July Exercise

I worked really hard the second half of the month to hit my goal. My goal was 30 miles and running over 5 with Beth on the 30th really helped. I was too sore on the 31st to run again though.  This month was tougher than June. June I just slacked but here I was not allowed to run at the beginning and then when I was allowed my neck held me back. My neck would start throbbing and I'd have to quit. Sometimes it was worse than others. My neck did last longer the more times I went out to run so that was good. Sometimes just slowing down to a 12 minute pace really helped.

I ran 4 times this month without pushing a stroller. Two of those runs were after Ella went to bed and there was still a touch of daylight so I went running.   I ran with Beth twice and Tiffany three times.  I only ran with Kathryn one time all month and that run is the most convenient but Ella didn't cooperate and she went on vacation so it was only 1 time. I started a Monday run meetup on the mom group. This past Monday there were 4 moms and 4 babies. It's a fun time.

July was also a tougher month because it was so hot. I either had to run in the morning or in the evening. It was even too hot to run by late morning.

I didn't use my printed calendar for workouts at all so now I forget what all I've done. In addition to running I did at least 1 core workout and I went on a bunch of walks. Oh I also lifted weights once and lasted all of 6 minutes before my neck was throbbing a lot. Then lifted again today.  I found my calendar and I also went on my bike once this month! I guess I did a variety of workouts but I was not consistent.

Comparisons: Ella and Me

Back in the day I was using a walker. It's sort of similar to a jumperoo so I found some pictures to compare. I spent hours trying to dig for pictures. I take too many pictures so it makes it hard to find anything.

I feel like we don't look at all alike.

7.16 and 7.22 Videos

7.16 - Ella crawls to Poly

7.22 Ella repositions to crawl to Poly

7.16 Laugh

I was feeding Ella. She was making noises so I made noises back and she laughed a lot.

July 11-20 Outfits

7/11

 I decided to give this Forever 21 shirt a try. I wasn't sure if it would fit over my still big belly. But It looked alright.

7/13

If I remember correctly, I was going to Safeway so decided to wear some sleeves even though it was hot out. It's always freezing in that store.

I did get dressed between 7/13 and 7/17 but no daily pictures. I even left the house some days.

7/17

7/18

This is a maternity tank that I wore once. (I wore it on October 5) It was cheap ($5.98) but I need more wears out of it.

7/19

7/20

This is another maternity shirt that I thought I could wear. I think the ruching makes my belly look even bigger than the normal shirts. (But also holding Ella makes my belly look larger so it's hard to really get a direct comparison.)

 You can see I'm becoming a real slacker with these daily pictures.

I wear my hair the same daily so Ella doesn't pull it. I also wear my jean shorts a lot because I just love them so much. The black shorts are a big high waisted and I'm not as big a fan of those.  I really wear the same clothes quite often. I have a large closet full of clothes and a lot are tight around my belly and so I just assume the other ones are.

6.1: Party

Early in the day we let her play in her exersaucer and play on the floor instead of being held knowing that there would be tons of people visiting and holding her.

Well also she has fun playing all over.

Around 12:30 the first set of people arrived and Ella got a present! Ella helped open in. She got lots of nice things. She even got a needlepoint bib that someone made for her.  Most everything was size 9 months but some of it fit her right away! Ella is just so big.

Ella really enjoyed the tissue paper and the box too. It's all a gift to her.
I wasn't expecting any gifts and didn't even think people would give gifts. I just wanted everyone to meet Ella. Lots of people brought gifts though! Everyone is so nice.

I have numerous pictures from the day but most of my family hates pictures so I'm barely putting any on here. Above is my cousin Sheryl but she's closer to my mom's age than mine.

This is my Aunt Wanda. My mom said she loves to hold babies. I didn't know that. I just figured everyone loves to hold Ella.

 My Aunt Elaine specifically told me not to take any pictures of her! I not only didn't listen but here's a picture on my blog that she reads! Ella makes Logan look so big. He's almost 2 years old in these pictures.  He liked Ella's toys. Also all of Ella's borrowed toys used to be his.

It wasn't just family that visited. A few friends came over. Here is Brie. Her husband, John, was also there but  even thought I took about 30 pictures of Brie, John doesn't seem to be in a single one.  I was so overwhelmed with so many people so that's probably why.

