Cha...Cha..Cha...Changes!

Ellie turned one month old on August 10th! and she is growing a lot and doing new things (this is her on 8/10 - notice her growing belly:).


She has really started to focus her eyes better and we first noticed her really hold her attention on some bright red strawberries on a yogurt cup. She now focuses her attention for about 10-15 minutes a day on her 'discovery center' and anything with really bold color. She really tries to focus when someone is talking to her and seems to love being read to.

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun only seemingly a lot of work when we are running on little sleep (and Ellie decides our night is her day:).

As tiring as it is, mommy enjoys getting up with Ellie and sharing some time alone with her when she eats in the middle of the night. Daddy still loves doing fun things with her (actually it is to her at this point:) as you can see by her 'spa day' get up that Dan put on her as they watched the Olympics.

Last weekend, Michaella got a special treat for her birthday....Grandma Eileen spent the night the day before so mommy could sleep in and then Dan treated Michaella to an afternoon at the spa AND we went out to dinner to celebrate Michaella's birthday (photo of all of us on my birthday). It was quite a day compared to our routine schedule since Ellie was born. Ellie didn't seem to miss us as she stayed with Grandma!


We also all traveled to Lincoln to a family friend's wedding and to meet Uncle Dick, Aunt Linda, and Natalie Wittmann.

Ellie got to spend a little time with Luci, our neighbor's daughter who is almost exactly 6 months older than Ellie (we're sure they'll be fast friends:) Luci and Jackie have been giving us some great advice on mommyhood ...and loaning us a lot of cute sleepers when Ellie was too small to fit into what she had!


and also took her first boat ride at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here she is driving the boat:


She absolutely loves being outdoors and is always very calm the minute she's taken outside. Dan and I hope she loves the water as there is much lake time ahead at the Wright's and pool time ahead at the Wittmann's in St Louis.

We are enjoying some very pleasant weather (especially for Omaha in August) and have been enjoying time out on the front porch and back patio with friends and neighbors.

Hope to continue to hear from all of you!

Ellie Update

It's Sunday night and this is about the 15th time I've thought about sitting down to post to our Blog in the last few weeks...and the 3rd time I've tried to do it just today:) Ellie seems to consume all of our time even though her needs are seemingly so little.

She's 3 1/2 weeks old already and we can share the following about her:

Ellie already has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger...I have caught them up in the middle of the night watching movies together as he can't seem to put her down

She's gaining weight and growing. At her 2 week check-up, she weighed 7 lbs, 15 ounces and had grown 1/2 an inch. Just tonight I tried to put on the sleeper that she wore the first week home and it's already too small

Ellie's a really good baby....she has a great disposition and is a good sleeper. She goes to bed easily at night, then wakes me up about every 3 hours at night to eat but goes back to bed easily as well.

Here's what she's been up to the last few weeks: meeting lots of family and friends, including Grandpa Roger and Carole and Aunt Audrey who have all visited from St Louis and Michaella's cousins Wendy and Michelle and their families from New Mexico and Colorado;

she's enjoying tummy time every day;

she's getting to know her 'kitties', especially Harry, who is twice her size and likes to join her on the floor;

she went to the Farmer's Market on Saturday with Daddy and Aunt Audrey (in her sling for the first time)

and she entertains Mommy and Daddy and Granpa Bud and Grandma Eileen with her funny facial expressions after she eats and as she dozes off....she's got quite an array of 'signature looks' already. We've managed to capture a number of them on camera.

I hope to update this at least weekly as lots of you have been asking for photos and updates. Thanks again to everyone for all of the calls, visits, and gifts. So many of you have brought meals, books, and other gifts (this girl is going to be a fashion diva for sure - she already has more clothes than her Mom:). Ellie, Dan, and I are blessed to have so many loving friends and family members!