Ella's cute spring hat from Grandma....
I was up early this morning getting ready to start my first day at the hospital. Katie is training me this weekend and she picked me up at 8:30. Woo-hoo I get to wear scrubs! They're cute and pink too. It's a very easy job, the new Moms and Dads can bring the babies down to our little office and we get to take pictures. Today, the floor was full with new babies so we dropped off info to about 10 moms and two came down to take pictures. Wow! I really forgot how little these new babies are. Could Ella really have been so little??? It's amazing.
Special Delivery Photos is only open from 9-11, and as they are based out of Tennessee, we don't really have a boss. It's an older couple who own the business and it's very antiquated. We phone in how many days we worked every two weeks and mail in the order forms and film from the photos we take. That's it, so easy.
The day is a little off since I was "working". When I got home at 11:30, Ella was napping as usual but when she got up she was so happy to see me and had lots of hugs for me. We decided to go to Moe's and had lunch around 2. We all fell asleep at 4 when we got home, and just woke up now at 6:30! Normally we would be getting Ella ready for bed soon. It might be a late movie night for all of us.
Today, while Ron was out golfing with an old colleague from Atlanta, Ella and I hung around the house. I tried to get all the things I've been ignoring done - balancing the checkbook, sorting through paperwork, blah blah blah stuff. Ella's passport came yesterday so now we can get started on her Canadian papers. Ella for the most part was great, she played with her toys contentedly and even seemed happy enough when she got stuck in her stool.
Check out her new bling - here are some earrings from Auntie Erin that arrived yesterday too. Thanks Auntie!! You can't tell but they are her birthstone - aquamarine. I'll try to get a better picture soon. Surprisingly, she didn't fuss when I took her original ones out. Ella's getting a couple more molars. The a top left and the bottom right are poking through. This girl is going to have a lot of teeth!
It's official, I'm going back to work...sort of. I will start this weekend taking photos of the newborn babies at the military hospital. How fun will that be??? It's only 2 hours a day, 9-11 in the morning. I am considering taking it over full time in July when my friend Katie goes back to the states, but unless I can find daycare for Ella at the hospital, or close by, it's really not even worth the few dollars I would bring home. Working weekends and holidays, Ella will be home with Ron so the extra pocket money is nice and I think it's going to be a really fun job. I would like to go into medical assisting but the associates degree is about $20,000 plus. Yikes! I'm going to get some more info once I'm working at the hospital as there has got to be some lower level course or certification to work in a doctor's office without having to re-attend university. I found an accredited on-line university and for only $28,000 and 2 years, I can become a medical assistant. You have got to be kidding! I paid that for a 4 year Bachelor's degree! And, I had to go to Korea to pay it off and brought back a husband to boot!
Ella and I went to Katie's this afternoon to play in the neighborhood pool. We hung out at the kiddie pool and Ella has this hilarious belly laugh when she was in the pool with the other kids. I can't wait to start swim lessons in April. I'm also putting her in gymnastics as there is a toddler class (ages 1-3) that my neighbor and her 2 year-old attend. It really doesn't seem Ella can get any more fun... and then she does!
Not much new today. Ella seems to be much better and isn't so grumpy. We went shopping this afternoon and she took a couple of good naps. We'll see if there are any reactions in a week as rashes and mild chickenpox are the side effects of her shots. Do you know they immunize for chickenpox?
What a crap deal that was for us as kids! Half the scars on my body are from those dang chickenpox!
We read to Ella and she loves her books. She's getting better at flipping through them and not chewing on them as much. We hope she loves books as much as we do...she doesn't have a choice really :)
Ella went in and had her 1-Year shots, three in all. She's totally grumpy and out of sorts this afternoon. After her first short nap, I was trying to feed her lunch and she just wasn't having anything to do with it. She just wanted to snuggle and when I put her in her high chair she had a total melt down. Doesn't this photo break your heart? So what do I do, I get the camera! I know, bad momma! She eventually ate lunch after a good 30 minutes of snuggles and sleeping on my shoulder. Boy, these shots have really done her in, maybe it's the first MMR shot.
