Our Brave Be

Well, today was the day! Ella Catherine had her Bilateral Tympanostomy with Tubes surgery at Children's hospital this morning. Gosh... her dad and I are so glad it's over! Ella was such a trooper and proved to be the strong, brave girl we always knew she was. Here's how it all went down!

We headed to the hospital at around 5:15, and arrived at about 6:00. Check in was at 6:20, and we were called in to preop at about 7:20. The process was actually super fast, and all the nurses we so sweet and caring. Ella was measured, weighed, her vitals were check, and we were then greeted by her ENT doctor. We love Dr. Benz and he is so loving towards our girl. Dr. Benz reexplained what he was going to do and said that the entire procedure would only take about 15 minutes. Ella was a little cranky at this point, and really wanted a bottle. She was not allowed any fluids and her last ba ba was at 6pm Wednesday night. Poor girl was thirsty! Once Dr. Benz was ready, Ella's anesthesiologist came in and was so great explaining everything they would do to prepare Ella for the surgery. Then, it was time. I was not allowed to go back with her because they find it more difficult to deal with the child. This was hard. Jose and I kissed our girl and handed her off to Dr. Benz. That's right, he carried her right in to surgery. I don't think she knew what hit her! Jose and I were then directed to a private waiting room where we waited for about 20 minutes. Dr. Benz came right in and said everything went perfectly smoothly and that she did beautifully. He said she laid right down on the table and was so good when the put the mask over her face for her meds. I was so glad to hear this! He said her left ear was filled with tons of icky junk. So bad that he had to suction it out before he could place her tube. He said it had been there awhile, and she will be so glad to finally hear. Poor girl hasn't been able to hear since November! He then handed us some drops and explained some home care directions. We will have another checkup with him in about 3 weeks.

We were then sent out to the waiting area, and we buzzed within 10 minutes because Ella had woken up. We rushed to recovery so she could be brought to us immediately. Oddly enough, this is when the tears came. When I saw her being carried in by the nurses, completely out of it, I lost it. Her eyes were open, but she was exhausted. When the nurse handed her over she said, "Oh my you've got a cuddle bunny on your hands." My response, "Not really!" I then held her for a good 15 minutes(this was so sweet) before she was ready to sit up and have some juice. They then took her vitals, and Dr. Benz came by again to see her and bring her a popsicle. This made her very happy. After about 20 more minutes she was discharged and we were on our way home. My Mom of course came down and greeted us as we were walking out. Ella was so happy to see her Gigi and I loved seeing her too. She is always so supportive and came down just to see her girls for a brief minute. We are so lucky.

Waiting for surgery with Da!

The gloves were a great distraction!

Let's do this people. I'm so thirsty and need a drink! (We all do at this point!)

Ahhhh, it's over and I can finally drink!

Mama isn't looking so hot, but here we are post surgery!

Thanks for the popsicle Dr. Benz!

Let's make some cupcakes Mom. I sure deserve it!

These last few months have been extremely hard for Jose, Ella, and I. We have been in and out of the doctor and our poor girl has been on 5 rounds of antibiotics since late November. We are so happy to be done with this and hoping that with this surgery comes no more ear infections for our girl! 

We feel so blessed to have had so many friends and family members praying for Ella today. I cannot tell you how truly lucky I feel to have so many friends who called and text today to wish Ella good luck and tell us that she was in their thoughts and prayers. This is what helped me get through today. This is what gave me the strength to hand off Ella and trust that (as my dear friend Candy said) GOD had her in his hands. It means so much to me to have these special people in our lives. 

Thank you for everyone who thought about Ella, Jose, and I today. I'm so ready for a restful night of sleep tonight. 

18 Month Be Update

18 months! How did this happen? I cannot believe Ella is already a year and a half. It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming her into our family. She has changed so much since her first birthday and I cannot wait to share. Here's what our little be has been up to in the last 6 months.

Language: As of December 1st, Ella had only said about tens words. As you can imagine, this didn't settle very well with a paranoid, over thinker educator me. I thought she should for sure be saying more than that, right?! Well, come January, I swear she started saying a new word every day. This made Jose and I very happy. Not only because she was finally speaking more, but she is so darn cute saying them. As of today, Ella can say 25 words.

