Happy 1st Birthday, Eleana!

Happy Birthday, Eleana!  I can't believe a year has come and gone!  My goodness, the joy you have brought to this family this year!  Your brother absolutely adores you, and you him.  He is your Bubba!  You love to go into his toy room and pull out all of his trucks, cars, balls...anything you can unload from a bin!  You like to go for a ride in his dump truck, and he loves to pick you up and carry you anywhere he can!  You are eating EVERYTHING!!  You still love your meat!  You do eat your veggies, though.  Broccoli and cauliflower, and occasionally a pea!  You are able to drink the soy formula from Similac, and I think we will be transitioning soon to the soy milk.  You still like your bottles, though.  We try to put your milk in a sippy cup, but you really like the bottle better.  You really like Bahama Bucks and Jonathan's strawberry popsicles!  You are walking, love to go for walks or bike rides in your stroller, and walk out in the back to play with the big ball, swing, or go down the slide!  You made it to the pool for the first time.  It was cold, but your loved it!  We put you in your float and your were completely content!  You sleep through the night, until you got this darn ear infection.  But normally you go to bed around 8 and wake up about 6:30am.  You are a really good sleeper and even take 2 naps in the day.  You are saying new words, like, "read", "eat", "bottle", "down", "out".  You fuss at Jonathan to "EAT" and fuss at the dogs to "det down".  :)  You love to give kisses, you laugh, you giggle, you are such a joy, my little girl. You weigh 18# and are 29 inches long.  My dear, you are going to be like your momma, "petite", as Dr. Simone would say.  Although you be but little, you are fiesty!!   Eleana, we love you more than you will ever know.  I am so proud to be your mom and to see the strong and independent little girl you are already becoming.  Yes, my Angel, we can see that already!  May God's blessing continue to be always upon you!

11 months old

I can't believe that in one short month, we will be celebrating your 1st birthday.  Mija, where has the time gone?  I say this every month, but this has really been a month of milestones for you!  As far as eating, you are now able to drink the Nutrimagen formula.  No problems what so ever!  I am really hoping that you have kicked the milk allergy, but I have a feeling you might have an intolerance like your momma!  As far as solids, you LOVE chicken, turkey and ground up turkey meat.  You tried spaghetti and loved it.  You are quite picky, though.  If you see one of us eating something different, you immediately turn away from your plate and point to whatever it is you want.  Pointing... you do this very often to let us know exactly what you want.  You really try to sneak one over daddy when he's holding you in front of the pantry.  You give daddy those eyes of your's and sweetly point to your snacks!  Your puffs are your favorite!  I think you'd fight Bubba for them!  You drink water and juice out of your sippy cup and the more finger foods and independence, the better!  You are walking EVERYWHERE!  You have learned how to go from the floor to stand without help and ever since, you haven't needed to crawl.  You climb the stairs, climb Jonathan's step stool, and have learned to let yourself down from the couch and from Bubba's bed!  You can sign "more", "food", "water" and "please."  You can call "daa", "maa" and "bubba."  You shake your head "no" to let us know that is not what you want.  You are now taking 2 hour naps in the afternoon which makes life better for everyone!  :)  
This month, Angel, you had to have surgery.  You had a dermoid cyst on the back of your head that was removed April 18th.  You did fabulous!  You handled the pre-op so well and all of the nurses kept commenting on how calm you were.  You had some trouble after coming out of the anesthesia.  You were just very anxious and had a hard time settling.  Understandable with all of the commotion going on.  We got home that afternoon and you would have never known you had anything done.  You were up walking, eating and giving Bubba a hard time!!  That following day, you cut another tooth.  So right now, you have your two top, two bottom, one on top to your left, and the right one will be in soon!!  You are trying to hard to talk and try to mimic much of what we say.  I swear you told me the other day, "I do it."  Every time you meet someone new, you say, "Hi" and then you wave to them.  You are so friendly and your sweet smile is enough to melt anyone's heart!  We love you, Angel!  I can't believe that the next time I will be writing, we will be celebrating your 1st birthday!!  You are a blessing, and I thank God everyday for you!  

10 months old

I can't believe that in just 2 months we are going to be celebrating 1 year!!  Baby girl, you are growing up so fast.  It's hard to keep you with you.  Here are some things that you are doing this month: waves bye bye and says, "bye", says "bobba" for bottle and "mimi" for sleep.  You are pretty cute.  When you are really tired, you will crawl up to me and try to sit in my lap and say, "mimi".  Momma knows its time to sleep.  You are taking steps.  You are able to take 2 steps on your own, but I know that in a few short weeks, we will be chasing you.  You weaned yourself from momma's milk.  Since you have been weaned, you are taking the Nutrimagen formula for your milk allergy.  I think it is more of an intolerance, now because before you couldn't handle this formula, and now you have no problems!  You are sleeping SO much better at night now, and life is better for you and mommy!  Along with your formula, we added meats this month.  You can hand sign "more" to let us know that you want more.  You love chicken, turkey, and crumbled meat.  On daddy's day off, you like to go for walks in the wagon or in your stroller.  On March 18, 2016 you had to have a sedated CT scan.  It revealed a dermoid cyst on the back of your skull.  Doctor said it was the smallest one he has seen, but it is still making a little indention in your skull and he wants to remove it!  You had to take the medication through your nose and your fought the sleep as long as you could.  For over 25 minutes, you struggled in mommy's arms.  It hurt me so much to see you so anxious.  You finally let the medicine relax you and mommy and the doctor walked you back to the CT scan room.  I laid you down on the little table, and waited for you.  You did great, though, Mija!  I am so proud of you.  You slept most of the morning but once the anesthesia wore off, you were ready to go!!  There is nothing stopping you.  We are scheduled for surgery April 15th.  For now, you will just keep giving your brother trouble!!  You like to sit in the basket at HEB or Costco with your brother next to you!  You antagonize him by constantly hitting his arm, or slapping his face.  He tells you, "no, no" but you just look at him with a little smile and eventually put your head on his shoulder to let him know your sorry.  Mija, you are not staying a baby for long.  We love you so much and love watching the beautiful little girl you are growing up to be!

