Way, Way, Way too long!

Yes I know it's been almost a year since I have posted!  I have no excuse!  That's it.

Today was a bittersweet day for us.  Ella was discharged from Physical Therapy!  We are very proud of her, but also sad to say goodbye to Suzie, her therapist.  Suzie has shaped Ella in so many ways!  She is AMAZING!

When we first started in PT I was hoping that Ella would only need it for a few months, but months turned into almost 2 years and now here we are!  The strives that Ella has made are amazing.  There were times when I wasn't sure when Ella would crawl or even walk.  She has worked so hard and doesn't even realize it.  I can't wait till she grows up and I'm able to tell her everything she did in her first few years. 

My goal is to keep this up to date and I know I've said that before.

Here are some highlights from 2012
Ella walked in March
We started the birth to 3 program in April
Had genetic testing done in September
Genetic tests came back normal in November

We are excited to see what 2013 has in store for Ella!

Pictures to come!

Happy Easter!

I'm Happy To Announce....

WE HAVE A WALKER!!!! Yes that's right Miss Ella decided she wanted to walk without being told she had too. I must say this is one PROUD mommy! Last Thursday I took her to get fitted for braces for her feet. She turns her feet out really wide and her ankles cave inward. So we got her measured and she went back to daycare that day. By the time I got home from the gym after work, she was walking all over the house. She is a silly little girl :). Also, just last night she started to stand up from the middle of the floor, without having to hold on to anything to stand up. Next she will be running! We are still going to use the braces because it will help her even more to have her feet straight.

I've been waiting ALONG time to write this post. I'm always proud at what Ella does everyday and what she has accomplished in these last 9 months, but I couldn't be more proud of her strides to start walking. She must know that I was sick waiting ;). It makes me feel great to know she can now keep up with her little friends and be on the same level as them. As a parent you always want whats best for your kids and I think waiting this long for this to happen is what was best for her! I'll post some new pictures this weekend!

Making Big Improvements!

I'm happy to say that Ella has made BIG improvements in the last week and half! I think she read my post on struggling and took a hint ;). On Friday Ella took her first steps on her own with no assistance. She just turned around and started walking! We are so proud of her! Therapy went great on Monday too, she has definitely turned a corner! Thank you to everyone who responded to my blog, it was nice to hear some encouraging words. I have to remember this is Ella's personality and will probably always be that way!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Ella also turned 20 months today! I can't believe she is going to be 2 years old in 4 months! Time is flying by!

Ella enjoys talking and laughing, wrestling with daddy, eating, sleeping, reading books and playing with her toys. She also enjoys throwing her balls down the stairs and having daddy throw them back to her. She can crawl super fast and gets to where she wants too.

Below are some pictures of Ella in her Valentines Day Outfit!

Struggling...

I'll say it again, it's been a long time since I posted! I'm struggling over here, Ella is my world, she is the best baby I could ask for. However, I'm struggling with the fact that she isn't walking yet. She will stand without holding on to anything, she'll walk between Tony and I and will move along furniture. She will not walk on her own though, she doesn't do it alone. We have to force her to walk. She LOVES to crawl everywhere, but that's hard when you don't want her to get trampled. I just want her to keep up with her other friends that are her age. I feel like she is falling behind and I really don't want her too. She is such a sweetheart and so fun and changing everyday! I'm just struggling with the walking thing...so any suggestion are welcome! One thing that I'm hoping will help her is that we switched our daycare provider this week. I think this is going to be a great move for Ella. She is with kids that are her age and are ALL walking, so I'm hoping this will be good motivation for her. Thanks for listening to me, it is sometimes easier to write it down then talk about it.

Updates!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. A lot has happened in the last few months. First off Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Christmas was busy as usual for us. This Christmas was a bit different though. My grandpa pasted away on December 4th (my dad's dad). He was diagnosed with Leukemia in September and it just took a toll on him. He lived to be 90 years old that's amazing! So, we spent the first part of December getting his funeral prepared and celebrating his life. It was a beautiful service! I will miss him, he was a wonderful man. Right before he passed away we had the stomach flu fly through our house, my parent's house and Tony's family's house. I celebrated my 29th birthday sick, but was able to celebrate that weekend. Once we got through the sickness and the funeral, Christmas was right around the corner.

Christmas was kind of a blur this year, it flew by. We celebrated Christmas with my mom's family the Sunday before Christmas. It was nice, because we don't see them that often. Ella got some nice gifts. The day before Christmas Eve we went to the Wisconsin Club with Tony's family to have dinner. It was a nice dinner, if you ever get a chance to go to the Wisconsin Club, go there during Christmas, it is beautiful! Christmas Eve was Church at Elmbrook with my family and Tony's family and then off to Tony's Uncle's house for dinner and presents. Ella is at the age where she doesn't want to sit still at ALL! It's hard to enjoy everyone's company because you have to keep a constant eye on her. She didn't want to sit through the Church service so Tony sat with her in the family area. The church service at Elmbrook is awesome! There is so much music and spirit during that service, I love it! On Christmas day we spent the morning at home opening presents with Ella, she got a play kitchen from Santa and some other smaller things from us. She actually enjoyed opening the presents this year, so that was exciting. Then we went to my parents house to open more presents and have breakfast. After that we had my dad's side came over. It was nice. The kids opened their presents and then the adults did the white elephant gift exchange. It's always interesting to see what people get. Grandpa was definitely missed that day. After the festivities at my parent's house we went over to Tony's family's house to open presents and have a sleepover. The next day we went over to Tony's sister's house to celebrate Christmas with his dad and siblings. Like I said it was a busy Christmas, but it was fun!

This whole week Tony and I have been off of work which was nice we got to spend some quality time with Ella. Unfortunately I got sick late Friday night with a stomach bug or something, so we stayed in for NYE, second year in a row. Tony was sick last year.

Updates on Ella - She had her 18 month appointment on December 16th. She weighed in at 25lbs and 31 inches long. The appointment went really well. She still isn't walking yet, but is making great progress with therapy. She can take about 2 steps between Tony and I. We are so proud of her. The doctor has no concern that she isn't walking yet, because she is making great progress. Ella is moving and moving and moving ALL the time. She is so fun! She loves playing peek a boo, she likes when we tickle her and when we are goofy with her. She is really into watching what we do on the computer. Someone at worked showed me some fun games on Fisherprice.com so we play those a lot. We read and brush her teeth every night. She actually loves to brush her teeth. She knows when we are going to do it, because she goes "ahhh" I love it! We also got her haircut for the first time, which didn't go so well, but it was my fault because I made the appointment at dinner time. At her 18 month appointment the doctor said to start looking for signs of potty training. Look to see if she pulls on her diaper or doesn't want to have her diaper on. These can be signs that she is interested. We haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure once she is walking it will start to happen. I actually bought a potty chair this week and we sat her on it right before her bath, she sat there for like a minute. The doctor said we'll really want to start trying around 2, but to not push her and let her figure it out for herself.

Well I think that is it for updates. One of my New Year's resolutions is to post on here more often. I really want this to be something for Ella to read when she is older.

Happy New Year Everyone! Here is to a great 2012!

Long Awaited Picture-