12-8-12-14 - 2 Teeth!!! & Jeremiah's 30th BD!

Definitely a week of excitement! Jeremiah turned 30 years old! He received the best birthday present EVER that night - Ellie fell asleep on his shoulder while I was at my school for the music/drama performance. She never used to allow him to rock her to sleep for the night - but for his birthday, she didn't even put up a fight! 

Ellie enjoyed opening up Jeremiah's birthday presents- especially taking off the bows. We would yell out "YEA!!!!" whenever she ripped one off, and she would look so proud of herself! 

On Saturday, the first night of Chanukah, we noticed some white teeth coming through behind her bottom gum line - what a great Chanukah present! We haven't seen any growth in these teeth all week, but definitely an exciting milestone. Ellie hasn't seemed discomforted by them at all, so that's a plus!

This week we set up our Christmas decorations. After much debate, we wound up putting up our Christmas tree, and we have it barricaded by Ellie's jumper and swing - some of the videos below capture Ellie's desire to get past this barricade and touch the beautifully lit tree... so funny! We have some of her Christmas presents under the tree - and since some are oddly shaped, we don't have any wrapping paper covering them - just a zillion bows for Ellie to have fun ripping off - but I imagine it must be a bit tantalizing to Ellie to see new toys but not be able to touch them...I guess it's a good lesson in patience ?? :) 

While I write this blog, Ellie is walking around and around and around the square ottoman in our living room... she keeps one hand lightly on it for balance, but she's pretty fast... and so so happy! 

 Ellie's first swing ride at the Porterville park...

 This is how Ellie spent the last church service - playing outside in the lobby!

 My parents met us in Bakersfield last week just to spend an afternoon with their granddaughter. Ellie is becoming more and more bonded with my dad each time we get together - here they enjoyed watching television together at Costco. 

We enjoyed a yummy birthday lunch at The Outback in Bakersfield with my parents...

For the first time, Ellie fell asleep on my mom's lap without any rocking needed! - at The Outback! For the prior 30 minutes before her nap, she was the life of the restaurant - making soooooooooooooo much noise! (a video example of this is at the top of this blog post!)

Here is one of Ellie's presents... all bowed up :) 

 

 Trying to get past the barricade...

 Presents! 

 Ellie's first time marveling at a our family Christmas tree! 

 We got Ellie her very own stocking this year - beautiful needlepoint artwork from LLBean - such a great company! - with her name at the top of course!

 I love this picture above - what a blessing it is to have a family of 3 this holiday season! 

 Always loves to play with my cellphone! 

 Opening up daddy's presents!

 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to pull the bow off! Caught her delight just as the bow ripped off! 

 Santa's helper (reads her shirt!) - and Daddy's too! 

 !!!!!! :) :) :) 

 She has the neatest colored eyes! 

 We caught this picture of Ellie holding her Chanukah duck (it's wearing a Kippah and holding a menorah) in front of the Christmas trees in the church lobby - seemed quite fitting for our family!

 Perfect picture of her first teeth!!!!

Ellie's friend Marissa had this chair at their home...we need to get one for Ellie, obviously :)