Miller Time: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Fall Weekends

It's been a busy couple of weeks in the Miller household! Besides Ellison breaking her clavicle (which she seems to have already completely recovered from...babies are so resilient!), we have had a few action-packed weekends in a row. We spent one weekend up north at the Miller cabin with Jay's parents and two of his three sisters and their families. Ellison's cousins are 5 year old Logan, 2 year old Ethan, and almost 2 year old Isabella (plus one more on the way!). It made for a VERY noisy house!!! The main goal of the trip was to help get the cabin ready for winter (aka rake leafing...I don't know if I've ever seen so many leaves in my life!) but we also went to a pumpkin farm while we were up there. It was so different from the ones down around Milwaukee! Much less crowded and more "real" farm-like. We didn't get pumpkins again but we did go for a wagon ride, which we didn't get to do when we went to Swan's because it was so cold. Ellison and I didn't have to help rake this year...but maybe by next fall she will be wanting to help!

This past weekend was busy as well. My aunt Jeana and cousin Kara came in from California and Florida to visit and go to the Packer game. Kara's fiancé Kyle plays for the Jaguars. Besides the game on Sunday, we went and looked at wedding dresses for Kara at two different places. Ellison came along and was such a good girl! Saturday night we dressed her up in her elephant costume and took her to a couple houses during my mom's neighborhood night trick or treat. She looked adorable, but it was pretty cold so we didn't stay out long.

Sunday was the Packer game. We were all so bundled up when we left for the game and ended up taking off the majority of our layers because we were in the sun the entire time. It definitely did not feel like it was 46 degrees! Ellison stayed with my mom and Ron and wore a million different outfits, including a jaguar themed one from Kara (I figured it was ok to wear something non-Packers for one week!) and an adorable Halloween tutu. I felt like we were running non-stop all weekend, but we had a lot of fun!

Ellison is moving around like she feels completely healed already, which seems crazy. It has been one week since we took her in and found out she had a fractured clavicle. I was worried that her broken collarbone would slow down her development because she wouldn't want to crawl or pull herself up to stand, but she only seemed bothered by the break for the first day. She does have a little bumpy area from the break that I assume she will have forever. We are back to chasing her all over the place and trying to make sure she doesn't crawl over things that might hurt her. She has been pulling herself up on her new musical table toy, so it seems like no issues with that either!

One day post-broken collarbone

Four teeth have now popped through on top. We have had a few rough nights lately where Ellison doesn't seem to be very interested in sleeping, but hopefully that will improve soon. It was honestly easier having a newborn who ate every couple of hours overnight than it has been having an 8 month old who is teething (or maybe having a growth spurt?!)! It's hard to get anything done anymore between chasing her and being so tired that I need to nap when (or if) she does. I don't know how other people get everything that needs to be done, done, but it is a struggle for me! Working full-time and having a baby is no joke! I am just trying to remember the good, smiley times when the witching hour comes at night or I get frustrated because the house is a mess. Ellison is growing and changing so fast, I don't want to spend all my time worrying about what isn't getting done. My little girl is happy and healthy, and that's what REALLY matters!

Hope everyone has a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

E's First Broken Bone

Jay and I had a nice dinner planned for our anniversary last night, but our little lady apparently had other plans. We took Ellison in to urgent care because something did not seem right with her right arm/shoulder. She cried whenever I picked her up all day and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Everything looked normal and she was fine as long as I wasn't touching that arm. She sat great in a shopping cart for me while I ran errands and was smiling at strangers all along the way. Once Jay got home from work, he started investigating her movement a little more closely with his PT brain. She would reach with both arms to get toys but seemed much less interested in moving than usual. When she reached for a toy with her right arm and then started crying and screaming, we knew it was time to call the doctor. He seemed to think it was worth bringing her in to urgent care. On the way there she was all smiles so we were definitely second guessing whether we should be taking her in!

It was a slow night at urgent care and when we got there, there were no other patients. I felt like we were celebrities, with the whole place to ourselves like that! The doctor determined that it seemed to be Ellison's collarbone area that was bothering her, so they sent us down for x-rays. Ells was an X-ray rock star! I see a lot of x-rays done on babies at work and they never seem to stay still, but Ellison did. What an angel!!! Then we headed back upstairs to wait for the results.

About 2 minutes later the doctor came out and said she was going to pull up the scans, but radiology had told her that there was a clavicle fracture. Despite all of her odd behavior, we were surprised to find out that our little baby was indeed broken! Definitely glad we decided to take her in and have her looked at. It is not a real bad break, it is a crack on one of the curves of the bone. There isn't a whole lot we need to do, basically it just needs time (and Advil) to heal. She has been a bit more stationary than usual today so I think she is limiting her own activity without us really needing to do much for her. I don't want to put her in a sling and totally immobilize her but we do have an Ace wrap to put around her shoulders if she needs it. So far she seems ok without it!

