Week 17

Well, it's another week in the life of a baby... busy, busy, busy! :) This week we actually weren't very busy, we didn't even go anywhere! Elena did go back to daycare, because I had to go back to work. We also had our last Christmas with the Looten family when the Quincy Lootens came into town on Sunday. Mommy is a bad mommy, and she forgot to bring her camera, so there aren't any pictures of that Christmas! But the coolest thing happened! We were all sitting around talking and Elena was laying on the floor on her stomach. All of a sudden, something whacked my knee. I looked down, and Elena had bumped into my knee, and was now laying there ON HER BACK! So she had rolled over! We tried to get her to do it again, but she just screamed because she didn't want to do tummy time anymore. But, since then she's done it a couple more times. She can't do back to front yet, but it's still pretty awesome!

Aunt Jessica came into town this week, too, so Elena got to spend all day Wednesday with Aunt Jessica and Aunt Ruthie instead of going to the daycare. They had lots of fun together, and Elena showed them a whole new meaning to the term "yak" because she went through about 5 outfits in the course of the day! They took lots of pictures, but I'll have to post them later, because Jess has them all.

Elena also got to eat her first rice cereal this week, which was pretty hilarious. I have a video of it, which I will post later. We took the cereal with us to Grandma & Grandpa Price's house while we had our last Christmas with Jess. That way I could feed her, while Jess took pictures and Ruth videotaped it! It was pretty cute, and I will post pictures and video later!
Meanwhile, here are a few cute pictures that I did take this week...

Aunt Jessica brought Elena LOTS of clothes, but this snow suit was one of the cutest things! Even Elena liked it, except...

...she couldn't seem to find her fingers, which she chews on CONSTANTLY now!

Ellen gave Elena this cute dress way before Christmas, but I lost it... so I found it this week and wanted to take some cute pictures of her in it... she cooperated for a second or two,

and then there was much thrashing and screaming (check out the blurs that are her hands and feet!)

For Christmas, Aunt Jessica got Elena a bumbo seat, so now she can sit up! She looks like such a big girl! The seat was perfect for feeding her, and she loves sitting in it. She just looks around, and stares at her toes!

Sitting in the bumbo gives her a whole new perspective on her butterflies!

Elena is also enjoying her tummy time more now. I was trying to get her to roll over here, but instead she just stared at herself in the mirror. It was pretty cute, as is everything else she does! :)

Elena is growing up so fast, we were talking about all of the little baby things that she doesn't do anymore- she doesn't raise her hand randomly ("Elena has a question"), she doesn't sunbathe, or do bird lips, lots of things that she just kind of stopped doing. But she does so much that's fun now! She looks right at you, and smiles, and laughs (sometimes), sucks on her fingers, sits up, holds her head up, and (the cutest), she rubs her blanket all over her face when she's tired. So it's sad to think about some of the stuff she used to do that was so cute, but it's fun to see all the new things! They come faster and faster!

Stay tuned for pictures from Jessica's visit, and of the first rice cereal!! :)

Week 16

After the craziness of the last couple of weeks, week 16 was a pretty calm week for Miss Elena, and the rest of us... and it was much needed! :) Great-Grandma & Grandpa Price were here for awhile, and we went to Springfield for the last Christmas celebration at Grandma De & Grandpa Don's. It was a flying trip to Springfield, and poor Elena was pretty exhausted, so she was a little cranky. But we had fun visiting, and Elena got to meet all of her second cousins and great aunt and uncles.

With Great-Grandma De...

Helping Grandma Price read her card...

And passed out in Great-Grandpa Don's arms

For New Year's we went roller skating with the youth, then to the Watch Night service at church. We had a blast, and Elena was wonderful! She talked and danced (yes, danced, see video below for her dancing to a little Britney Spears) her way through the roller skating, then slept through the Lord's Supper service.

On New Year's Day, we invited everyone over to watch the MU bowl game against Arkansas. Elena dressed for the day in a lovely tiger suit! Unfortunately, she pooped on it halfway through, and had to have a wardrobe change. But we all had a great time hanging out and watching an AWESOME game!

With Aunt Ruthie, hanging out in the tiger suit!

