Belly Buttons!!

Ellie has discovered her first body part - the belly button. One would think that it would be a facial-related body part - the eyes, nose, mouth or ears. But no, my child has discovered her belly button. It may come as a surprise to some, but she enjoys going around and lifting shirts to find your belly button and stick her finger in it.

After much laughter at this, I finally sat down to think about this. "Where did this come from?" Mark and I don't go around the house sticking our fingers in each others belly buttons, so I was at a loss as to where she made this new discovery.

But then I found it!

Last night, I was going through the last 12 months of pictures to make my 2010 calendar in iPhoto. Of course, at each video that I found, I had to watch it - what a change in our girl over the last year! Then I found an interesting video from when Ellie spent the night at Ray & Julie's in February. (I will say this was her first sleepover, as she was hanging out with peers (Emmarae & Hadyn), not just Grandma & Grandpa).

Julie and Ray gave the three little girls a bath and took a short video during bathtime. It was watching this again last night, that I saw it. Hadyn did anything Emmarae did, and Emmarae, fascinated by something new (Ellie naked) decided to compare the three little belly buttons. Hadyn quickly followed suit, and now I have an 18-month old who loves putting her finger into her and our belly buttons.

Consider yourself warned!!

Zoo fun

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, so we decided to head to the Zoo for some family time. Having annual passes has been a wonderful thing for our family - we often head out late in the afternoon on a Sunday, walk from the Inglewood entrance to the Africa Pavilion and back again.

This trip, we were surprised to see that the conservatory was finally open again! We strolled around inside and had many wonderful ideas for our garden this summer. In the Africa Pavilion, Ellie was ready to get out of her stroller and enjoyed a walk with her Dad.

It's moments like this that remind me how blessed I am.

A Week in the Hospital

In January, Ellie spent 5 days at the Alberta Children's Hospital with pneumonia. I had strep throat, and Mark had strep throat, pink eye and then mid-way through the week, came down with the stomach flu as well.

We were in rough shape that week, and in retrospect, it was probably a blessing that Ellie was at the hospital as Mark and I were in no form to take care of her!

Ellie was admitted on January 17 because her blood oxygen levels were in the 80%'s - not good. She was quite lethargic and was having difficulty breathing, her naturally "wheezy" state added an element of difficulty. On our way from Emerg to Unit 2, we stopped for a chest x-ray, all the while, attached to a portable oxygen tank. It was quite surreal, walking the halls while Mark held Ellie and the nurse pushed the oxygen tank - I don't think it really sunk in that we were leaving Ellie at the hospital. Perhaps it was exhaustion at this point since it was after 1 o'clock in the morning!!

Ellie bounced back fairly quickly, though she wasn't taken off oxygen until Friday, she had a few hours without it on Wednesday and Thursday. Our nurses were AMAZING - I don't think we were ever really afraid of leaving Ellie, just purely tired.

We brought our girl home again on January 22, 2010 and by the next day, she was running around and laughing and you would never have guessed she'd just spent a week in the hospital. It took Mark and I much longer to recover from the week!!

Reaching new heights!

So a recently fun activity for Ellie is to help me unload the dishwasher - she comes running - or rather, crawling in her most hilarious way as fast as she can to help bang the dishes together while I unload and load the dishwasher. This is now part of our morning routine of tasks that we do together and there is much laughter as new discoveries are made - things spin, roll and there's always a little water to splash with as well.

This morning, I was washing a stoneware in the kitchen sink and Ellie was walking around the dishwasher behind me. We were fighting for floor space at times, but my persistent girl pushes enough to make objects that are blocking her path move. All of a sudden, I felt something tap my bottom - I thought I'd gotten a little too close to the top rack, but I turned and looked. Here was Ellie, standing on the door of the dishwasher, hanging onto the top rack (and chewing it of course). As soon as she saw me, she started laughing - totally knowing she'd accomplished something new.

Worried for the dishwasher door more than the safety of my child, I whisked her off before I could take a picture - I may have to pose a photo another morning.

Summer Fun

June was mainly spent writing a research paper for my Governance class at Athabasca University. Ellie and I had our weekly swim class - which was great - but otherwise we did not get out a whole lot. On the 26th, I decided that it was time we had a good break and we went for a picnic with Auntie Megan and cousins Finley & Rhys.

After our picnic (a wonderful lunch from McDonald's) and walk in the park, we found a playground and there, Ellie got to go in the swings for the very first time. I didn't think she would be able to go in the swings this year as she's still small, but she fit fine and had a wonderful time swinging beside Rhys.

It was a fun day for us all!

How Time Flies

It is difficult to believe that it has been 4 months since I last blogged - we have been kept quite busy with new achievements and activities that Ellie has done, that I look back and wonder where the time has gone.

I won't bore you with a lot of sentiment, but here are some hi-lights over the last few months.
- March 9 - first meal of rice cereal - Ellie didn't think too highly of it, but now she's like her Dad and will eat whatever I put in front of her!
- March 20-27 - Grammie Butterton came for a visit and Ellie rolled from her tummy to her back in the presence of Grammie, Mommy and Daddy!
- April 10 - Easter egg decorating party at Auntie Julie's!
- April 12 - first trip to Heritage Park for a special birthday celebration of cousin Caleb and Grandma Ratzlaff.
- April 22 - our first Stars n' Strollers movie with friends Gina & Ariane.
- April 29 - Mom & Baby Aqua-size class at the VRRI - Ellie LOVES playing in the water in her little floatation device while I work-out around her. The other mom's continuously comment on her cute rolls.
- May 6 - Ellie slept over at Grandma & Grandpa Ratzlaff's for the first time. I had a final exam the next morning and enjoyed an uninterrupted nights sleep!
- May 9 - 17 - Jasper vacation shared with Grandma & Grandpa Ratzlaff!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's difficult to believe it's been almost two months since I've blogged - guess that goes to show how fast time does fly!

We had a wonderful Christmas, enjoying visits from Grandma Ratzlaff and cousin Kim and her family over the Holidays, as well as my family and Mark's family from Calgary and Cranbrook. It was a nostalgic time for Mark and I as we watched our little baby coo-ing and chatting to us with amazing smiles.

January passed very quickly. We all came down with colds, so there was a week where Ellie and I didn't leave the house, we just slept and ate. Unfortunately, Mark came down with a mild version of our cold at the end of the week, so we were all pretty mellow for a few days.

On February 4, we made our 3rd Annual trip to Radium. We enjoyed a lovely drive by moonlight through the mountains on the way out, with a quiet, sleeping baby! Ellie traveled amazingly well, and didn't experience any issues with new surroundings and sleeping arrangements. It was a much-needed getaway for all, especially Mark, as work has been very crazy for him since October. We had planned on taking Ellie to the Hot Springs, but since she wasn't completely over her cold, we opted to save that for another trip. My parents were able to come out one night and they babysat while Mark and I went to the Hot Springs - a lovely treat for us!

Ellie had her 5-month birthday this week and her new milestones are: chewing on everything (I think teeth are close); first stages of rolling (moving her head and shoulders); smiling and flirting at anything that moves (ceiling fans included); loving it when her Daddy comes home from work.