 Ella took a selfie!

Ella really liked Art. I think she likes men better than women. Or maybe she just loves the men we know. After I had this picture loaded, I realized Jason was there in the background playing on his iPad.

I took about 15 pictures of Art holding Ella here and all but 2 are blurry! I also just missed a picture where Ella was looking at him with her hand on his face.

Here my dad is holding her but I think he's busy watching TV. Look at Ella's legs. She's sitting like such an adult. I can't get over how cute she is.

Ella took 2 hour naps throughout the day. I think so many people really tired her out. Before everyone showed up, my mom mentioned she hoped Ella would take her normal 40 minute naps so that people wouldn't wait around forever just to see her. Of course that's not what Ella wanted to do!

Mike took the picture of Connie holding Ella. I was glad because I didn't get a chance to take any. I'm pretty sure people held Ella and I did not get pictures. I also had on a nice shirt and a skirt and didn't even get an outfit photo of myself. 

Jen also came to visit. She came later in the evening. She was the only one here at the time. There should have been others but they all came earlier. It was nice to not have a million people.  Ella was pretty fussy by this point. She was teething pretty bad.  Then hours later when Jen texted me about meeting Ella she commented on how well behaved she was!   That wasn't even as good as Ella was the rest of the day.

Jen lives an hour from my parents which is a bad enough drive but earlier in the morning she was 2 hours north of her house visiting her family. She had far too much driving for the day!

It was an exhausting day. I got stressed out with so many people at one time. Too bad everyone was there in the afternoon instead of some in the evening. With so much going on, I only took about 225 pictures. On a day when not much is going on I end up with 300-500 pictures. I think I do it wrong.

7.16

Ella woke up at 6:45. Dave was so tired in bed that she didn't hang out with him like normal. She played while he slept. So then I ended up keeping her there too long. She then was too tired and didn't go to sleep. She just wouldn't. Finally I took her for a ride in the car. I have never done this. She fell asleep! But then she woke up when I was getting her into the house. I should have driven more. I did drive a little extra and didn't come right home so she napped 20 minutes.

We played and hung out but she wasn't as cheerful as normal. We went for a little walk and she started to fall asleep but woke up. I got her home and fed her quickly and she went to sleep for 2 hours.

We were 30 minutes late for the mom meetup group. We had fun there. Ella is getting so big. There were so many people.

Ella was getting tired. We were actually there past the end time of the meetup. A lot of people were still there. She fell asleep on the way home. I had hoped to get her home first but that just didn't work. She slept for an hour after we got home. I had just pushed her stroller into her room and changed the camera direction so I could watch her.   I got to eat dinner for the second night in a row without having to hold Ella.  I was going to wake her as soon as I was done eating but our TV show had a couple minutes left so I was going to wait. Then she woke up in between that time.

After she woke up, I nursed her. Then we played a little. I fed her baby food. Then it was bedtime again.

I keep staying up 2-3 hours after Ella goes to sleep. I need to quit doing this.

7.13

Ella slept until 7. I woke up just before she started crying.  She fell asleep after nursing a bit but when I put her in her crib I touched her wet diaper and that woke her.

While I was pumping, Ella was playing and Poly joined her. Ella pulled her fur and since Poly didn't leave, Ella did it again. Poly meowed. Then Poly moved to only 2 ft away. I think Poly likes to be terrorized.

We played in bed a bit.  After she was up about an hour and a half she wanted a nap.
After the nap we got ready and headed to Safeway. We got Panera on the way home.

We sat down to eat it but Ella was just unhappy. After I ate 1/3 of my food, I went to feed her and she fell asleep almost immediately.

She napped a little less than 3 hours!  I napped for the last 30 min of her nap. I did some cleaning and playing on the computer and eating during her nap. The time flew.

Ella and I played after her nap. We played some in the office and some in the living room. Dave played MineCraft while watching some Starcraft tournament.

She napped from 5:30 to 6:30. I thought that'd be perfect for her going to sleep. Boy was I wrong. She was up until 12:15. It was a rough evening. She got so tired that she just wouldn't sleep. She wasn't teething. She didn't seem to want to eat either.