Ella's Baptism

Here's my attempt at catching up on the blog. Sorry, if it's not super detailed, but I'll be sure to highlight the important stuff!

During her first trip to Houston at 3 months of age, we decided to get Ella baptized at the Co-Cathedral of the Scared Heart in Houston, the church where we got married. Even though, I'm not Catholic, we decided to raise Ella Catholic since Gerald's family is and we thought it would give her good structure growing up. I was raised Buddhist, but my parents were open in letting us decide what we wanted to practice, just as long as we were good human beings. So we often went to church with our neighbors family, attended Bible study at friends house, while at the same time going to the temple for various religious ceremonies. I think I turned out okay and trust both in God and the Buddhist way of life so I hope Ella will see and realize the same. Okay, enough of me, let's get into the details of Ella's Baptism.

We took a Baptism class here in Bakersfield and had to mail our certificate to the church in Houston in order to get her baptized. The Co-Cathedral usually only does baptisms as a group each month; however, since we lived out of town, they made an exception for us and allowed us to have a private ceremony, which was nice. Ella wore Gerald's baptismal gown for the ceremony, which was a special touch. She went through the entire ceremony without a single peep, but poor thing was super tired. You can tell by all the pictures that she was just in a zone. We chose Gerald's cousin, Edward and his wife, Bec, as the primary godparents for Ella. Both Ed and Bec have the same values as us and we know that if anything were to happen, they would take great care of her. Of course, we wanted our siblings to be godparents as well, so included them in the ceremony, even though the church only allowed us to have one on paper. We know that these five individuals would do whatever it takes to be good role models for Ella so that she can grow up to be a great citizen of the world and child of God. 

After the ceremony, we had a little reception at Kim Son, filled with a 10 course meal and crave cupcakes! It was nice to catch up with our friends and show off our little bundle of joy! Again, Ella did great and didn't shed any tears, even though she was dead tired. As we were taking pictures, she just fell asleep when Gerald was holding her, so we just put her in the carseat for a snooze. I guess this was just the beginning of her many long outings with our friends and family. It's times like this where I miss Houston a lot and want to move back, but after the celebrations happen, I'm happy to be in our quiet home, away from the chaos. Thanks everyone for celebrating this special day with us! 

Sleep Training

Hi! Welcome to our experience of the dreaded subject of sleep training! We had some rough times, but let's just say we survied and couldn't be happier with the results. It was not an easy task but we stuck with what worked for us and now, Miss Ella is sleeping 12 hours a night straight, 6 pm to 6 am. She wakes up every now and then but usually puts herself back to sleep after whining and crying for a few minutes or so. Bed time is better than nap times; she usually goes down without a fight during bedtime but usually cries for 10-15 minutes, sometime longer before she is able to go down for a nap. It just depends on how tired she is and if we timed it correctly. It's not perfect and I don't think it'll ever be, but our set up is working great and I get some free time during the day and our evenings are so nice. It's almost like we don't have a child, except we can't just leave the house together. ha.

Anyhow, I read one sleep book called, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," by Marc Weissbluth and it's pretty much the book we used to set up sleep schedules and daily routines. I also read the website, Troublesometots.com a lot for reference when something wasn't going how I wanted it to, which was helpful, because they usually had real examples and situations that were similar to Ella's sleep behavior. I liked Weissbluth because he pretty much gave you a summarized version of the various sleep training guides out there and we just tweaked it to work for us.

