21 Month Pictures

I haven't even attempted to formally take portraits of Ella lately because she's at a really hard age and just simply won't make eye contact with my camera. I think she's immune to the camera now...wonder why! Anyways, I gave it a shot last weekend and tried to at least get one or two pictures. I did get a couple...nothing that I love but at least I've captured her at this age.

Happy Valentine's Day

I know this post is a little late, but I'm just now going through our pictures from that day. Keith and I don't really celebrate V-day...no big gifts or anything but he did surprise me with a pedicure...much appreciated when pregnant! We gave Ella a little gift bag with some goodies and a mylar balloon with Elmo on it. The balloon was a HIT! She loved that thing and thought it was so cool. For days it was the first thing she asked for when she woke up. It really is the simple things that make kids happy! :-)

Our fruitless attempt at a family photo:


The downside of the balloon was that it was in front of her face in almost every picture...


Examing her new Veggie Tales books and DVD...



Oh and the pictures above that have the b-e-a-u-tiful mustard color walls, green countertops, and spanish tile were taken in my parents' kitchen. Take a good look because next week everything is getting totally renovated in that room. Yippee for them! :-)

Playdate at the Zoo

1st - I passed my 3-hour gestational diabetes test!! So there will be no controlled diet to interfere with my sugar addiction. ;-)

This week we met up with some friends at the Montgomery Zoo for a picnic lunch and some playtime on the new playground they have there. But what the kids seemed to find the most fun was the stage they have in the middle of the cafe area. They loved running around and dancing on it. Ella thought she was pretty big stuff playing with all the other kids up there.



After dancing on the stage, everyone ran over to look at the animals...can you find Ella? She didn't quite grasp the concept of looking "over" the railing at first. ;-)

Ok...now she gets it!


Then it was on to the playground...

Mocha

My parents' next door neighbors are a French military family that are here for a year or two to work on Maxwell AFB. They travel a lot on the weekends to take advantage of their time in the United States. They have a dog named Mocha that is probably the sweetest, best mannered dog I have ever seen. She is wonderful! When they are traveling, my parents often keep her for them. Anyways, Ella absolutely loves her and Mocha tolerates Ella really well. Ella took a nap at my parents' house on Saturday when Mocha was there and Mocha was the first thing she asked for when she woke up. I think she especially likes it because she can say her name really well. ;-)

Siran Stacy

Former Alabama football player Siran Stacy came to Frazer last night to speak. Not even two years ago, four of his children and his wife were killed in a car accident. He now travels around sharing his testimony and using what happened in his life to win people to Christ. He's amazing. I wasn't able to go because Ella's not well enough for the nursery, but Keith and my parents said it was awesome. He came to Frazer earlier in the week to talk on Frazer's TV station and popped in to Keith's office to see his Bear Bryant picture that Keith proudly has hanging on his office wall (Keith's a huge Alabama fan). Keith was thrilled to say the least and disappointed that he didn't have his camera to capture the moment. Lucky for him, he ran into Mr. Stacy again Sunday morning and was able to snap a shot. Keith says he's considering having it framed to hang over our fireplace...haha. :-)

25 Weeks

25 weeks last Friday. I had a doctor's appointment today and everything looked great except I FAILED my glucose screening test. So I will be going back on Wednesday for the 3 hour test to see if I do actually have gestational diabetes. I didn't fail it with Ella so my doctor was a little suprised, but he said I have an 80-90% chance of passing the 3 hour test. I was only slightly over the threshold of acceptable levels. From what I hear, a lot of woman fail the first one to go on and pass the 2nd one with no problems. So hopefully everything will go fine on Wednesday. If you think about it, I would really appreciate a prayer for that and also for Ella to be well enough to go to Mother's Morning Out on Weds., so I can go and take my test. She is still not feeling well so I'm taking her to the doctor today at 3 to check for an ear infection. Hopefully we can get her on the mend and back to her normal happy self. From now on I'll be going to the doctor every two weeks even though I'm not in the 3rd trimester yet. I remember doing that with Ella and I think it's because I'm technically a little high-risk with my heart shaped uterus and my doctor just wants to keep an eye on me and make sure I'm not showing any signs of pre-term labor. However, I carried Ella to 39 weeks with no issues and they said that if I didn't have problems with my first baby because of my uterus then I shouldn't with subsequent pregnancies. So hopefully Anna will stay in there until full-term just like she's supposed to.

Anna's now the size of an eggplant:

Under the Weather

Since Ella's cough has been so bad, it's better for her to sleep propped up so she can breathe easier. She took her nap in our bed this afternoon and I couldn't resist the opportunity to snap a sleeping picture. So innocent and sweet when they're sleeping...

