Ella's First Birthday

June 11th marked our sweet little Ella's first birthday. I know I say this a lot, but where has the time gone? When I started going through all of her monthly pictures I was holding back tears. It feels like just a few short months ago we brought her home from the hospital and now here we are. We have a sweet and completely hilarious one year old, who's full of mischief and sweet smiles.

Ella's birthday fell on a Saturday which was super awesome. She woke up super bright and early which was actually nice since I had a lot of decorating and prep ahead of me.  

I was so happy with how everything turned out. I was going with a flower/"thanks for watching me grow" theme. I wanted the decorations for the most part to be pretty simple but with splashes of colour here and there. 

The "Ella" banner and the monthly banner cards are from my Etsy shop. I'm so happy with how they turned out and were the center of all of the decorations. 

 The other tables were again decorated pretty simple. White table cloths with burlap table runners and pops of dark and light pink.

Fraser picked up some pretty Gerber daisies to compliment the whole theme. 

 I made two big goody bags for Ella and Harper, full of necklaces, treats and other small nick naks. Harper in particular was in her glory opening hers.

 I painted little flower pots a pretty pink and stuffed them with flower packets and little treats. Everyone went home with a sweet little picture from Ella's cake smash photo shoot.

The favors were topped with some custom favor tags from my Etsy shop - these will be listed in a few short days.

Fraser snapped some pictures of our princess and me. She was wearing the most adorable tulle dress from Old Navy that I got for a ridiculously cheap price. It was exactly what I wanted, something simple but princess like.  

Ella is currently obsessed with necklaces and will crawl/walk around the house with 10 on her neck at a time. She is honestly the funniest babe ever.

Ella preferred the icing over the actual "cake" part of the cupcake. Such a diva.

Managed to snap a few pictures of the birthday girl and her big sister before the festivities. Of course Ella bumped her lip resulting in a pretty big fat lip. Poor thing. She apparently didn't get the memo that you're not supposed to get hurt on your birthday!

Overall the day was amazing. Our little Ella was surrounded by all of the people that love her. Fraser and I are so blessed to have this little angel in our lives. She's so full of spunk, love and laughter. I'm so happy to call this babe my daughter.

A 12 month update will be posted within a few days. Stay tuned! xo

Ella 11 Month Update

Oh my sweet Ella baby. I cannot believe she is only a month away from turning one. Where has the year gone?! It makes me want to hide in a corner and cry a little. She's our last baby so I'm literally holding onto every.single.moment with her. All of the "baby" moments like how she still curls her legs and feet up to her chest when I change her bum, as if she's still crammed in my tummy! Waaaahh.

Ella is FULL of personality still. She always has been. She is full of laughs, giggles, screams - always making noises. I call her a menace because she's always into everything. Every time I turn around for 30 seconds, she's doing the mad dash into a cupboard or drawer - and the best part is she will see you looking at her and she will make the biggest and cheesiest smile ever. Love it. 

Sleep: Ella has been doing amazing this past month and a half with her sleeping at night. For the most part she sleeps through the night with the exception of waking up at 5:30am some mornings to nurse and then going back to sleep until 7/7:30am. She has also dropped her morning nap and only napping once after lunch when Harper also goes down. This has actually been amazing. She naps for 2-2 1/2 hours which means I get a nice break while the girls nap.

Nursing: Ella still nurses 5-6 times within 24 hours. There's a few nursing sessions that will obviously be dropped once I'm back to work (the countdown is on). 

Eating: For the most part, Ella's a really good eater. She will try almost anything and very rarely spits anything out. However, like her sister, she doesn't care for too many veggies - apparently they take after their momma! Fruit though, holy moly, I cannot cut fruit up fast enough for her.

This monkey is the light of my life along with her sister. She is one of the funniest babies ever. She is so smart it's scary - always watching her sister do things and trying to do it as well. I give her until the end of May and I think she will be walking. She has been pulling herself up on everything and walks with her walker toy. I don't think I'm ready for her to walk, she just seems too tiny!

I am almost done collecting everything for her 1st birthday party, including some things I make myself and sell on my Etsy shop: photo garland  , cupcake toppers , place cards/food cards , favour tags.

I just want to slow time down, my babies are growing up so fast and I want them to stay little forever and ever. 

Hope everyone has an amazing weekend! xo

Things kids say..

