Got Milk?

Not for much longer, I'm afraid. I'm very sad to report that Ella is starting to wean herself. Just in the last few days she has gone from 5 to 3 feedings a day. The morning and night is still the longest (15 min) and the one during the day is between 8-10 min. The other two were just small snacks anyhow-6-8 min. max. but I just thought that she would wean more gradually. You know drop one feeding, then a week or two or three later, drop another. Hopefully, she'll stick to 3 for awhile, so I don't have to go through a box of Kleenex anytime soon. My little girl is growing up....that's good but hard for a Mommy to take.

The only good part of this is that it means Will & I will be able to do a mini-vacation sooner rather than later. Maybe we'll just make it a procreation vacation. :-)

At Ella's recent 18 month well visit, I was talking to Amy about wanting to just have 1 night away at a B&B near my parents' house but feeling like it was impossible since she was still nursing. Her advice was "Go! Definitely! You and Will need a night off. She can't think the world revolves around her forever. And one night without BF won't kill her or stop your milk flow." She of course said I could pump if I felt it necessary. (I'm hoping I won't need to; I really hate pumping!) So, we've got our sights set on February; now I just need to let my parents know that!:-)

By the way, she's still right under 20 lbs.(19.5) and 29.75 inches. She was 19.1 at 12 months, so Amy was a little concerned. She said Ella's obviously so active and burning almost all the calories she's eating during the day, so I need to up her protein and calories a little more. I'm supposed to weigh her in about a week and see if the new menu has worked; I'll let you know how that goes. The main thing is I don't want to stunt her growth. Her growth chart curve is starting to go downward; never a good sign. Amy said I should probably start her on some whole milk too. I've tried to no avail. Tried organic whole milk by itself (cold and warm) and in a shake. She just spit it out. Our next try is going to be goat's milk. Then soy after that.

On a different note, Ella knows a few more signs like please and thank you. Maybe I shouldn't have taught her "please." Now if she wants anything and I say "no," she does the sign...hard to resist, so I'm quickly learning the art of redirecting. You know, "No, Ella, Mommy had to put the broom away, but how about we play with your corn popper instead?"

She's learned the gun sign as well-I had to teach her b/c she kept hearing popping noises outside and wanted to know what they were. (Pointing outside, saying "Du, Du, Du?") Don't worry; it's just the nearby shooting range she hears. She also pretends she's hammering when she sees/hears Daddy doing it. And if she's in the right mood, she'll blow kisses to us.

And today our little girl had 2 more firsts. She took 1 nap instead of 2. (I'm hoping that was just an accident. :-) I really treasure those nap times.) And it was her 1st time using markers (washable, of course). The funny thing was she spent more time trying to put the cap back on the marker or on the end of it than she did coloring. Thus, why her hands got so pretty. :-)