Watchin' the game with Grandpa Price
Just for fun, we tried on the monkey leash... I mean "safety harness."
After the wardrobe change, Elena tried on Uncle Charlie's stinky hat!

Fun parties, but lots of relaxing were the themes for this week! We did have one really rough night. Wednesday night Elena woke up at about 1:30, and screamed and screamed and screamed the rest of the night. She'd fall asleep for a little while, but if I laid her down, she'd scream again. So she and I dozed for the rest of the night on the couch, and both stayed home Thursday morning. But she's feeling better now, and almost 4 months old! It's hard to believe- she'll be eating cereal before much longer.

Weeks 14 & 15

Well, it was bound to happen and now it has! I just didn't have time to make a post last week, so here are two weeks combined! With Christmas and break and the general craziness of the holidays, I never had a chance to sit down. But today I have some time off, so here are the best pictures from the last 2 weeks.

She's gotten so much better at holding her head up! It's amazing how much stronger she gets every day.

Her new trick: she's trying to roll over.

She can only get onto her side, but she lays there and sucks on her fist and talks to herself. It's really funny to watch. Certainly can't leave her laying on the couch or anything anymore! She will flail herself right off.

We went to Grandma & Grandpa Looten's house in Springfield for the weekend before Christmas. Mommy forgot to pack a church outfit for Sunday AND Monday, so we had to open a present early. We found this really adorable outfit, that started out with some serious high-rise pants...
And ended up looking so adorable that we had to have ourselves a little photo shoot...This is Elena right before she yakked on Uncle Tim. He was holding her and she spit up just a little in her mouth, so it wouldn't have been a big deal. But then she sneezed, and blew cottage cheese chunks all over him. It was pretty hilarious.
She was a stinky baby (from all the yakking) so she had to get a bath in the sink. Kinda like diaper changes, it took every woman in the house to get the bath taken care of!
But she's so adorable, who would want to miss giving her a bath?!

We finally got the four generations of Lootens together for a photo op...

We opened presents with the Lootens on Christmas Eve... guess who got the most presents?! :)
Christmas morning at the Price's... has a santa hat ever looked cuter?
Great-Grandma and Grandpa Price came to visit for the weekend after Christmas, so we went to Aunt Ellen's for dinner, and had some good conversations with Grandpa Price!

Well, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I've gotten to spend a lot more time home with Elena since I have Christmas break off. She really is changing so fast. She's been going through a little "nursing strike" (they really call it that) where she would arch her back and scream instead of nursing. I guess she wanted to eat out of a bottle, since it's so much easier! But I out-stubborned her, and she's settled back into our routine now. As the pictures show, she really has started trying to roll over now. I know she's got a lot longer before she really makes it over, but it's awful cute. She also has decided to really focus on sucking on her hands. She tries to get both of them in her mouth at once, which is pretty entertaining. She will pull her hands up to her chest and stare at them, then try to jam both in her mouth at once. I also think it's funny because when I first started taking her to the daycare there was a girl there who would sit in the swing and pull her blanket up over her face and rub it around and just grin... and now Elena does that, too. I can't hardly put a blanket over her without it ending up covering her face. Any day now she's going to realize that those darn hands are attached! :) It's hard to believe that, in just a couple of weeks, she's going to be big enough to start eating cereal. That will be a whole new experience... and a whole new set of really cute pictures!

Nursing strike and yakking included, I love being a mom. Watching her grow and change is definitely the coolest thing I've ever done. Christmas was so fun this year, even though all that really changed was was kept sticking bows on her head. Next year is going to be a whole new experience! Check for more Christmas pictures on the other blog... sometime! :)

Another Video

Well, my little girl continues to grow... and I have a video camera for my job that I've been trying to learn to use. So I took this priceless video...

Holding up your head is very hard work! :)

Too Cute

Week 13 and 3 Months!

Well, in week 13, Elena Anne turned 3 months old! She is growing so fast, she smiles a lot more, she's active (ALWAYS). Week 13 was a fun week for Miss Elena. It snowed and iced, so she got to spend all day Sunday home with Mommy AND Daddy, and Monday and Tuesday with Mommy at home. We had lots of fun, and mostly spent time relaxing, and a little time sledding, too! And, of course, the camera was never far away!