Harper is at the funniest and most frustrating age right now. She is one month away from being 2 and a half and most of the time I wish I could freeze her at this age forever. Other than being the biggest sweetheart ever, she is also one of the funniest kids I know. One of my favourite things about this age is some of the things she says. For instance, when she tells us she loves us, she always says "I love you too mommy". She adds the "too" even though she is saying it to you first. If she says it to me, she will immediately tell Fraser she loves him, Ella and even the dog.  

When Harper's about to get a treat or we're going to do something she loves, she will say with the biggest cheesiest smile ever "I'm exseeded (excited)". Makes me heart melt every time!

Another favourite of mine is when I ask her what she wants for lunch or dinner and she replies with things like "cupcakes" or "jellybeans" or "farties" (smarties) or her new one "faghetti". The fact that she pronounces anything that begins with the letter S with a F is completely hilarious. She will also randomly mispronounce words like the dogs leash as "douch" or racoon as "fuckoon" - which has Fraser and I covering our faces because we are trying to contain the laughter.

I love the cute ways she says certain things or how quickly she will pick up new words and will use them in the right context. She is so darn smart and I want her to stay this age forever and ever. Except of course when shes having a full on meltdown because you've asked her not to do something for the bazillion time.

Ella Sleeping Update / Sleep Training

Ahh, this little toad. The past three weeks I have finally got decent sleep and that's because Ella has been getting decent sleep at night. We have finally gotten past the point of her waking several times throughout the night and we got there with minimal crying. I'm not a sleep expert and I'm not here to judge others, but both Fraser and I do not believe in the cry it out method. Not for us anyways.

The way we look at it is, our babies are only small for a short period of time - even though sometimes it feels like forever. If Ella wants an extra cuddle at night, I'm going to give it to her. If she's teething and isn't feeling well, resulting in her waking 4 times in the middle of the night, I will go to her. Why? Because one day, one night, she will no longer need me. She will longer have the urge or need to wake up looking for my comfort, because she will be a big girl. 

Ella used to be really bad with being restless. She wasn't overtired, but wouldn't know exactly what she wanted to go to sleep. I used to have to go back and forth between nursing her, rocking her and holding her with her head nestled in my neck - before discovering exactly what she wanted to fall asleep. This was frustrating for me, since it would take 30-45 minutes to put her to sleep AND sometimes it seemed it would never end the back and forth. A month ago, I started putting her down in her crib when she got to this point. She was half asleep but super fidgety. I slowly walked out of the room so it didn't seem like I was putting her down and running - and would observe her on the camera. To my surprise the first night I tried this, she fussed (not cried) for 10 minutes and fell asleep on her tummy - which she has never done. I told myself before doing this, that my maximum time would be 10 minutes and at any point she got hysterical, I would go get her. 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing and to be honest, I expected her to pop her head up crying at any moment. She didn't. She slept a solid 7 hours straight which she hadn't done since she was under 4 months old - swaddled and in her bassinet next to my bed! The gentle sleeping method is what we chose for both our girls and we've never regretted it even though it can take weeks or months longer than letting them cry it out. I'm bad for going on sleeping forums and reading crying it out horror stories where mom's have been so sleep deprived that they've left their baby to cry for up to 4-5 hours! A baby as young as 5-6 months. This to me is mind boggling. How could you stand, regardless of how tired you are, to listen to your baby cry uncontrollable for even 45 minutes, let alone 4-5 hours. Did these mom's leave their house during this time? Because me, I would be sobbing in the next room (which I'm sure most of them were doing). 

Through these forums I learned of a term which is called "Cry it out extinction" which is what I guess I really don't believe in. This is where you put your baby in their crib for the night and you let them cry for as long as it takes for them to fall asleep. Nope, no, no way in hell. Not for me. The cry it out method with check in's I don't think is awful, just not for me and my girls.

Ella goes to bed at about 6:45pm/7pm and will sleep until 4/5am, nurse and go back to sleep until 7am. She went from waking 4-5 times each night to once. Which I don't mind at all! Now her naps during the day are still random. Some days she will nap awesome, other days she has silly 30 minute cat naps. 

