You may not know it yet...

My darling Isabella, 

You may not know this yet, but you will. Having a sibling is one of the greatest things you can have. You're going to be a big sister. That comes with a lot of responsibility, but also with A LOT of fun. We don't know if you'll have a little brother or a little sister, I'm hoping for a little sister, just because I like my sisters so much. But I've heard little boys are great too! 

Having a sibling means always having someone to play with, someone to protect you, someone to make fun of you and for you to make fun of. Someone to laugh with and someone to team up against mom and dad with. They will be your built in best friend. Trust me, I'm speaking from experience. They will always love you and take care of you and drive you crazy. But that's the beauty of having a sibling!

So little girl you're a darling 6 months old. You crawl. Really Craaaawwwl. We started building my house (yes - I built you and you're sibling a bedroom so you can come stay with me when you get older) and all weekend you were in such a great mood. That's when you really started to crawl. You even tried to crawl after me when I was leaving. 

I stopped by to see your friend Bo yesterday. He cried when I held him. Made me miss you an awful lot. You just laugh and smile when I hold you. Well you don't let me hold you very much. You want to walk and crawl and play. You're so active.


Good things are coming...

 

Dear New Baby,

I want you to know just how loved you are. We have such a large family and have been so excited to share all of our love with your big sister Isabella. But we're so excited to be able to share that with you. You're expected arrival date is December 20th and right now you're just 9 weeks old. You're growing your little fingers and toes and mommy and DeDe just heard your heartbeat. I hope I get to go with your mom this time around and see you on the ultrasound. You're coming into a great life little peanut. :) and you've got yourself a pretty great mom dad and older sister. 

Goodmorning Elijah or Abigail. 

Love, 

You're auntie Lollie. 

Fingers and toes and smiles that wrinkle you're nose

Go ahead you can give me the worst Auntie award. 

Just kidding. You better not! I've been busy playing with you. Too busy to actually write to you. Lame excuse I know. I had all the time in the world before, but since you've actually been here, its hard to find that time. But its times like this morning during my drive to the office I found myself thinking about your giggle. Your smile and it made me smile. I knew I needed to write to you again. 

You're almost 6 months old now. Time flys! 

Lets see what are you accomplishments so far?

- Well, you can sit up for a good 30 seconds with out falling over.

- you can walk when we hold your hands. 

- you can practically talk to me. You make the cutest sounds and you try so hard to talk.

- you roll over. ALL THE TIME. I think you realize that you can get things if you scoot your boot and roll yourself over to it.

You're mommy took you outside yesterday and let you play in the grass for the first time. She said you loved it! You also are eating more solid foods now. You get to have rice cereal and sweet potatoes! You did not like the squash your parents gave you. ( I'm not a fan of it either. So I'll teach you how to avoid it. Except spaghetti squash. That's yummy) You make yum sounds when you eat too! You really enjoy your meals. :) 

You're little knees are getting rough. You're losing the baby skin that is so soft since you are trying to crawl. You're hair is also starting to curl!! Can you guess i'm excited! You will have at least one thing that will be like mine. 

The older the get the more you look like your mom. You were all your Daddy when you were first born, now I can see alot of your mom too. 

You're smile. Oh that smile. It gets me every time. Last night, we played and it was the first time I've seen you really truly giggle. You have you're mom's laugh. More of a lack of sound. You inhale, but last night you were giggling and Aunite nanners and me. :) Needless to say you make me happy. 

You're uncle Jeremy got Married! Which means that you now have another auntie. Auntie Kayla. I'm not sure if thats what she wants you to call her or not. :) 

You're growing so fast and I love every minute of it. I'm going to be very sad when you and your parents move out of your Dede's house because you won't just be next door anymore. I'll miss spending time with you and you're mommy, but trust me as soon and mommy give me the okay you're going to spend the night with me. probably not until you can talk. and maybe even are potty trained. love ya kid but you spit up on me and it kinda grosses me out. haha. I'll update you with some pictures from you're baby hood. 

