Practicing

Ellington has been busy practicing a couple of things lately. The first thing she has been working on is standing up. She is not able to pull up by herself, but she does really good standing once someone helps her out and gives her something to hold on to!





The other thing Ellington has been practicing is taking care of babies.



No, we're not having another baby (not yet anyway), but Ellington is going to be a big cousin in December AND January. We just found out recently that Brad and Julie will be having another baby in January and we are SO THRILLED to have these new little ones as a part of our family! :) Right now Ellington's favorite thing to do with her doll is grab it and then throw it behind her over and over. I think we should probably closely supervise the visits to see her little cousins!

P.S. I just went back and added pictures to her 10 month post!

Play All Day

Ellington spends most of her day playing! She loves taking all of her toys out of whatever they are stored in. She loves emptying, but not putting them back again. :) I guess we'll get to that one day!



My brother taught Ellington how to clap at the fair! :) Those sweet little hands clapping are, by far, the most adorable thing I've EVER seen!









Parent's Morning Out update: Ellington did much better on day 2 than day 1! The first day she would start crying if I walked just a little bit away from her, which I suppose is to be expected since we were somewhere new. However, yesterday she just played like it was no problem at all. We even had one who screamed for all 4 hours that we were there (whew!) and it surprisingly didn't seem to upset Ellington at all. Maybe we'll make it. :) Not seeing Robert much has definitely been hard though...and he had to work today (Saturday). But, we'll get through this. Just keep the prayers coming!

Parents Morning Out

Ellington started Parents Morning Out this morning. Too bad I'm not a parent going out! Ha! I started back to work this morning and I'm actually Ellington's teacher! It is such a HUGE blessing that I still get to be with Ellington while working, but it definitely is a bit of a challenge trying to take care of other babies in the same room with Ellington. Even though I get to be with her, this change is still really hard on me. Robert and I have very strong beliefs about mommies being at home with their babies, but unfortunately right now that isn't really going to work for us. Like I said, we are so blessed to be able to do it the way that we are but it didn't stop me from crying last night before bed and when we got home today! One of the hardest parts of this new arrangement is that we won't really be seeing Robert any during the day. We will be at "school" from 8:30-12:30 and Robert leaves for work at 1:30. Ellington wouldn't take a nap this morning so when she got home she was EXHUASTED and went right to bed, so she didn't really get to play with Robert at all. Please pray for our family as we adjust to these changes! And we ask that you pray specifically that Robert will eventually get put on a different shift.

*My mom is letting us use her old camera so we are back in the picture taking business! Hooray!

10 Months

Ellington is TEN MONTHS old today! Wow!!! Every month I say I can't believe it's been another month, but double digit months now??!!!

See, even Ellington can't believe she's getting so old! :)



Ellington, what are you up to at ten months old?

• You are wearing mostly 9-12 month clothes and size 3 diaper.
• You sleep 11-12 hours each night and take two naps a day.
• You usually have three bottles a day and three baby food meals. You don't want ANYTHING to do with table food yet, but your appetite is definitely increasing! You eat SO MUCH baby food!
• You do love eating Gerber yogurt melts. It's the only non baby food thing you'll eat.
  
• You still do not want to drink out of a sippy cup.
• You just started clapping your hands and saying bye.
  
• You LOVE playing patty cake!!! You light it when someone starts saying it!
• You now say: da da, uh oh, bye
• You love being out and about in your stroller or in the grocery cart.
• You love to babble and squeal!
• You love tearing apart anything you can get your hands on...paper, napkins, magazines, etc.
• You have started watching Gus more and more. One day I think you actually said "Gus" but I haven't heard you do it again.
• Cups are still among your favorite toys.
• You still LOVE fruit and tolerate your vegetables (no green ones though!!!)
• You survived your first fair and did great! :)
• You light up when you see your mommy and daddy and it MELTS our hearts!
• You have a belly laugh that I am pretty sure is my favorite thing in the whole world.
• Your tickle spots are on your side and on your neck. It gets you every time!
• You will occasionally play independently, but you prefer having a play partner.

Wordless Wednesday

Catching Up A Little Bit

So...things have been so crazy busy and I haven't blogged as much as I would like! :( I have been putting off blogging because I feel behind, but I thought I'd post a few pictures of the last couple of weeks and then just start anew. :)

Ellington 2 Sundays ago before church.



Last Sunday, July 11th was my sister's 22nd birthday. I don't really know how she's 22. She'll always been 14 in my heart! (I know that's kind of an awkward age, Reagan. Sorry for that. But we had a whole lot of fun back then!!!) Anyway...we went down to Philadelphia to the fairgrounds for Reagan's birthday dinner. This was Ellington's first time to go to the fairgrounds. I can't believe she didn't go until it was almost fair time! Usually by this point in the summer we've spent a lot of time out there. And if you are a blog reader who isn't from around here you have no idea what "fairgrounds" and "fair time" mean...but I don't have enough words to explain it, so I'll just pretend like everyone understands!

