Kaylee's Kidbits and Ella's Endeavors

It has been over a year since I wrote one of my blogs on Kaylee and Ella. Can you believe it? Over a year!

They have changed so much!

Ella talks our heads off. Seriously. The child does not know what silence is. She doesn't even have to be talking to anyone in particular.

Kaylee loves to write. Even in places that she isn't supposed to write. Like the table. And the wall. But hey at least she is a pretty good artist.

Ella is a night owl. Loves to sneak up and play in her room. Sometimes I go to bed at 11 and her light is on and she is still up playing in her bed. She, like me, is not a morning person. She needs her space when she wakes up.

Kaylee is such a huge helper. She does a ton around the house to help now. She sweeps and puts away dishes. She folds all of the girl's laundry and then she puts it away. (Ella puts her own away as well.) She even makes breakfast and lunch for herself and Ella with a little help.

Ella helps too. Like I said, she puts away laundry. She also helps with silverware when unloading the dishwasher. She helps dust the furniture. Keeps her room clean.

Kaylee loves Legos, Barbies, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. And all things Frozen. She is so imaginative and creative. I love watching her play.

Ella is a cuddle bear. She likes to sit on our laps and snuggle. She is so loving in that she constantly interrupts conversations and movies to say, "I wuv you, Mom." Makes my heart melt.

Kaylee has also become more affectionate. She gives hugs and cuddles and says I love you much more than she used to. She usually likes her space so I am really enjoying her recent change.

Ella loves dresses and accessories. She wears dresses everyday if possible.

Kaylee played t-ball in the spring and loved it. She seemed to get a little bored with being outfield, but loved to hit and run the bases.

Kaylee and Ella both love Charlotte. They dote on her all day every day. Sometimes it is overwhelming because they are always in her face. They help me with her. Kaylee will feed her her food and Ella will help feed her her bottle. It is so sweet to watch them with her though.

Both girls have grown up so much. My Kaylee will be 5 soon. I can't believe it. Until I talk to her and hear her grown up response. And I think, "when did you get so big?" 5 going on 15.

Kaylee's Kidbits and Ella's Endeavors

It has been a while since I have updated you on the girls so instead of writing separate blogs for them, I am doing them together this time around.

Kaylee is so grown up. She just looks like a big kid. Some of it is that she has always been on the tall side, but sometimes she just comes over and says things and Adam and I are just in shock at how old she seems.

Elanor is also tall and seeming big as of late. Her vocabulary has grown and we can almost understand everything she says. My favorite words she says right now are flip-flops and vitamin. I just like the way she says them. It is pretty cute.

Kaylee is taking gymnastics and I feel like it has been such a good experience for her. She loves to practice her tumbles and warm-ups at home. I love watching her.

Elanor is finally jumping. She has been trying for months and this morning I finally saw her feet come off of the ground together.

Kaylee is finally alright with sleeping with her door closed and we no longer leave the bathroom light on for her. This is leaps and bounds from where we started when she moved into her room before Ella was born.

Elanor is starting to potty train. I am hoping the process is quicker with her since she has Kaylee to help coach her and encourage her along side of me. She also has never been fond of diapers so I am hoping that helps as well.

Both girls love playing together. Kaylee is a much more introverted and likes to play by herself at least once a day, but overall they can play together nicely for hours. (As long as I don't have anything important to do like make phone calls.)

They are both very fascinated by the baby. Kaylee understands that the baby is growing in my belly and loves to know as much as possible about the baby. Ella just loves babies in general and so she loves to hear about the baby even though I don't think she understands that we are having another baby.

The girls are growing up so fast and sometimes it is hard to keep up. It is one of those things I don't think you ever get used to as a parent. Time just flies once you have children!
         

Elanor's Endeavors

It has been a while since I have shared all things Ella. So here we go.

She is talking. A lot. Not so much real words even though she does say quite a few. She even already talks back. So if she doesn't want the green beans, but wants a banana she will shake her head and yell a bunch of gibberish at you that includes the word banana. (I try not to laugh because it is super cute. But one day when there are real words coming out, it won't be cute anymore.) Her vocabulary also includes a lot of grunting.

She is super cute. It is so hard, internet, to be upset with her. She knows when she is doing something wrong and she will look up at you with her big brown eyes and smile really big, dimples showing, hoping you won't punish her. Seriously, see for yourself.

She adores the cat. She actually pets Titus. She has never been rough with him. Every time she sees him she gets super excited. (She likes dogs too and usually barks at them.)

She is finally getting more teeth. I thought for sure the child would only have 4 teeth for the rest of her life, but was pleasantly surprised when 2 more broke threw on top.

She loves her Baby Ashley and her Bear. She sleeps with both of them and carries them around the house.

She enjoys talking on the toy phone as well as the real phone. She loves to facetime and usually gets upset when the call is ending.

She always wants to play with the dishes. Most days the dish set we have is all over the living room and the girls are playing with it because Ella asked Kaylee to open it.

She is a cuddly little bear. She gives the best hugs and really cute little kisses.

She rocks at dancing.

She hates shopping, but loves being outside.

She is persistent and definitely has a mind of her own.

I love her.

Has anyone invented a way to freeze time yet?

