Ella's Turn

Ella had her 2 year check up this week. We've been taking Ella to my doctor appointments so she can listen to the baby's heartbeat (which she loves, and if you ask her what Baby says she will do an excellent impression of the sound of baby's heartbeat),  but at first she would start crying when we got the the exam room because she thought she was there for shots, so we got in the habit of reassuring her that it was Mommy's turn, so the night before her appointment I told her that it was Ella's turn to visit Dr. Minyon, to which she responded "no, Mommy do it." I told her that she would have to have a shot, and that it might hurt just for a second, but then I would take her out for a shake afterword. This was a tradition that my mom started with Eric and I when we were little and I've decided to start it with Ella too.

The morning of her appointment, she knew it was her turn to visit Dr. Minyon, and she did a really great job until we tried to lay her down on the table to measure her height, she thought we were going to hold her down on the table to give her her shot. :( She was not happy. I gave her my iPhone to take pictures with to calm her down, and this is what she felt was important to capture...

Her new pink minky that Gra Dondee made her for her birthday.

"Dr. 'yon"

And Mommy and Baby Bow-Wow, whom she decorated with stickers.

She was big enough to stand on the big girl scale and only had to get one shot, which she did a great job with. She only cried for a few seconds until the beautiful band-aid was applied,

then she looked up at me, wiping the tears from her face and said, "all done, no crying, shake." I love it when I can tell that she understands the conversations we have! Ella's head is still in the 90th percentile, her height is still at the 75th percentile, and her weight has finally climbed up to between the 10th and 25th percentile at a whopping 24 pounds! Dr. Minyon gave Ella a kitty for being a good girl and passing all her tests and she got a sucker on the way out of the office.  I took this picture in the parking lot, she was upset because her sucker was dripping.

Then I took my brave big girl for an Oreo shake.

Gra Dondee and PopPop got Ella a subscription to National Geographic Little Kids for her birthday. The first issue arrived in the mail this week. She LOVED it! She was so quiet in her car seat I had to peek in the rear view mirror a few times to see if she'd fallen asleep. (Don't worry, the car was parked in a parking lot when I took this picture!)

Friday we had Ella's 2 year pictures taken at Kent Park. We also took some last family-of-three pictures. It was pretty hot out, and you can see it on Ella and my faces in some of the pictures. Ella got pretty stingy with her smiles, but she's still pretty cute if I do say so myself.

You can check out the rest of the pictures on my Shutterfly Share Site. The password is ACE

RAGBRAI was in Coralville on Friday, so we stopped by for a little something to eat and evening entertainment.

Ella is the youngest kid in her tumbling class, she made the age cut by one day since the class started the day after her birthday, but she is definitely the most willing to try new things. Her teacher wanted to know if we have her signed up for other sports yet because she seems to have no fear. We told her she should see Ella in the swimming pool. Check out Ella's newest skill, summersaults!


Tuesday it was Mommy's turn to visit Dr. Minyon again. Again not much to report, everything looks good, Baby is still head down, measuring right at 34 weeks, and we are expecting Baby to arrive after his/her due date (9/9), just like Ella did. But just incase baby should come early, I'm supposed to pre-register at the hospital already. Can I really be that close to the end? Yikes! We are so not ready! 6-7 weeks to go! :)

A quick binky update: Ella is still doing really well without the binkies! She hasn't used one at nap time, bed time, or in the car since giving them to Baby Bow-Wow. We've caught her sneaking hits off of them every now and then, so the other day I had Ella help me wrap them up in a gift bag for her to give to Baby Bow-Wow when s/he arrives. Now that they are wrapped, they are sitting on a shelf above the crib out of reach. I thought giving up binkies was going to be a challenge, once again Ella surprised me. Makes me a little nervous about Baby, after being so spoiled by Ella being such an easy baby/little girl, I have a feeling Baby may be a handful! Guess we will find out soon enough!