This Week at Our House

We've had a pretty quiet week around here except Ella has gotten a nasty cold/cough. Tuesday night was pretty rough with a bad coughing spell that ended with some throwing up. Poor Ella! She normally acts pretty happy even when sick so when she starts acting like she doesn't feel good (like she's done today) then I know she really doesn't feel well. Hopefully things will clear up for her quickly and not lead to ear infections. Has anyone heard of giving your child honey for a cough? I looked it up on the internet and found quite a bit of information on how it works better than cough syrup and is approved for babies over the age of 1. It seemed to help during her nap this afternoon. Just curious if anyone else has tried it and had success.

Ella loves the webcam that Keith has on his laptop. She thinks it's so cool to watch herself on the screen. She says "Ella cheese!":

Relaxing in her chair on Wednesday when she wasn't feeling so great:

Sidewalk Chalk

We had really nice weather all week so we took advantage and played outside with sidewalk chalk one day. When we first gave Ella sidewalk chalk last summer she thought it was great, but she was so messy with it. She just wanted to dump it all out and play with it. Now she's very particular about only getting one piece out at a time and putting it back in the box when she's finished. A girl after mine and Keith's OCD hearts!

Cleaning out Closets

As I was cleaning out Ella's closet the other day, she grabbed her birthday hat that our sweet friend Miss Gail gave her. She insisted on wearing it around the house while she played. She loves dress up!

Playtime at the Park

Ella absolutely loves wearing her hair in a "pony" as she calls it. When I'm getting her ready to go somewhere she asks for a pony and a bow. A little prissy and a little tomboy all rolled into one! ;-) These pictures are from our trip the park down the street from our house last weekend. Doesn't Ella look like such a big girl now? She's really losing that baby look...sad!

24 Weeks

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying by. 6 months pregnant already...wow!

FYI

I seriously doubt anybody will care because I don't think anyone looks at Ella's website anymore, but just wanted to let everyone know I'm cancelling that website at the end of the month. I've been so pleased with the blog that I don't feel the need for it anymore and obviously if we have our own domain name, Anna would get her feelings hurt if it was just all about Ella. ;-) So Mom, Aunt Sis, etc., if you still go to that website to access the blog, please update your bookmark to go directly to the blog: www.williamsfamily1818.blogspot.com. I may still post big galleries of Anna when she's born like I did with Ella, but I will post them on my photography website and share the link on the blog.

I hope everyone had a great week and are looking forward to a fun weekend! :-)

23 Weeks

23 weeks last Friday. Backaches at night and acid reflux have set in with full force. I was thinking that it's pretty early in the pregnancy for all of that, but then I went through my pregnancy journal with Ella and it started at the same time with her. Oh well...it's definitely tolerable and quite a small price to pay for another precious baby girl! :-)

21 Months

Ella was 21 months on the 6th. I tried so hard to get a smiling picture, but this was all I could get out of her (even with Smarties bribes). She is just so active and won't sit still for a minute. We were both exhausted afterwards. ;-) This picture was taken in Anna's room since the rocker is in there now. Ella never paid attention to this chair while it was in her room, but now she absolutely loves it. Anytime she can run in there with a book and read to herself, she does so. She's gotten so good about entertaining herself with books. The other day she got out one of her lift-the-flap books with animals and sat in her little chair and went through the whole thing by herself...animal sounds and all. Pretty cute!

Sneak Peek of Ella's New Room

I don't want to share pictures of her whole room yet because I'm not quite finished decorating, but I can say that everything is done work-wise in the nursery and Ella's room. Yay!! Ella's furniture arrived on Saturday morning and to say that she loves her big girl bed would be a huge understatement. She isn't sleeping in it yet, but loves to play on it and pretend to go night-night on it. I hope that's a good sign for when it's time to transition. Here's a couple pictures of her playing around in there today.

The pictures don't totally do the wall color justice because I didn't have great lighting in there this afternoon, but I love the way the paint turned out. Very bright and airy.

Bubbles are Fun!

I tried bubbles with Ella a long time ago and she didn't think they were fun at all. In fact she screamed bloody murder. So I tried them again a few weeks ago and she think they are the greatest thing ever. She literally squeals with delight when they start to bubble up under the tap.

Who Loves Spaghetti???

Ella does!!!!

Hard at Work

Ella loves to sit at her table and "write" on a piece of paper while I work on my laptop:

Dress Shoes

There's nothing wrong with wearing tennis shoes and a dress is there???

22 Weeks

Apparently I'm visibly pregnant to everybody now. I think I heard at least 5 times at church on Sunday "I can't believe how big your belly is now!" ;-). I really am pregnant...I wasn't fibbing!

**updated to add: YES I do have arms in the left picture!! ;-) You just can't see them!
Anna is the size of a papaya and will be for the next few weeks. I don't think it changes again until week 25.

Check back tomorrow...I'll have some new pictures of Ella to post.