She seemed a bit better after her second nap but still woke up wanting to snuggle a while before we got her going. It's odd seeing her melt down when you put her down, she's normally so content. I found a CD that Grandma had bought for her before she was born; a sing-along that Ella loves. Here's a video of Ella dancing... go Ella! It didn't last long, she's fussing and cranky again. Hopefully she'll be back to normal in a day or so...
We are so excited to announce the arrival of Oscar Ross! He was born today, on Stephanie's birthday, at 9 lbs 12 oz. I hear Mommy and Daddy are fine and Oscar is healthy and finally here!
Congratulations, Steph and Matt. We can't wait to meet him! Welcome Oscar! Ella can't wait to teach you some of the things your mommy taught her! We miss you guys!
Here's a video of Ella tonight just before bedtime. She loves to pace around and in the middle of the video check out her new dance moves! She has learned to dance (well, she just bounces up and down) when she like the music. I watch "The View" in the mornings and Ella will wave to the ladies when they come out, and clap along with the audience. She loves to dance when she hears music on TV and really loves the songs her learning puppy sings....
It's been a long weekend as Ron was at home recovering from his laser eye surgery on Wednesday. For the past 5 days we've been living like hermits in the dark. His eyes are doing so much better and I'm so happy for him... it must be amazing to be able to read things without glasses!
Ella had her one year well baby check up on Thursday and she is doing great. She's 21 lbs. 11oz. She got the go ahead for milk and can be weaned off a bottle... weaned... we just don't give her one anymore.
It's taken these past 4 days to get her used to milk. She wasn't a big fan of it and we have been giving her one bottle of formula at bedtime to make sure she's getting enough iron and calcium. Today was the first day she hasn't had any formula and drank milk with all her meals and snacks. Yeah! Though finding organic milk has been tough and it's very expensive. I'm going to try some local places for more selection. I've also found some swim lessons for Ella, starting mid-April, I go on Wednesday to register for them. It's about time!
Stephanie went into the hospital yesterday and we're just waiting to hear if she's popped out that baby yet. I predicted that she would have the baby early, on the 15th instead of the 20th...looks like I might be just one day off.
We can't wait to hear if Ella is going to have a new boyfriend or sister! YEAH!!!
I almost forgot. Ron went into the hospital today for his PRK eye surgery. If you can really call it "surgery" as it was a laser that took about 5 minutes! He was there most of the day, waiting around for the one doctor that was doing all the procedures in between patient exams. When I finally picked him up at 2, he was reading street signs on the way home! Amazing!!!! Ron had been pretty much blind without his glasses up until now but will have excellent eye sight. For the next few days he has to rest and protect his eyes and over the next 2-6 weeks his eyes will adjust. It was another reason we celebrated Ella's birthday early as we weren't sure what to expect after the laser treatment... would he be in any pain or be able to see at all. But he's doing great and enjoying his new glasses-free vision. Gotta love military health care benefits. Ella goes for her one-year check-up tomorrow.
Ella is learning to Peek-A-Boo...these pictures are deceiving though, they look like she's a pro at it but usually she'll cover her ears instead of her eyes and when you say "Peek-A-Boo" she'll uncover her ears and giggle. I'll try to get video of it...too funny. But every few times, she'll cover the correct sensory organ.... :)
This week has been busy visiting with Grandpa. We've had a lot of fun and celebrated Ella's birthday early...shhhh don't tell her! We had cake and photos on Tuesday night as it's spring break this week and flights back to Canada are booked up the next few days. We decided to celebrate on Tuesday, just in case Grandpa had to fly home early. Turns out he left late tonight and will hopefully make it back to Toronto with little trouble.
