4.27

The professional photos did not go well. Ella napped later today so then I knew she'd want to sleep her next nap during the photos. Today it was for a mom group so she had to wait her turn. Ella was smiling. Everyone said she was so happy. She'd try to give hugs to the other babies. The photographer even asked me to stand with Ella behind her because every baby was watching Ella and not the toys/camera. Then it was Ella's turn and she wanted to sleep or something. I nursed her and she was so pleasant but we apparently had to wait a long time again so long that she was not pleasant anymore by the time it was her turn.

I wore the shirt Ella picked out but I didn't end up in any photos.

The day was probably all the same ol' stuff. She napped or didn't nap. She nursed.  She ate some food.  She loves to eat.

4.26

 I wore Ella facing forward since she's a big girl now.

Ella's 0-6 month hat is still way too big.

Ella is starting early being a nerd! 

And she likes it. 

 Oh and she wear's nerdy shirts too.

Ella really wanted my food.

She had a blast in Target being worn. She likes it way better than that stroller with the carrier in it.

We fed Ella baby-food for the first time. This isn't the "best" picture but it shows that I was taking pictures with one camera and holding another to take pictures.

Ella loved the food. She also grabbed the spoon with her left hand all the time. Maybe she will be left handed. We started with sweet potatoes. We gave her 1/3 of the assisted sitter container. She wanted more.

If I wasn't so behind I'd probably elaborate on all this stuff.

4.25

Poly wanted to get in the photos I was taking.

Ella was working on sitting.

Ella wore her pants with an image on the butt. They are a little short but since she never wore them, I really wanted her to.

Citrus Lane June

We got our second Citrus Lane box. I like this one much better than the May box.  For the second month in a row, something in the package was like something I already had.  The Wet Bag is similar to something I already have. The one I already owned is much thicker. I haven't really used it yet. I put a dirty diaper in it once. They are both waterproof. I'll have to give them a try once we start swimming and stuff.  Ella was napping so Poly helped me open the box.

Here's the descriptions of everything and pricing if buying each item.
Wet Bag from Bumkins - $9.86 (different print) I realized the one I already have is a diapered wet bag and more expensive)
Wee Seahorse from Wee Gallery - $19.95
Fruit Teether from Innobaby - 6.99  (or a different variation on amazon)
Baby Bee Cream to Powder from Burt's Bees - I got 2 .5 oz containers. a 4 oz tube is 7.99 - $2
Stage 2 Hearty Veggie Meals from Plum Organics - $2.50 (estimate based on various variety packs and on amazon they charge shipping but at a store they wouldn't)
Special Offer from Third Love $20 off a $40 purchase

The total is $41.30

We have a ton of creams for Ella and haven't had to use any yet so I'm not sure how beneficial that will be. The food will come in handy. At least this time it's food for Ella and not me. If Ella was older the snack from last time might have been for her.

Ella is teething so bad and I like to have teethers around the house so I'm really glad we got another one.  I think the bag will come in handy even though we haven't used our other one yet. I think the Seahorse will be nice for Ella. She likes some stuffed animals. I'm writing this before she plays with it or anything.

The final cost to me was $17.76 for the box since I signed up with a discount and signed up for a full year. If you want to sign up through  me you can use this link. You will get 50% off your first box and I'll get a $20 credit. Just so you know, when I signed up the deal Citrus Lane was having was better than half off the first box so if you want it, maybe you can find a deal like that. (I ended up not using my friends link because of that deal. She also blogs about her packages if you are curious what someone a year older than Ella gets.)

She loves the teether. She woke up from her nap before I got to insert the pictures so I had opportunity for her to play with it. I didn't give her the Seahorse yet.

Update: The food costs $1.50 not $2.50, Jen's blog helped me out there.

Blogging

I can't keep up with what I keep trying to do with this blog. Just dealing with the pictures takes way longer than it used to. Creating public albums is taking forever. Things don't seem to work right most of the time.  I need to come up with an alternative.  I even still have more than 20 draft posts where I need to add the pictures. I'm not sure what I'm going to do but there will be some sort of change.  I can't post things on the day they happen because I have to wait for Google+ auto backup to work and now that I store my pictures on a networked drive sometimes it takes days for it to realize there are new pictures to even backup. I pay for 216 GB and have filled it a few times and had to delete things but if I use auto backup it does not use any of my storage quota.

I often wonder when other mothers find time to blog. Ella goes to sleep too late. Last night she fell asleep a little after 10 and I went right to sleep. She woke up at 5. Some days her naps are only 45 minutes at a time. Even right now I still have not taken my post-run shower and I ran yesterday morning. I need to eat, sleep, and shower during her naps. I also want to clean or should clean. I just don't have the time. Sometimes she will play a little so I can do something but she mainly wants me right there.

