4 shots, 3 days, 2 bad nights of sleep

Thursday morning Ellie had her 4 month old check-up with Dr. Lavin. Since Christmas occurred right around when she turned 4 months and exactly 2 months after her last appointment, we were delayed and she is already 4 1/2 months old. She received four shots since they could not combine any due to some sort of shortage on the combination shots. Fortunately they had two nurses come in and administer two at a time to keep the drama to a minimum. When Ellie receives shots her head gets really red and then she cries very loud. As soon as I pick her up, though, she calms down. While at the doctor she was weighed and measured. When I was undressing her and putting on a fresh diaper for the weigh-in she peed on the table. Oops. Here are her stats:

Weight: 13 lb 4 oz
Height: 24"
Head Circumference: 16 1/2"

She falls right in the 15% for weight and height, down from the 50%. The doctor didn't seem worried since she was right on par with both weight and height. It did make me wonder if during the last appointments I was hearing 50% when really they were saying 15%...they sound very similar. Perhaps I'll never know. Dr. Lavin says everything seems to be doing well and asked if I had any questions. Nope. I have my mom and sisters to answer any questions I may have. We'll be back to see her the first week in April.
On Wednesday I was supposed to take Ellie to Grandma's house during my piano lesson, but the lesson was cancelled. So I told Grandma we would stop by after the doctor's appointment to say hi. We arrived around 10:45 and I found out Grandma thought we were coming for lunch. Now I will never turn down lunch but I did feel guilty for seemingly inviting myself over. Kelly and Clark joined us soon after our arrival so we all hung around. Clark showed Ellie his tricks along with the importance of playing. Clark loves handing Ellie things but seems nervous or perhaps uninterested when I hold her up to him. I laid her on her stomach near where he was playing and he didn't seem to mind. Ellie will be good practice for Clark as he prepares to be a big brother.

Look here, little grasshopper

Bundled up for the cold walk to the post office

In the afternoon Ellie and I cleaned up the house, picked up the mail, and made dinner. Jere Scott Bradshaw, our new pastor at church, is home alone since he traveled home earlier than his wife from their Christmas trip down south. She will be gone until the 8th so we invited Jere Scott over for dinner. I served Chicken in an Apple Cream Sauce with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and salad. Thank you, Katelyn, for the recipe. I really like it! I didn't really have time to make a dessert so I took the brownies I made over the weekend and we ate them with ice cream. I would never have served the brownies alone because they were boarder-line too old to eat. The ice cream helped make them softer. I was a bit embarrassed but decided to not think about it. Jere Scott didn't seem to mind.
Jere Scott hung around and looked at the old basement pictures with Jon while I struggled to put Ellie down. She must have been struggling after getting her shots because she was out of sorts. I even left during dinner to try to put her to sleep unsuccessfully because she was so cranky. Since Ellie is not generally difficult I didn't really know what to do. Do I keep the cranky baby in the room and we talk over her fussing or do I try to put her to sleep even though she is fighting against it? I apologized and told him she was sad because of her shots and Jere Scott didn't seem to mind. It worked out that his wife wasn't there because the boys could just talk about whatever boys talk about when I wasn't around. Our company left at 9:15 so we did the dishes and hung out by the fire before bed.
Thursday night was a long night because Ellie decided to wake up every two hours starting at midnight. I tried her pacifier but not for long since she had just gotten her shots. I always think that she must be growing when she wakes through the night. On Friday morning I was pooped so I slept in past Jon leaving for work and woke up with Ellie at 9:15. It is wonderful to not have anywhere to go!
Kelly texted before 10:00 asking if I wanted to go to Flower Warehouse. I agreed and headed over to her place and we carpooled to the store. She picked up some Christmas decor and I snagged a picture for the bathroom along with a few Christmas things. I spent under $5 which should make Jon proud. Kelly then invited us over for lunch along with Mom, Dad, and Caleb. Dad couldn't make it but the six of us (including the kids) enjoyed grilled cheese and tomato soup along with M&Ms for dessert. That is one of my favorite lunches and it always hits the spot. It was nice to spend some time with Caleb since I feel as I have hardly seen him over break!

