8 months old

Happy 8 months to our little Taylor.

Papa took Taylor for a follow-up appt. with her pediatrician last week b/c of the flu and we wanted to make sure her ears were clear. Her ears looked great, so her crabbiness is due to her red bulging gums and those pesky teeth trying to come through. Everyone who holds Taylor is amazed at how light/tiny she feels so we were interested to see what the scales said. With her clothes and diaper on, she weighed 17 pounds. So she is probably hovering just over 16 pounds.

Each day is something new with her. She absolutely loves table food and anything that she can "gum" to eat. She is disliking baby food more and more and we finally have resorted to feeding her table food and sneaking in bites of baby food. We have also moved up to stage 3 baby food which has small pieces of food chunks in it instead of it all being so creamy. She loves pancakes, macaroni and cheese and lasagna off of my plate!

I stopped nursing this past month and we found a formula for Taylor to drink. We introduced a lactose-free formula to her slowly and now she is great at drinking it. Along with the introduction of formula came a better sleeping baby. She still does not sleep through the night (she has done it once), but she typically wakes only once a night which is a huge improvement.

Taylor is also standing on her own more and more for longer periods of time. She will get up and start playing and then suddenly be standing on her own just looking around. She has taken one tiny step to me but it was immediately followed by falling to me without moving her feet. At the rate she is going, we are guessing she will be walking by 9 months (though we wouldn't mind if she took her time).

Here are a few pictures of our growing baby....

Thanksgiving 2009

I can hardly believe that we already celebrated Thanksgiving this year. Time really does fly by even faster once there is a second child in the mix. We had a great time this year with family. First stop was Oma and Opa's house at 2 pm. We had a delicious meal and even Taylor really enjoyed Aunt Colette's mashed potatoes (my absolute favorite). Second stop was Carriann and Brian's house. We got there around 6:15 pm, just in time for our second meal and dessert. Ella went and played with Brianna and Morgan right away and Taylor enjoyed exploring a new place (and the attention she received from everyone there).

I've noticed that it is significantly harder to remember to take pictures lately, but we were able to capture a few worth posting.

Here is Uncle John playing with the girls in the kitchen.

Morgan, Ella and Brianna:

Attempts to get Morgan, Brianna, Ella and Taylor....not an easy task...

Taylor's first tooth

On November 20th, we spotted Taylor's first tooth. You could barely see it, but you could certainly feel the jagged edges that had poked through. She had some trouble sleeping for a few days and we had to turn to some motrin when you could easily tell that she was hurting. It feels like the tooth next to it is trying to break the gums too.

Here are the best pictures I could get today....

My little vball player

Since Ella and Papa love to play basketball together, I decided to start teaching her my sport :) I started by showing Ella how to swing her arms and she would just swing them up and down over and over again. She is getting better and figuring out when to swing her arms, and I am getting a little better at timing my throws too. She loves cheering for me also and loves to grab the little ball and ask me to play volleyball. I love it!

T-bone is on the move

The newest Taylor nickname..."T-bone" (created by Papa) has already stuck in this house. Lately T has been pulling herself up on the furniture and walking while holding on to it. We are so proud of her and very cautious too because she certainly has no fear!

Here is a video we took over the weekend. We pulled out the walkers that Ella used when she was first learning to walk and Taylor went right for them. She is still a bit unsteady as the walkers we have move pretty fast, but she is willing to practice.

My little sicky

After picking Taylor up from school on Friday afternoon, she was incredibly happy that night and Saturday during the day. She was fever free, playful and ate like a champ all day. Saturday in the middle of the night was a whole different story. She woke up just before midnight with a 102.1° fever and it was downhill from there. We took her to immediate care Sunday afternoon when she spiked a 102.6° fever and was absolutely miserable. She tested positive for a variant of influenza and the entire family was put on Tami-flu. Monday I stayed home with her and the medicine seemed to work wonders. She was back to a happy and playful girl again.

Here are a few pictures from our day off.

The reason we had children

Aside from having someone to take care of us when we are older, J and I made the decision to have kids because we figured it was constant entertainment. Starting way back when we first taught Ella to call Polly "Dumb Dog" and now when we teach her to sing along with songs that we like.

A few months ago Ella brought home a new saying from school. She will show us something and say "look at this" in a really cute face. Her friend Samantha does it too and we think that it's from "The Little Mermaid" but we'll never be positive since Ella answers any question we ask her in repeat. For example "Ella why did you spill your milk?", her answer is "because I spill my milk". Not very helpful.

She is also addicted to letters and spelling words. She will come over to us with her Hello Kitty notebook and ask me to spell words for her. The latest request was "Ellie" :)

My little blue eyes - Taylor update

I'm pretty sure it happened. I got a blue eyed baby :)

We got the call from school today that Taylor was running a 101° fever so we had to pick her up. 6 of the 8 kids in her class have had H1N1, so we are hoping she didn't catch that! Luckily she has been in really good spirits actually. She is still eating/drinking like a champ and trying to play with Ella (while Ella mostly ignores her :).

I am also a sucker for a baby with a pacifier in their mouth. I don't know what it is, but I think it's soooo stinkin cute. Here is Taylor with a pacifier that says "Drama Queen" that she got from Nina. She doesn't keep it in her mouth long, but she does enjoy falling asleep with one in her mouth once in a while.

