Leaps and bounds

Friday, we had our appointment for Anna Claire's follow up.  All of the doctors were very pleased with how she looks.  Dr. Langham, as much as we love him, is a realist though and is always quick to burst our bubble.  He likes to remind us that even though she is good now, things can change over night.  But, we had to wait until today to get her lab results.  Her bilirubin has dropped from 5.2 to 1!!!!  This is so exciting!!!  Her liver enzymes are still slightly elevated, but returning to normal.  Everyone expected there to be improvement, but not that much.  So, now we just have to keep her healthy.

 



Since she is doing so well, we get to stop some of her medication!  Yay!  Now just antibiotic, but we will keep that for a while.

 

Birthday Celebrations

We finally got to celebrate Amelia's birthday.  We had to travel to Memphis for Anna Claire's doctors appointments, so we decided to take advantage of the weekend.  Friday night, mom and dad watched the girls so Drew and I could have a date.  It was wonderful!  We ate at Firebirds then did a little Christmas shopping. 

Saturday, we had a low key party to celebrate Amelia, just with the family.  I made tacos and rotel, bought cheesy decorations from Walmart, and we had a wonderful time!  It was definitely a lot less stressful than her first birthday!

Getting ready to open presents!

She loves getting presents!

 

This video isn't very exciting, but I love that when Drew asks her, Amelia, what is your puppy's name, she says Anna Claire.  She names all of her babies and animals Anna Claire.  I hope this means that she loves her sister.

 

I didn't get many pictures at all.  I don't even have one of her cake, just a video of her blowing out the candles.  But, it was cute.  Chocolate with white icing with colorful sprinkles with an elmo candle.  We really enjoyed the party!



 

Flashback Friday

It's been a while since I did a flashback Friday, but I wanted to post about Amelia's bday last year.  We had a little get together at our house with a few close family and friends. 

Excited about her birthday present!

Entertaining her guests,

Yummy food waiting to be eaten!

Another view of yummy food!

Painting our Christmas trees.

Excited for some cake!

About to dig in!

Enjoying some yummy cake!

She says, This is good stuff!

On a sugar high!

 

3 months old

Today is Anna Claire's 3 month birthday.  The day started out great.  I had planned on doing better on getting Anna Claire to take good naps, and maybe attempt to get a schedule started.  The morning went fabulous.  She woke up a little before Amelia's nap time.  I planned on us just hanging out for a while then putting her back down for an afternoon nap around 2.  Well, as I was sitting eating lunch, a bunch of trucks pull in front of our house.  We are very blessed that we are getting a new roof out of the storm that came back in October.  This is fabulous, but they were not suppose to come today.  At least not to my knowledge.  So, that shot down any hopes of a good nap schedule starting today, for anybody.  Needless to say, it was a rough afternoon.  I will be glad for the new roof, but even more happy for Friday morning when it is all finished!

Anna Claire is definitely getting a lot of personality.  She is eating like horse.  We are at 6 oz 6 times a day plus a 3 oz bottle at bedtime.  I will be glad when she starts eating real food and we can cut back some on the formula.  Especially since hers is so expensive!  I'm not sure what she weighs, but she is definitely getting heavier.  We go for a check up on Friday, so I will have a lot of stats then.  She is still not a very good sleeper.  That is why I am trying to work on a schedule.  But, she sleeps great till about 1 or 2 then it's pretty rough after that.  She is so sweet though, and has the cutest, biggest smile that takes up her whole face, so it is hard to get too frustrated with her. 

This was the best smiling picture I got.  She was ready for a nap.

This is her normal face.  She loves to have her tongue sticking out!

Dinner time at the Ellis household

Amelia is probably one of the messiest eaters.  She knows how to eat properly.  She does it when we are out, or when she is not completely comfortable where she is, but not so much at home.  So, at home, to prevent food getting caked in her hair, this is what her daddy does to her at dinner time.

Love the sweat band head band!

Happy Birthday, Amelia!

Two years ago today at 9:02 AM, my world was for ever changed and blessed with the birth of my sweet baby girl.  She has been such a joy to my life.  Today, I feel like a terrible mother.  It feels like it was just a regular day.  I had to work, she was suppose to go to daycare.  We were going to bring cupcakes for her to have a party there.  Unfortunately, she started running a fever on Saturday night and today was her first day to be below 100 all day.  So, she stayed home with daddy.  He did take her to McDonalds for a special breakfast.  She then got to visit mommy at work for a check up.  Poor girl has ear infections.  She never complains about anything.  It is hard to know what is wrong with her.  I thought we would take her to get ice cream tonight, but that didn't work out either.  She did have some friends from church come visit and bring her a present, so that was fun.  The celebrating will continue this weekend though.  She will get to celebrate just a little late.  Hopefully I will do better in the future with making her birthday day a little more special.

So, Amelia's stats.  I really have no idea exact values.  We measured her height tonight and it was 35.5 inches, and she weighed 30#s a month ago.  She is starting to slim up.  I really don't think she has changed much in a month.  She wears a 2T, she is still in diapers.  She is definitely a very active little girl.  She is starting to get shy.  Some of her favorite things, breakfast (she could eat breakfast for every meal), Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Minnie Mouse, reading books, playing in dirt, all animals, her little sister, swinging, the moon, and princesses.  She is the smartest, funniest little girl I know.  She brings so much joy to my life.  My favorite thing is to hear her laugh, sing, talk to her babies or toys.  I just love everything about my little girl.

Happy Birthday, Amelia!  Mommy and daddy love you!

Amelia's birthday

1st birthday!

2nd birthday!

Amelia's Happy Birthday

Monday will be Amelia's 2nd birthday.  I can't believe it!  I've been talking to her all week about her birthday because instead of a birthday party this year we were going to take her to see Sesame Street Live.  Well, I didn't know what she would think of a big elmo, so I've been trying to get her excited about it all week.  I also wanted to make sure that she would understand that Elmo was going to be adult size.  So, she has been a little confused about her birthday.  She really doesn't know when it is.  Last night was a little hectic and I had a dinner planned, but daddy said, let's just go out to eat.  So, we went to the pizza place in Indianola.  Amelia was so cute when we got there, she says, Amelia's Happy Birthday.  She thought we were going for her birthday.  I just let her think that.  We did go ahead and give her her birthday present last night.  A radio flyer pink tricycle.  It is the cutest thing ever! 

She hasn't quite figured out how to petal yet, but it will come.

 

Today, we drove to Vicksburg for Elmo live.  We had to get there by 10 for the meet and greet.  I was a little nervous about how the girls would do, but they both did great.  The show lasted 1.5 hrs and AC actually stayed awake for the whole show, only slept during the 15 min intermission.  She loved it.  We had front row middle seats.  It was perfect.  The characters interacted with Amelia, she loved it!  She even did well sitting in Elmo's lap.  Maybe we will make it through Santa this year.  We all had a lot of fun, but were exhausted after all the driving and show watching.

Amelia with Ernie and Elmo.

The family photo

Amelia had a blue raspberry snow cone.  Let's just say, she was a bit crazy on the beginning part of the ride home.

AC watching the show.  I really think she has a future in show business.  She loves all things theatrical!  She even turned her head too as the different characters spoke.

So far, Amelia's Happy Birthday has been a lot of fun, and it isn't even her birthday yet.  Lots more celebrating will be done!