You at your Uncle's wedding!

Playing in the grass for the first time!

At Kyle's going away party. (He went to Bethel) 

How time flys!

Sweet baby forgive me. I am much slower at updating your blog than I  had planned i'd be. Let me reflect on the past 3 months. Yea - you're already 3 months old. Well pretty close anyways.

The first month:

Lets be honest. You slept alot. But you were so good. So quiet. My favorite thing you did was you slept really good when you were laying on someone's chest. I think the you really liked the rhythm of us breathing. We also took our first road trip with you when you were just a few weeks old. We went to visit your great mawmaw, but i've already told you about that. 

2nd month:

YOU ROLLED OVER.

Of course it was just once, and on the table at the doctor's office, and you refuse to roll over again, against all our trying, but still. you rolled over. period.


You're way more awake now. You look at me and I think you actually remember who I am. You smile so much now. Its a big goofy grin but it makes me smile. You don't love the fan as much anymore. You still like it but I think you are more into everyone else around you. We have so much fun guessing what you are thinking. You talk to me alot too. I think you talk to everyone, but I'm going to pretend like its our little thing. You try to blow your lips like I do too. Its adorable. You love music and flashy lights. We watched american idol the other night and you kept giving Auntie Nanners (Lana) dirty looks because we were talking. You were sitting in your bumbo chair just paying really close attention. The greatest debate in the house is about the flower arrangement above the couch in DeDe's living room. We think you don't like it. She thinks you do. You always stare at it, so as soon as you can talk you better tell her you don't like it so we can replace it! You also went on your second road trip. We went to visit Corey and Brittney. We had a fun weekend, but I think you missed being at home. You REALLY like Milo! You love to watch him and he's really good with you. Right now you're really into Uncle Ben. Mommy says you laugh alot when you're around him. You laugh is pretty precious! You're up to 13 lbs now. You're getting so big and so strong too! You can stand up while someone holds your arms and your neck is stronger too. We practice with you regularly!


You have a new friend. He was born January 24th at 7:12 in the morning. His name is Beau Andrew Dixon. I think you're going to be good friends. Growing up, your mommy and I have a friend that was our age. His name is Corey. You met him. We were all best friends growing up, he is like our brother. We really loved having him around and I think Beau might end up being the same for you. I would love that for you. You can always use someone looking after you. :) 


I can't wait to see how you change and grow. We try to share you among the family. Trust me it gets hard, but we make due. Its just proof of how many people you have that love you and want to take care of you. You're Mommy and Daddy have done a wonderful job sharing you with us! 


Til next time Chick-a-dee!


Here's some pictures to remind you how little you were:

                                                 2 Weeks old

3 Weeks old

           

                                                2 Months Old

               

I'm sitting right here with you.


This is the first time mommy let someone come pick you up and take you somewhere. 
You're smiling at me! 


Its finally just us!

It was enchanting to meet you.

Welcome to our world... except now you are our world.

October 31st, 2011. 7.56 ounces, 20 inches long.

Let me tell you a story. The story of your birth. From my point. I'm sure you're mother's will be quite different. So we all got up quite early. Because well you were running late, they were going to induce labor. You're mother can explain that to you later. 

Once we got to the hospital and got settled into the waiting area, they started letting us come back a few at a time to visit your mommy. You had an awesome nurse. She said there could only be 5 people in the room, including your daddy, but she let us keep more than that in there for a while! So while we waited for Grandma and Grandpa and your uncles to come, me and DeDe and Auntie Sherri and Madalynn and Kylie and your Auntie Lana all got to be in there! We were trying to be really good so we didn't get kicked out! You're mom was doing so great! But then she started to have some pains so she decided to have an epidural. After that she wanted to take a nap so back to our waiting room we went! By this time everyone was there... just waiting. So while we were waiting I thought i'd go freshen up since it was so early when we left. I come out of the bathroom and Sherri is standing there. I ask her 'So anything happen while I was gone?' and of course I miss the good stuff. She said you're mom had made alot of progress and that your Dad and DeDe and Grandma were all back there because it should be pretty soon! Can you believe it? So then it was a very stressful wait. We all sat around and waited for text message updates. DeDe and Grandma were very good about letting us know. Some friends stopped by to wait with us. Sandra Boles, and Essence Whithead wanted to meet you too. So we all waited, and then before we knew it.... 