Mama
Dada
ball
agua ~ water
ga ga ~ galleta in spanish means cookie/cracker
dog
duck
Gigi ~ Grandma
Titi ~ Ella's nanny Cori
three
here
cracker
yes
this
tank oo ~ thank you
bird
choo choo
pa pa
ouch
juice
eese ~ please
ceese ~ cheese
poo poo
Elmo
fish

We are so proud of our little bilingual be. She can understand both English and Spanish commands and questions. This makes her Da extremely happy. Jose speaks Spanish most of the time, and I try to use all the Spanish I know. She also only hears Spanish when she is at her Abuelos house. I cannot wait to hear what word comes out of her mouth next!

On a side note. Ella has been struggling with several ear infections since late November. Four to be exact. We are headed to ENT, then Children's for her tube surgery. This makes me very sad and scared. Ella's pediatrician says she's at the perfect age and that she'll be in great hands. He is concerned she will have speech delays if we don't take care of it soon. Jose and I have also noticed when she has an infection, she is less vocal and speaks less. Please keep her in your prayers. We can't wait for this to be over!

Wearing: Ella wears 18 month shirts, skirts, and dresses, and 24 month jammies and pants. She wears a size 5/5.5 shoe and is quickly approaching a 6. We call her la patona(big feet) because they are so big! Overall, she is in the 55th percentile for both weight and height. She weights 23.5 pounds and is 33 inches tall. Ella was wearing a size 4 diaper until about 14 months, but began soaking through and they were leaving marks on her thighs which led me to believe they were too tight. So, we tried 5's and they fit perfectly! She has been wearing a size 5 diaper for several months now and I'm sure she'll remain in them until potty training begins this summer (if she's ready!).

Sleeping: Ella transitioned into one nap at about 15 months. She goes to sleep between 6:30 and 7:15, and will sleep until about 5:45(latest 6:15 if we're lucky!) She sleeps a consistent 11 hours each night. We've tried putting her down later, but she has always been early to bed and come 7:15, she is so ready. It also made no difference. She was still waking up early, so we just decided to keep things the same. It actually works out just fine, because 2 days a week we have to get her up by 5:45 so Jose can take her to his Mom and Dad's house on Monday and Gigi's on Tuesdays. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, she gets to watch Mama get ready for work and we are out of the house by 7:15. She goes down for her nap between 10:30 and 11:00. She sleeps anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours. Most days she takes a two hour nap. Ella has always been a wonderful sleeper since we transitioned her into her crib at about 5 months. We are so lucky. She has probably woken up only a handful on times in the middle of the night, and she goes right down for her nap. Does this mean our next one is going to be a nightmare? I sure hope not.

Eating: Ella is a wonderful eater. Some days are better than others, but for the most part, she eats anything I put on her plate. I try to have variety in her diet, but she likes what she likes and tends to favor certain foods. She LOVES cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, any type of fruit (especially berries), salad, beans, corn, pasta, hot dogs (nitrate free of course), avocado, crackers and.... oh who am I kidding? She eats anything and will try anything.

Favorite Toys and Activities: She loves her taxi coupe and trike. She would sit in them all day if she could. She loves to use her broom to help Mama clean. She feeds her babies and rocks them to sleep. She will sit and "play" her piano all the time. It's one of the cutest things I have ever seen. After she bangs plays, she looks at Jose and I with the biggest smile on her face. She also loves talking on her phones, reading books, and playing on the iPad. She loves putting on her shoes, my shoes, and Da da's shoes. One of Ella's absolute favorite things to do is swing in her swing outside. Jose pushes her for what seems like forever and she still wants more. Parks are her all time fav. She is definitely an outdoors girl. She loves to be on the go and try and do new things. She is very independent, but also loves playing with you. Jose is the greatest and they play hard together. I just love watching them together. Our playtime is a little different. I think we balance each other out. It's perfect!

Behavior: Well... we have definitely had some struggles the last several months. Ella has certainly begun to test us and throws huge fits if she does not get her way. Around 15 months, she started throwing full blown tantrums. Stomping feet and throwing herself to the ground kind of tantrums. It. was. hard. All of a sudden she stopped and the only thing I can attribute it too is her speaking more. She became less frustrated when she could tell or show us what she needed or wanted. Now, she rarely has a tantrum, but still definitely gets upset when things aren't going her way. We haven't started time outs just yet.