Ellington's first swing on the porch swing!



Also, while we were there we had to get a picture of GiGi and Ellington in the fair dress my mom made for her. They are going to be in the Fair Times! (Again if you don't know what "Fair Times" is...just keep reading like you do) How cute is this dress??!!













Make a wish!





Happy Birthday Reagan!



We had a great time at the party...you know, except for when I FELL DOWN while HOLDING my baby in a room FULL of people (thanks for helping catch us Dad!), or when Ellington screamed during the singing of "Happy Birthday" (might have to leave that part of her first bday party!), or when she screamed at the top of her lungs when Richard blew in her face. Haha...what a night! But we did have a blast!

Moving right along...

Is it time for football season yet??!! Here at the Connerley house we LOVE college football and we are so ready. We will try our best to force Ellington to love it too! :)



Peeking around the coffee table to see Daddy!



Just the other day Ellington started played peek-a-boo with the blanket on our bed. It was the cutest thing, but I didn't want to run out of the room and miss the moment in hopes that I might get a picture of her doing it. Lucky for me, she started doing it with her dress right after I took the two picture above. How cute is this?!







Sunday morning before church. (I could just die looking at the cuteness that is a bow in Ellington's hair!)



Sunday night before church.



Haha!



I just realized in looking back at all of these pictures that Ellington was dressed extra adorable. Well, I also realized it is not my doings! All of the outfits, except for the brown dress with her monogram, my mom bought for her! How awesome is that?! My mom is so super helpful to us...like when she practically put her life on hold for 2 months to help us survive having a new baby...or like last week when she kept Ellington for 2 days because Robert's work schedule changed so he couldn't keep Ellington the 2 days I worked...or how she's coming tomorrow to stay with us for a day and a half because the same thing happened again this week? Yeah, awesome. Thanks Mom! And Dad, if you are reading this, the buying of clothes is a totally appropriate behavior for a grandmother and there is no need to put a stop to it. :)

Who knows if I'll blog again this week, but Ellington's very first Neshoba County Fair will start Friday so there will be a whole lot of pictures coming soon! We are so excited and ready for it to start!!!

Destin - Tuesday

I have finally made it to our last full day in Destin. Tuesday didn't start out too great. The little cold Ellington had seemed to be getting much worse. Check her out for yourself:



Pitiful, huh? I was so upset that she felt so bad and I was also upset that it had to happen while we were on vacation. There has been so much hard stuff going on in our lives...some I have shared on the blog, most I have not...and Robert and I were SO frustrated that we couldn't even get to have a vacation without something happening! I stayed on the phone most of the morning with our pediatricians office and pharmacies in Destin. Ellington was a trooper though and just kept hanging in there!

For lunch we went to one of my favorite places in Destin...The Back Porch! Ellington's back was to all of the action in the restaurant so she stayed turned around most of the time.





This picture cracks me up! Reagan got my dad to pose with her. Reagan even makes the baby bag look stylish. :)



After lunch Robert, Ellington, and I went to the pool for just a little bit. Not for long though, Ellington wasn't too interested. I think it took us longer to get ready than we stayed at the pool!

Tuesday night Reagan had plans to have supper with a friend that lives in Destin (awesome I know...people actually get to LIVE there) and my parent's had a banquet for my dad's convention he was attending, so the three of us were on our own. I was DETERMINED that we would have fun even though Ellington wasn't feeling 100%. After we got dressed we went downstairs in the little courtyard area so that we could get a few pictures. My mom made Ellington's dress. I LOVE it! I wish she could wear it every day! :)











After our little photo session we walked down to Baytown to eat supper. We ate at this little BBQ place that was DIVINE! I am a really picker eater. On most menus I find maybe a couple of things I like, but on this menu I wanted it all! Ha! It was delicious.

Then after dinner went walked out to see the boats and strolled around Baytown. Because of Ellington being a little sick, we kept thinking that we'd have to go back to the room early, but she was doing great and was so happy being out and about!





Earlier in the day we had gotten this little jar to collect some sand to remember Ellington's first trip to the beach so we headed over to the beach to collect her sand!



And then, because we are so wild and crazy (ha!) we decided to push our luck a little and go to Destin Commons (an outdoor mall). By this time it was getting dark and cooling off a lot. We had the BEST time just being together and strolling around. We wanted to make the most out of our last night and I think we did! We finally headed back to our room and I think got there a little after 9. Ellington was still doing great and super happy! Yay for a great last night!!!

-The End!