Happy New Year!

I don't know about you but I am super excited for the new year! I look back very fondly on 2015, the year my baby was born and the year I grew so much as a person and as a mother. It really has been a whirlwind of a year but an amazing one as well! 

Here are some goals for 2016:

-Pay down some of our student loan debt. We have a plan for that and it's exciting!

-Get moving! I really want to get walking way more and eating at least a little healthier. 

-Along with the last one, I'd like to jog or at least walk/jog my first 5k. 

-Grow more as a mother, as Elsie grows. Plan fun things to do with her and help her learn about so many things. 

-Travel. We haven't traveled nearly as much as we wanted to and with only a little over a year left we need to get moving!

This is my first time ever actually writing out a list of resolutions or goals for the new year. Even if I don't accomplish all of them, I think it's important to have some things to work towards. 

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all health and happiness in the new year!

Toys Elsie Loves: 10 Months

Elsie loves to play with her toys! When she is in a good mood she can sit and play by herself for hours. Here are some of her favorites lately:


Little Tikes Activity Garden Baby Playset : Like most of the toys here, she got this for Christmas and absolutely loves it! She likes to climb in through the slide and out through the door. I also love that the it can be setup more than one way to change things up if she gets bored.

Fisher-Price 3-in-1 Bounce, Stride and Ride Elephant : She loves to push this guy around the house and listen to his songs. She doesn't sit on it yet but I imagine she will when she gets a little bigger.

Munchkin Squirtin Bath Toy : These bath toys are a lot of fun in and out of the bath! She loves to chew on them right now too! Teething babies!

Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Little People Figure Set By Fisher-price : Little people toys are the best! While these are normally marketed for toddlers, we went ahead and gave some to Elsie for Christmas and they were a hit. She can't play pretend yet so she pretty much just looks at them or chews on them but she really likes them.

The best part about these toys is that most of them can grow with her and be favorites for awhile!

Elsie's First Christmas

 Here's a video of Elsie opening presents on her very first Christmas! 

She's practicing present opening for her birthday! haha 

It's a long video (might be hard for some to watch all of it) but we wanted Elsie's grandparents to be able to watch her excitement on Christmas morning just like if they had been able to be here.

Santa

Elsie has pretty much hated Santa this year. 

She's seen him 3 times and the last time she didn't cry but I can't really say she enjoyed it. 

Maybe next year! 

Elsie's 9 Month Update

Little Elsie Mae is 9 months old tomorrow!

Time is flying by! I can't believe she will be a year old in only 3 months!

It's harder to get her to sit still for pictures than ever before as she's always crawling around and climbing up on anything and everything. 

This month Elsie:

Started sleeping through the night!!! That's the biggest update. She's been doing that all month now. She even did so in the hotel for us when we went away for the holiday!

Eats about 29 ounces of formula a day, in about 5 bottles. She also eats some solid food at breakfast and dinner and I'm trying to get her started on lunches but she is iffy on that. Her favorite foods are sweet potatoes, any type of fruit but definitely bananas, and the baby cheese puffs. She also likes oatmeal for breakfast.

We just went to the doctor for her 9 month check up and shes just over 21 pounds (85th percentile) and 27.75 inches (58th percentile) long!

As I mentioned before she climbs any and everything. She also will walk while holding on to her walker or anything else that she can manage to push. And she scales the couch. We are gonna have a walker soon >.<

She loves books and I read to her before bed every night.

She still loves Elmo. She will smile at him no matter how sour of a mood she is in.

She also loves to play with animal magnets on the fridge. Most of the time it will keep her busy while I cook dinner.

She still only has two bottom teeth but there's one on top that is starting to make an appearance. Should be through the skin any day now it seems.

Hmm I think that's all for this month. 

She's a busy little bee, always playing and on the go! 

8 Month Update

Elsie Mae is 8 months old today! 

This month she:

-eats cheerios (and would eat them all day if we let her) and eats purees 2-3 times a day

-drinks about 28-30 ounces of formula a day

-pulls up to stand on everything she can

-crawls everywhere and has a super cute fast crawl reserved for when she's really excited (she usually snorts whole doing this haha)

-she has slept through the night for one week now (!!!!!) and fingers crossed that she has just figured out that's what she should do haha 

-her favorite thing in the whole world is Elmo. She absolutely lights up when she sees him or when I put on Sesame Street. She watches it every morning.  

-She can say "bababa" and occasionally will throw in a "mamama" she also makes a cute chewbacca like sound

-she's wearing almost all 9-12 month clothes,  size 4 diapers,  and her chunky little toes barely fit a size 3

I can't wait to see how much shes grown at her doctors appointment at the end of the month!

(our little leopard a few days ago)

We love love love her!

Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Kurbisausstellung in Ludwigsburg, Germany. This is the largest pumpkin festival in Europe. 

Contests are held for the largest pumpkins in Germany and in Europe. These are huge pumpkins!  Last year the heaviest pumpkin was 1054 kg!

This festival is also huge. It doesn't look that big when you first arrive but the majority of the festival is located behind the palace.

There are a variety of pumpkin foods as well as typical German foods. I went out on a limb and tried the vegetarian pumpkin burger. It was delicious!

The pumpkin sculptures (I guess you could call them) were very impressive!

We bought two small pumpkins, which I let Elsie pick out.  I never knew the were so many types of pumpkin!

We had a really good time at this festival and I would highly recommend it!