Twenty Months Old

• On Monday, January 4th, I officially started back teaching. It's going to be a rough half year.
  
• Ella said "cracker".
• Ella beginning to shake head 'no' when directly asked questions.
  

Nineteen Months Old

• Found out will officially begin back to work on 1/4/10
  
• Starting to repeat sounds
• Playing with pull toys
• Starting to repeat words and imitate environmental sounds (ie. siren)
• Visited three of the possible places Ella will be going once Todd and I are both back to work. One is an in-home licensed daycare - in a basement, very nice person, but didn't get a homey feeling. The second came recommended to us from Ella's PT. In home with one other little girl who is Ella's age (and petite like her too). The third was another in-home licensed daycare. Really, really liked it (and her step-cousin goes there too), but just a bit too far for us.
  
• I spent a day conferencing with my classroom parents-to-be as well as two days observing the class. Oh boy, am I in for it!
  

New Pictures AND Videos

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! New pictures AND videos have been posted!!!

You will need to scroll down a little bit to find the new videos on the left. There are EIGHT new videos. Four you will find in the Newest Videos spot, but make sure you go to http://www.youtube.com/nrassman to see all 8 new videos!!

Also, I have not added captions yet to the photos, but hope to very soon! And maybe I'll even blog again!! Enjoy!

Seventeen Months Old

• 9/24 - Officially saying "Mama"
• 9/26 - Spent our first night away from Ella while attending Amy & Fred's wedding in Downtown Buffalo.
  
• 10/10 - Went to Bridget's (Michelle & Matt) first birthday party. Ella had fun running around with Elle & Bridget.
• 10/15 - Todd laid off from Sodexo
• 10/19 - Had a GI appointment - all is well!

Sixteen Months Old

Todd and I just can't believe our baby is 16 months old already. I wanted one year to come so badly (mostly for medical milestones) and now it seems like the months are just flying by!!!

As I type Ella is sitting next to me in her high chair fork-feeding herself sweet potato chunks (she already ate the plum chunks and tried to get me to give her some chicken wings too). Ella has been fork-feeding herself for almost 3 months now. She's also drinking my soda water out of a straw. With how much she loves ice cream and now soda water, looks like she'll be my ice cream soda drinking partner!! That will be one way to fatten her up!

Ella has also started taking more and more steps on her own. She officially started taking steps on her on August 9th. Up until then we would have to bribe her to walk. She still prefers to crawl, but she is walking more and more on her own. Carol, Ella's Physical Therapist, recommended we have her walk with her new sneakers 50% of the day and go barefoot the other 50%. Ella is now a size 4 and has a very classic looking pair of baby shoes - a little higher around the ankle for support and good ol' shoe laces. Our baby is getting so big!!

Todd had to travel to DC for work, so Ella and I tagged along in early September. She did great in the car. We first drove to Annapolis, then down to Williamsburg to visit Aunt Gigi and Uncle Bill before heading back up to DC for Todd's class. While Todd was in class Ella and I visited the Smithsonian Zoo and a few of the museums where she got a lot of practice walking around. We also got to visit with some good friends too! We definitely miss the friendships we had in DC!

Where to Begin?

Oh where to begin? I am disappointed by how long I've neglected this blog mostly because this is supposed to be something Ella can go back and read for years to come. So I am slowly playing catch up. I've already posted about Ella's first birthday BELOW. I will continue to write down the memories I have from past events. Therefore, pay attention to titles rather than the date (as some will be back dated). So keep coming back...I'm attempting to get on a roll!

One Year Old

Our baby is one year old!!! We actually are not in town for her first birthday. Ella, Yia Yia, and I are in Santa Cruz, CA visiting DJ, April, Maya, & Zachary.

But we made sure to celebrate Ella's first birthday at home before we left with all the grandparents (Poppy & Moppy, Yia Yia & Papa, and Grandma & Grandpa) and Uncle Jeff & Aunt Kim on Saturday, April 18th. Yia Yia helped decorate the house and a beautiful princess castle cake for Ella. We decided to have a birthday brunch with a bunch of yummy homemade food. Ella received a Radio Flyer push cart from Yia Yia and Papa and a new car seat from Poppy, Moppy, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Jeff, & Aunt Kim.