We tried doing some sort of sleep training right before she turned 6 months of age because it was just taking us longer and longer to put her to sleep and she wouldn't really sleep unless we were holding her or sleeping next to her. It was just getting to be too much for me, so I decided she needed to learn how to sleep on her own. I honestly didn't think the little rocking and soothing that I was doing to put her to sleep was that big of a deal until it started taking more than an hour and she would only sleep for 20-30 minutes before having to do it again. So, we started with bedtime, going through the whole bedtime routine and putting her down drowsy but awake, usually after a nursing session, but as soon as we put her in the crib, she would scream bloody murder, stand up in the crib and started rocking back and forth. We started off going in after 5,10, 15 minutes until she eventually went to sleep, but after Day 2, we decided this made things worse so stopped going in altogether. She would eventually fall asleep after doing this for about 1-2 hours and then stay asleep from anywhere between 1-5 hours, before I had to go in and soothe her again. It was really random. I didn't really know what to do in the middle of the night when she woke up so usually just went to her after letting her cry a bit and then eventually took her into bed with me again.  Let's just say we did about 6 days of this and didn't see any improvement, so I decided to stop. She obviously was not ready. We decided to just cosleep for the next month. It was a hard month, I felt like I couldn't do anything and she was waking up every 2-3 hours in bed with us because she was moving around so much and would wake up if she didn't have enough space. After about a month of this, I decided to try this whole sleep training thing again, but this time made some changes.

For went for round 2 at about 7 1/2 months.  This time, I stopped nursing her right before I put her down, but instead did it after bath but before book. We also decided to go in whenever we felt like she wasn't settling and needed reassurance, but if she was just whining and whimpering, and just didn't want to go to sleep, we would let her cry it out. This method worked well for us, because we allowed her to figure things out on her own but let her know we were still there for her. I usually let her calm down a bit before going in so she knows I'm not going in when she's hysterical. That seemed to work out well. This time around was a lot easier, because I knew from before that she could eventually put herself to sleep, she just needed a little work. She cried for no more than 1 hour this time around, with it usually being about 30 minutes before putting herself to sleep. And when I saw, cry, it usually was more moaning and whimpering with no tears. She also stayed a sleep for a lot longer, waking up really only once around 1-2 am, after putting her down about 6-7, which was a great stretch. This time, i decided I would go in and nurse her to sleep, put her back down and let her cry again without going in. She was usually pretty tired and just went right back to sleep, until 6-7 in the morning. Of course, there are days she would wake up more but for the most part this is what she did. And eventually, she figured it out and slept through the night, after about a week into it. It was heaven! She usually woke up happy and smiling and it was great!

Ella-isms {Eighteen Months}

Hi Friends! We're back with an update on Miss Ella. The last 6 months have probably been the quickest 6 months of my life so far with Miss Ella. I seriously do not know where all the time has gone from my barely walking 1 year old, to a super energetic, sometimes cranky, but mostly happy little toddler. We are currently sitting at 20 months, but I just decided I should do a recap on the last 6 months of our lives....

Ever since we got back from Christmas..yes, Christmas Holiday, we've been on explore California mode! We are trying to take advantage of being able to drive to different destinations in the sunny state. Ella has still been a pretty great traveler, so why not. She doesn't mind car rides, pretty much just goes with the flow and sleep hasn't been too bad either. We now try to get a hotel with a balcony or separate sitting are of some sort or a 2 bedroom Air bnb.

Update: So I just found this post, and have since forgotten what an 18 month old is like. I do remember this though, this is about the time Ella starting climbing out of her crib and sleep has been a challenge, bc it's taking her longer to fall asleep at night so one of us has to lie in bed with her and then almost always, she walks to our room around 2-3 am in the morning....so yeah, let's just say, this was the changing point in our life when it comes to sleep.....

Ella-isms {Month Twelve}

Woohoo! We made it! We officially have a one year old and I couldn't be more happier. I know some moms get to one and get a little sad that their babies aren't babies anymore, but I loved seeing her go through all the stages in her first year of life and am excited to celebrate this milestone! We had a lot in store for Ella's 1st Birthday. It wasn't originally the plan, but it with us living away from family and friends, everyone wanted to get a piece of her big day. We celebrated with 3 birthday parties and a trip to Disneyland! What more can a one year old ask for? ha...More on the birthday celebrations later, let's finish up our monthly Ella-isms =)

Ella-isms at month twelve:

