We Got a Walker!!

Well as you can see Ella has begun to walk and our lives have been forever changed :). She is walking up to about 10 feet max now, but average of about 3-5 feet. She walks away from furniture on her how and likes to walk hand in hand with us across the room.

She has also begun to talk and sign to us which is such a great thing, especially when it comes to eating and drinking. She says "Ma-ma," "Da-Da," "Da-ba" a.k.a. Diaper, "Nigh-Nigh" a.k.a. Night, and while in the bathtub/sink she will say "Duck" while playing with her rubber ducky. My brother is working on her saying Uncle "Bu-bba," but has been not so successful thus far. She is able to sign "more," "milk," and "num-num" a.k.a eat.

She is also eating a lot more solids. She loves pancakes, Grandma Hedlund's chicken noodle soup, sweet potatoes, apple sauce, pears, and peas. She also loves the Gerber Puffs, we have yet to find a flavor she doesn't like.

She just started daycare last week and absolutely loves it. She plays so hard that she crashes now at 8:30 at night verses 10:30 which was pre-daycare bedtime. There are two other children, they daycare providers daughter, Kendell who is a year, and Kian who is 6mo. so they are all great playmates and ironically all the same size right now. Needless to say I think Ella is probably the bruiser out of the group :).

As you can see Daddy wasted no time corrupting our little girl into becoming a Cheddar Head. I had to promise her that this was the only time that I would put her in a cheerleading outfit. Let's hope the next uniform we put on is a jersey!!

Ella is also coping with the arrival of her two top teeth. These two seem to be taking forever to get in when compared to her first two bottom teeth. She has been struggling diaper rashes, rubbing her ear (not an infection...have brought her in twice to make sure), and drooling like crazy. She even ran a temp this last Saturday which was cured with Tylenol but still was bothersome to see her as miserable as she was at the time.

She is still the very happy baby that she was from the start. She is always smiling it seems (except when changing a diaper rash diaper....then it is hysterical screams) and is great playing with others or just entertaining herself. Gabe continues to find it amusing that she can completely entertain herself with a couple of pieces of clear Tupperware and our kitchen floor.

It's hard to believe that she will be 9 months in 4 days! She is growing so fast and we are literally trying to keep up with her at times. It's so amazing to see her personality grow see little traits from each Gabe and I come out. She continues to surprise us all the time and we are so lucky and thankful to have such a beautiful, healthy baby girl.

She continues to have the milk allergy as far as we know and will be re-tested at her 12 month visit to see if she has outgrown it at that time. Fortunately we have not had any problems with her having any sort of reactions since her initial problems which is great. We will be sure to keep everyone posted on that is well.

Family vacation in Hayward, WI for Grandma and Grandpa's 30th Anniv.

Watching ships in canal park with Grandpa Hedlund

Well the Fransen's have had a pretty busy summer thus far. Daddy (Gabe) is busy with worked and golf this summer...leagues and just for fun. Mommy (Kelsey) is busy with work (now back to 4 days a week) and trying to get out to the golf course when she can. We are both really busy with Ella this summer though it seems.

We haven't taken any "big" trips this summer, but have gotten away for a few "mini" adventures which have include our friends' wedding which were both in, a trip to Sauk Rapids to visit my parents and Grandma Arliene and Duane, a trip to Detroit Lakes/Walker to visit Great Gram and Gramp Hedlund and my brother. WE also took a couple quick trips down to the Twin Cities for wedding/baby showers. Needless to say the summer is half over and we feel like it just started!


Ella is still growing like a weed and is a very happy baby. People are always so surprised how content and friendly she is with strangers and new places. She has however in the last few weeks started her separation issues from us. She will cry if she's in a new place or with new people and one of us is not there while she gets comfortable.


She continues to amaze us with how fast she is developing new skills. She had begun to crawl this last week, well actually is more like a belly flop, but it gets her to where she wants to go and is getting closer to a crawl all the time. This means we get to start baby proofing the house...yeh for us.

She has also begun to unstack her pyramid toys but can't quite figure out how to put them back on yet. She's eating solids and loving them...even more when she sneezes and gets it all over mommy!

My mom has summers off from her daycare so she been here during the middle of the week taking care of Ella and spoiling Gabe and me. I keep telling her that I think it is going to be a bigger adjustment for Gabe and me when she leaves cause we'll have to do all our regular chores again! It's been great having her here and I know that both her and Ella have really enjoyed having this time together.

Ella loves pulling Gabe's nose and arm hair and pulling my hair (hence me chopping it off). She has been spending more time in her pool, going for walks in her stroller, and shopping with Grandma Hedlund.

Over the last week we have discovered that Ella is allergic to something in powdered formula. She has broken out in hives for the last couple days during our "trials" to find out what was causing it and today she actually vomited all over Gabe while they were lying on the couch (he was not amused and couldn't get in the shower fast enough). So, we get to take some meds to try to produce more milk so that we can hopefully skip the whole formula thing and just go to whole milk when the time comes.

Other than that things are going great here and we are trying to enjoy as much of this gorgeous weather as we can with Ella. She's growing so fast and it's so fun to watch her discover new things accomplish new skills. Speaking of which, I see she is waking up from her nap so I need to get back to her.

