A little Ella (of course) . . . and six months in Australia

In less than a week, the little baby who made me a mother will celebrate her first birthday. I joined the ranks of many other parents who "can't believe their child is . . . " many months ago; but the first birthday seems especially monumental.

My mum is coming down from Brisbane to celebrate with us. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do. I do know that it will involve a birthday cake, some gifts and some extra loving on our baby girl. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we'll take her on an extra long walk. These days she about hyperventilates if she even thinks she's going to get to go outside.

I thought Ella would celebrate her first birthday with just two teeth. However, she cut four top teeth in less than three weeks. Considering it was tooth after tooth, she did well.

Ella is so close to standing on her own. She tends to be cautious in nature and so far has been diligent about holding on to things as she gets up and down. She has really gone through a surge in her development recently. She can do baby sign language for "more", "all done", "dog" and "milk". Now more difficult lessons are around the corner . . . namely that she can't always have what she signs for.

She loves reading by herself. I love to watch her turn the book up the right way and turn the pages while pointing at different things. Today she kissed a few of the characters in the book, smelled one and thought something in the book was very funny because she was pointing and giggling. So sweet. Even when covered in food.


We've reached another milestone recently . . . six months in Australia. Its also hard to believe. We're getting into a groove more and more and getting better at catching the curve balls that sometimes come our way. I was thinking the other day that one of the blessings of this move has been that we've had the opportunity to bond more as a family. Our lives in the US were so busy. Since moving here though things have slowed down dramatically for us and that has been a blessing to our marriage and our family life. Typically each Monday we have set aside for family day. We're training ourselves now for when ministry life picks up the pace a little, and trying to have a good habit of really taking time out as a family.

With six months under our belt, day-to-day life is running a little smoother. The grocery store no longer seems like a black hole (i.e. I can usually succeed in making a "quick" trip to grab a few things!). Now we have the usual places we feel comfortable shopping, getting haircuts etc. I don't even gripe (as much) about hanging clothes out to dry. Well except for today. I hung out three loads of laundry on a beautiful, sunny and windy morning . . . only to have them get rained on. I digress. At least the view is pretty.



We even have a few new friends, and Ella likes vegemite!


God has certainly taken care of us and blessed us richly during this transition. There are more transitions to come. The most obvious being the birth of our second child. If you had told me that within our first year in Australia, we'd have another baby, I would have told you that you were crazy. In fact, I do believe I said something along those lines to my doctor when he suggested having a second one sooner than later. (his kids were 13 and 15 months apart and I remember him saying "its the way to go"). I'll have to send him a note and let him know!

4th of July and other happenings

We celebrated July 4th with our team here in Wollongong. Since I couldn't dress my Texas baby in a cute All-American outfit, and she doesn't really have any red, white and blue winter clothes, I just put her in pink. Maybe one day we'll end up in the US over July the 4th.

Ella on July 4th 2009 . . . turning on the cuteness hoping it will get her over the gate . . .



Ella is very interactive these days. We'll find her laughing and talking with her baby doll, or laughing at someone in the check out line at the grocery store. This always amuses me because her nature is typically reserved with strangers. I guess if we're nearby she feels secure enough to have a laugh. Over the weekend, people were playing games at our house and she sat in on them. And for now, at least, people are very gracious about her presence. But times are changing. We can't just sit at the low lying coffee table, or on the floor and expect her to observe from a distance. She wants to be RIGHT there, touching things, eating things etc.

Hanging with the big kids . . .



Speaking of eating, all of sudden, Ella wants what we're eating. There are times when she can't have it - more often than not, in fact. And today we had our first tantrum over that. . . you know, the whole lip dropping, "you-broke-my-heart" sob, big tears, etc, etc. I gave Ella a Rusk and proceeded to eat half of a Scotch Finger cookie/biscuit myself. It looks very similar to a Rusk but my smart little cookie knew that I had something different. She wanted it and hence the temper tantrum. Growing up just seems really tough some times. I'm learning how tough it can be as a parent to stick to training and disciplining her and not giving in. And this is just the beginning . . . the "easy stuff", I'm sure!

This Monday we spent part of our family day at Carrington Falls. We took a short walk through the bush to Izzard lookout, too. Ella enjoyed the birds, the trees and the water.

Jason is going to make a rock climber out of this girl one day . . .




Is this what you're asking for, Dad? A giraffe face?



