Our little "Tooter" is 2 months!

Finally - a blog entry! As many of you have discovered, I am terrible at keeping up with my blog, but I am bound and determined to make up for lost time. My new year's resolution (or pre new years resolution) is to be more faithful in blogging because not only is it nice to keep our loved ones informed but it is great to capture the special moments that we have in our lives. This may be a long one to catch you up but I promise to throw in some cute pics to make it more interesting:)

Ella has been such a huge joy in our lives. Everyone would always say to us before she was born "just wait, after she is here, you won't be able to imagine your life without her or what life was like before her." We have found that to be so true. I know for Brad and I, we are now experiencing a new and extremely fulfilling love through and for our daughter; we cannot imagine life without her. She is so fun to have around - cooing when we talk in our high pitch and obnoxious voices and smiling when we make stupid faces at her. Newborns are truly precious and I miss that stage, but I know we are just loving her at this age because of her ever-increasing interaction with us. She is currently just over 2 months (9 1/2weeks) - time flies! We were at the Dr. last week for her 2 month appt and she weighed 12 lbs 2oz (80th percentile) and measured 24 inches (95th percentile)!!! It is amazing how much she has grown up already. This past weekend I had to put away all her newborn and 0-3 month clothes - she is officially wearing 3 months+! She is holding her little head up so good - not quite all the time, but really making progress. She is eating like 4-5 oz every 3 hours - she loves to eat:) She sleeps awesome at night - only getting up around 4:00ish. She has such a sweet personality already and is quite the cuddle bug. Besides crying to let us know she needs something, she is quite content - her gas issues seem to be decreasing recently, thank goodness.

This past week she got an ear infection in her right ear, poor girl. Brad and I have been spending a lot of time walking laps in our house with her because she only wants to be moving and be held over our shoulders. We also spend a lot of time bouncing on our exercise ball because it keeps her from crying...hey - at least we get some exercise out of it:) Hopefully sometime soon she will be back to feeling herself - it is so hard seeing/hearing her cry all the time. Basically the new things for her right now is that she seems to enjoy being naked more:) - bath time and diaper changes are much more happy....and she has found her hands and likes to suck on them (thanks to Aunt Betsy:).

It has been amazing spending these weeks home with her...but all good things must come to an end - I am starting back to work this week... Tuesdays and Thursdays - Betsy, Brad's sister, and his Mom are taking care of her. We are so blessed to have Ella being taken care of by them. Hopefully not too many tears will be shed. Say a little prayer for me:)

Here are some highlights from the weeks past that I should have blogged about:)....

She got her newborn pictures taken by Tracy VanDerMeulen. Ella was not happy at all, but of course I thought they turned out adorable.

Halloween Honeys - her little buddies - Layla Geurink, Jonathan Heuker, and Alden Lucas.
Poor Ella didn't have a real costume, but we thought the lamby coat from Grandma Rotman was just as cute...too bad she appears to be drowning in it:)


Our friends from church threw us a shower for Ella and for our friends Tim and Jen DeHaan's baby Liam, who was born October 13. He was born 10 weeks early and we were truly blessed to have shared the night with them and have him be the guest of honor, healthy and happy.

We did the unthinkable and took her to Chicago for the annual Koning family "Black Friday" shopping trip. It actually went really well! She slept a lot and didn't complain too much about being changed in so many public restrooms:) All in all it was a ton of fun and I think she enjoyed all the lights and walks.

On November 30, Ella was baptized at our church. It was such a special day. She wore the outfit and ring that my mother and I both wore when we were baptized - she looked so beautiful. We told Ella that morning that there were 2 things that she could not do:)...she couldn't cry when she was up there and she couldn't poop in her pretty dress because of her track record with blow-outs. Well, she cried as we went up there and throughout the baptism and then as soon as we sat down, she pooped like crazy - thankfully not on her dress. Of course we didn't care at all that those things happened but it was kinda cute she is already not listening to her parents:) We are so blessed that she is one of God's precious children and that we have the privilege of raising her to know God's love.

Random pics of cuteness...

1 month old

2 months old