January 2012 - seven months old

Ellie outgrew her soy intolerance (hooray!) and so we were able to introduce soy formula – giving her mama a break after many months of exclusive breastfeeding on a highly restrictive diet. Once again we were able to order Chinese food, one of Melissa’s favorites.

Meanwhile, Ellie was developing a real passion for solid foods. She quickly ramped up to three meals and one or two snacks a day, and her menu grew to include fish, lamb, eggs, beef, poultry, spinach, kale, squash, avocado, banana, kiwi, figs, baked apples, bread, cream of wheat, potatoes, and more. She seems to love the flavors of olive oil and garlic powder, just like we do.

And after a month or two of standing around in her Rainforest Jumperoo, suddenly Ellie decided to start jumping, and she did so with such gusto! Even when she wanted out, she would cry but keep jumping. She even figured out how to hover with both feet off the ground, and how to reach out to her adoring fans between jumps. She smiled so big, we couldn’t help kissing her hand and cheering her on.

Mama and Ellie continued to go for many walks outside in the relatively mild January weather, always with the mei tai carrier so that Mama would know that Ellie was warm and happy. All over the neighborhood, storekeepers know her and say hi to here – and strangers say hi to Ellie too. Everyone thinks she is the cutest thing, and tells her so. Ellie loves the attention, and is happy to smile and sometimes “talk” to new people from the safety of Mama’s arms.

December 2011 - six months old

We visited Steve’s side of the family in Texas in early December, and stayed with Aunt Erin, Uncle Michael, and cousins Caitlin and Colin. Nana came to visit, and we also had a short visit with Grandad. Aunt Angela flew in as well, and stayed with the Hunters. We all saw Colin play the role of Joseph in his church play, explored the Lea’s new neighborhood, and gathered for an early Christmas dinner where Caitlin, Collin and Uncle Mike showed off their guitar skills. Ellie loved all the attention, but also found the new environment over-stimulating sometimes – so she wanted to be close to Mama or Daddy, and occasionally needed quiet playtime in the bedroom.

Christmas was spent at home in Cambridge, but Ellie had a bad stomach bug and most of our plans were canceled or shortened. She was sick for nearly two weeks, and didn’t sleep well for another two weeks after that. It was rough, but we survived.

New Year’s Eve, we brought Ellie to a dinner party at Brooke & Ian’s house, and she slept in the bedroom for most of the evening. At 11pm, the party got too raucous and the bedroom got too cold – so she woke up and we brought her home. But overall it was a success – it was nice to have a night out, and take her with us.

November 2011 - five months old

Once Ellie recovered from her illness, we once again tried to introduce traditional baby foods like rice cereal and jarred applesauce. At an age where she was putting everything in her mouth, the spoon was the one and only object that met sealed lips. Finally, in desperation, Mama offered her some food off her own plate – and voila! Our little gourmand was born. It turns out Ellie would eat just about anything, provided it was grown-up food.

Ellie also learned to sit up by herself, and in classic Ellie-style she did it all at once. One day we thought she was nowhere near sitting up unassisted, and the next day she could do it without even using her hands for support –and could reach out for toys without falling over. Sitting up allowed Ellie to see more of her world, and to see it the same way grown-ups do, so she was pretty happy about her accomplishment.

From SitterCity.com, we found a wonderful babysitter – Elizabeth Spatola, the oldest of 5 sisters, won Ellie over with her energy and enthusiasm. She is very capable, both with Ellie and getting stuff done around the house. Ellie just loves spending time with her. They go on long walks with the Baby Bjorn, play on the floor together, and make funny noises and funny faces. Elizabeth is earning her master’s from Boston Architectural College, and lives just a few blocks away.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, Steve’s dad (Grandpa) visited for a few days. Ellie loved hearing him make clicking noises, and we loved getting to spend some quality time with him. We all ate Thanksgiving dinner at Marcy’s house, along with Matt, Rachel & Adam. Ellie napped during dinnertime, and Steve set up a make-shift audio monitor by leaving one cellphone “listening” in the bedroom on mute, and another on speakerphone at the table. We were able to shut the bedroom door, but heard Ellie as soon as she woke up. She was just in time to share some turkey, which she devoured.

October 2011 - four months old

At Ellie’s 4 month checkup, she already weighed 16 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 26 inches tall! That’s a little under the 90^th percentile in weight, and a little over the 90^th in length. Since she was also sitting up (with support) and showing a keen interest in food, her pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to start solid foods. We tried our rice cereal, bananas, and squash. She was a little confused, but started to get the hang of it after a few tries.