Funny thing lately is that when wanting her Dad's attention, Ella has learned that cuteness, rather than yelling works much better. So she'll pull the giraffe face and giggle at the same time until he looks at her.

We didn't make it far down the road before Ella was chewing herself to sleep with a Rusk. She's done this a few times and it it so cute . . .




And a cute picture to leave you with. What kind of parents let their kid end up like this after a meal? I really don't know how this happened but it happened fast . . .

Our resident beaver

Naive first time parents that we are, we didn't realize that Ella wasn't just drooling on the ottoman. She was in fact sinking her only two teeth deep into the leather ottoman/coffee table. She also did something similar along the bookcase.

(I know its bad to take a picture of the crime in action, but for the record...)

These days you hear a lot of "No ma'am..." and "We don't bite the ottoman..." and slapping on her little hand. She's smart. She gets it. Most times as she pulls herself up on these furniture items, she'll look at me and start shaking her head.

Sadly we're not always with her in this room. I noticed a few new marks the other day. The ottoman isn't as bad as the picture shows. I mean, yes, those marks are there. But the flash shows them up well. To just look at the ottoman, you can't see these bite marks.

Since Ella is now cutting one top incisor, if we are not vigilant, we could end up with some very interesting marks.

Cute little beaver.

A few pictures

This is what a giraffe "does"

11 months
The squat

11 Months old

Ella is 11 months old today. I can hardly believe that in just one month we will be celebrating her first birthday.

I've been terrible about maintaining her baby book. Hopefully this blog will be helpful in remembering special milestones and developments. Here are a few things shes up to these days:

- speed crawling
- exploring other rooms in the house. She finally figured out that she can go ANYWHERE. Its funny to watch her cruise down the hall and then gingerly peek into each room
- clapping
- waving goodbye
- blowing kisses (on just one occassion)
- making fish noises by opening and closing her mouth when we ask her "what does a fish say?"
- hanging her long tongue out of one side of her mouth when we ask her "what does a giraffe do, Ella?"
- pulling up on things (but can't get down . . . resulting in a very sad cry for help)
- still calling everything "BA!"
- LOVING, absolutely LOVING walks in the BabyBjorn carrier
- still nursing, but also eating (and enjoying) broccoli, cauliflour, peas, carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, mashed potatoes, whole wheat pasta, lentils, yogurt, oatmeal, porridge, banana
- finally learned the art of the sippy cup
- high pitched sounds while blowing raspberries. Very cute . . . very "girlish"
- playing peek-a-boo (sometimes she initiates and is the "boo-er")
- graduated from the baby capsule to a forward facing car seat (see post below)
- MAJOR sleep improvements. Longer day time naps (probably thanks to increased mobility and sleeping from about 6:30pm - 6am sometimes 7am)
- signing for "all-done" and very close to signing for "more"
- cutting her third tooth. A top "fang"/incisor. Hopefully she'll even up the vampire look with the other fang at the same time. :)

She's a treasure and she's changed our life. Thank you God for our beautiful daughter.

Momma and daughter at the Organic Food Swap in Wollongong

Ella and Lily in Canberra

We spent this past weekend in Canberra, the nation's Capital City. Its just a three and a half hour drive from Wollongong but is the longest road trip we've taken since arriving in Australia. Ella Rhys spent much of the first six months of her on the road. We were a little concerned about this trip since we were taking Ella out of her baby capsule and into a forward facing car seat. You'll see from the pictures below what she thought of that! But she ended up doing just great and even took long naps while on the road.

Loving the old . . .


Not so thrilled with the new yet . . .


On the way we stopped at a rest area and Ella was able to see the "BA" (birds). I wish you could see the beautiful parrots that were eating off the ground

Ella checking out the birds . . .


We went to Canberra to see Mark, Kate and Lily Jennings. Jason knew Kate from his time as a HIM worker back in 1998-2000. Kate and I had connected through facebook since having our girls just five days apart. Lily is the older of the two. Kate and I plan on getting together as regularly as we can so the girls can know each other growing up. And we sure enjoyed each others company, too.

Our weekend was relaxing, full of fun fellowship and good food. On Saturday Kate and I hit a baby and kids consignment market and I got some great deals. Was able to find a Leap Frog Activity Center for Ella for just $8AUD. I also picked up a couple of clothing items for her and few larger sized baby boy clothes. Yep...we're having a BOY!

