A 2 Month Old Update!

 

Today our little Ella turned 2 months old!

2 months old?! My ears can hardly handle me saying it out loud! She wasn't feeling the monkey love as much this month!

Time seriously needs to slow down! I can't believe how fast she's growing! I notice it most in the bath, when her legs are outstretched she is SO long now! and certainly not my little newborn baby :( 

...but we are loving how much her little personality is starting to shine through!

On exactly the day she turned 4 weeks old, I saw her first smile! My mom was staying with us that weekend and had taken her for the night shift, she brought her through to me so I could feed her before church and as I sat down on the sofa with her she smiled! I didn't know for sure if it was an 'official' smile because I had been noticing smiles for a few weeks that were probably just wind! but then the next day my friend Joanne came over and told me Ella had given her a smile while I was out the room, and then on Tuesday the health visitor came and saw a few of her smiles and told me that yes they were the real deal! So this was her first officially captured smile!

 It took daddy a few more days before Ella shared the privilege with him! So we captured it on vid...



but after that first week of random smiles here and there, the floodgates opened and there was no stopping her!

She is the smiliest happiest baby! She makes me feel like the funniest person in the world because she just grins away at everything I say to her! She is usually full of smiles first thing in the morning, like she's been storing them up all night long!

and daddy gets tons when he gets in from work too.  He also discovered that she likes the word 'mama' and so that got a great reaction...


Also, if you make the sound of a kiss 'mwah' that will always get a smile from her! Just recently even in the middle of the night when she's getting her nappy changed she'll crack a little smile on the changing mat waiting for your reaction, and even though we're not meant to chat away to her at nighttime so she'll go straight down again...it's hard to ignore her cute smiles so I usually crack a few back at her!



This month she got a new toy! A baby swing.  Lots of people on my baby group had said they had them and their babies fell asleep in them so then they were able to get things done around the house.  This sounded like a great idea! So we bought one second hand off gumtree, and I was very excited to test it out! Sadly Ella is far too excited by it to fall asleep in it, but it does keep her occupied for short periods of time.  The funniest part is it's pretty hi-tech and got a lead where you plug your ipod in for music, and a little led light display above her head for her to look at...but none of that interests Ella, the reason she is so in love with her swing is the grey plastic arm support that makes up the frame of the swing! Who knows why! but she grins away at that thing like it's all singing and all dancing! Funny girl!

Other exciting things that happened this month were Ella meeting her other Granny for the first time! and just in time before she jetted off to Tanzania!



We all went out to Tony Roma's Steakhouse, and it was the first time that Ella has not slept through a night out! She was super alert and loved looking around at everything going on! It must have exhausted her out though because when we got home that night she slept for her first ever straight 7 hour stretch, so we were loving that! Unfortunately I'm not sure our bank balance can justify taking her out for meals every night of the week to ensure she sleeps through the night! She's one high maintenance baby, haha!



 She also met her two uncles for the first time, Cam and Ja...



We took them to Loch Lomond, as it was their first time visiting Scotland! As you can see spring is in full force here in Scotland...it was 6 degrees, we were in hats and I was in gloves!
 

We also took Ella on her first sling adventure, and subsequently her first little hike!



This is called sling face, her little cheek got a little bit squashed! Luckily she was so snug and cosy she didn't seem to mind!



We went to the very spot where I had taken a bump shot back in November! It was so lovely to be there again, but this time with my little baby!



The view was still pretty spectacular with the snow capped Ben Lomond in the distance!



Daddy got some good snuggles in too...



and I snapped this pic of her, looking SO much like me when I was a baby!

 I was able to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a mother!!



Ella is the baby elephant, we call her Ella the elephant so I loved this card that By had ordered especially!

He also took us to this cute little farm shop and cafe, Scotland is severely lacking in anything nice like this and so I was touched that he'd gone to the effort of tracking it down! It was about 45 minutes away in a town called Douglas.

We sat on these super comfy chairs, and had a little Mother's day treat complete with chocolate coconut slices, yum!



Of course Ella has been well trained by Daddy and knows that the best way to my heart is through delicious baked goods, these fudgy brownies were packed with raspberries and baked in a farm in yorkshire and then delivered to my door - magic!



We had a brunch on the actual day of puffed pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, just like our good old Vancouver days!

and By topped off the day by making me a roast - which is pretty much my fave dinner on this planet!

Yes, I was well and truly spoilt! oh and I also got some awesome polka dot transfers to transform my Kitchenaid mixer into a polka dot mixer!!



It was a lovely lovely day, and it's been a lovely month with Ella just getting cuter and more scrumptious with each passing day!