Happy 9 Month Birthday, Ellie!!

What a comedy today was. Happy 9 month birthday Ellie -- you poor thing; with a mom like yours you'll be lucky if I don't forget you at the supermarket one day. *sigh*

It started at Mickey D's this morning with the coffee. Let me just say that at our local McD's I have NEVER, NEVER, NEVER gotten my coffee order right. WHY???? Why do I continue to order it??? What I want every single time I go there and order is a large iced vanilla coffee. Today,I got an Iced Latte --no flavoring, size medium and no sweetner. The first big slug almost made me spew coffee all over the car. I parked, went back in and got some Splenda -- three packs to be exact -- to get it to a point where I could drink it.

Josh had his physical today. He is doing well with all test results coming back good. He got three shots for which he was all worked up about and then decided they didn't hurt nearly as badly as he thought they would.

After the doctor, we went to Subway for lunch. When we left, I sat my drink on the middle console to put Ellie in the car. I forgot it there and when I started the car, I flung it all over the car. It took forever to get it all cleaned up.

Then we got the bright idea to go to the library -- the downtown library which has a parking garage. We got there, got our ticket (which has to be stamped to get the free parking) and parked. Ellie was asleep so I said we'd just put her car seat in the stroller and go on up. Somewhere between THAT idea and getting to the door of the library, I realized I didn't have the parking ticket to get it validated. Back we go to the car. Twenty minutes later we had removed EVERYTHING from the car, diaper bag, purse, wallet -- everywhere and NO ticket. Hmmmm.... what to do now? So, we decided to go in and ask the library about it. We were told that they would stamp our check out receipt when we were done. Our library has this cool scan your card self-check out. Josh decided to scan his card as we went by and LO and behold his card said it was no longer valid. So we went back over to the "real" check out desk and she said apparently it had been replaced. Oh yeah, Josh remembers, he got a new card. So I tell her to just check my card and LO and behold apparently, my card is on HOLD because I have a "lost" book. Now, those who know me, know that I am a FREAK about taking care of books. I have NEVER lost a book -- EVER. I take the dust jackets off books before I read them. I cannot bend pages, I cannot write in books. I was just flabbergasted. When she told me the book, I realized it was a book I checked out and took with me to Kyrgyzstan. Lord, have mercy, I might have lost it!!!

So, we left without checking out books and me in a tizzy. As I walked to the car, I told Josh, "Just one day I'd like to not lose something." *smile* It was a good lesson for him, however, about how moms have to take responsibility for their actions too. And how we are human and make mistakes. So, when we left, instead of free parking, I had to pay a lost ticket fee of $6.00. YUK.

When I got home, Kevin went straight to the book -- it was in the van. Great. So, it has now been returned and hopefully I'm off the library's "blacklist".

We also went to the park today and fed the ducks. Ellie just stared at them. She's really enjoying blowing raspberries at everyone and laughing when she does it. She likes to "pat" you on your arm when you hold her. She likes to stand all the time. Her crawling is sort of a scoot, and she'd really prefer you just pick her up and move her. She is becoming much more "communicative" or else I'm getting better at reading her cues because her sounds are very definitive when she wants something as opposed to when she's just making noise. She is eating about 40 ounces a day of formula -- 8 ounces about every five hours. She eats solids well and prefers "real" food over baby food, but will eat baby food too. She weighed in at 15 pounds last week at the doctor, and I think she's gained more since then as my left arm is beginning to cramp from holding her so much. I noticed at church Sunday that her tights (once falling off her) are starting to get tighter and she has some "rolls" in her legs. Her hair has really grown a lot in the last few weeks and she is now sporting a mohawk down the middle. It lays down for a little while after a bath but then pops right back up again shortly after. It's pretty funny, actually. People are starting to comment about it. She has little curls rolling up here and there in her hair. She still has issues with sleep. Josh's pediatrician said today that at about nine months even kids who sleep well will sometimes start to have some sleep issues (great!) and that a bedtime routine is key along with "working up" to allowing her to lay in her crib for a few minutes at a time before picking her up -- pretty much the same advice as her pediatrician. Starting next week, she will begin Mother's Day Out at our church for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm hopeful this will go well for all of us. We had said early on that we thought we'd wait until January before we tried to leave her anywhere. She has been in the nursery the last few weeks at church and I've been there with her, but allowing others to care for her. She has done very well there. She seems to like being with the other kids.

Spiky hair (aren't those eyes beautiful?)

Standing (yes, we still have all the Christmas toys strewn everywhere!!)

Tub time

And though we are really tired, our lives seem to spin out of control a lot right now and we are still looking for that "new normal", we wouldn't trade her or our really crazy lives with her for anything in the world. She and Josh are just having a great time. She laughs at him and loves him; she is great for his self-esteem. He loves her and plays with her; he is great for her to play with and have someone extra to love on her. They are doing well together and it is such a joy to watch them together.

And, this is what Josh has been doing during his Christmas break . . . Wii baseball.