WE GOT THE TEXT!


THEN A PICTURE!

This was the first time I ever saw your face.

Then I cried. We all cried. You were so pretty. And they said you were so good. And you instantly took up a large piece of my heart and I knew I'd always love you more than I thought I could. We all got to go back and visit you a few at a time.  But when I first got to hold you. Well I just don't know how to describe that to you. It was kind of amazing. We stayed there with you all afternoon. But then we were pretty hungry because after me missing the big news everyone was afraid to leave in case we missed your're birth. So we decided to go get some P.F Changs. Yum. you'll learn how good that is one day. 

It was a few days before you got to come home. You were just over 6 lbs when you finally did get home. I had to go back to work though so I didn't get to see you for a few days. But I got pictures of you. Then I finally got to come see you and hold you some more. - this is still something I love to do. You're a month old now. I know I'm a little behind on telling you this story. But you've been keeping my busy. We have already taken you on you're first road trip. You did so good. We got to visit your great mawmaw. She is one amazing person. I hope you get to know her. You do well at the meetings too. You sleep through them which is okay at this point. When you're 13 not so much! You slept through the night for the first time last Friday. You're mom and dad loved that! You love bath time! You're like a little frog in the bath. But you're all time favorite thing right now is the ceiling fan. It makes you really happy to watch it go round and round. You're growing so much too! You're up to 10 lbs! This month has gone by so fast. We've got you're first assembly this weekend too.

Oh you're mommy finally had to have that stinker of a gallbladder out! Which means she can't lift you for two weeks. But by this weekend she should be okay. But it was a good thing she had it out. She feels alot better now. Which I'm sure makes you feel better. We all love you and i'll tell you more stories as they come. Like when you first roll over or first crawl. or you're first words. All these firsts are still to come. Goodnight my little Ellie Belly.

Love Auntie Lollie.

First thing in the morning!

Our first glance at you!

Then you came home!

You slept all day!

And you needed some serious sun!

then you got your first bath.

Expected Birth Date!

Baby baby baby...

When will we ever get to see you??? 


We've been waiting to meet you. And guess what, as of today we have waited you're full 40 weeks! Now listen up Ellie. Its time to come out. :) We've been making your mommy bounce and walk and jump and everything we can think of to get you to come out. So far its not working! Maybe today is the day! 


I took some more pictures of your mommy and daddy. You'll love seeing these later. 

<3  I hope you come see me soon. <3

You're also going to have another friend very soon. Our friend Cary is having him. You'll meet him in February. 

I'll update you again when we know more about your progress. You've got a doctors appointment today. Maybe today will be the day!

Hello Doll! 

You're second shower!

Well this is the shower I got to plan. Well me and DeDe. I think I got the most say though. ;) I wanted to go all out, so I tried to decorate really cute. It was a rain shower theme with little rain clouds and candle lights in the trees and twinkle lights. I think it was a fun party. We played lots of games. There was vollyball and football and then of course baby related games. We had a diaper changing race, Your mom and dad won. Thank goodness for you! There was a bottle chugging game. So the guys would know how you felt. :) There was a balloon belly game - that one was for your mom.  Then an egg race just for fun! Oh and a spit the binky game. I'm sure you'll be doing alot of that though. We also had some special guest stop by. Auntie Karen, and Uncle Mike from Florida. They were in town and came by to see everyone and bring you some really pretty presents. She is very excited to see you. As am I. Now that you are officially old enough to come we are just waiting on the call from your mom saying its time to go to the hospital. We're sleeping with our phones and always prepared. Well i'm only kinda prepared - still gotta get a bag packed! 

Love you baby and see you soon!