Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day enjoying time with family, friends and lots of good food. We had a nice day with some good friends here in New York and then we will head to Woburn for the weekend to continue celebrating (and eating with family). It's really the best of both worlds for the Tapp's.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we have so much to be thankful for. We have a healthy, beautiful little girl. Jason is loving his new role as the assistant coach for the Union College Men's hockey team, and I am enjoying my morning routine at work that allows me to be there for all of Ella's activities. We are also excited for our future! We will welcome a new addition in early June. Ella will officially be a BIG sister and Jason and I will be parents to 2, ahhh! We couldn't be more excited and are so happy to be sharing our news with everyone.

This was just the start to what will surely be a wonderful holiday season. We are all full from a great turkey dinner tonight and grateful for all that we have. Thank you to the Dumais' for hosting us this year and thank you to our families and friends for the endless love and support. I can't speak for Jason and Ella, but I can say MY heart is filled with happiness. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Icing On the Cake

I have already mentioned how much Ella LOVES to clean, and it seems that is not the end of her domestic appreciation. She also seems to be a budding baker. This girl loves to be in the kitchen. It is certainly not something she gets from me. I have a hard time following a simple recipe and if I can manage to make something without burning it, I'm cheering!

Ella helping mix the cookies!

Since I have to work on Thanksgiving, we will not be having dinner with family. Instead, we have been invited to some friends house to celebrate. I offered to help out and have been tasked with desserts. This is a good thing, since I have a few (just a few!) recipes in my repertoire that I have made often and feel confident enough to serve to others. I decided to get a head start on things this weekend since our weeks are usually packed with one activity after another.

I pulled out the mixer and all the ingredients and my little helper was by my side and ready to go. It was so fun to have Ella standing next to me on her chair, checking out each ingredient as I dumped it into the bowl. She watched in awe as the mixer whirled around and she studied me scooping out each dollop of cookie batter onto the pan. This was all so new to her and seemingly so exciting. As we waited for each batch of cookies to bake, she would run to the kitchen when the timer went off. Of course, taste testing was the icing on the cake! (Sweet tooth courtesy of her dad)

Hopefully the rest of the Thanksgiving baking will go just as smoothly. At least we'll know the cookies were made with love :-)

Spoiled With Visitors!

What a week we had! Ella was spoiled with visitors. Grandma (Jason's mom) came to stay with us for the week. It was great to see her and for Ella to show off her turf. The last time we saw Grandma was in Michigan in August. Ella was really just starting to walk then and she wasn't talking much at all. Wow, have things changed in a few short months. Ella was full of energy and kept Grandma on her toes all week.

On Wednesday, we were joined by more visitors. Auntie Sharon (Jason's aunt) and her grand daughter Ava drove down from Vermont to spend some time with all of us. Sharon met Ella when she was just a newborn and this was Ava's first introduction (although she's seen lots of pictures on facebook :-)) Ava, who is 10 years old, was great with Ella. She kept her laughing for almost the entire time they were here. By the time the visit was over, Ella was exhausted from trying to keep up with her new big friend. It was so nice to spend some time with everyone.

We are all pooped and taking the quiet weekend to recharge our batteries. Even Tucker has been napping lots! I think that's a sign of a good time had by all. We will need all the energy we can get too...Thanksgiving is just a few days away. Time to start cooking!

The Cleaning Lady

Ella LOVES to clean...the kitchen, bathroom, sweeping, scrubbing, even laundry....if it's a household chore, Ella is by my side to help out. As soon as she sees me head to the washer and dryer she runs over to join me and she gets really excited when it's time to fold the clothes. Break out the dust pan and broom and this girl is in heaven!

I can't complain. I do like to keep things neat, so Ella's affection towards cleaning is far better than the alternative. We like to refer to her as "Tornado Tapp" when she is playing (she loves to empty out the toy bin), but she does help pick up her toys and really prefers things to be neat. She likes drawers and doors closed so much that she is generally trailing behind me in the kitchen to keep me in check.

 Since we are realizing Ella's growing independence and love for "work", Jason and I have started giving her chores. Ella is in charge of feeding Tucker his breakfast and dinner. She proudly scoops his food into his bowl every day. It's become quite the routine. Last week, in a rush to get dinner done and keep our evening on track, I accidentally fed the dog....only to hear Ella from the living room shout "I do it!" as clear as day. Jason and I were floored. Not only did she realize she was missing out on her favorite chore, she also spoke an entire sentence. Her speech is improving every day, but this was like she has been talking forever. More and more we are hearing clear words and even some phrases. It's reassuring and exciting. We still have a long way to go in the speech department, but her progress is steady and that's all we can ask for. She just started a third day at school which will hopefully help her continue to make big strides!

Happy Halloween! (A day later...)

Happy Halloween! What a fun weekend we had celebrating with family and friends. Ella dressed up as Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street this year...and I may be biased, but she was the cutest little Abby I have ever seen! My mom custom made her costume to be a nearly EXACT replica of the real thing. (I'm really hoping Ella gets her creative genes!) She was very excited to be all dressed up as her favorite character. She wore her Abby costume all day on Halloween!

