6 month check up

Yesterday, Ella had her 6 month check up & wow am I grateful for such a healthy baby.  There were so many sick kids in the pediatrician's office that it really makes you thankful.  Little Ella (and Jessica for that matter) have had the sniffles for the last couple of days, so I didn't know if she would be able to get her immunizations or not.....much to her displeasure--she was able to get her shots, including a flu shot, poor baby ;(  She now weighs 18 lbs 4 oz and she is 28 inches long--95 percentile for weight & off the chart for length!  Of course, she had to put on a show for Dr. Rowland & the staff & didn't want to lay down like a baby--she had to sit up by herself & grab at the paper on the exam table.  I took the trusty twin stroller to contain them both & Jessica did pretty well considering--I should say, she did well thanks to the pretzel sticks they give to the kids at the appointment!  Her next well check will be at 9 months.  I know I've said it before, but time goes faster the 2nd time around.  Well, enjoy some pics of our little one dressed up for her appointment & have a great Tuesday ;)

Sweet little one

Eventhough her eyes are closed...I really like this one

Look at the sweet little face

Love this one--devious little look ;)

Staring at Jessica & plotting how to get out of the basket

It's beginning to look a lot like....

I've held off as long as I could and what with Thanksgiving this week, well, I couldn't help myself.  This little outfit on Ella was a hand-me-down from some of our friends & I was afraid she would outgrow it before I could get her in it.  I think I'm slowly, but surely improving with the new camera & Ella is such a good little model.  Anyway, I'm very excited about Christmas this year so with that in mind--please indulge me in my pre-Christmas dress up with Ella (I'm sure Jessica will have to endure this soon enough ;)  Enjoy & have a wonderful Monday....remember it's a short week ;)

The expression of a baby who's tired of being photographed

I wish the focus was a little better here, but the colors are great

Love this one...isn't she sweet! (good thing I orange glo my floors--bet you could see dust with the telephoto lens ;)

I like her expression here also

I wish the expression were a little better here also

Look at that dress & hat...I just love all the little Christmas dresses ;)

Telephoto lens

I broke out the telephoto lens to take some pictures of Ella yesterday.  I still need to practice with this one, as it is heavy & somewhat hard to manage without using a tripod, but some of these turned out pretty good.  You're probably thinking, those girls wear so much pink, doesn't she have other colors, well, I do, but I think they both like pink very much.  Anyway, enjoy & have a great Friday!

I thought the wood floor was a nice balance to the frilly pinks

I know she's mine, but wow, that's a pretty baby ;)

Love this one...she was staring at Jessica, of course!

Nothing like a little spit up to make you smile ;)

Little Red Riding Hood

So, it has been rainy & cold the last few days & I've been dying to get outside to try my new camera.  So Jessica and I braved it once the rain had stopped yesterday & we explored the yard.  I tried out almost all of the settings & actually managed to get these while in manual mode.  So you're probably thinking, wow, she must have a lot of time on her hands to figure all of these settings out, well, truly my old camera had the same exact settings, so really it's not too great of a learning curve (thankfully ;)  Anyway, Jessica and I scouted the yard for evergreens that would look good with red.  I'm going to attempt to do their Christmas pictures myself this year so I need to find a good spot.  Here are the best of the bunch in my opinion.  Hope you enjoy & if any of you are into photography & have tips, please share...I love to learn more!

I grant you, not the best expression & yeah, she's chewing on a stake of some sort, but look at the color

I really like how the low f-spot gives you that blurred background effect

I like this one of her the best

Closest thing to a smile I got

Again, not the best expression, but look at that evergreen behind her...it's a beauty