A happy shopper

We went home and I showered (scary, I know - I went out in public without a shower) and prepared for Jon and my date night. Kelly had graciously agreed to take baby while Jon and I used his gift from Dan to see Les Miserables. I told Kelly that if she watches Ellie I will bring dinner. I had made extra mashed potatoes for Thursday night's dinner so I gave her those along with broccoli and, you guessed it, chicken in an apple cream sauce. I really like that recipe but you have to buy a whole lot more apple juice and whipping cream than you use in the recipe so I just defrosted extra chicken and used up more of the ingredients. We dropped Ellie off and headed over to the theater to watch the movie.
Since we didn't have time for dinner before the movie I packed some snacks. Apparently you aren't supposed to bring food into the theater but they never check you bags so it makes it easy. I brought crackers, cheese, bologna, garlic stuffed olives, two cokes, gummy bears, and a chocolate bar. It all fit in my purse. Granted there wasn't much cheese, bologna, or olives but it was enough to be a small meal for the two of us. Oh, and if you want to smuggle food, I recommend going to a movie after it has been out for a while because no one was sitting near us so we didn't feel rude. I don't know how the snack bar stays in business, though, because I have never used it.
After the movie (which we really enjoyed) we decided to go through the Chickfila drive-thru. We arrived at 10:06 and they closed at 10:00 so we went across the street to Wendy's. Definitely not as exciting or satisfying.
We arrived at Fenton's shortly before 11:00 and Kelly said that baby had behaved well. Good, no spankings needed. It is so nice to have someone I trust to watch baby so I can relax when we go out.
Today was a relaxing Saturday. I had one goal: take down the Christmas decorations. I slowly woke up because Ellie once again had a rough night from midnight until morning. I really should go to bed earlier because she sleeps well from 8:00-12:00, it's just after 12:00 she wakes up frequently - at least every two hours, it seems. Maybe it will stop.
For breakfast I made eggs and toast. I put Jon's into a little breakfast sandwich with cheese and hot sauce. I've realized that eggs are a very budget-friendly breakfast compared to cereal. Cereal is not cheap and doesn't last long (in case you care to know). I never really liked eggs very much but if you put enough jelly on your toast you barely notice the eggs.
In the morning I hung out with Ellie and read my book. Jon worked on fixing the joint in the basement where it changes from the carpet in the main room to the tile in the bathroom. He also did some refinancing work. After lunch Jon brought down the Christmas decoration box and I stripped the tree and walked around the house in search of Christmas-themed decor. It always takes longer to un-decorate than I anticipate and then throw baby into the equation. She wasn't a very happy camper in the afternoon but Jon put her in the bjorn and she fell asleep. We had her facing out so she could see what he was doing so she looked really funny sleeping with her limbs hanging out. Jon was asking me questions about life insurance and it was hard to take him seriously with her little drooly face.

Learning the financial side of homeowning

Dad's conversations is not that interesting

conked out

Jon called Peter to see if they wanted to come over for dinner and to play some games and Peter said they were going over to their parents' house but that we should come. I told Jon we should ask Doug and Donna first but that it sounded like fun. Jon called his mom and we were invited over for dinner and games. Donna made pork, potatoes, and Sauerkraut and I brought along the cheeseburger soup I had made. Afterwards we played a round of Ticket to Ride then talked about heating bills and oil prices and general homeowner stuff. Ellie slept upstairs in the crib while we played and talked. When it was time to go Jon brought Ellie down and she was mad! I changed her into her PJs and she was just yelling-crying. It wasn't true crying because there weren't really tears and she sounded mad. We finally got out the door and took the angry baby with us.

Ellieisms:
Ellie has noticeably started using her hands and arms more. She can hold her pacifier (although it's easily dropped) and this morning at breakfast Jon was holding her and she was moving his plate all around.


Some answers to Carly's questions on last post:
I really like Downton Abbey but I would recommend starting from the beginning. You can usually get it from the library or wait since we own the first season. You could try it out, though. If you have amazon prime or Netflix they are available on those.
The snow hasn't melted completely but it's basically gone.