Feet and Food

Ellen has made a few new discoveries this past week or so. The first of which being her feet. While she may have grasped at her toes in the weeks and months previously she has become completely infatuated with them recently. During a recent walk around the block in the stroller she held them for the majority time only letting go when the bumpy ride jarred them loose. Below is a picture I snapped over the weekend.

The second big discovery is solid food! While it's been a little messy in the early going, Ellen has made great strides in mastering the art of swallowing and manipulating the spoon. Despite what the image may convey she is actually keeping some of it down now. In a couple weeks we'll give her a taste of vegetables as for now it is just rice cereal.

Pediatrician's Appointment Month 4

Lots of info from this mornings appointment with Dr. Sacker so I'll just get right to it starting with the numbers

• Weight 10 lbs 13 ozs
• Height 23 inches

Ellen has slipped down to the 10th percentile in weight from the 25th but the Dr. was not alarmed. We are going to try to increase Ellen's intake and we may end up supplementing her with a formula bottle once a day. She even suggested we introduce solid food to her if she seems interested so we'll probably attempt the rice cereal any day now, possibly even tonight. Ellen is on the road to solids!! This is one big step closer to bacon...... mummmmmm bacon...... makes my mouth water.

All in all Ellen is doing great and she handled her 2nd round of inoculations fairly well. We'll see if we can fatten her up before her 6 month check up.

UPDATE: Vaccination induced fever last night.... up at 12:45AM and back asleep at 2:00AM after consult with Kaiser RN on phone. Her temperature still high this morning but not worse.

Jump Around

Not only was this weekend Mother's Day it was also a first for Ellen on the Jumpster. After some minor modifications we have affixed it near the living room. Plan to put another hook on the pergola for outdoor jumping. Without further ado here is another video clip of Ellen in action. Hope you enjoy watching as much as I did putting it together.

Happy Mother's Day!

A Happy First Mother's Day to Ellen's Mama!! Ellen was quite busy this morning preparing breakfast for Mom. Banana nut pancakes, bacon and mimosas to start the day. Exhausted from all the preparations Ellen napped through breakfast while Mom and Dad ate. Now Dad has to go do the dishes.

Happy First Mother's Day to Carin, Aki, Sasha and Caroline!!

Mother's Day Eve

Another day closer to Mother's Day and another mother to thank! Ellen and I would like to extend our warmest wishes on this Mother's Day to Ellen's Dad's Mama. Happy Mother's Day Grandma!!

On a side note I just finishing hanging the Jumpster in the living/dining room entry after a little modification. Not to worry I've done a test run with Gypsy to ensure its integrity before Ellen's maiden voyage. Come back soon for images/video!

Mother's Day Approaching

With Mother's Day just around the corner Ellen and I wanted to take the time to thank all those Mother's out there starting with Ellen's Mama's Mama, AKA Gigi. Here is Ellen with Gigi along with the great paintings she did for Ellen's room. My personal favorite is the baby Gypsy but they are all great!

Happy Almost Mother's Day!!

Say Hey It's May!

Apparently people rather see less figures and more pictures of Ellen. Well here you go! You can view even more within our Shutterfly Albumn.

Fun With Data Part 2

In a continuing effort to analyze the behavior of Ellen I've created a new statistic titled "Time To Nap". Using this statistic I've determined the time it takes from feeding to nap, which is the typical order of events during her day. In fact you can break her day down to the following

1. Eat
2. Diaper Change
3. Playtime
4. Nap

The cycle then repeats itself throughout the day for up to five or six times depending on the length of her sleep cycles (see Fun With Data Part 1). Once again I've gone back over a three week history to determine the average time it takes Ellen from the end of a feeding to napping.

As you can see from above it takes Ellen on average approximately one hour till she is ready to nap. To determine if there is a difference in the length of time from bottle feeding versus breast feeding I also determined the average for them separately. You could state there is a trend to less time for breast feeding but the error bars overlap meaning there is no significant difference. In fact there is quite a bit of variability in the time it takes Ellen to nap so one must be careful not to assume that Ellen will nap every hour after feeding.

