365.

Our little Ellie Bean turned ONE on July 1.  In true second-child fashion, we did nothing to celebrate.

Just kidding. Sort of.

Both the kids were sick that week though, so we didn't do anything too big.  We sang Happy Birthday, played games, and we went running that evening and then took the kids to the park.  Garrett snapped some pictures of the birthday girl.  It was low-key but fun to be together as a family, and the weather was great.

Ellie's first year was quite a roller coaster... for me.  Adding a second child to our family was pretty overwhelming for me and I struggled quite a bit.  It didn't help that she had failure to thrive from the start.  She lost over a pound after her birth, weighing in at 5 lbs 5 oz at her 1 week appointment.  For a long time, she had weekly doctor's appointments to make sure she was gaining weight and getting healthy.  I remember sitting in the doctor's office week after week, praying that she had gained a few ounces.

I always assumed that all my kids would be 100% breastfed for the first few months, and that I would breastfeed until 1 year (or more).  Abby was perfect in that regard, and I always assumed that the rest of my kids would be, too.  Ellie hated it from the start.  So, we tried bottles and that seemed to work.  I, however, was insistent that my child only have breast milk (you know, the BEST) so I decided to pump until she got used to breastfeeding.  And since Ellie was to eat every TWO hours (remember, failure to thrive), I would try to breast feed (20 minutes), then we'd resort to the bottle (20 minutes), and then I would go pump for the next  feeding (20 minutes).  60-90 minutes later we'd start all over again.  It was a hard time and it lasted for about two months.  Finally, my mom convinced me to supplement with formula (she convinced me by saying that my brother Mike was on formula starting at 2 weeks, and "look, he's normal".  Um, not really but okay.... just kidding, Mike).  Anyway, it was a hard decision for me and I felt like I had failed big time.  I remember giving Ellie her first bottle of formula and just crying because I felt like I was a bad mother.  Ellie, on the other hand, loved it and we never looked back.  At six months I gave up breastfeeding altogether and she was on formula-only from then on.

Ellie has been doing great health-wise since those first few months.  She still small (she weighed a whopping 17 lbs on her first birthday) but Abby was petite too.  It sure makes it easy on me!

Ellie has the cutest little grin and loves to make people laugh.  When we are sitting at the dinner table, if her foot ever touches someone else she just starts laughing and grinning.  She loves to tease.

She is a FAST crawler and has recently started to stand alone for a few seconds at a time. No walking yet but I think it will come in the next couple of weeks.

She still only really says one word - "Dada" - but she's started to be a little more verbal and you can tell that she is trying to speak sometimes.  She likes when we say "Ready, set..." and she'll make a noise and you can tell she is trying to say "go!"

Ellie loves her big sister.  She mimics her actions, and she tries to mimic what Abby is saying too.  It's the cutest thing to see them playing together and enjoying each other (when Abby is not taking toys away from her).

Ellie is very stubborn.  She knows what she wants and will whine and/or cry until you give it to her.  When she gets mad she puts her head down on the floor and starts screeching.  She also likes to bang her head into things, especially when she is mad.  Like any 1-year-old, she puts everything in her mouth, which is really annoying (Abby never did that so I am not used to that).  She is also a pickier eater than Abby ever was, so it's hard to know what to feed her!

We love our little Ellie and we are so glad she came into our family.  Happy Birthday, Ellie!