She's still beautiful to us!

Today, LIVE with Regis & Kelly announced the 10 Semi-Finalists for their annual Beautiful Baby Search. Alas, Ella has not been chosen as one of the semi-finalists. They had millions of entries! Anyway, in case you're curious to see who they think are contenders for "America's Beautiful Baby" title, I've posted the photos below. If you'd like to vote in the contest, you can visit the Regis & Kelly Website, but you'll have to register to vote first -- it only takes a minute. Voting is only being held today and they will announce the finalists tomorrow and the winner on Friday. There's always next year...

Busted Lip

It's become a bit of a tradition on weekend mornings to bring Ella into our bed when she wakes up early...at least earlier than I want her to. Sometimes, she will nurse and then sleep cuddled in between us. Othertimes, she doesn't want to cooperate and will crawl off the bed and start exploring our room as we watch her from our bed.

Well, yesterday she was playing with things from my nightstand. My vitamins are a particular favorite of hers -- she shakes the bottle and makes music. I'm not sure what she tripped on, but it may just have been her own two feet. She fell and bit her bottom lip right between her teeth. Both the outside and inside of the lip were cut open and bleeding. What a way to start off the morning! The bleeding subsided within a few minutes but her lip swelled a bit. Now a day later, it still looks pretty sad. Hopefully, it will heal quickly. Ah, the dangers of walking...

A Valentine's Surprise

I figured that it would be nearly impossible to get anyone to watch Ella so Brett and I could go out for Valentine's Day. So instead of planning a date night out, I decided to cook a nice meal for my man. I'm going to make broiled flank steak (so Brett doesn't have to grill it), rice pilaf, and veggies. For dessert, I thought I'd try making "Chocolate Lava Cakes". So, since Ella was napping I thought it would be the perfect time to prepare them. I prepared the batter while the oven was preheating. Just as I was about to put the cakes in the oven, I noticed that there was a strange smell emanating from the oven...a sort of plastic-like smell. Now, from early on, Ella has had a fascination with the broiler and learned long ago how to open the broiler drawer. She is equally fascinated by our tupperware cabinet and likes to empty it on a daily basis and distribute tupperware around the house. As I noticed the smell, I knew what she had done. With a quick pull on the drawer, I discover, yes indeed, Ella had put a disposable Ziploc container lid in the broiler and yes, it was now a pile of blue goo. It wouldn't be such a bummer but I planned to use the broiler for the first time in my life tonight for dinner. Now, I just have to figure out how to get now-hardened blue goo off of the broiler tray. Fun times....

Live's Beautiful Baby Contest

When Ella was first born, I practically lived on the couch because she was nursing about every 1 1/2 hours. So, I got to know the ABC TV line-up pretty well (it's the only station that we get since we don't have cable). Anyway, one of my favorite shows was (and still is) Live with Regis and Kelly. Last February, I saw that they have an annual Beautiful Baby Contest and I thought that I'd love to enter Ella in that when she was old enough.

Well, now it's time! The deadline for submissions is Friday and I've been trying to get a really good shot of her but without much success. Then yesterday, the Ireland family gave her a belated birthday present of a pink and lavender bathing suit. It is incredibly hot today so I tried it on her. Adorable! We went out into the backyard and she ran around while I tried my hand at photography. It's not easy to get a kid to look at you without anyone else's help. She was too enthralled with the leaves on the ground, dirt, rocks, etc. But, I managed to get one photo that I liked pretty well. I've posted it here for you to see. I think I'll submit this one to the contest.

The finalists and their parents get sent to New York City to appear on LIVE and to do a photo shoot that will appear in Parents Magazine. The winner gets to be on the magazine cover and gets $3,000 in prize money. I know the chances of Ella winning are pretty slim -- they have well over 90,000 entries. But, I thought it would be fun to try. They'll be showing entries all during the week of February 20th on the show. So, who knows, maybe Ella's photo will be on TV at least.

12-Month Check-Up

I admit, I kind of obsess about Ella's weight. As my mom could tell you, this is nothing new...it's been that way since I brought her home. When she was a baby, I obsessed because I wanted to make sure she was getting enough milk -- something that is a little hard to judge when you breastfeed. Now that she eats solid food, it's hard for me to tell because she doesn't always eat all that I give her. I wonder, "Am I giving her too much and she can't finish it?" or "Does she just eat like a bird?" Of course, it doesn't help when everyone who holds her exclaims what a lightweight she is AND when the numbers on the scale fail to go up as much as I'd like.

So, I was a little fearful of Ella's 12-Month check-up. She was scheduled to go in right after her birthday but we had to postphone it because Dr. Howe had a family emergency and then Ella was sick. So, yesterday we finally made it to the doctor's office. Ella is now 29 inches long and weighs a "whopping" 16lbs, 14 ounces. Yeah, she gained a whole 6 ounces in three months! I was a little discouraged until Dr. Howe said that it fine -- it just rules out diabetes and obesity. In fact, he said she is well nourished and has great "morphplogy" -- his words, not mine. (In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anyone use that term before.) Anyway, I think I'm going to stop obsessing -- or at least try to.

Ella Turns One!

Today we visited our friends Jillian & Christian who are expecting a baby in March, and Jill was showing me all her preparations for the baby. She opened the diaper drawer, and I caught a glimpse of the newborn-sized diapers. I couldn't believe that it was a year ago that Ella fit into diapers that SMALL. But yes, it was just over a week ago that Ella turned ONE.

Ella officially turned one on January 26th but we planned a 1st Birthday Party for her on the 28th. In the days leading up to the party, I stayed up late at night trying desperately to START and FINISH her scrapbook. Not an easy task...and not one that I actually accomplished. But, boy did I get close. I got almost all of the photos into the book but I still have journaling and embellishments to add. But, at least our guests got to look at the photos and see how much she's grown.

Yes, we realize that a 1st Birthday Party is really more for the parents and extended family than the birthday kid, but we couldn't resist. It was great to see so many friends and family. Ella does have friends at 12 months of age...but they are all BOYS. What can I say, she will have her choice of suitors in the future. Her friends Caleb and Josh from Home Group came to join the celebration. It was great to see the three of them cruising around the living room with helium-filled balloons attached to their backs. They seemed to enjoy the balloons too!


Of course, no 1st Birthday would be complete without the cake. She got her very own 8-inch cake to dig into (well, we eventually served the untouched half to people who wanted chocolate cake). Go figure...when I want her to be neat and tidy when she eats, she isn't....when I want her to get crazy and dig in, she daintily eats the frosting off the top of the cake. It took several minutes for her to realize that yes, Mommy & Daddy were letting her eat as much of the super-sweet goodie as she wanted. She eventually got the hang of it and got good and messy as every birthday girl should.