Grandpa Price bought her a pair of gum boots.... a little big for her, but still darn cute! :) I can't wait until she is bigger and actually fits them- to see her out in the mud playing in them will be so cute!

Daddy went outside to sled on the ice, so Elena and I bundled up to go with him. We used the snow "sack" that Aunt Jessica bought her... still a little big on her; her arms weren't really in the sleeves, but she stayed nice and warm. And, of course, looked adorable!
First time on a sled! But, don't worry, she just posed, no going down the hill and slamming into the privacy fence JUST yet! :)

Thugtastic in her pink and white hat... too cute!
This one was just too cute... I love this onesie- it says "Dream."

Her First Christmas sleeper... she yakked on all her other ones, so we had to break this one out early! Looks pretty cute in it!

The best thing about snow days is taking naps! :)

She has this new thing where she sticks her tongue out... it's pretty hard to resist!

Someday, this face will give us fits... you can see the onery!

Well, now we have a 3 month old... it's pretty hard to believe! She's still been pretty yakky, but staying home for several days in a row helped the whole milk supply thing, so that's good. She's starting to outgrow some of the pants that were massive on her to begin with... she's getting to be such a chunk! But a cute chunk... :)

Week 12

Week 12 was a calm, relaxing week for Elena, which was much needed after the craziness of Thanksgiving, and before the craziness of Christmas! So we did a lot of hanging out around the house, doing our favorite things. We did put up the Christmas tree, which she has just been staring at. She loves the lights! It's great, because I can lay her on a blanket underneath the edge of the tree and she just lays there and stares. She also really likes the bell we have as an ornament. She loves the sound. Elena is growing by leaps and bounds... she seems like she's just huge, and she is smiling and talking more and more. She is also awake more and more, which is nice. Unfortunately, to grow and be awake, she's needed more to eat lately, so I am running dangerously low on milk! I don't really want to start giving her formula, but I don't know if I can make enough to keep up with her! So we'll just have to see... if I can make it to Christmas break, I can nurse her all the time and increase my milk supply. Elena's other new trick is yakking ALL THE TIME! Just today she has gone through four outfits for her (and the one she's wearing now has been yakked on, so I guess 5) and two outfits for me (and the one I'm wearing has been yakked on already as well). I don't know what's causing all this, but I guess it's from eating so much. Her really COOL trick from this week is that she has started sleeping through the night AND putting herself to sleep. We usually put her down at 10:00, and she sleeps until I wake her up at 6:30 or so. AND, when I put her to bed she doesn't have to be asleep anymore, if she's all swaddled and ready for bed, she'll just fall asleep on her own. Needless to say, those two things are AWESOME, and have seriously increased my energy level! I never knew getting 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep would be so wonderful!
Anyway, I can't believe my baby is almost 3 months old! Here are some of my favorite pictures of us doing nothing this week!

In honor of MU being in the Big 12 Championship, we bought Elena an MU onesie... here she is in it before we went to the choir Christmas party to watch the game.

Unfortunately, Elena decided to poop on her onesie, so she didn't get to wear it to the party.
Laying on the floor, lookin' at the Christmas tree.
My heart melts every time she smiles... I never get tired of it!
Still trying to suck on that thumb... she's also started sucking on her bottom lip, which makes her look like a little old man who doesn't have his dentures in. It's pretty cute! :)
Hanging out in the bouncy seat... always a favorite activity. I love that this binky covers up half of her face... clearly not a "0-3 months" binky!
Even babies like napping in the green chair!
Wearing another new onesie... I've discovered that, while she started with all "I love Mommy" stuff, now she has all "I love Daddy" stuff, and no mommy stuff left. :(
We took pictures for our Christmas card this week, too. She looked adorable, and I was trying to get a picture of her all by herself, but she is such a blur in most of them that I didn't get a great one... I got one good enough for the cards, though. This one turned out to be one of my favorites. I love how she is looking right at the camera.

But she got tired of taking pictures, so we had to stop! :)

Another great week for Miss Elena... next week she'll turn 3 months old!! Hard to believe...