June 14, 2007

Last Thursday, Ella actually turned ONE! I can hardly believe that her first year of life has come and gone. I must say that she has been such a delight. She has to be the happiest baby in the world (Mommy's prejudice, I'm sure). She is rarely seen without a smile on her face. And when I say smile, I mean wide open mouth smile. I can't tell you the countless people that we know and strangers that have come to me and said that seeing her smile warms their heart and makes them happy. Her cute little personality is really starting to come out as well. I think that she will have a sweetness about her with a bit of a playful personality. Which, if you know my boys, you will know is a perfect combination between the 2 of them. I guess she is learning from the already. I do know that she has learned to pick her nose from them. I can only imagine what my future holds in this department with her brothers.

On her birthday, I greeted her that morning by singing Happy Birthday to her. She, of course, was grinning from ear to ear. Every morning, when I change her diaper, we have our own little conversation. Sweet memories that I will forever cherish of our Mother/Daughter relationship.

Once we were all clean and dry, we headed down stairs to join her brothers for morning milk and breakfast. For those of you that know my children well, you know that eating time is a favorite time for the Williams' kiddos!

Our next event of the day was swimming. Big brothers were begging to go to the pool. It was a bit overcast, but still warm, so we went. Mommy and Ella thought the water was a bit cold, but big brothers didn't mind a bit. Daddy brought us lunch to the pool and joined us for some more grub!

When we got back home, we cleaned up, took baths and took naps!! Much needed...well, at least for Mommy. When the kiddos woke up, we got dressed and prepared to go out for dinner. Gran and Uncle Stevo joined us as well. At dinner, Gran fed Ella a lemon. Can I just tell you that she begged for more. She LOVED it. She didn't even get a sour face. Seriously, how is Ella so tiny when she eats soooo big?

Speaking of being tiny...she weighs a whole 17 pounds now and is 27 and 3/4 inches long. Her weight is still <5%, but she did gain about 3 pounds in the past 3 months and grew about 2 inches in the past 2 months. The doc was impressed! My friends are still laughing that she can wear 3/6 month clothing. We are moving into the 6/12 month clothing though and her foot grew 2 shoe sizes in the past 2 months. The biggest news for Ella was that she finally got her first tooth...so, she had ONE tooth for her ONE year birthday! Too cute.

I thank Christ for our sweet Ella every single day. She has been just as much of a blessing in our family as her brothers were and are. We pray daily over our children for God's protection and for the wisdom to raise them in Him and in His Word. Our greatest hope is that they will have a passionate love for Jesus the older they get. We pray that they fully understand and grasp His grace. We are truly thankful.