6.2

We hung out at home, went to the mall, went for a walk, and went to Mad Mex for lunch. I also went for a run while Ella napped.  I don't think I met up with anyone. I think we tried but it just didn't work out.

The pictures aren't exactly in order since I had issues with the camera times. I did spend a long time trying to get them close. (Probably too much time.) Also, on my album some pictures are there 3 times. I just didn't have time to go through them all.   Ella was just learning to sit and she would topple over with all the distractions everywhere so we'd put pillows around her to help her out. She enjoyed playing.

 We put her in the exersaucer after she got bored with the floor. She loved that thing.

My dad was using his laptop. Ella wanted to help. He opened a word file for her to type in it. She kept going back to Excel though. I thought it was funny because Excel is a much more fun program with all the numbers.

My dad also wondered what was on my blog so Ella looked at it with him.

In the car on the way to Mad Mex / Monroeville Mall, Mike was reading and Ella just kept watching him.

Mad Mex

We went to JCPenney to get some clothes for Dave. The selection is better in PA than CA for some reason. Ella helped holding this nice purple T-shirt. Ella also liked to look at herself in the mirrors.

I was with my mom shopping for Dave then we went and looked at baby clothes. I was going to shop for myself last. Well before we were done with the baby section, Ella started to get fussy. Around this time Mike and my dad joined us.

While I was finishing up shopping, Mike took her out of the stroller and held her. She loved it. He held her while my dad got in line to pay.

Ella liked to eat her foot while in the car seat

Ella helped open her own presents.

Ella was trying on one of her new headbands. She got it as a gift on the 1st but never tried it on.

Just look at this foot while she was eating!

My dad was watching Ella on the Exersaucer and I gave him a pillow. I think he fell asleep but he claims he was awake.

5:30 PM

Ella really enjoyed her walk. It was also nice that it wasn't sunny so she didn't have to have the canopy out.

Ella was constantly working on crawling. She'd get her butt up. Most of the time right after this she'd push it up a little more and end up pushing herself right over.

Making this post it just had me wishing Ella could hang out with everyone again. The pictures that did me in were when she was helping on the computer. I'm not sure why those were what caused it but they did. Ella sure likes computers and so does everyone in my family!

8.2: Reading

We read to Ella every morning. Today I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Ella still has a favorite page!  She has started to like the last page too.

Dave read her Trains Go then Trucks Go. She likes the trains one the best. Ella likes it when Dave reads Trains Go to her. She likes is way better than when I read it to her. She still likes it when I read it to her.  Some days I grab a stack of books to let Ella pick which book to read and she always digs to this book.

It's hard to tell from the pictures but when a page is turned, Ella looks at the book then she looks at Dave when he reads it to her.

Since she loved the trains book so much I got her Trucks Go. It's no where near as good. The sounds are so weird and too hard to read.

She didn't make it through the entire book today.

Story Time ended with some fun time.

Dave probably won't like this post. I have a lot of pictures here. Also notice Ella's nightgown doesn't even cover her diaper after she's moved a bit. 

July 21-31 Outfits

7/21

 Ella and I wore our coordinating shirts when we went to our running meetup.

7/21

 I didn't used to like this shirt but I wore it recently and like that it's v-neck so I can easily wear a nursing cami under it and it looks like it was planned and not done out of necessity.
I wear these shorts all the time. I have to force myself not to wear them. They are so comfortable and I love having pockets.

7/22

I wore this nursing top but mainly wore this outfit to do a comparison of when I wore it about a year ago with the yellow pants. I didn't look at the old picture yet but I will and will make a comparison collage.  It got hot so I didn't wear this all day but in the morning I did.

7/23

I had a doctor appointment so I dressed more like a real person. In that picture on the right I feel like my ankles and legs look so fat. It's just a bad angle but it still doesn't look goo.

7/23

Since Ella was involved I took too many pictures so I made two collages.

7/24

 I managed to squeeze into these old shorts! I bought them when I first moved to CA.

7/26

At Kohl's, Ella was so pleasant so I decded to walk through the clothes. Ella was so helpful and helped me buy some clothes. This was the second thing she approved. She got so excited about this shirt I knew I had to have it.  I didn't try it on at the store.

7/27

 I'm getting lazy with my outfit photos!

7/28

 This is another maternity shirt.

7/29

Here I am wearing the shirt Ella picked out again.

7/30

Here's the second shirt Ella picked out.  I like it but if I would have tried it on at the store, I wouldn't have bought it. It's too low cut and as soon as I move, my bra is trying to show. I can pull the top back a little to look more presentable but it moves. It did work out well for nursing though.

Update: I had pics from 7/31 so here they are

Baby Tracking App

I've had a few people ask me what app I use for Ella. Mostly people ask when I type milestones or when I know about milestones later. The app I use is Baby Care Lite.  I got tracking for free but paid $2.99 for charts. It will predict the next activity and it says it in the top.

This is how I track milestones.

Since I not only track milestones but still track food, diapers, and sleep, I can get all this information.

This is what milestones look like within the app, but you can click the folder in the corner and email yourself a pdf. The PDF is only cut off it is really long.  If I want to look at anything I use the PDF instead of using the charts. If I want the summary of sleep average per month then I'll look on the app. 

This is a screen shot of the sleep PDF

The 2 screen shots above are for the app. If you notice the screen shots within the app are different for me than advertised. I think because the new iphone is narrower. That is one thing that bugs me. If you look at my first screen shot on the page you will see sleep duration is cut off. You only get the hour and tens place. You don't get the ones place. Or if a nap is 1 hour and 5 minutes you get the 5 but you have to look to see if that is for 5 minutes or for 50some minutes. 

I actually ended up with this app by mistake. I was at the hospital and thought I picked another one. I did try two other ones after I had this one but the other ones required a lot of clicks and required information. I like this that I can start a feeding and that's it. I add which side I started nursing on in the comments and if I switch sides, I put when I switch. But sometimes I don't put anything because I'm in a hurry and I like that I don't have to put anything. I do have to go back in to update the time of nursing.  It's funny how the app gets to know Ella and will predict how long she will nurse once you start the feeding clock and so many times it is so close. This is odd to me because sometimes she has a 2 minute snack and sometimes a 15 minute meal. 

Do you use an app to track your baby?  I plan to stop using this once Ella is consistent but then I'm torn because I love the data.