Jose and I had to come to an agreement about setting certain expectations that we would BOTH follow through on. We struggled in the beginning, but are getting much better. It's definitely a team effort. This has been our biggest challenge and we are learning as we go. Hopefully we're not causing too much damage!!

Things WE Cannot Get Enough Of:

There are so many things that Ella does that I just LOVE. It makes being a Mom the greatest gift in the world. Here are some of MY favorites.

• She reaches for my hand when she needs me or wants to show me something. 
• Putting her down for ni night is my favorite. We have our own special little routine that I just love. 
• When she wakes up she yells Mama from her crib when she's ready to be picked up.
• She also started saying Mama when she needs me or when she wants to tell or show me something. Before she would just say Mama for no reason. This is so much sweeter.
• When she has a ouchy, she rubs it and shows me where to kiss it. 
• When she hurts herself, she always wants Mama. I secretly love this!

I asked Jose for some of HIS favorites. Here are his exact words.

• She sits on my lap as soon as she's done with her dinner. I get to share the rest of my dinner with her. I love that.
• Ella takes me to special locations in the house for private time. (This is so sweet!)
• Bath time.
• rocking her like a baby when she drinks her jugo.
• Playing on the playground, especially pushing her on the swing. 
• Watching Cira(Barbie) together before bedtime. (I swear he said this! He even knows the lyrics to the songs and sings along.)

There are a million others, but I don't want to bore you.

So there you have it. The last 6 months! It's pretty amazing how quickly time is passing us by. pretty soon we'll have a 2 year old. Yikes!

To Our Sweet Ella Catherine, 

There are not enough words to tell you how much we love you. Our lives became complete when you came into our family. Thank you for teaching us so many invaluable lessons and for being the best little be we could ever ask for. 

Te amo mucho bella. 

Christmas(A little late!)

Christmas was so much fun this year! Ella really seemed to soak up every moment and loved all the trees, decorations, and especially the lights. I tried to illustrate our month as best as I could, but to be honest I spent a lot of time just enjoying the moments and soaking up all the sweetness our little be had to offer. Get ready for picture overload!

We purchased our tree the first week in December so we could enjoy it for the entire month. Ella loved helping her Da pick it out, and was very excited to help him get it ready to put inside the house. She loved helping us decorate it and absolutely loved when we turned on the lights each night. 

We also had the chance to make and decorate Christmas cookies with my mom, Ella's Gigi. She loved it! She helped with the mixing, cutting, and decorating, but I think her favorite part was eating them. Ella certainly loves her ga ga's (galleta is cookie in spanish). 

The Sunday before Christmas, Ella woke up with a horrible cold! She has had three ear infections this month(next one and she'll be getting tubes) and her poor little nose was running for two straight days. Please ignore the red face in the pics. Poor girl was miserable, although I think the presents were a great distraction. 

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional Christmas celebration at Jose's parent's house with his Mom, Dad, and sister Lourdes. We always have such a special time together eating tamales prepared by Jose's mom, frijoles, y arroz. After dinner, we opened way too many presents from Abuelita, Abuelo, y Tia. Ella is so spoiled and she loved every minute of it. 

Christmas morning we had a wonderful morning just the three of us opening presents, having breakfast, and enjoying our time together. SHE LOVED helping her Da put together her new bike, and we also had a chance to go on a nice walk before heading over to my Mom's. 

As you can imagine, Ella had even more presents to open, and couldn't wait to test them all out. My Mom made a beautiful Christmas dinner, and it was so nice to spend the evening with our family. 

This was such a special Christmas for so many reasons. I just love every aspect of Christmas, especially the meaning it holds. We are so blessed in so many ways, and felt so fortunate to spend this time with our loving families who support, love, and encourage us every day.

Love to you all, and I hope your holiday was as special as ours. 

From Our Family to Yours

Merry Christmas! 

I thought I'd share our Christmas card before it was New Years. Things have been a little hectic around here with a sick be, Da, and Mama.
We are so ready to all be healthy!

 Jose wanted to be part of sharing our card(which I thought was super cute!)

It's a little blurry in these photos, but we loved it! Hope you do too. 

We had a beautiful Christmas spent with our families. I'll share pics soon. 