Ella's Endeavors

Can you believe my little Ella is almost 1?

I seriously cannot believe it. Where has the time gone?

She is everywhere though as a blatant sign to me that she is nearing her first birthday. Especially when she is pulling up on the furniture. She does crawl some, but usually it is with one leg out. I call it her peg leg crawl. She still prefers to scoot on her bottom as her way of getting around.

Ella can say Da-Da, night night, Momma, hi, and I am pretty sure she says her own name sometimes.


She finally has two teeth on bottom and is working on two top teeth. It is so weird to me because Kaylee had a mouthful of teeth by this point.

The last week with Ella has been difficult as she has been really sick. It started with a fever and cold like symptoms. She slept on us pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday and has been super cuddly and clingy the rest of the week. By the 4th morning of fever I called her doctor. (I only waited that long because of their website information.) So on Tuesday morning I took her to the doctor to find out she has an ear infection and that some of the infection is in her lungs. The doctor gave her a breathing treatment while we were there to see if it would help at all. Thankfully, it did. After the appointment, I took both girls to CVS to pick up the antibiotic, the ear drops, and the medication for the nebulizer. (And was hoping the nebulizer itself.) CVS for some reason does not bill insurance for it so I could buy one from them or I would have to go somewhere else.  In the process of walking around CVS waiting, I called my insurance to see if they covered the nebulizer or if I would have to buy/rent one on my own. Insurance does cover the machine, but since CVS did not bill insurance I was going to have to make another stop. The agent was really nice and tried to help me find a place to get one, but unfortunately the number of the place she gave me was disconnected so I had to try to find a place on my own with the girls in tow. Fortunately, CVS knew that there was a place across the street that could bill insurance so I took both girls over there to see if they were in our network or not. While they were checking on that, I took Kaylee and Ella home to feed them as it was now 1. Thankfully, that place was in network so after lunch I went and picked up the machine. I got back to the house around 2:45 and got the girls into bed by 3:10. It was a very stressful afternoon. All of that was to let you know that Ella is now on breathing treatments 3 times a day for the next 2 weeks, hopefully weaning her off of them slowly. She seems to be feeling a little better as she has been playing more with Kaylee again, but she definitely is not back to normal.

Ella is a happy girl and loves playing with Kaylee. Hopefully, she will feel better soon!

Ella's Endeavors

Ella is growing like a weed. She has grown up a TON in the last few weeks. There was one week in particular that she learned how to sit by herself, clap her hands, dance, and hold her bottle.

She is super adorable when she dances. She really gets into it. Check out these videos and see for yourself.

Anyways, she is not crawling yet, but she is everywhere!  She just scoots around on her bottom until she gets where she wants to be.  If she topples over, she just rolls to her belly and scoots backwards around the room to what she wants.  At this point I wonder if she will ever crawl since she already knows how to get to things without crawling. We will see I suppose.

She likes to make this terrible noise. It's like a growl mixed with a grunt. (You can sort of get the idea of what it sounds like if you watch the first dancing video above.)  It was cute the first time she did it. Now she will start doing it and Kaylee joins in. They do it back and forth for what feels like all day long. It is not so cute anymore.

We are dog-sitting Indy for my friend Angel while she and her husband are picking up their beautiful little girl Maddie from China. Ella LOVES Indy. He likes to lay on her blanket where she plays when we are out in the living room (we have hard wood floors) and she gets sooo excited and starts squealing at him. He is such a trooper because he will just lay there while she slobbers all over him. He must not mind though because when Kaylee does things he does not like he will come over to me and pout. He has not done this with Ella.

She still does not have any teeth. It is crazy to me becuase by this point Kaylee almost had all of her teeth. Ella is definitely teething. She drools and drools and drools. (which is nasty when you mix it with spit-up and the current snot she has) She is just a cute little bundle of grossness right now.

After her last appointment at 6 months, we put her on solids and weaned her off of her reflux medication to see how she did without it.  I am happy to say that she is no longer on the medication and seems to be doing fine.  She still spits-up a LOT as I mentioned above, but it has gotten a little better now that she is on solids.  I am just glad she is feeling better.

She and Kaylee play so great together! Kaylee will jump to entertain herself and Ella will just bust out laughing which of course encourages Kaylee to jump more. It is super cute!

You would think that since I already have Kaylee that Ella's accomplishments and growth would not surprise me, but I just cannot get over how quickly they grow up. I know that they are both still very young and I have lots of time with them left, but they make huge educational leaps those first few years that the time just flies!

Elanor is such a good baby and I look forward to the growing she is going to do in the next few months especially.

Elanor's Endeavors

Ella is growing up too fast. I cannot believe she is already 6 months old. Where has the time gone?

She is trying really hard to sit up by herself. It is cute how serious she gets when she is practicing.

She truly has found her voice. She tries to outdo us when we are having conversations.

She sleeps through the night now. She finally gained enough weight so I could drop her late night feeding.

She is very observant. She notices EVERYTHING!

She loves playing with her feet. The first thing she does when she wakes up is smile and grab her them.

She hates oatmeal and applesauce, at least her first tastes of them.

She is definitely teething, but no teeth yet. Just lots of drooling and chewing on everything.

Ella is such a great baby! Overall, very happy and all smiles!