Weight: 17lb 10oz - 16% in weight
Height: 29 3/4 - 70% in height
Features: as you can see from the above stats, my girl is tall and skinny, every girl's dream, right? ha. she definitely has her daddy's features when it comes to physique. take away her eyes, nose, and lips, and it's all Pena! 
Likes: playing with all her friends. Ella does so much better when there are other people around; she is less clingy, does her own thing and enjoys the company. I wonder where she gets that from =P
Dislikes: when the house is quiet and it's just mommy. mommy is boring sometimes and doesn't always play with me because she has to get other things done around the house...some days it's almost better just to have people over than to be the two of us. 
Movement: taking more and more steps each day and can walk across the room no problem, but not fully walking yet. I give it about a couple more weeks and she'll be running in no time. 
Sleeps: we are back to sleeping pretty well in our crib; it takes a while to get her back into the swing of things but I think she remembers now. i can't wait until we leave for the holidays to screw everything up again. but, like I said, it's so worth it. we can always readjust when we get home. 
Eats: do Dr. finally told me to really push whole milk on her since she is dropping in her percentile scale, which we've been trying to do for a couple of weeks now. someone just loves mommy's milk so much she won't take anything else. we've resorted to trying almond milk and eating more dairy in other forms. we'll see where that gets us. 

So, there you have it! Miss Ella is one year old! She's been a pleasure to have around and can't wait to see what all her Ella-isms will be when she gets older. I can tell that she will be an adventure seeker, lovable, huggable, little monkey! hehehe...I'll try to update the blog here and there with things I want to remember, but don't expect too much. 

Ella-isms {Month Eleven}

Month eleven was a super busy month for us; we traveled to Houston for a couple of weeks and then Arizona for another week, with 3 different stops. Let's just say, sleep was tough for us with all the changes. I won't dwell on that too much as we did have lots of fun! We celebrated Ella's 1st Halloween dressed up as a salmon sushi nigiri. If you know me, I LOVE sushi and I always thought it was cute seeing other babies dressed up as one before I had Ella and knew that that's what I wanted her to be. I found a tutorial on how to make your own sushi costume on pinterest and it turned out super well, and was pretty easy, I must say. All I used was scissors and fabric tape =) This month, Ella took her first few steps all on her own, but hasn't really quite cared to start walking yet, which is fine by me. It was exciting though to see her try so hard to get those first few. She was super giddy about it and so were we. With all the traveling we did, the only way to keep Ella busy and in a good mood was to feed her, constantly...She may be petite, but she can totally put down some food. Right, enough of the jibber jabber, here are some Ella-isms {to be fair, what I can remember from jotting down in her baby book}

Ella-isms at month eleven:

Weight: ??
Height: she is definitely losing some baby fat
Features: looks like she is getting more hair
Likes: interacting with people and observing everything they do. makes traveling and eating out easier since she gets so distracted with everyone around.
Dislikes: sleep! she fight naps and will only sleep longer periods if I co-sleep with her
Movement: took her first few steps on November 5, 2015. it was so cute and exciting. 
Sleeps: so my good sleeping baby went out the window with all the traveling. she refuses to sleep anywhere but with me again. we pretty much nurse to sleep at this point, which doesn't help but it's so easy when we travel so that's what we do. 
Eats: loves the boob but still getting her nutrients other ways. snacks all the time! 

I feel like we take one step forward and two steps back when it comes to sleep but other than that, she is pretty fun to be around. I really can't blame her with all the traveling we've been doing so we just rally through it. She's a pretty good traveler otherwise, just needs me more which is understandable in a new environment. I'm just glad that the traveling is worth it or else I would turn my butt right back home...haha. 

Ella-isms {Month Ten}

OMG! I'm back, ya'll! I only took about a 5 month break =P Life got real hectic when Ella started getting really mobile and then holiday season came upon us and it was over. I'm happy to report that we survived the first year of parenthood and have lived to finally blog about it. Without further adieu, here goes...