This month, Ellie also found her voice – and used it, loudly. Squeals, giggles, and a funny noise that we like to call her “teradactyl cry.” She’d even talk in her sleep sometimes. And while she still worked on learning to sit up, her favorite new activity was learning to stand. No matter where we were, or how fussy or hungry she was, just standing on our laps cheered her up and made her smile. Right away she learned to stand up holding only our hands, or supported only at the waist.

Walks with Mama became new and exciting, both because of the cold weather and because of some new carriers we tried out. We bought a “mei tai” that Ellie seems to enjoy, and borrowed a Beco that allows her to face outward. They say that facing inward is much better for little babies’ spines, but Ellie likes to see what’s going on. When she does face inward, she often cranes her neck around and rolls her eyes as far to the side as they’ll go, in an effort to see what’s ahead.

This month we were lucky to have more family visitors: Aunt Steph, Uncle Willie, and cousins Sienna & Eden all came up from Fort Worth to spend a few days getting to know Ellie – while we got to know Eden! Both babies are nearly the same age, but such different personalities already. Eden was definitely the more mellow of the two, but the Hunters also helped Melissa learn how to encourage that sort of happy independence in Ellie – leaving her to entertain herself once in a while, and not assuming that every cry was hunger. Together, we went to the Boston Harbor Islands and explored the city on foot and using mass transit. After all, we couldn’t fit 4 adults and 3 little ones in the car!

After the Hunters left, we had our biggest scare yet. Late one night, with no warning, Ellie started vomiting. Steve saw it on the monitor and ran in to flip her over and help her cough it out. Then she just kept vomiting and we had to take her to the ER at Children's. She was so dehydrated and limp. They gave her an IV and some anti-nausea medicine, and those made her feel a lot better. But they also ran a lot of tests to see what was wrong, and whether she needed surgery - and each of those tests was torture for her and for us. We were there all night, not allowed to feed her in case she was heading to emergency surgery, and forcing her through an Xray, an ultrasound, and something involving a barium drink. It was sad to see how much she loved drinking the barium because she was so hungry, and that she slept through the ultrasound out of exhaustion. She was so brave and strong! As soon as she started feeling better, she took great interest in the IV attached to her hand, and seemed to think it was a fun new toy we had put there for her enjoyment.

Two days later, we knew Ellie’s illness had been a stomach bug – because Melissa came down with it, and also needed rehydration via IV. Steve took ill as well, but not so violently. At the close of the month, we began exploring new childcare options so that Ellie wouldn’t have to get sick so often, and bring so many germs home with her – and so she could have more personal attention than a daycare is able to provide.

September 2011 - three months old

The week Ellie was born was the first warm week of the summer, so our little girl had never experience cold weather until now. She was pretty surprised at all the layers of clothing and at the cold wind on her face, but she got used to it quickly and continued to love being outdoors.

Our part-time nanny Adriana began her new job this month, and Ellie began daycare so that Melissa could work half-time on consulting projects for the Sustainable Food Lab. Ellie had never been a good napper – just 10-20 minutes here and there, mostly on her mama’s lap – so we were afraid she’d never sleep in the noisy daycare environment. The first day, they said she slept 2 hours and 15 minutes! We thought they were lying. But no, it turned out that Ellie was a great napper at daycare, much better than at home. We learned to make the home environment more like daycare by turning on the TV and playing music near her bedroom – and it helped. But she still didn’t sleep as long at home as she did at daycare. If she had, we wouldn’t have needed daycare at all!

While Ellie mostly thrived at daycare, she did catch a cold that was going around. This time we knew the drill – humidifer, carseat, snot-sucker. It was sad to see her struggling to breathe, but we got through it, and she recovered faster this time. We both got sick too, with stuffy noses and sore throats.

Ellie’s favorite motor skill this month was trying to sit up. Once day, she was lying in Steve’s lap and kept picking her head up like she was trying to do a crunch. Steve was confused at first, then realized what she wanted. He helped her sit and she loved it. We began practicing with her bumbo, her highchair, and on our laps. On walks, she stopped looking at trees above her, and wanted to see everything in front of her instead. We began using the Baby Bjorn carrier so that she could face out and look around.

As Ellie became more aware of her world, she also became more aware of her Mama and Daddy, and would react to us with smiles and giggles that light up her whole face. She has her father’s dimples when she smiles big, which she does often. The surest way to get her to grin and laugh is to sing a little song called “open then, shut them” that involves some hand gestures close to her face. Yeah, simple stuff – but she loves it. She gets excited just realizing the song is about to start.