Yia Yia (Papa was at a class that day)

Grandpa & Grandma Rassman

Uncle Jeff & Aunt Kim

Poppy & Moppy

We then left for California on the 21st. The stewardesses on Southwest made Ella a birthday crown and had the plane sing happy birthday to her!

We went out to breakfast this morning, where Ella wore her birthday bib and had all the waitresses wishing her a happy birthday.

We then celebrated Maya, Zachary, & Ella's first birthdays tonight with a yummy chocolate pudding cake, balloons, and birthday crowns. They were too cute! Zachary would not tolerate his crown at all and Maya kept stealing Ella's crown. Ella didn't mind because she was way too into the cake!


In other exciting news, Ella said her first 'sentence' on Friday - "Hi Kitty."

Looking forward to a great visit with the California Crew!!

One Week Shy of a Year

Oi vey...I really let this one go!! It's been SIX weeks since my last update and there's SOO much to catch up on. Therefore, I'll try to use more pictures than words...

On Wednesday, March 4th, Ella officially got the hang of picking up foods and feeding herself. As of today her favorite pick up food is Veggie flavored Pirates Booty (it's basically an organic cheese puff). She will pick up fruits and veggies but certainly not as enthusiastically as she picks up her 'puffs.' In fact, she'd rather use her pointer to squish carrots than eat them. But persistence pays off because if I offer Ella a food enough times, she will eventually eat it (and like it too). Now, when it comes to bits and pieces on the rug and floor, Ella feels it is her duty to pick whatever it is up and eat it!!


On Monday, March 9th, Todd's parents, Todd, Ella, and I left for Marco Island, FL. Let me rephrase, after a 7-hour delay in Buffalo, we left for Marco Island. We were scheduled to take a direct flight at 8:30am until the captain was unable to get the computer system on the airplane running which meant the plane was inoperable. Which then meant they needed to fly a technician and the particular part up from Orlando on the next flight. So he and the part arrived at about 2:00pm and we were on our way around 3:00pm. The bonus was that we were able to extend our trip by two days without any additional costs!! We ended up arriving in Marco at Aunt Margy & Uncle Tom's condo at the Swallows about 8:00 or so. Our first priority was to get Ella into bed!!


The next day, we took Ella into the pool for her first swim! She loved it!! There were no tears at all. Of course, it does help that the Swallows pool is know for its warm waters!! Ella loved hanging on mommy and daddy, sitting on the shallow step and playing, and even blowing bubbles!! We have not done an official dunk yet. We tried to get Ella in the pool almost every day - as the weather was beyond gorgeous our entire stay - 80s during the day, 70s with no humidity at night. We only had the air on two of our 11 nights there!!

On Wednesday the 11th, Jeff and Kim came down from their vacation in Naples to visit for dinner. We all went swimming and then made yummy kabobs. The next day we brought Mom and Dad Rassman up to Naples to check out Tin City where we had a delicious lunch and a nice walk up Fifth Avenue.


On Thursday, my cousin, Gen, had a bunch of us over to the big house for pizza: my cousins, Bill & Erin and their almost 3-year-old, Rose; my cousin, Natalie; Gen and her almost five-year-old, Mason, and 2-year-old, Bella; Gram; Todd's parents; Danielle & Peter Daigler and their children, Violet, Luke, and Jack; and us! It certainly is fun to be on vacation with family members...just like the good ol' days!!


Ella's FAVORITE part of the condo was the large mirrors lining the front hallway. She would make a beeline for the mirrors numerous times throughout the day. It was probably because of the mirrors that Ella mastered pulling herself up to a stand as well as going from a crawl to a sit on her own!! We really enjoyed being in a one floor place - Ella basically had free reign and we didn't have to worry about where she was all the time. Well, that and the fact that we had our '24-hour nannies' (aka Grampy and Grammy).


The only difficulty Ella had was adjusting to bath time - which is so peculiar since she will play in the tub for up to a half hour with Todd at home. We tried her in an inflatable tub in the big tub, in the inflatable tub in the shower, and in the shower with Todd. All attempts ended up with crying and misery. On the fifth night Todd decided to try bathing her in the kitchen sink...which proved to be the winner...and where all subsequent baths took place! Why didn't the other places work?? The only thing in common is that they all have glass doors?????



