Ella Bella is ONE!!!

Ella- just a few days old, with a broken collar bone, and a little bit of jaundice on her face, and looking up at me with "Endless Promise in (her) eyes." 1 Week Old
6 Months Old
One Year Old


Let me tell you a little secret about Ella: She is awesome. :) No really. I know there's something great about her. When we were ready to try and get pregnant with her, we started to face some huge opposition in our lives, and especially some conflict in our marriage. And I remember getting the distinct impression that the next little spirit that would be coming to our family was one that Satan was REALLY not happy about. I didn't know why, but I knew she was another special, valiant little spirit. I don't mean this to sound boastful in any way, but I got pregnant, well, on the first try. I was surprised. But I've never forgotten that feeling that this baby was a special one.


I love this age- where she starts trying to dress herself. The other day I caught her sitting on the stairs, trying to put a shoe on. Also, she puts everything over her head:


One time, when Ella was still really young, I had a dream that she was drowning. I hated that dream. I never saw the ending. But it's bothered me ever since. To top it off, some of you might remember that blog a few years ago about a family of 4 little girls, and the youngest one, named Camille, drowned in their hot tub at 14 months old. As Ella gets older and her personality develops, my heart just continues to ache for that family's loss. To lose a precious baby and this incredible age is just too much for me to think about.

The good thing that has come from this little "flare up" of anxiety, is that I appreciate every little thing about Ella. I don't take a day with her for granted. I want to remember every facial expression, ever sound she makes, and every little thing that makes her unique, from her cute pot belly to the way she walks, to the way she rubs her belly when she is signing "Please", to the way she gives open mouthed kisses, or points to her nose when you say, "Where's your nose?"

Having said that- here's a detailed account of how much I love this girl. She turned one today. These pictures aren't in any particular order, I just want them here for my blog book.

I didn't want to have a big party, so we just had some cupcakes after dinner. I made Ella a special gluten-free cupcake, with vegan frosting (made from coconut oil, almond milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla- and it was YUMMY!) And I also made regular Rainbow Cupcakes from Our Best Bites, with this incredible (and sinful) frosting (which by the way, is PERFECT for cinnamon rolls.)

Ella hasn't been feeling good this last week, and has been refusing food and her bottle (she's never done that.) But I was still sure she would NEVER refuse a sweet treat. And she didn't, but she did sort of pick at it, eat a bit, and then she was done and wanted to get out. She wanted to touch the rainbow cupcakes, cause they were SO PRETTY AND BRIGHT! But she didn't try to eat those either. She seemed a little confused with what to do with her special cupcake.

I hope she gets feeling better soon. Okay. On to the original post:
Oh my goodness. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this little girl??? I honestly don't remember loving any of my kids this much (although I'm sure I did.)

She brings me so much joy, every single day. I have started telling people that 12 months old just might be my idea of the PERFECT BABY AGE. She is just so easy right now, really.

Ella has showed a few glimpses of a strong-willed personality (I'm sure we'll see more of that at 18 months-3 years!! Yikes!) But 99% of the time, she is so easy going. She is brave and confident, and reminds me a lot of Kalia in that aspect. And of course she has the food allergies and sensitivities, like Annie did, and the stubborn/fiery temper (I think). She's a great mix of the two. She looks a lot more like Kalia did at 12 months.

Ella is average height and average weight, I think about 50% percentile for both. She still has those KILLER cheeks that I kiss nonstop all day, and the most fluffy marshmallow thighs, they are starting to melt away now that she has learned to climb.

And oh-how she loves to climb. She does it on everything she can. She learned how to go down the stairs (and off of beds and couches) really quickly, so now that she's a full year old, she decided she should take the stairs frontwards. She scoots off them, stands as much as possible, and always takes the final step walking straight down (and always tumbles, but never cries afterwards.)

She is signing all the time (sign language- I'm a big fan.) which is so helpful to me; She will sign milk, drink, more, and please every day. If you've ever seen a baby sign, you know it's absolutely adorable.

She loves animals so much, especially DOGS and HORSES. (When I took Ella to see Samuel's horse the other day, the horse came over and sniffed all over her and started licking her thighs, while she just giggled in delight. Then she patted his nose. So precious.)

Ella is a wonderful sleeper. She's not quite like clockwork (like Annie) and she doesn't need as much sleep as Annie, but she sleeps 13 hours straight at night, sleeps in til about 8:30 a.m. for me, and then takes two naps, or one super long one (like, almost 4 hours.) She has this teeny little pink satin/plush blanket that she loves to sleep with, and if she can find it when she's awake, she drags it around the house.

No binkies for this little one, she prefers her pointer and long finger on her right hand, which always signals to me that she's tired.

She loves sitting in her front-facing carseat.

She's started talking, another thing I love about this age. She has surprised me with a few sounds/word attempts. Like whenever I get her bottle, I usually have her on my hip, and I shake it real good, and say, "Shake shake shake!" And then one day she started shaking a bottle of pills and said, "shay shay shay" with the "shhh" sound being about 50% correct. I loved it. She also imitates me when I say, "shhhhhhhhhhhhhh", even putting her little finger up to her lips.

She is also saying Da-da and Da-dee, Pop (Papa), Nana, No, Nah (nap), Mum, Bah (Bath), Pup (poop), Dah (dog), Brrrr, and uh-oh. Oh, and it's so cute, she says, "Woah" every time she falls or almost falls.

Ella is like Kalia in that she ADORES being outside, in or near the water, and if she can get out the front door, she makes a BEELINE for the middle of the road. I don't know why she likes the road so much. And if we are in the backyard by the pool, she loves to just walk in circles around it, and climb on the diving board. Both of which make me extremely nervous, but I try to let her have a little independence. Which leads me to my next confession: she has fallen in twice. (The water is currently 55 degrees.) And I am always right there to grab her, but she cries for a second, all wet and shocked and cold, but then she's fine, and I decide it's probably for the best because I want her to have a little bit of an understanding of what happens when she gets too close to the edge.

Ella loves her dad and loves to be with her sisters. She gets excited to see them when they are gone. Of course I am her favorite, and she loves me to carry her around the house.

We still struggle with her diet. She is still on her special formula (Similac Alimentum Ready to Feed) and will probably stay on it until she is 2 years old (like Annie did.) We have had very little luck finding solids that she can have, and for now she only gets potatoes, squash, and sometimes rice/rice chex/rice krispies- but the rice stuff makes her poop acidic, and it burns her bum a little, so I try really hard to keep her off rice. We are in the market for a new grain so that I can give her something else to eat. I think we'll try Quinoa next.

One thing that I love is when I take her to her little closet to go to sleep, I close the door so it's pitch black, and she grabs her blanket and then curls her on my chest and lays her head on my shoulder. And then she STUFFS her little hands down in between the two of us, I guess because if feels warm and soft down there. I love that every time.

I know I'm biased, but I think she is my most beautiful child. She also seems to have this cute sense of humor. She will laugh at stuff when other people are laughing, but other times she laughs at stuff we say, as if she gets it. I can't wait to see where that goes in the future.

And P.S. I'll add this picture later, cause I don't have it right now, but for Ella's 1st Birthday, she got to go on her first MOTORCYCLE RIDE!!! She loved it so much, she keep lunging back to Samuel for another turn, so she got to go twice.