Ellison with her figure 8 wrap

Other than that, Ells is getting 4 teeth right now so she has been a little cranky because of that as well. Advil is her best friend this week!!!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

8 Months Old!

Sweet Ellison is 8 months old today. I can't believe it! She has grown and changed so much in this short time. This week she is pulling herself to standing. She uses laundry baskets to balance, I don't know if she can reach to use any of our furniture yet! Over the weekend Jay also found her sitting up when he had not left her that way. And we bought her "big girl" car seat yesterday! She is still little, weight-wise, but she must be nearing the height limit on the infant seat. And despite being small, it has gotten heavy carrying her and her seat! So it's probably time to move on up.

This was the first time I saw her pull herself up!

Fold this laundry Mom!

Ellison is still exploring constantly. She is never in one place for long! She likes to play under the coffee table and in the area between our couch and recliner. She also has managed to find her way under the kitchen table, halfway under the Pack N' Play, and she likes to crawl under the exersaucer. Not sure what the draw of all these little spaces are, but that is what she gravitates towards! She loves to spread her toys and books all around the house!

This is what the house looks like when Mommy is sleeping and Daddy is in charge...hehe!

She is always babbling. In church this week we could not keep her quiet or still...she seemed to be trying to "sing" along every time music played, which was pretty funny. She crawled from Jay to me and back again over and over. The sermon had to do with marriage and family, so during the service they called up the married couples to come renew their vows. Obviously we had to bring Ellison up with us, and I was trying so hard not to laugh as she squirmed and made faces and noises the whole time! She definitely keeps us laughing and smiling all the time.

Thanks to my friend Gianna for some new toys!

LOVE to make music!

This weekend we head up north with Jay's family. It will be fun to see Ellison with all her cousins. I was working the last time they were all together, so I haven't really seen her with the whole gang since she was too little to really notice they were there. We may hit another pumpkin patch, since the weather is supposed to be pretty nice! Also hoping to go to the zoo in the upcoming weeks for one of the Halloween themed nights. Ellison has a very cute elephant costume! Jay and I are also heading to a Packer game in a couple weeks. My cousin Kara is engaged (as of last weekend!) to one of the Jacksonville Jaguars players, so she and my aunt are coming to see him play in Green Bay and taking us along. Very excited to see a game and also meet the love of my cousin's life!!! Just hope no one expects us to pretend we aren't Packer fans...

Ellison's Halloween art project! (thanks Pinterest for the idea)

One other big thing for us...in one week Jay and I celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary. Looking forward to many more years spent together with our beautiful little girl!

October 24, 2009

Friday, October 12, 2012

Welcome to Fall!

It's definitely fall! Despite the sudden turn in weather, we took Ellison to a pumpkin farm last weekend. We had her quite bundled up and didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked, but we did get pumpkins and took a few cute pictures! Oh, and apple cider donuts...YUM!

Ellison and I also went with Aunt Kon and Uncle Ryan to the Harvest Fair at State Fair a couple weekends ago. Jay had to work so he couldn't come. Both of us working weekends has been so hard. It seems like one of us always has to work and it is rare that we have the same weekends off. I work every third weekend and Jay works one weekend a month, so some months there is only one weekend we are both home. Kind of a bummer but we are trying to make the best of it. There wasn't a lot for a little one like Ellison to do at the Harvest Fair, but it was a really nice day to be outside! We live close enough to the State Fair grounds that we were able to walk, which was very nice! The majority of summer was so hot that we didn't get out for a whole lot of walks, so I am always happy to get E outside. We did her take into the petting zoo, but she just wanted to look.

Ellison is growing and changing so quickly. She has two little teeth which have been making her a little cranky. She has been off her usual routine the last couple of weeks, waking up earlier in the morning some mornings and even in the middle of the night at times. It's been a little rough some nights but seems to be getting better. She has become quite the mama's girl in the past week or so. She follows me everywhere yelling ma! ma! ma! at me. I love it! She loves her daddy too, though. She just hasn't quite figured the "da" sound out yet.

Look at my teeth!

The little lady is still traveling around the house very quickly! She has been attempting to climb things as best she can. She gets up on her knees and holds on to whatever she happens to be trying to climb (high chair, stove, people...) for dear life. It's pretty cute! We think she is going to be up and cruising the furniture in no time. It is going to be pretty funny when this tiny little person learns to walk...she seems so small to be walking around anytime soon, but it can't be THAT far off.

Ellison also really likes to touch and tap things. Anything with texture, she will either scratch or pat. She has started to bump and bang her toys together and on the floor. I have noticed she is starting to be able to pick up smaller and smaller objects. If there is a crumb or a string on the ground, she will find it! So far she hasn't put any of the random objects in her mouth, but I definitely know we need to be more careful about what finds its way onto the floor now.

We also took Ells to her first Packer party last weekend at our good friends Matt and Natalie's new house! She seemed a little scared of the people she hadn't seen before but stayed awake for almost an entire game for the first time. Unfortunately it was not a win. But she got to sport her very cool leopard print shoes, so I'm sure that's all that really mattered to the little fashionista :)

Other than that, just keeping busy chasing the peanut around and watching her learn new things every day!!! Can't believe she is going to be 8 months old in only a few days...