On Monday the 16th, all the cousins came over to the Swallows to swim and have lunch! After a lot of hot dogs and swimming, Bill, Erin, Natalie, Rose, Ella, and I took a walk on the beach. Let me tell you, it's not exactly the easiest thing to walk a double wide stroller on the beach during high tide. But it was nice to get to the beach since we spent most of our time at the pool. And the water was the most beautiful blue-green I have ever seen it in my 30+ years going to Marco!!!


This was my first ever St. Patrick's Day I've spent in Marco! We met Gen, Mason, and Bella at the Shops of Marco plaza where they were having a huge party!! Mason & Bella entertained Ella while Todd, Gen, and I enjoyed an Irish-like (Corona) beverage.



The night before we left we went over to Gram's for dinner. We caught a beautiful sunset as someone was playing Taps on the beach. After dinner Gram had a great time playing patty cake with Ella. Gram got such a kick out of Ella crawling around, pulling herself up, and clapping her hands!!

And then it was time to leave. You know how sometimes you just are ready to get home? Well, I was NOT!! I could have easily stayed a couple more weeks. Unfortunately, I had an appointment with my superintendent regarding the job share I proposed for next year. Which wasn't worth coming home to since he denied the proposal again. What am I doing next you, you ask?? Well, I know what I want to do...STAY HOME!! But, there are a bunch of other factors that I keep thinking about (losing my grade level, etc.). However, the number one thing that I keep coming back to is that I would be completely jealous of someone else spending the majority of the day with Ella...I want to be that person! So come May 1st, I will let you know what my final decision ends up being!!


Once getting home not too much was happening. We fortunately had a few really nice days. In fact, one of those days Mom and I took a walk up to the Clarence Center Coffee Shop and had lunch with Ella outside!!!! When Todd came home from work, we took Ella outside to experience grass for the first time. As you can see from the picture above she wasn't all that thrilled that she had to touch this funny feeling stuff. Ultimately, she became comfortable enough to crawl around, pick at it, and even taste a few blades!!

And then the big day came...April 4th...when the twins turned ONE YEAR OLD!!! We were bummed that we missed the official party, but comforted by the fact that Ella, Mom, and I will be leaving to visit DJ, April, Maya, and Zachary from April 21-30th. We'll actually be in California for both Ella's birthday (the 22nd) and my birthday (the 28th). I'm super excited since for my birthday dinner I have requested SUSHI...west coast sushi is SOOOOOO good!!!! Ella has requested acorn squash and prunes!!

For Ella's birthday we are doing a very small birthday brunch with all the grandparents. We are then thinking that we'll do a Big Birthday Bash for all four one year olds (Zachary, Maya, Ella, and Braiden) in July when DJ & April come to visit. How fun would that be?!?!?

This past week has been filled with a lot of sorrow as Ella's hematologist (our favorite doctor and the one who literally saved Ella's life) was in a horrific accident in which both of his children were killed (http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/632486.html). Mom and I went to both the wake and funeral since he means SO much to us. Dr. Ambrusko spoke at the funeral about the short lives of his 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son. He ended by encouraging us to live our lives with exclamation marks like his son did. It just breaks my heart that someone who lives to save other children's lives, loses both of his beautiful babies.

On a happier note, Todd's cousin, Michelle, and her three daughters, Hannah, Brooke, and Paige, came into Buffalo to visit along with Todd's aunt, Donna, for the Easter weekend. We spent all of Saturday in Rochester visiting the Strong Museum (an incredible children's museum). We then went to the Super Wegmans in Pittsford for lunch. We had lunch at Tastings which, I believe, is their test kitchen for all the recipes they publish in the magazine. The food was great and the store was crazy big!!

We then went to a yummy Easter brunch at Mom & John's house. Ella had a great time playing with her cousin, Braiden (Brian & Barb's 9 month old).

Ok, I'm stopping here for tonight, but still have more to write about (and edit - excuse my mistakes for now). However, if I wait to publish until I'm done...who knows when that would actually end up being. So keep checking back as I plan to use the next couple days to add to this posting!!