I like to keep the blog up but it just doesn't seem like I can.  So this post wasn't all whiny I put a collage of Ella from yesterday when she was happy.

Citrus Lane May 2014

We got out first Citrus Lane box in May. I signed up for a full year and they had a special. I think it came out to $17/mo. While opening it, I did not think it was worth it this time. I didn't need a tiny snack pack or foot wipes for me. We already have 2 stroller hooks so that wasn't necessary. If we didn't already have enough hooks it might be good.

But then Ella loves the puppet. She kept talking to it. I wouldn't have thought of one on our own so maybe the idea is worth the money.  She doesn't care about the wood rattle yet but maybe she will like that eventually.  I ate the snacks.  

Here's the descriptions of everything and prices if buying each item.

Ocean Pals Puppet from Skip Hop - $11.50 and Amazon Prime eligible
Klick Klack from Haba - $9.49 and Amazon Prime eligible
Mommy Hook from TOMY - $6.99 and Amazon Prime eligible
Fresh Feet Wipes from Jasmine Seven - $3.33 + shipping (or $7.27 on Amazon)
Snack from Back to Nature - $1.22 / oz + shipping
25% off from VineMarket.com
20% off coupon code for FresFeetWipes.com and 20% off Back-to-Nature
There was also a 20% off for Citrus Lane for Mother's Day.

$32.53 if I can add. I didn't count coupons.

I guess for what is being used or I will use, I got my money's worth but I don't feel like it's that good. I'm hoping for a better one in June.

6.13 Photos

I took some photos of Ella. I always seem to be doing it. She's changing all the time. I should compare all my photos I take. Now she can sit so it makes it easier to get super cute pictures.

I like dresses with the built in onesie for 2 reasons. One is demonstrated by the above photo. Ella likes to lift up her dresses and tries to make herself into a hussy but with the onesie fabric, she's not exposing her belly. The other reason is just that they are easier for changing her diaper.

I just took these in our back yard. Imagine if I went somewhere pretty. You can see how part of the fence doesn't even match the rest. The tree has weeds all growing around the trunk. Even with all that, I love these pictures.

Sorry for the picture overload. I just liked too many.

Ella is modeling her swimsuit too. Too bad her sunglasses aren't blue or red. It seems like everything else is red, white, and blue.

May Exercise

I've been posting each month so I figured why not keep it up.  This is a little bit late but I'm still posting.

I was rocking May and hit my goal and then didn't run again! I didn't mean to. Ella wasn't cooperative and I was busy doing a few other things. May 11 is the only time I ran without pushing a stroller. (I'm not even counting May 4 the half mile since that was after the 2.42 and I had to cut it short because I was limping.)

I've met my goals each month so far this year. (Note January had a goal of 0 miles because I wasn't cleared to run yet.) Now I feel like my goal has to be at least 3 miles over my initial goal. My June goal is 30 miles. I really increased it. I made all of these goals before I even ran 1 time this year. I just knew I would have to take it slow. I also knew I couldn't run with Ella in a stroller at first.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

This collage was part of Dave's gift. He also has DAD in a frame. I will post more about that later if I ever get caught up.

4.28 Not Professional Photos

Since we had a failed photography attempt, I decided to try to take some pictures of Ella on my own. I'm impressed with how they turned out.

Sometimes Ella's facial expressions are just so darn cute.  I'm still trying to get her used to looking at the DSLR camera. She's good at looking at the phone or my little camera. But mainly with my DSLR I have to move my face out of behind the camera to get her to look. The bad part with that is then sometimes my aim ends up way off.

I did a little photo editing. I didn't do much and don't know how to do fancy editing that photographers use.

I also only have Photoshop Elements now so some things are hard to get used to.

This headband was worn for the photos in the front yard. They were taken a few hours after the other photos.  

I prefer the flower headband over the other one. I think it's much cuter to photograph. I meant to put it more off center but I think sometimes when she moves it shifts so it looks a little too centered for my liking. I wish she had more hair to be able to use other barrettes though.
There are some more photos and in some of them you can see how I had a white afghan on a purple bean bag. It's just a small baby afghan so sometimes the bean bag showed.

What do you think?

Photo of the Day - Washington, DC

This is more like a double throw back Thursday.

On May 9, 2010, Dave and I were in Washington, DC. I made him take my picture in front of the Lincoln Memorial since I remembered a picture there when I was younger.  Well last week when I was home, I found that earlier picture of me. I took a picture of the picture with my phone so the quality isn't the best. So now you can see both pictures.   I remembered which side to stand on for the picture. Too bad I didn't remember standing with my leg bent. That would have been funny to do again.