While learning to sit up, Ellie also began to tolerate tummy time better. It still isn’t her favorite activity, but she’s become strong enough to do it for 5-10 minutes at a time before complaining. We try to be good about making sure she does it, so that she’ll develop the strong neck and back muscles she needs to crawl in a few months time.

A highlight of the month was a visit from Aunt Angela, who flew all the way from Portland, Oregon to meet Ellie. We had fun walking around the city and stopping by various local festivals.

August 2011 - two months old

Ellie started to develop more of a routine this month. Every morning after her first feeding, she would play in her “baby gym” for twenty minutes or so, under the dangling toys. At first she would reach out her closed fists and gently touch the objects, then she started batting at them. One morning Melissa showed Ellie how to open her hand and grasp and object, and Ellie spent the rest of the day practicing on her own. Her ability to focus is amazing!

It’s also amazing how quickly she picks up some of her new skills. One morning, at about two and a half months old, Ellie decided that she wanted to hold her head up by herself – and she never went back. It happened literally overnight.

Ellie also caught her first cold, and had trouble eating and sleeping because of her stuffy nose. She had to sleep in her carseat for a week because the angle helped her breathe better. We would put the video camera in front of the carseat so that we could see her on the monitor, and set up her humidifier right near her. The humidifier is shaped like a dragon, with water vapor coming out of its eyes, so it was kind of spooky – the camera and the dragon watching our little baby, while the white noise sounded like a thunderstorm inside the room. But Ellie slept great, and finally got better.

Despite feeling a little under the weather, our girl continued to grow well. And we mean really well. On the growth charts, her trajectory seemed about to blast right up through the percentile curves. She went from 42^nd percentile in weight at birth to 88^th this month, and everyone started commenting how big she was for her age. She is still height/weight proportionate since she began life very long and lean, but she does have some impressive rolls of baby fat at this point, on her thighs and among her chins. Yes, we know: someday this entry is sure to embarrass her. What are parents for? ;)

July 2011 - one month old

Ellie became a different baby this month, when we figured out that she couldn’t tolerate dairy or soy in her Mama’s diet. We knew something was wrong because even though Ellie loved to eat, she would get more and more uncomfortable as a feeding went on… by the time she was done, we’d have to use every trick we knew to calm her down so that she could rest. We’d rock, sing, swaddle, bounce, shush, smile, cuddle – otherwise Ellie would cry. It was stressful for us, and no picnic for Ellie.

Once Melissa made the right dietary changes, Ellie was a new and happier baby. She smiled more and cried less. She would fall asleep after a feeding, and would even let us put her down occasionally to play by herself. Of course we love holding our little girl, but we needed a break!

Ellie did give us a break at night – she started sleeping through the night at just three weeks old, and was consistently sleeping an 8-10 hour stretch by the middle of July. She slept so soundly, and would wake up so hungry! But little Ellie wasn’t starving; she was moving rapidly up the growth charts. Her face filled out, and she started looking just like the Gerber Baby (but cuter!).

In late July, we took Ellie camping… sort of. With temperatures predicted to be 95 degrees, we ended up staying in a motel room instead. And due to unfavorable kayaking conditions, our friends didn’t arrive at the campsite until it was almost Ellie’s bedtime. But we made the trip, Ellie slept just fine in her own Moses basket next to our bed, and we got more time to hang out with our friends in the morning. Most importantly, we proved to ourselves that we could travel with our little girl, something we hope to do more of soon.

June 2011 - the first weeks

Ellie’s first month at home was a blur – with Melissa and Steve trying to figure out how to be Mama and Daddy, and Ellie trying to figure out how to live outside the womb. We won’t lie: it was a tough month. Luckily Nana (Steve’s mom) came to visit for ten days, and was wonderful at taking care of all of us.

Ellie was a very alert newborn, with long beautiful lashes, clear skin, and a nice round head. She enjoyed eating for long stretches (literally 12 hours a day at one point) and loved being held (i.e. she wouldn’t let us put her down!) – so we spent many hours lying with her in our arms. We even learned to sleep with her in our arms, with pillows piled around us just in case we loosened our grip – though we never did. Melissa went on early-morning walks with Ellie in the sling to buy breakfast, and Steve stayed up late with her every night and sang to her.

During Ellie’s first days at home, we found out how much she loves warm summer weather. Steve calmed her down by taking her out to the back porch in just her diaper on a hot humid afternoon, and she relaxed right away. We have some of our favorite photos of her stretching in her Moses basket in the shade - one of the only times she was out of our arms!

May 2011 - Ellie is born!

Placeholder for birth story.