9 months old

Munchkin, you are growing up faster then we can keep up with.  you have quite a little personality already and let your mommy and daddy (and Bubba) know what you want.  After staying a weekend with grandma and grandpa, you learned how to play Patty cake.  You will sit on grandpa's lap and not even budge and play with him.  You also like to sit on his lap to watch tv.  His is the only lap that you will sit on calmly!  You know how to wave bye, bye and even turn your hand the right way, unlike most babies who turn their hands to face them!!  You crawl at warp speed everywhere and you make your way into rooms by pushing open doors.  You love to play in the kitchen cabinets, too!  If I close the door to keep you from getting into something you are not supposed to, you cry and let mommy know you are not happy with me!  You are now standing on your own and have even taken a step.  You took hold of the remote one day and stood in front of the tv.  Yea, good luck fighting Bubba and Daddy for the tv!!  You can walk with assistance.  I will hold your hands and you can walk all across the room.  You even use your walker to go across the living room.  Without support, you are able to stoop and recover.  At night before we head up to start the night routine, you and Bubba like to play Wrestlemania!  The first time your brother picked you up and rolled you across his chest I freaked out!!  You laughed and crawled up to him looking for more!  Your brother loves you so much!  You give your brother kisses, and if he's crying or upset, you will crawl up to him and put your head on him.  You both are so loving!  Night times are still a challenge.  Mommy is exhausted!  You are still nursing, but I have a feeling we will be weaning here very soon.  You wake up at least 1x/night to eat and usually another time just to be rocked back to sleep.  You are still eating a variety of foods and started on a sippy cup with water and juice.  You still like mommy and daddy to hold the cup, so we have some practicing to do!!  Mija, you are a beautiful little girl.  You can already see the loving heart you have and the little sass that will take you far in life.  We love you, Angel!!

8 months old!

Eight months old!!  Eleana, there is no stopping you!  Crawling is old news.  Now, crawling in turbo is your new way to move!  Especially when you are trying to keep up with Bubba.  You still love to go into the toy room and stand at his train table to see what he is playing with.  You mess up his line of cars that he just set up and you really like to chew on Toothless!  You can crawl up the stairs, over mommy and daddy if we are lying on the floor, and even crawled up onto Bubba's Avengers box to get to his remote control car.  You pull up onto everything now.  You even managed to hold onto the coffee table, let your feet out from under you and hold on with both hands.  You are fearless, my little one!  Taking a bath is a little more challenging.  You don't like to sit in your little ducky.  You insist on standing up and trying to crawl out.  You don't like having your diaper changed.  You would rather roll over and crawl away naked!  You are not sleeping too well, lately.  Probably because your two bottom teeth finally came in.  You wake up now 1-2 times a night to eat.  I think its more because you hurt and are just looking for a little TLC.  You eat a bit, and then reach for your bed and fall back to sleep pretty quick.  You are eating very well.  You eat 3 solid meals a day and take 3 bottles.  Mommy still feeds you in the morning and at night.  You like oatmeal, bananas, apple sauce, carrots, peas, avocado.  You are now able to pick up bite sized fruit melts and little cereal to eat on your own.  You learned really quick how to pincer grip and get the food to your mouth.  You wave bye-bye and you call your "dadda" when he gets home from work.  You chase your brother when he goes up the stairs and call out "bubba" like you are trying to tell him, "wait up!"  You like to dance to music.  We went to Nana and Papa's house and Papa put on some country music.  You danced with your Papa in the living room and made his day!  The Puerto Rican blood coming out!  :)  This month has been a big one for you.  Mom and dad are wiped out by the end of the day.  We are so blessed by you, Eleana!  Here's to another month, mija!!  We love you!

7 months old

It must have been the steroids!  Poor Angel, you (and your brother) got hit this month with croup cough and you got a double ear infection.  After two rounds of antibiotics and a steroid injection, you came back with a vengeance.  So, yes, last month you were crawling, this month, there is no stopping you!  You have got some speed behind your crawling now!! You love to be wherever your Bubba, is and love to play with his toys, even though for Christmas you got some pretty cool things!! Your brother was worried that Santa was not going to bring you anything because you are not a good girl when you cry!!  Well, Santa did just fine!  You had more fun tearing the paper, pulling off bows and playing with the boxes, when you did with the toys!  You are starting to pull up on things now, like the table cloth, pulling daddy's breakfast of eggs and bacon to the floor!!  You like to pull up on Bubba's table and watch him play!  You are eating more foods.  We started applesauce, which you love, banana, and peas.  Your appetite is definitely improving.  You eat 2-3 servings of food a day and drink about 5 ounces of supplemented breast milk.  You are still breast feeding on days that mommy is home, too.  We are starting to read to you.  Sometimes its hard for you to sit still long enough to finish the book, but you are doing better.  You sit pretty well through church, but like to stand on the pew to look at the people behind you!  You are growing quick, Angel, and it is getting harder and harder to keep up with you!  You are quick, you laugh, and you smile.  You are such a happy baby, and we are loving watching you grow up!  Love you, sweet Eleana!