Forty-Six Weeks Old

Some exciting events in the life of Ella this week. First, on Saturday, we bought Ella her first official pair of shoes. It was recommended by her physical therapist that we buy her Stride Rite brand shoes. So we went to the outlet mall, had her foot measured, and since she has such a tiny foot (size 2) we had one shoe to choose from. Fine by us!! When Carol, her PT, came over on Tuesday, we put the shoes on her for the first time. She cracked me up! Ella reminded me a Bambi as her legs were wide out trying to negotiate these new shoes.

Some of you may be asking, why shoes and why now?? According to Carol, by having Ella experience shoes for about a half-hour or so each day will get her used to wearing shoes when the time comes that she needs to wear them full-time (which will come sooner than later living in Buffalo). Furthermore, with her new shoes comes a better base of support. Therefore, she is able to 'walk' with her hands held by an adult.

And, as of today, Ella can now feed herself finger foods. Ella has been picking up foods for a bit now but couldn't quite get that she could put them in her mouth. Except for cat food...she loves to take a fistful of cat food and try to shove it in her mouth.

OK, got to cut this one short as we are very busy preparing for our trip to Florida!! Very excited to be going with Todd's parents. Also psyched that my cousins: Gen and her two girls (Mason & Bella); Bill, Erin, and their toddler (Rose); and Natalie will be down there too.

See you when we get back!!!!

Ten Months Old

So these past two weeks have been filled with much sadness as well as excitement. On February 12th "Grumpa" (my dad's dad) passed away. You can view his obituary from The Buffalo News by clicking here. He had gotten sick around Thanksgiving and just could never make a full recovery. Grumpa wished to not be laid out nor have a traditional funeral mass. Instead, he requested that we have a Memorial Mass with close friends and family. In keeping with Grumpa's wishes, we are going to have the Memorial Mass sometime the week of July 13th as my Uncle Jon, Aunt Marilyn, cousins Aaron and Matthew; DJ, April, Maya, and Zachary; Alysia; and Becky and David (my Grumpa's companion, Catharine's daughter and her husband) will all be in town at that time. He would be very happy to know that we will all be together for more than just an afternoon to celebrate his life!!

Now I knew Grumpa always kept himself busy, but I never knew just how busy he really was until I helped my dad clean out his apartment. First and foremost, he was an avid writer. He has two full-length published books: Young Jesus, the Missing Years as well as Remembering Old Buffalo. However, his file cabinets were full of many, many, MANY other stories and articles he wrote as well. Most of them have been published in The Buffalo News or other local publications. For instance, he did a good majority of the cover stories for Living Prime Time and wrote numerous reminiscence articles for After 50 and the Bingo Bugle.

But what I didn't know was how many letters he wrote. He wrote letters to everyone from Monroe Muffler (he wasn't impressed with their latest products) to President George Bush...literally. He has copies of letters he has sent congressmen/women, senators, representatives, sports figures, and more. And what was even better was that many of them wrote back to Grumpa.

And when I say copies, I think he saved a copy of anything and everything he ever sent out or received. There were files of email correspondance between family and colleagues among copies of just about anything you can imagine!

In the meantime, in every closet my father started to clear out, he would find another box of photos! Photos dating all the way back to my great great grandfather!! And what is even better is that so many of them are actually labeled!! My great grandmother, Mabel, Grumpa's mother also was an avid scrapbooker. Therefore, my dad also came across numerous scrapbooks that she made for my grandfather up until she passed away in her mid 90s. Supposedly, there is even one that she made of my brother (the oldest grandchild on Dad's side).

In addition to the photos and in his file cabinet were files of Radder Family documents. Everything from a journal from around the Civil War period to obituaries of various ancestors.

Grumpa was a man with 1,000 stories...each that was more interesting than the previous. He will be missed dearly, but happy he gets to reunite with my grandma who passed away almost 30 years ago.