She has been getting better at sleeping lately too. Of course she still has her "off" nights, but she typically goes down at 8 pm and then wakes between midnight and 2 am to eat and then goes back to sleep until I wake her at 7 am. There have been a few times this past week that she thought it was playtime at 1 am, but we are working on reminding her that it's not time to wake up and play just yet.

David and Sydney's bday party

Saturday evening was a birthday party for the Hemminger kids. Sydney turned 4 years old and David turned 2 years old. The party was at "The Little Gym" in Hoffman Estates. We had never been there before and Ella had a great time. Jenna Coalson was also there and Ella always enjoys playing with her. They had bubbles that didn't pop when you caught them, uneven bars, balance beams and a jumpy track.

Ella requested that I put her hair in "kitty cat tails" which is what she calls pig tails. I braided them b/c her hair is getting pretty long now and she was really excited at how pretty her hair looked. Taylor also had a good time climbing all over the mats and watching Ella move all over the place.

Ella's first day of gymnastics

After seeing how much fun Ella had at Samantha's bday party a few weeks ago, we decided to sign her up for classes. Lucky for us, Spring Hill Gymnastics just moved their facility and they are now located just behind The Goddard School. So every Saturday at 9 am for the next 8 weeks will be at Ella's gymnastics class for 3 -4 year olds.

When we first got there, one of the teachers took Ella over to the rest of the class inside the gymnasium and she walked away from us without getting scared or anything! We were so proud of her. For 45 minutes, we got to sit back and watch the teachers lead all the kids on the tumble track, the balance beam, the rings and the bar. Ella had a great time and we are looking forward to her learning to listen and follow instructions in a new environment (and burn off some of that three year old energy).

October artwork

Here is some of Ella's artwork from October 2009 and the last of her artwork from the Get Set room as she has officially transitioned to the Preschool I room.

Halloween 2009

Halloween was a great day! The weather was beautiful, but a bit windy. We started off by going to Oma and Opa's subdivision since that is where we trick or treated last year (b/c Papa had to work last year on Halloween). We went to a few houses there and then warmed up inside before heading over to Carriann and Brian's house. Morgan and Brianna were there so we all went out around her subdivision in a group. The way the townhouses in her subdivision are set up, it almost completely blocked out the wind, so it was great. Ella loved running right up to the front door and ringing the door bell. After she said "trick or treat" and got her candy, she made it a point to say "Happy Halloween" as she was walking away. It was a lot of fun for all of us!

Unfortunately we did not get any pictures of Ella with Morgan and B, but here are some pictures of Ella as Tinkerbell and Taylor my little penguin.

Great Pumpkin 2009

Starting early in October, Ella and I looked out the front door every morning before school to see if the Great Pumpkin had made a delivery. The day that the pumpkins arrived were incredibly exciting for Ella. She yelled in complete excitement that the Great Pumpkin had brought pumpkins for us! It was so fun to see the look on her face. Thanks Great Pumpkin :)

We carved the pumpkins on Friday night and although I ended up doing most of the work, Ella did scoop out some of the seeds.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Here is Ella reading us "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

Samantha's 3rd birthday party

Last week Sunday was Ella's friend Samantha's 3rd birthday party. It was held at a gymnastics club in Huntley and it was a blast. Ella did not hesitate to join in on the fun and leave us behind to watch. The trio was complete once again because Kendra was also at the party. Those three girls are inseparable at Goddard.

They even had a young toddler room where Taylor and Papa spent cake time. Taylor had a great time and was climbing all over the equipment in there.

Ella jumped down the trampoline track and into the foam pit. She climbed through the obstacle course. Jumped onto the vault (with help) and jumped down onto the mat. She did so good that we are planning on enrolling her in a gymnastics class soon.

Goddard Fall Fest

Last weekend was Goddard Fall Fest. It's so nice that they have so many festivities where we can go and socialize with parents and teachers since drop-offs and pick-ups are usually so hectic and rushed. One of Ella's best friends, Samantha, was there and Ella was thrilled. The two of them were connected at the hip and went from room to room and event to event the entire time. There was a jumpy house outside, pumpkins to decorate, games to play and food to enjoy.

Meanwhile, Taylor had a great time b/c there was all sorts of soft climbing toys that she could play with. The school directors had a great time posing her for her pumpkin picture.

Unfortunately I had messed with some of the camera settings and most of these pictures did not turn out very good.

Decorating a pumpkin (Samantha was sitting on the other side of the table with her mom)

Jumping in the jumpy house with some other friends (before Samantha got there)

Library fun

Last weekend we headed over to the Algonquin public library for Halloween story time. It was Mama, Meena, Ella and Taylor spending some quality girl time :) I'm lucky Meena came with because it would not have been easy to get sit in the little room for story time with an inquisitive 7 month old. The girls went in costume, and Ella had fun listening to stories, singing songs, and parading around for all to see.

We then found the book "Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" to read because this is Ella's favorite book right now!

It was a great time. Thanks for joining us Meena.

Here is a picture of Ella playing with the trains and reading the book.