So what worked for both my girls is I did the gentle sleep method, going in whenever they woke up in the middle of the night - would nurse them then rock them to sleep. During this time (6-8 months), I would work on nursing them for shorter periods of time and rocking them less. I would attempt to put them down in their crib awake but super drowsy (almost fully asleep). If it didn't work, I would pick them up and put them to sleep completely. With Ella, at around 7 months old, she started to fall asleep during her night wakings when I did this, but wouldn't when she was first going to bed or for naps. 

Ella now likes being rocked to sleep with her head nestled in my neck when going to sleep for the night and will stay asleep for 9-10 hours.

Things I recommend:

- Halo Sleep Sacks

- Fan

- Noise Machine

- Black out curtains

- A supportive partner/husband 

- Lots and lots of patience

Both my girls appeared to be ready at around 8-9 months to fuss a little in their crib to put themselves to sleep - without getting hysterical, only lasting 10 minutes or less. This is the key. For my girls, when they were ready, they transitioned super easy - when I tried earlier than the 8 month mark, I would attempt again a week or two later. The key is not to get discouraged, babies will only sleep better at night when they are developmentally ready with maybe a light push in that direction - some babies taking much longer than others.

For now, I'm going to enjoy my good sleeping baby until her next few teeth start coming in!

Growing up too fast

I say this almost daily, my babies are growing up too fast. Harper seems to have gone from a baby to a little lady overnight. I feel like shes grown up so fast in the last 6 months because she's a big sister and no longer the little baby anymore. She's also incredibly smart for her age which also makes her seem older than she is. We've discovered over the past few months that she is very emotional and very sensitive. Her feelings get hurt very easily and she wants constant hugs and reassurance throughout the day - which we are okay with since it's the sweetest thing ever. Harper is very passive like her daddy and is the most considerate little girl ever.

 Harper also likes to play favorites everyday. She will either wake up in the morning a daddies girl or a mommies girl - never both. Once she has picked who she wants, she is attached to that person all day not wanting much to do with the other. It can be frustrating at times, but we like for her to make her own choices as much as possible. Obviously I get more mommy day's being that I'm home on maternity leave - woo hoo!!

Now our sweet Ella. Oh boy, where do I start?!? She is a mini me, which is both awesome and terrifying. She is a very serious baby who always has a scowl on her face - but when she smiles, holy moly it's pretty amazing. She is very independent, trying to always keep up with her sister. Currently she's a little slap happy, from having to learn from a very young age to swat her big sister out of her face (Harper's bad for hovering an inch away from Ella's face which would probably drive me crazy too). Now whenever Fraser or I go in for a kiss it's up in the air whether we will get a sweet kiss or a smack in the face - we're currently working on her being "gentle".

 The past few weeks, Ella has been pulling herself up on things. I have a feeling she is going to walk earlier than her big sister did.

 Ella has been doing the army crawl for over a month now. But recently has been motoring. I feel like I put her down in one spot, I turn around and she's already on the other side of the room into something. Little monkey.

Ella is also the absolute worst when it comes to picking things off of the floor and eating it. The picture above is exactly what she does constantly, while she's playing on the floor. I will sweep the floor and she will still manage to find something to put in her mouth. I've also noticed that she likes to empty bins, blocks or other small toys, and will put them all back. She will do this over and over and seems to have a blast.

 Harper has been right into accessories lately. She is all about her "hair cripps" and "gwasses" or even my scarves. She will wrap a scarf around her neck while also rocking her sunglasses and about five different hair clips. Cutest thing ever.

Meal times with these two is pretty hilarious. Harper thankfully has been less picky and trying new foods again. With Ella it just depends on her mood. If she's tired or cranky, she will swat everything that comes within in an arms reach, usually resulting in her being covered head to toe in food - along with the floor, table, me, the dog..Ella never wants to drink her sippy cup but would rather have Harpers. Harper will scream her head off if she isn't the one to put Ella's food try on, yelling "I help!". Also a new favourite is "I say please". Harper thinks if she says please, that automatically means she's going to get what she wants. So if she's already said please, and I tell her no, she will say "I say please" as if that will make me change my mind. Makes me laugh almost every time. 

These two are the cutest little ladies ever! And as sad as it is to see them growing up so quickly, it is also a total blast. Love them both to pieces. 

The next thing on the agenda is planning Ella's 1st birthday party - waaaaaaahhhh. I'm thinking a woodland creatures theme: baby deer, owls, wood, gold (my favourite). Something cute and girly but not pink overload. 

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!