If you haven't already noticed that the date Grumpa passed away was the same date (and close to the same time) that flight 3407 crashed into a house in Clarence Center - just about a mile from us. It was a lot to comprehend seeing that I found out about both Grumpa and the crash at precisely the same time. It's amazing how many people were from Clarence on that flight. The house that the plane crashed into belonged to the secretary at our district office - who's daughter teaches with a friend of mine's husband. My principal's brother's girlfriend was on the flight as well. She was flying in for my principal's wedding. And I went to school with another passenger's brother who was a year behind me in Clarence. And then there is my step-brother-in-law who was a responder on scene for the Clarence Center Fire Company. All I can think about is the last moments of the flight and how scary it must have been. We continue to think of the families and hope that their happy memories of their loved ones will help them through the difficult time.

Okay...can we get on to the happy stuff now????? The week leading up to Valentine's Day was a very progressive one for Ella. She began to consistently place objects 'in' as well as lifting up her arms to be held (that gives me such a warm fuzzy). Then on that Friday, Ella took a little crawl step while I was Skypeing with April but nothing more until Valentine's Day. She took off crawling and there has been no stopping her since!!!!

Her crawl started very slowly and deliberately which was so cute to watch. Now it has blossomed into a full out, hold nothing back crawl. And she is using her skills to her best advantage. Ella is officially getting into everything in her site which calls for regular vacuuming, closing doors, blocking stairways, you name it! She can get herself to kneeling and even pull herself to a stand on lower objects. She uses these skills to pull items off and out from just about everywhere. Furthermore, Ella is also able to climb up the step to the kitchen. However, she still learning to go down minus the face plant! And to top it off, I found her standing in her crib on Saturday. I can't believe how much and how fast she has taken off developmentally. Where has my baby gone???

Ella has also graduated to medium diaper covers and standard baby-sized prefold diapers. Yes, we are still using washable diapers and still wouldn't do it any other way!!


In other exciting news, good friends of ours, Michelle & Matt Parks, along with their 3-year-old, Brayden, just welcomed in a new member to their family. Tallulah Grace was born on February 16th at Michelle & Matt's home (yes, it was a home birth - how awesome is that?!?!) and is doing wonderful!! Is she adorable or what??

Well on that note, my mind has a hard time deviating from the fact that there are less than 2 weeks until we leave for Florida!! And we can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forty-Three Weeks Old

Man, time flies. I swear I had only missed blogging last week, but apparently it's been two weeks...oh my!

Ella still isn't crawling but she certainly has the backward scoot down along with the combat roll. She can find her way around a room pretty easily...I can't imagine what it's going to be like once she is actually crawling! Ella is getting stronger and stronger as she can now support herself while standing at her nursery rhyme cube too. Yikes...our baby is growing SO fast!

Ella has also figured out how to not only take things out but now put objects in. She will 'deposit' balls into the mouth of one of her toys as well as place balls through a hole in another one of her toys. Ella will also sit next to her toy basket and one by one take a toy out, play with it, put it down, and choose another toy. You can tell when Ella is working hard as her little tongue will stick out...they say that's a sign of genius, right?!?

Speaking of her little tongue, from day one she has enjoyed playing with her tongue. In the hospital she would often stick it out like a lizard. Then she had this phase where she would use it as a windshield wiper on her chin (which resulted in a chapped chin). Ella also enjoys grabbing it. But her latest trick is turning it completely over (upside down?) in her mouth. Go ahead and try it...neither Todd nor I can do it...can you?

Ella has also been putting her arms up in the air more and more when she wants us to pick her up. I think it's one of those really cute things babies do...maybe because it makes you feel so loved and wanted.

Furthermore, Ella enjoys playing with and dancing to her Leap Frog table top which plays music whenever she opens or moves something. In fact, Ella is becoming a little dancer. She will groove to almost any music!

For as happy and smiley of a baby Ella has been, she's never been one to really laugh. You know, that belly laugh we all love to hear from babies. However, within the past month or so it has become increasingly easier to get her to laugh. The easiest time is when she is super tired, just a bounce up in the air or getting close to her face will send her laughing.

Ella has gotten a third tooth but it's not one of her upper central incisors. Her upper left side incisor has broken through. I'm having a small fear that Ella will get all her teeth except her two front teeth...ha ha ha!