Ella-isms at month ten:

Weight: my petite girl is still under 20
Height: gaining in height and thinning out
Features: losing what is left of the baby fat
Likes: crawling around everywhere and getting into everything, opening cabinet drawers, pushing her walker and bouncing up and down on her little elephant ride on toy
Dislikes: when mommy leaves the room; you must crawl to wherever I am
Movement: still cruising and climbing everything
Sleeps: down to about two naps a day and sleeping 6am-6pm in the crib. i think it's helped that we haven't traveled any this month
Eats: still nursing but have pretty much switched to eating 3 full meals a day

It's hard to really remember what life was like with a 10 month old now that I'm writing this at 14 months and when you really think about it, it just all blurs together. Thank goodness for her baby book that I actually kept up with to help me remember and share with you all. We had lots of playdates this month, which has helped wear Ella out to allow her to sleep super well for us. Plus with her being so mobile now, it's hard for me to find different ways to entertain her so company is always good. 

Ella-isms {Month Nine}

Happy 9 months, Miss Ella! What can I say about this month? Things have been pretty easy going and we're in a pretty good routine. She's pretty much doing her own thing and I'm the one having to follow her around now so she doesn't get into things. We have a very active baby on our hands and if she's not sleeping or eating, she is getting into something. Some of her favorite things to do right now are putting her hand in the toilet, unravelling the toilet paper roll, taking books off the shelves, taking trash out of the trash can and eating paper! Ella finally cut two bottom teeth so she puts everything in her mouth as well! Thankfully, I'm not one of those germaphobic moms or else I would give myself a heart attack. 

Sleep has been good for us, although, we had a little break from the crib life during vacation. We tried to get her in the crib during Cabo, the first leg of our trip, and she wasn't having it so we ended up co-sleeping the rest of the time. Because we weren't on a set schedule while traveling, I didn't mind doing this since I knew she needed the rest and she did extremely well napping on the go and sleeping at night. I know she is definitely more comfortable in her crib now as she moves around so much and really needs the space. Now that we are back, she has transitioned okay back into the crib but we are having to work on it again. I don't mind it at all though, because I know she can do it and we both need it! You do what you have to do. 

We spend a majority of this month traveling and had such a good time. Being organized and prepared for the trip, really helped us have an enjoyable time and our little traveler is really getting the hang of it. No fuss or tears during our car rides, plane rides or long days. Sometimes I think traveling with a baby is easier than being home with one. They are so engaged in everything that is going on around them that there is no time to be bored or fight sleep. By the time nap time and bed time came each night, Ella was knocked out! The world can offer a lot of stimulation.  More on our two week travel soon. 

Ella wanted to sport her kilt in honor of our dear friend Jame's and Tash's Wedding weekend in Aberdeen, Scotland

For now, here are some Ella-isms at month nine:

Weight: 17ish?
Height: we are a lean girl
Features: her hair is starting to grow in and her lashes are so pretty, she still has paintable cheeks that I love 
Likes: climbing stairs, looking at strangers, paper and wires, Frozen songs! {thanks to our Disney trip}
Dislikes: holding on to anything, all of her toys go out of the stroller or carseat now and food is all over the floor! staying still for diaper changes
Movement: she's starting to cruise a bit and stand more on her own but no big steps yet. she's gotten really good at climbing though!
Sleeps: 2-3 naps a day and 10-11 hours at night! 
Eats: 3 good meals a day and nursing about 3 times still, although I feel like she doesn't drink as much and can even go the afternoon without a feed without missing it. i'm hoping we are good with 2 feeds a day now that she is eating her solids pretty regularly. yay!

Well, that's all I have to say for month nine. I feel like now that we are 3 months away from her 1st birthday, I need to start brainstorming and planning something soon! I hope to do something for her with our Bakersfield family and then something in Houston when we go home for the Holidays. Also, now that Holiday season is underway, I'm getting super excited just thinking about what Ella will be for Halloween, her 1st Thanksgiving and celebrating Christmas with her opening presents. Who said having a baby is hard work? Looks like all fun to me....haha.And once we recover from vacation and are on regular naps and bedtime time again, I'll try to blog more. I have a list of things to catch up on!  See ya'll next month!