Fun With Data Part 1

Kathleen has been recording pretty much every feeding and nap since Ellen came home from the hospital back in January. Recently, we were trying to determine what her nap schedule has been so I decided to do a little retrospective analysis of the last 3 weeks and see if any trends have emerged. Check it out!

As you can see Ellen takes at the most 6 naps per day on the weekdays the longer of which in the mornings. There is some variability to the length of each nap as seen by the error bars which indicate the standard deviation. It would be interesting to compare naps swaddled versus not swaddled and see if that makes a real difference. I would guess her naps would be significantly longer when swaddled. Come back soon for more "Fun With Data" as I go over all this great stuff Kathleen has collected!

Better Late Than Never

Grandma and Grandpa brought this great little outfit for Ellen for Easter during their stay with us. I meant to post it for the holiday itself but the days and weeks just seem to fly by before I find a chance to sit down and reflect. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and are enjoying their spring. Come back again soon as I promise not to take long between the next posting.
She's growing fast, thankfully not multiplying like rabbits as she is handful already.

Curren and Ellen Meet

Aki, Greg and Curren were kind enough to have us over Friday. It was the first opportunity to meet Curren and we jumped at it! She is just the most adorable baby and she is soooo tiny! I couldn't resist and had to create another video. Enjoy!

Curren Arrives!

Big congratulations to Aki and Greg! Curren was born Monday March 26th at 6:02 PM. She weighed in at 6lbs 14oz and measured 18 and three quarter inches! While Ellen and the rest of us haven't had the chance to meet her yet we did manage did get a hold of this snap shot. You'll be happy to hear Aki, Greg and Curren are doing well and should be returning home soon.

Bath Time

This Sunday it was bath time! First Ellen and then later in the day Gypsy. While I don't have any footage of Gypsy splishin and splashin here is some of Ellen captured with our new camcorder.

Ellen's Friends

This video clip was inspired by our friend Tom and his son Noah who visited us Saturday. In order of appearence is Ellen, Chase, Noah, Patrick, Sam, Gypsy and Claire.

Enjoy!

Hanging with Chase

Here is an image captured from Sunday while Ellen and Chase enjoyed some time outside on Ellen's activity mat. Chase was born in early November and at the time of this picture was 17 weeks I believe. While Ellen is only 8 for comparison.

Ellen on the activity mat

I've got so many new pictures and videos to post I don't know where to begin. This weekend was a busy one as both Sasha and Chase Harvey paid Ellen a visit. It was a perfect San Diego weekend and being so we tried to spend as much of it outdoors.

Many people have been asking me what has Ellen been doing lately. Well instead of just telling you all I thought I would share this video clip. We captured this video early today as Ellen "conversed" with us.

Two Month Pediatrician's Appointment

This morning Ellen had her two month check up at the pediatrician. She now weighs 8lbs 7.8ozs and measures a full 22 inches in length. She also got three intramuscular inoculations in her upper thighs and one orally which she did not particularly enjoy but she took it like a champ.

Dr. Sacker examines Ellen at two months.

Ellen meets her cousins

Kathleen's brother Jonathan, his wife Molly and their two sons Sam and Patrick all came to San Diego from Portland to meet Ellen. I think I can speak for Ellen by saying it was a good time. Trips to the zoo and beach to name just a few outings.

One cousin left to meet next and that's Bryan!

More Pictures

The weeks are flying by! Ellen is already 6 weeks old and changing before our eyes. In the last few days we have started to notice her becoming more aware of the world around her. One of her favorite things to do is to sit in her swing and watch Daddy "dance" like a monkey in front of her. I use the term "dance" loosely because it mostly consists of waving my arms and rocking from side to side.

For now here are more pictures of Ellen for you to enjoy.

Happy Birthday Noah

Ellen had the pleasure to attend Noah's 1st birthday on Saturday! After what amounted to be her furthest venture from home to Whittier we arrived just in time for the traditional singing of happy birthday and cake cutting. Due to Ellen's inability to eat solid foods daddy ate Ellen's share of cake. Yum! Thanks Tom, Laura and Noah for having us!

The next day was Aki's baby shower where Ellen again made another public appearance. Unfortunately Mommy didn't take any pictures so instead here is picture of Ellen's newest outfit from Jillian. Thanks Jillian! The PJs are super cozy!