Ella is also consistently sleeping 8-11 hours now...finally!! On average she will sleep from about 7:15pm to 6:00am. She still has her nights when she wakes up at odd times (12:15am, 1:30am) but we are getting better at leaving her to cry it out - especially when we go in and she is ready to play once she sees us. My rule of thumb is that if she wakes before 3:00am, we let her cry it out. Anything past 3:00am I will feed her. However, the mornings she sleeps until 6:00am means that after I feed Ella she is up for the day which translates to no more sleeping in. Therefore, I sometimes don't mind waking up at 4:00 or 5:00am to feed Ella because then it means she will go back to sleep until at least 7:30 or 8:00am! But then again, finally getting 7-8 hours of consecutive sleep is nice too!

This past weekend Todd and I moved Ella into a new room. This was prompted by the fact that it was time to lower her crib. Since we've been talking about moving her to the other room, we decided to take this opportunity to do it. I was unsure because it is the room at the top of the stairs and next to the guest bathroom - I didn't want her to be disturbed while sleeping. But I am SO glad we did it!! First, the furniture fits much better in the new room. It's no bigger than the other room but the placement of the closet frees a whole wall. And it's just got good Fung Shui. I never understood what that really meant until I was sitting in the rocker in the new room - it's very calming...weird but true!

In the meantime, I have applied to work part time next year through a job share with another teacher at my school. The way we have proposed is for each of us to work every other week, but not a traditional week. For example, on my week I would work Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then have off Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. This would work great for many reasons in kindergarten! Although job sharing is currently being done in many other area school districts like Orchard Park, North Tonawanda, and Ken-Ton it has yet to be done at the elementary level in Clarence. We expect to hear by March 1st from our Superintendent. If it is not approved maybe it is a sign I should take another year off???

Although I'm not a big fan of Valentine's Day (shouldn't we be showing each other every day how much we love him/her), have a great holiday weekend!! I'm not sure what Todd is more excited for...the dinner we're going to be making together on Saturday, the Daytona 500 on Sunday, or his day off on Monday!?!?

Forty Weeks Old

The highlight of this past week was celebrating my step-dad's 70th birthday!! My step-sister, Sally, organized a family dinner to celebrate John's big day at Rizzo's Restaurant on Monday. We had a great time as almost all the local siblings and grandchildren were in attendance.

Other than that, Todd and I spent the weekend at the mall. Needless to say, we were doing some last minute Christmas returns. We started out at the Outlet Mall on Saturday and took advantage of some great sales. We then headed to the Galleria on Sunday which was not busy at all due to the freezing weather. Ella came with us on both excursions and was a super trooper. She definitely preferred to be carted around in the umbrella stroller as she can see much more than when she is in her infant seat stroller.

Ella is on the move more and more these days. When we put her on her tummy there is no stopping her. Ella still isn't crawling, but is up on her hands and knees much more, scooting backwards much more, and rolling to get places much more. She also loves making sounds like "Bob bob bob," "Mmmmm," "Ma ma ma," "Da da da," "Pss pss pss," as well as lots of raspberries. According to Carol, her physical therapists, not many babies make the /p/ sound this early.

Other than that we have some exciting numbers...

• As of today (Tuesday), Ella is 280 days old!
• On Thursday, the twins will be 300 days old! And in 65 days they will be one year old!
• On Saturday, it will be 80 more days until Ella's first birthday!
• And also as of today, we have 40 more days until Todd, Ella, Mom & Dad Rassman, and I leave for Marco Island, FL!!!! Warm & sunny weather awaits us!

In the meantime, we're loving the snow that is coming down! If it's going to be cold, it might as well be snowing!!! Enjoy your week!

Nine Months Old

Seriously?? Nine months old on Thursday?? No way...not our baby!! As I write Ella is rolling and sliding herself around our family room. She is not crawling yet, but she is able to effectively get herself around a good six square foot area by rolling and scooting backwards all while moving at least two of her stacking blocks (one of her favorite toys) with her. Every once in a while she'll catch a glimpse of herself in the glass of our entertainment center which she thinks is just amazing. But she still gets her biggest smile and lets us know with a scream when Maggie, our kitty cat, comes into her view. A sure sign that Ella is growing up is that she is totally content playing on her own. She has been rolling, propping herself up on her hands, occasionally getting into a quadraped (on her hands and knees), moving backwards...aka entertaining herself...for a good 45 minutes right now.