I just had to show this one, love this effect with the manual settings

Again, love the almost 3D effect with the different settings

6 months old

Whew...has it really been six months since we brought our little Gabriella home.  The time has flown, no seriously, it seems like it has gone twice as fast with Ella as with Jessica.  Baby Ella as we all call her, continues to be a very pleasant little baby.  She really only cries when she's hungry, which is often these days, or when her diaper is messy.  Over the last month she has really decided that she should be in the middle of everything also....just like her sister.  If she could walk, I'm sure she'd be following Jessica around everywhere.  She stares at Jessica all day & gets frustrated she can't do all that Jessica does.  Our little Ella girl loves to be cuddled and sometimes begins to fuss just b/c she wants to cuddle.  No teeth yet, although, I can see her lower front teeth in her gum.  We are still working on the solid food thing.  She really doesn't want to give up being bottle fed.....I guess this is a younger child thing...that's what other mothers have told me.  Truthfully, I get more compliments on her than I did on Jessica.  Not b/c I didn't get compliments on Jessica, but I think Ella probably looks more like my child & not so much like Michael's clone.  I think folks were confused if I was the babysitter or Jessica's mother...not so with Ella.  Ella likes to be dressed up & made a fuss over.  Honestly, I probably don't do this as much with her as I did the 1st time around.  She can sit on her own, but prefers to have someone sit with her.  I think she's afraid she may topple over at any moment--she's definitely more cautious than her sister ;)  She doesn't crawl yet, although, with a combination of rolling & inch-worming, as we call it, she can get around in her own way.  She's in several different sizes right now, it truly depends on brand & how many times I previously washed the outfit.  Most of the new stuff I get her (which is limited) is 9 months.  Although, she is wearing Jessica's 12 month sleepers.  She wears size 3 diapers, only one size smaller than Jessica.  She's around 17 pounds, according to our bathroom scale...she was closer to 18, but thanks to 2 stomach bugs & her new found mobility she's thinned out a little.  Eventhough, she was a huge surprise to us, she is truly such a welcome addition to the family.  She is precious in the morning when you go to get her, she's usually awake & rolled over in her crib.  She gives us the biggest grins & squeals with delight that someone came to see her.  Here's a look back at a wonderful 6 months with a beautiful & sweet baby girl.  We love you baby Ella.

May 16, 2011--her birthday

8 days old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

Dedication Aug. 22, 2011--3 and 1/2 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 month photoshoot with mommy

Yeah, I probably i-photoed a little too much on this one, I thought it was still cute ;0)

Still trying to perfect the color & focus with the new camera

It just looked like it needed to be "antiqued"

Upgrade

On December 6th, I will turn 30....ugggh!  It gives me hives just thinking about leaving my 20s behind.  Now please don't misunderstand me...I have a wonderful life that I truly could have never imagined for myself.  I have so many blessings and most would say, 30 is just the beginning, but it's just hard for me to get my brain around leaving this past decade behind.  So much happened in the last 10 years.  I met & married my soul-mate--best decision of my last decade, finished college, obtained a doctorate, moved to Pittsburgh, and last, but ,of course, not least, I delivered two beautiful, healthy little girls.  What will the next 10 years bring??  I'm certainly not sure, as I have more than I ever expected.  My next door neighbor, who is 79, told me that growing older should be looked at as an upgrade rather than decline.  She says she ages like a fine wine (and truly she loves her wine, so she should know ;) Although, I will be sad to not be the twenty-something at Michael's colleagues parties anymore, I will try to look at myself as upgraded.  Speaking of upgrades, my sweet husband gave me my birthday gift a little early....a Canon Rebel XS dSLR--super exciting for me and hopefully for my blog followers, as my photography will hopefully improve.  Also hoping that I am able to take better pics in the coming weeks to document the holidays.  Enjoy your Tuesday!

Started out in auto mode for everything

This one is in Aperture priority or "Av" & I adjusted the ISO

Auto again

Aperture priority, ISO adjusted, and looks like I found the good light ;)

Tutu cute & weekend review

Well, on Friday I had every intention of getting some pics of Ella for her 6 month birthday, but Jessica wasn't having any of it...she didn't want to be left out.  As soon as she saw her tutu come up from the playroom, she just had to put on a show & wanted to pose for me.  Seriously, this is what happened.  It's never happened before that she would want me to take her picture and normally I end up with 100 pictures or so & only 2 good ones, but some of these are just adorable.  The little one also looked cute in her pics.  It's one of the 1st times I used our MacBook to edit pics and iPhoto is pretty easy to use, but I'm still not completely sure about e-mailing and such.  I made this slideshow in iPhoto & thought it was fun, hope you all enjoy.

 Here are a few of my favorites for those of you that would like to see them a little larger.

Now, here's some of Jessica, b/c we can't leave her out!

This weekend, dada tackled the aptly named "Leaf Armageddon" in our yard.  It would take days, possibly weeks to rake all the leaves by hand so he devised a way to do it with his "tractor".  Jessica was all into riding with dada & helping with the leaves, well really just jumping in the huge piles.

Helping dada

"Helping" with the leaves

Me & my girl (20 months)

I asked her to show me her teeth in this one ;)

It's a rainy day in Pittsburgh, but I am so happy that the girls are better that it truly doesn't bother me today.  Hope you all have a fabulous Monday...can't believe Thanksgiving is next week!  So many fun times to look forward to over this holiday season ;)