The Lights in Vegas

A year ago we went on a weekend trip to Vegas. 

We were less than a month pregnant, and we didn't know yet that we were expecting.

And now, a year later, we took another trip to Vegas, this time with our third family member much bigger and much more vocal than before.

She did so good in Vegas! 

She LOVED the lights and watching all the people. 

She even took her daily naps in our arms as we walked down the strip and through stores.

Look at how much she adores her dad

Pink polka dots

After I got dressed and had dressed Ella I realized that I accidentally put us in matching outfits and those outfits matched her doll, so we took a matching picture of the three of us.

Adam loves it when Ella matches one of us, I think it's kind of weird. But I have accidentally dressed her in a matching outfit to mine on multiple occasions. I didn't realize that I had so many things to match her onesies.

Once this little girl was inside my tummy

Once upon a time I had a tummy like this:

39 weeks--a couple of days before Ella came

And every time I leaned toward the bathroom mirror to put on mascara, my tummy would dip into the sink and get all wet from the water on the sides of the sink. And now the thing that was inside my tummy looks like this: 

We started doing a nightly routine to let The Girl know it's time for bed and it starts with a bath, which she loves!

Her hair is growing all over her head, not just in that crazy patch on the back

Buddha tummy  

When you let out a little toot...

...just blame it on Dad.

"Blogs may help women transition to 'mom'"

 

My mom sent me THIS article about how blogging (both reading other blogs and writing your own) helps women transition into into being a mom because they have "a greater sense of social support and connection."

I completely agree with this article and this is why:

We moved right before we had Ella and so I have approximately zero friends here because I don't really have school or work to make friends and being with Ella all day doesn't really lend itself to meeting new people. There are definitely some really nice people that we know here, but no one that I could call up and talk to about Ella and who would care to see endless pictures of her. So thank goodness for this blog that is always available to listen to me talk about Ella and never complains about the ridiculous number of pictures I post of her. 

The greatest make-believe friend ever! 

Plus, there are so many other blogs about moms having babies and the crazy things they are going through (one of my current favorites is this beautiful mom who is pregnant with twin boys, I love reading her weekly pregnancy posts) and it's so nice to read about other people going through the same thing as you, even if you've never met that person. 

And on top of all that, blogging is one of the only things I can do with one hand while feeding Ella or rocking her to sleep or just holding her so that she'll stay asleep for longer than five minutes (see picture above). I cannot tell you the number of nights that I have been awake at 3am, Ella in hand, reading blogs until she falls asleep*. It's nice to have something to distract me from how exhausted I am. I feel much more patient with Ella's refusal to go to bed at a normal time when I have something interesting to look at while she dozes off and that's important to me to be able to feel patient at times like that.

Conclusion: blogs are a wonderful thing.


But in contrast to all that, I thought this blogger had a good point. I don't have the problem of feeling the stress of needing to respond to hundreds of comments on my blog each day, but I think she's definitely right about making sure you prioritize your time so that you are spending quality time with your child and not wasting that precious time on the internet or blogs. 

*Disclaimer: I realized that it might sound like I am the only one who ever stays up late with Ella, and let me assure that that is not even close to true. Adam is up with her in the middle of the night just as much as I am and is pro at getting that girl to zonk out. I don't know what I would do without that cute-faced boy.

Ella's cute-faced dad

I think Ella has her daddy's mouth. What do you think? 

(The baby dressed in boy clothes are Adam and the rest are Ella)

This picture of Ella crying is the best that I could find to match the picture of Adam crying, but she totally makes the exact same face that Adam made above, I just don't have a picture of it.

So, I feel kind of bad that my blog has turned completely into an Ella fan page. 

I was trying to think about what else we do in our life that I could post about besides Ella and unfortunately I came up with nothing because our entire life revolves around Ella. Every single thing we ever do has to be timed around when Ella needs to eat or sleep or what kind of mood she is in. 

She is are whole life. 

And we love it! 

Even in the most awful of moments, when it's the third night that week that she has been crying her head off past 2am and I'm so exhausted I probably couldn't even tell you the first letter in my name and I have spit up dripping off me and my pjs smell like baby poop and my neck and chest are all scratched up from Ella's flailing hands, even then, if you were to ask me if I regret having Ella I definitely would tell you that I don't regret it in the slightest, bad nights and all. Although I wouldn't mind if she figured out how to get to bed at a decent hour. And I really am struggling at figuring out how to balance the things I need to do with taking care of Ella.

After a particularly terrible week of trying to get Ella to sleep for the night I loved this post by Elizabeth.

Other peoples links to other peoples blogs

You know when you've already looked at the latest post on all of the blogs you follow but you don't feel like getting up and doing anything real with you're life, you'd rather just continue to live vicariously through other people via their blogs so you start clicking on all the links that your favorite blogs have to other blogs? 

That's how I found this video. I have no idea who Marin is, I just know that Jordyn follows her blog (Jordyn, I have spent the past few days clicking on almost every blog link listed on your blog because they are hilarious).

This video is even better the second time you watch it. 

This outfit that we think looks hilarious and adorable on Ella