In the meantime, much has gone on over the past month! Probably two of our biggest moments were, first, Ella getting another great check-up from Dr. Ambrusko her hematologist/oncologist, and, second, visiting with family over the Christmas holiday. Sorry, family, health takes precedence!!!

One event I failed to mention in my last blog was that on Saturday, December 20th we started the vacation with a family portrait as a gift to my mom. We traveled down to Holland, NY to have our wedding photographer, Dave Saviano of Countryside Photography, do our photo shoot. To see all the pictures visit the site up in the upper left hand corner. (Let me know if you have difficulty accessing the photos.) The babies did quite well and looked very cute...as did the adults too. For a photo document of our photo shoot click here to see Maya & Zachary's site. Let me know if you have difficulty accessing the photos.

I ended last month's blog with our Christmas Eve events that did go as planned. It was very cute to see all four babies together at Brian & Barb's house. My favorite picture is the one above with all of the Roba grandchildren and Papa John showing what I'm sure everyone thinks at one time or another when they are balancing four babies between the ages of 7 and 9 months!

Ella and I slept over at Mom's house Christmas Eve and after going to bed around 1am, Ella and the twins decided that they were really excited for Christmas morning and got up at 6:15am! But it was at least fun to get up with DJ and April and see all the babies together. If you have already looked through Maya & Zachary's photos you will have seen how busy the babies were trying to open up gifts. They found it hard to wait until the rest of the house got up!!

Christmas night we spent at our house with Todd's family. That certainly worked out well since it meant that we could put Ella to sleep at her regular bedtime which, these days, is important to Ella's staying happy! Take note of the cute Mets hoodie Ella received from her Aunt Kim and Uncle Jeff. Todd is very excited to get to some Bisons games this spring and summer now that they are the farm team of the Mets!

A day after the Saks/Radder clan left we got together for lunch with Sara, Ella's physicians assistant from the NICU, and Lynn, one of Ella's nurses from the NICU. As we had spent countless hours in the NICU, it was wonderful to sit down with them NOT in a hospital setting. Furthermore, they loved holding and playing with a HEALTHY Ella!!

New Year's Eve was spent very low key which Todd and I both appreciated! We made a delicious dinner together and then watched a movie before heading to bed by 11:oopm! We did celebrate a belated New Year's on Saturday with our neighbors, Nicole and Bob at Kathe and Michael's house. Ella came with us and then went to sleep in her pack 'n play until it was time for us to walk back home.

The rest of the week was spent recuperating before I went back to 'work' de-decorating the trees and stairways that I had helped my mom assemble. Meanwhile, Todd prepped the basement with his dad and brother to have two cracks repaired. Oh the joys of adulthood...within the last month we had to replace a sensor in the Explorer, replace the modulator in the furnace, and repair two cracks in our basement. They say things happen in threes, so does that mean we're done for now?

Ella and I started attending Wee Read at the Clarence Library on Wednesday mornings. It's for babies 6 months to 2 years. We sing songs, read a couple books, and then play too. Ella has been a hit with the teacher and moms as she actively sings and bounces as we sing. Ella and I also took out her first book, Spider's Busy Day by Eric Carle. It's one of Maya and Zachary's favorite books and has become a favorite of Ella's too!

Finally, Ella has been experimenting new foods like yogurt (which she always makes a funny face when she has her first spoonful), rutabaga, peas (although she got a couple hives after eating them so we will have to try them again at a later date), green beans, and ground flax seed. We have not given her any finger food yet, but I think it may just about be time to try it some out. We are also beginning to get into somewhat of an eating routine. It's been working out that I breastfeed Ella when she awakes in the morning and from naps and then I bring her downstairs to feed her some solids: cereal in the morning, yogurt after her nap, and then a dinner of vegetables and some more cereal. We are ready to begin adding fruits into her diet too (I know, a bit delayed, but the winter is not exactly the best time to find fresh fruits here in Buffalo).
I think that finishes our latest update. If there's more to add I'll be back! And, I promise, now that we are getting back into a routine that I will get those weekly updates back into action!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!