She opened her gifts from her Grandpa (a learning puppy that sings songs and uses lots of vocabulary) and Great Grandpa ( a toddler swing for our lanai and her one-year portraits we had done at Walmart). She also got a cute bathing suit and matching sandals along with a quacking rubber duckie from a friend, Jackie. Here's some pictures of her early celebration. I'll post tomorrow about the rest of the festivities...so cute!!!! We also saved her gifts from Grandma and Granddad and Ron and I for tomorrow.
We decided to have a beach day as the weather this week is unpredictable and it's best to take advantage of the great weather while we can. It's been raining off and on but it is "winter" here so hence the "rainy season". Ella has grown so much, all her clothes seem to disappear before she really gets good wear out of them (not to worry, she has bags of clothes waiting for her 18 month phase).
Sometimes, by the time I find something I'd put "aside", she's just able to fit it and within a month, it's too small. So I'm pulling out the 18 month stuff early this time and hope to get a lot better use of it. Here is a pretty sun dress from Aunty Carol (Nana Diane's sister) and though a little roomy, totally fits... and it's actually long enough for her. Thank you, Carol, it's perfect for the weather.
Happy Birthday, Suzanne! To another year of friends, family, love and joy. May your Margarita glass runneth over.... :)
Grandpa arrived from Toronto, via Victoria today and though Ella's birthday isn't for another week, she's already getting spoiled! Not only did Grandpa arrive with presents, but packages have arrived in the mail and were greeting us on the doorstep when we got back from the airport. Have I ever mentioned how much this little girl is spoiled?? She certainly is loved by all her grandparents.
I can't wait to bake her little cake and decorate it, and I'll wrap up all her presents. Her birthday will be just the three of us and Grandpa but we'll take lots of pictures. We're going to have a belated birthday BBQ in April when Karen and Maddison are here and all our neighbors are home from vacation.
Guess what Ella had for breakfast this morning??? :)
I got this off Christin's site. I think it's funny. And,
I wish!
So despite all the technical difficulties with the new MP3 Player and my computer, everything is finally working and I'm in the process of loading all my music. Ron, as usual, came to my rescue and managed to fix my computer, upgrade it so that it now works with my new player and didn't loose any of my files (other than the web page bookmarks and a day of Ella's photos...whatever, considering that 99.9% was saved, he did perfect!)
So, had it not been for Ron, my laptop would have been out the window and in a thousand pieces. I really don't know how he stays so calm with these things. But he is wonderful and can now add Tracey's computer saver to his list of husbandly duties (spider killer, bug sqasher, BBQ grill supervisor, tall shelf reacher...)
Thank you for everything you do for me. I love you.
So, my beautiful, new, shiny MP3 Player arrived today. I was so excited to get my music set up and start walking off more pounds. But I learned that my new player is so new and so shiny that it surpasses the software I have on my computer and won't work. What the ???? And we can't download the software upgrades without the original disk.
In the process of "trying to get around it", Ron wiped my hard drive (thank god not all my music and files) but I did loose all my website address that I had bookmarked and organized as well as all the photos we took in the last couple of days (all of Ella's bathing suits and lots of her outfits that she is growing out of). We spent a whole day taking pictures of Ella in all the outfits I was donating, gifting and saving...plus went to Ko Olina to document her bathing suit attire.....all gone.
I love my laptop. I hate hate hate technical difficulties!
I was up early this morning getting ready to start my first day at the hospital. Katie is training me this weekend and she picked me up at 8:30. Woo-hoo I get to wear scrubs! They're cute and pink too. It's a very easy job, the new Moms and Dads can bring the babies down to our little office and we get to take pictures. Today, the floor was full with new babies so we dropped off info to about 10 moms and two came down to take pictures. Wow! I really forgot how little these new babies are. Could Ella really have been so little??? It's amazing. 
Special Delivery Photos is only open from 9-11, and as they are based out of Tennessee, we don't really have a boss. It's an older couple who own the business and it's very antiquated. We phone in how many days we worked every two weeks and mail in the order forms and film from the photos we take. That's it, so easy.
