my sleeping Ellie girl. I love to watch you sleep. I love watching you awake and on the go too, but watching your child sleep peacefully is just one of the neatest things and greatest blessings. I can't wait to talk to you about it one day after your experience this as a mother for yourself.
Ellie, my days with you are amazing! Sometimes there're hard, sometimes there's tears but what outweighs all of that is the richness that they add to my life in every way. I am beyond blessed and so privledged to be your mother!
A little bit more about you at 14 months:
-You have been walking for about 1 months now! It is so much fun!
-As of today's discovery, you apparently have 10 teeth! I thought there were only 8 but we discovered 2 more coming through on top halfway back. They do look a little "fang-ish" and I am pretty sure you will need braces one day knowing both your dad and my dental history! We'll see :)
-Your hair is growing so much! Yes, you have a little bit of a mullet but I just can't cut it yet!
-Besides saying mama and dada and babbling ALL.DAY.LONG :) you also say Banana!! It is so cute, and I think we are considering this your official first word since mama and dada are kind of a given.
-You are back to hating bath time, we can't really figure that one out.
-You love to bring us books and sit in our lap and look at them, you don't really sit long enough for us to read them to you, but I also find you "reading" on your own quite a bit.
-You love to give kisses and are getting the hang of closed mouth kisses now though sometimes I still get a big wet one in the mornings :)
-Like I said before, you are all about anything that can be a purse as well as necklaces right now.
-Your personality just comes out more and more each day and it is sooo sweet. You can been serious too and are very observant of people in public and most of the time they have to work for your smiles, but when you give them they always love it and say how cute you are! duh! :)
Baby girl, I love you with all my heart! You are and will always be one of my most favorite favorite things! I love you Ellie June.
love,
mama