A Heavy Heart

I wrote this several weeks ago and just discovered it sitting in my drafts. I feel like I cannot post before acknowledging the lives lost on December 14, 2012.

Last Friday I walked into school as I normally would. I always arrive to work on Fridays super early, and ready to start the day. We had our weekly flag salute, where I have the honor of announcing students names who have earned awards for reading and math, alongside our principal, vice principal, and our other instructional specialist, Christy.

After flag, as we were walking into the teacher's lounge, another colleague ran in explaining what had just happened. Our hearts sank. We all quickly ran into Stephs office(our principal) and immediately turned on the news. What I then saw and heard was devastating. How could this have happened? How could someone walk into an elementary school and kill innocent adults and young children?

The remainder of the day was pretty rough for me. I went home a bit early, and as I walked into my house, especially Ella's room, I just wept. Wept for the many lives affected by the tragedy and what lies ahead for these families. I also prayed. I prayed for all affected to some how find peace and comfort during this difficult time.

Monday morning as I walked into my Kindergarten classroom to meet my students, I had to hold back tears. I have not been able to turn on the news, nor listen to any recounts of this horrible crime for this very reason. I just can't. It hits entirely to close to home.

So, I will go on, as you will, with our daily lives. But these sweet little and big angels who lost their lives will forever be in my heart and will never be forgotten.

Obsessed!

Have you heard of StickyGram? I am completely obsessed! If they weren't so darn expensive, I'd have my entire fridge full of them. I ordered two sheets last month, and I am giving several as gifts to family for Christmas. Go check them out! Grab this code for $2.00 off your first order. 

FRIENDDRKL

Let me know what you think? We sure do love them! Here's our fridge when we first got them. Ella loves pics so they are now at the bottom so she can see and touch them. So cute!

We'd love you to follow us on Instagram too. @hollievon

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Thanksgiving Recap

I can't believe I am just now getting to a post about Thanksgiving! These past few weeks have been a bit hectic for the Garcia family(sick be and Da!), but we are finally on the mend and getting back up to speed. 

This year I am thankful for SO many things. A supportive and loving hubs, the most adorable little be in the world, my ever rewarding job educating children every day, and my incredibly supportive family and loving friends! Jose and I continue to feel so blessed and fortunate as we reflect on our very simple life as a family of three. I doesn't get much better than this!

As a teacher, I am incredibly lucky to have lots of time off around the holidays. For Thanksgiving, I get the entire week off, and boy did we need it. Our days were spent spending time together as a family and WITH family, going to the park, lounging around the house, shopping, and soaking up as much time with our sweet be as possible. Here are some pics to illustrate our time together. I cannot tell you how excited I am for Christmas break. Three entire weeks off with my girl. I am counting the days.

Here we are trying to get a cute pic of Ella for our Christmas card. Out of 96 pictures, not one was she looking at Momma. We tried and failed miserably. I have to say, even though she wasn't looking, I think these are super sweet. I just love her to pieces!

We love the park! Ella could spend every day there, running, swinging, sliding, feeding the ducks, you name it, she'll do it! My Mom got her this Taxi Coupe and she absolutely loves it. And when I say love, I mean she is completely obsessed with it. She would sit in it all day if we let her. It's pretty cute! Jose thought it would be a great idea if we took it with us one afternoon. She couldn't have been happier. 

And here we have some random shots. (don't mind my nephew without a shirt on. He was a HOT MESS from playing the Wii!) Ella loves her cousins to pieces. I love that they are so sweet with her and play with her so patiently. Even though sometimes they forget she is still a little be and are a bit rough! I hope they continue to have these special moments together.

Ella is also obsessed with music, especially on my iPhone, iPod, or iPad! She even tries to get a handle on my Mac, but I have to draw the line somewhere right?! She has her own playlist on all of them, and she knows exactly where to go. She even knows where camera and photos are.  How is that even possible? She could sit with me for hours looking through pictures and watching herself on video. I love this time together because she is actually still for a long period of time. It's my favorite!

It's hard to believe how different this year is compared to last year. Ella was such a tiny baby, and now she feels so grown up! Jose and are a trying to savor every moment and enjoy this precious time with our girl. This week proved to be exactly what we needed. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and loved ones. Until next year. . . . .