Ella and The Nan at the parade!

Everyone all bundled up for the parade!

Halloween wouldn't be complete in my family without a trip to the annual Halloween parade in Woburn. We always went to the parade as kids, then we were in the parade during middle school and high school and now it's even more fun to take our kids back. This is the second year Ella has made the event. It was also the second year that we made it a family affair.

Lucy and I getting ready for her first parade.
She LOVED it!

There are lots of "little Lally's" in Woburn, so a big group of us decided to meet at my grandmothers to catch the parade together. We ended up having nine little ones running around. It was chaos...but in a good way of course! This year we had to bundle up too since it was FREEZING outside.

Our little Abby was not the happiest at the parade. The chilly weather and lack of nap made her less than impressed to be out and about at the parade. She rallied as long as she could and then sleep won out!

Sleepy Ella!

Crazy Busy!

I think this is the longest I have gone with a gap in my blogging. We have been crazy busy! The days are just flying by. It's hard to believe that we are nearing the end of October. In just the past week alone, we've had a trip to the pediatrician, a visit to the ER, meet the teacher night, and a check-up with the developmental pediatrician!

Ella is doing great and proved once again that she is amazing. The developmental pediatrician sees her every six months. He was very impressed with how much strength she has gained and how much more active she is. The last time Dr. Malone saw Ella was February. She wasn't walking or crawling then. She had really just gotten used to the Synthroid (thyroid meds) and hadn't even started the growth hormone. Dr. Malone was the one who really urged us to consider growth hormone. He has seen tremendous results and really felt this would help in Ella's situation. I am soooo glad we took his advice.

Dr. Malone did suggest that we increase Ella's time at school. He thinks she would really benefit from a consistent schedule. We decided to add another day of Toddler group. Ella will love this. At meet the teacher night, she was so excited to show me all the fun things in her classroom. Her teachers were great. They say Ella is a rule follower and doesn't really like when the other kids step out of line! She is also warming up to the other kids a little more too. They say she doesn't like when others invade her space! This will be great practice for pre-school next year. We already registered her in the Rensselaer School District. Time is flying!

Happy Girl! This is the day we registered with
the Rensselaer School District.

Now you're probably wondering about our trip to the ER! Last week, I noticed a rash on Ella and was immediately concerned about MRSA. She contracted MRSA (a staph infection that is resistant to many medications) when she was just a few days old in the NICU. At the time, my little newborn looked like she had chicken pocks all over her body. She was treated with IV antibiotics and the rash eventually cleared up. We had another bout with the "super bug" (as it is commonly known) when she was six months old and we discovered her belly button wasn't healing because of another MRSA infection. This is something she will likely always test positive for and it's hard to understand how she even gets the infection in the first place. The good news is we have found a medication that works to clear up the infection. This time, she had a pretty big sore and the pediatrician wasted no time prescribing the strong meds to clear it up quickly. For some reason, the sore got much worse and by Saturday morning it was almost the size of a nickel and very clearly infected. I took her to the ER, where they drained it. It was a painful procedure since they only used a little numbing cream. Ella was great through the entire thing. A few M+M's right after they were done also seemed to help wash away her tears. Here we are almost a week later and the MRSA seems to be just about gone. Her cut where the soar was is healing nicely. The whole event was much harder on me than Ella I think. She bounced back immediately!

We are getting ready for Halloween now. Ella LOVES her costume! She was so excited to try it on. We probably won't do much trick-or-treating on Monday, but she will get to wear her costume to the big Halloween parade in Woburn. We're going once again this year with many of our cousins. I can't wait to see the kiddos all dressed up!

Go Union!

Another hockey season is upon us. This is Ella's "3rd" season and last night was Union's home opener (Jason is the assistant coach). She has a brand new Union jersey and we painted U's on her cheeks to celebrate the night. I may be a little biased, but she was the cutest little cheerleader at the rink.

Pre-game....all smiles in Daddy's office.

 You may recall that I have written in the past about Ella's love-hate relationship with hockey games...more specifically the national anthem. She has a history of crying, freaking out actually as soon as the anthem starts. I went into Friday's game with a new attitude....renewed optimism that this season will be different. Ella is an independent toddler. She's walking and starting to talk. She is ready to take on the games!

Another hockey season, same result: TEARS!

HA HA HA...I may have over-estimated things a bit. The meltdown started with the introductions, reached a fever pitch by the national anthem, and by the time the first puck dropped, the U's on her cheeks were partly washed away by tears. The crying (freaking out) lasted pretty much the entire first period. We regrouped in the coach's office and I thought we could redeem ourselves for the second period.....NOPE! More tears, and complete misery ensued. We didn't even make it ten minutes into the second period when I raised the white flag. Less than halfway through game 1 and we were done!

There's another game tonight. Call me crazy, but we are going to try again. Since hockey games will likely be a part of Ella's life for a very long time, I have to TRY to at least get her to cope. Wish me luck!