We took the girls to Quest a con in the afternoon where they have "miniQ" - a babies play area. Ella and Lily had a great time in the aquatics area playing with the balls and water. Ella looks serious but she was having a ball.





Isn't it amazing how a little hair makes a baby look so grown up? I PROMISE you that Ella has some hair. Granted not much on top - mostly a baby mullet. But its getting thick at the back.

Saturday night we also visited with Sarah, Kent and Bailey (almost 2) Vidler. Bailey was delighted to hang out with two cute girls and we didn't hear many complaints from them either. It was fun to watch them interact in their own little ways. We enjoyed worshipping with the Canberra church of Christ on Sunday. Jason was able to share briefly at the end of worship our vision for the work in Wollongong.

This is the best we could do for a picture with the three kids . . .





We headed back to Wollongong on Monday via the Robertson Pie Shop. I'd had to say that I'm not one to get all that excited about a meat pie but these are good. They have a large variety of pies and claim the chicken and veggie pie as my favorite. Its really just like a chicken pot pie which is great because thats not something I make at home. And to top it off, the lady gave us a free pie because she thought they looked small.

It was a good weekend!

Me . . . a Winter Baby?

This is how a girl from Queensland keeps her "born-in-a-Texan-summer" baby warm in a New South Wales winter. I might have endured snow and minus 30 temperatures in Canada; a non insulated apartment and icy cold bike rides to school in Japan . . . but I still call it cold here.

As is typical of homes in this part of Australia, we do not have the luxury of central heat or ducted heating. While the temperatures remain above freezing (lows from 38F and up) and daytimes can even be "pleasant" (highs in the high 50s), we still have to work hard at keeping warm. Our house does well at holding in the cold air -- a good thing for summer days.

Many mornings we put a coat over Ella's pjs and slippers over her feet. There is nothing we can do to keep her hands warm as she crawls all over our wooden floors. And nothing I can do to keep those chilly hands away from me while she nurses! She doesn't seem too bothered by the cold, the attire, or that fact that she'll have many of her birthdays in the dead of winter as long as we live in Australia.



I'd have to say though, that there isn't much cuter than a bundled up baby . . .

"BA"

We enjoyed time outside together on a beautiful fall day. To date, Ella has not been a big fan of the grass. The blanket helped, and she did pat it with her hand this time around, so we are making progress. While she doesn't like to touch the grass, she is not at all afraid to eat leaves. It brings Jason great joy to be outside with his daughter and he loves any interest she shows in the great outdoors.

Most days, Jason will carry Ella in the BabyBjorn on a walk. Ella understands "Bjorn" and "outside" and looses all patience once she sees Jason pick up the Bjorn to get ready for a walk. Once outside out comes her pointer finger(s) to direct Jason on which way to go and to alert him of their surroundings. Birds, dogs, cars, people...she can hardly stand it. All of these things are currently known as "BA". Actually most everything other than "mama" is "ba" right now. She is so much fun!

This past week I was blessed by the opportunity to see my family in Brisbane before attending the Come Before Winter retreat on the Gold Coast. You can learn more about this renewal at I still don't really have the words for all that I experienced and the blessings received during this week. I am so thankful though to have had the opportunity to be with these 12 women, and the 39 other participants from Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. Our time was spent in Psalm 103. In the afternoon until the end of each day's activities, Ella was taken care of by a babysitter. Leaving her was rough but I am proud of how well she did. It is good for her to learn to be secure in the care of other people. And I appreciated the break so that I could better "land" and participate.

The women who blessed us during this renewal


The beautiful view I could enjoy each morning


Below are some recent pictures of Ella . . . now 10 months old. Her rapid growth is a little easier knowing that another little one will soon be in our arms. I'm finding this first year of life to be so amazing and precious. Of course there are challenges but so much joy, too. Ella has definitely connected "Mama" with me, but everything else has become "Ba"...from birds, to dogs, to baby, to bath. She can clap on command and still dances to anything. The shaking of the head "no" might now be connected with the sentiment, too. Sweet thing though shakes her head for "yes" and "no" right now. She loves to pull up on the ottoman, sofa, and bookshelf. Its a whole new world.

These two are definitely related. Like father like daughter. I love it!



Lots of personality





A good traveler - educating herself on the emergency procedures


Family time in Brisbane




Bath time with cousin Benjamin