Best Mother's Day Ever

I want to start off by saying Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all those moms out there...new and experienced. This year was especially special for myself, not only because it was my first Mother's Day with Ella, but because Ella decided to finally roll over for the first time!! We have been anxiously awaiting this moment for a few weeks now and finally she decided she was ready to show off her moves! I don't know which of us was more excited, but I do know I rolled her back over about 3 more times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke :).

Ella has also begun to sit up on her own. She started this the day before before Mother's Day (5/10/08). She holds herself up pretty well until she wants to grab a toy or gets excited and her extensors (back muscles) kick in and throw her off balance. She's pretty excited about sitting up as well and if even if prop up on her back will bring her head forward like she's doing an abdominal crunch until she rolls up to sit up. Needless to say she is making mine and her father's stomachs look pretty bad right now in comparison. Along with all the movement milestones Ella has also begun to talk a lot more....and not just to the fridge. She loves to hear us sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and will usually laugh with the hand gestures.

Ella had her 4 month Dr. appointment on 4/9/08. It was confirmed that we still have a mini-giant! She weighed in at 16lb 11 oz and 26.5 inches continuing to put her in the 97th percentile for both. Dr. Karstens asked how we liked having a 6th month old already :). Ella also received her second set of vaccinations. Gabe was able to come with to this appointment and I think he sort of wished he would have left the room when he saw the needle they were about to jab his daughter with. He had to see Ella cry, I mean really cry with actual tears, for the first time since she was born. Fortunately we all live through the shots and were able to calm her down soon after.

Once we got home Ella napped for the most of the day and woke up just for a bit later in the afternoon. I was resistant when she woke to give her more Tylenol because she didn't seem like her legs were bothering her.....boy was I wrong!!! About an hour after that we woke up to go the CSS baseball game and she began a hysterical cry for about a half hour until the Tylenol kicked in. After that she was fine from there on out, but I think it took a while longer for Gabe and I to recover.
The last weekend in April we were able to see some of our friends taht we don't get to see nearly enough thanks to a baby shower that my friends Liz, Diana and Tukey put on the shower. We met up at Blackwoods for brunch and hung out for a couple hours, or course opened wonderful gifts and put away some food of course.


It was really great to see some of our friends that our out of town whom we haven't seen in a really long time, or those friends that we just don't get to a lot of even though they live in town here with us! The pic is of Liz and her son Tommy who happens to be Ella's boyfriend and also our Godson. Liz and her husband Greg (Greg is former teammate of Gabe's on CSS baseball team) our Ella's Godparents as well. We love getting to see Tommy and how much he is changing so fast! He was a bit jealous of his mommy sharing hugs and kisses with Ella, but he warmed up to the idea eventually and even shared some hugs and kisses with Ella himself.


The following weekend was Gabe's birthday and I had planned a weekend of golfing and a Twins game with our friends Tukey and Tyler. Ella came with us down to there house Friday night and there she was able to spend some time with them and the rest of Tukey's family which included her adorable nieces (Haley pictured here with Ella and her younger sister is Lauren). It was great to see them all and they were all so excited to see Ella and how fast she has grown!

The following morning we met my mom and she brought Ella back up to St. Cloud for the weekend so we could go golfing and go to the Twins game. While up in St. Cloud Ella was able to meet her Great Grandma Arliene (my mom's mom) and her boyfriend Duane for the first time. They had been in Texas since last Oct/Nov, so had only seen pictures of Ella up until then. My cousins Hunter and Callie along with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Brad ventured up there as well to see Ella for the first time. It sounds like they had a great weekend of visiting and playing together. They must have because when we went to get Ella on Sunday she slept the entire ride home and went to bed when we got home and slept through the night!
So last weekend I left for a night for a Bachelorette party for our friend Rikki in the Twin Cities which meant Gabe was on full time Daddy duty for approximately 24 hours. I have to laugh because while I was preparing to leave on Saturday morning Gabe decided to dress Ella, or attempt to at least. I am always anxious/nervous to see what Ella is going to be wearing when she comes out of her room with her Daddy, especially when they are in there for almost a half hour! Needless to say it was interesting to say the least.

Poor Ella must have caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror because as you can see by the pictures she was crying and I am sure was trying to figure out why her mom would let this happen to her. He had completely covered her in pink....not necessarily matching, just pink. I laughed the hardest when I realized he had put the onesie on her that said "Don't Laugh At Me, Daddy Dressed Me!," how appropriate!!! These are pictures from that traumatic experience for Ella, not to humiliate her, but as proof to her father in case he tries to deny this abuse in future years :)

Fortunately, the rest of the weekend went well for both of them and they had a fun day of shopping for Mother's Day and watching golf and baseball much of the time.

Rolling On Through The Week

There hasn't been too much activity in the Fransen household since the last blog. After the "blizzard" weekend we return to our normal weekly routine. However, Gabe got to take advantage of us needing someone to watch Ella on Monday and worked from home with her. They apparently had a pretty explosive day....literally, I came home to a pile of clothes that Ella had either pooped or drooled on. Needless to say they were both still in great moods and had had a great time :).

The rest of the week went by pretty fast with work and all. Thursday night we took a family road trip out to Dunham's to find me a new putter and some golf clubs. Gabe was hold kids clubs up to Ella explaining that soon she would be out on the course with him. The scary part is that she was really fascinated with watching us putt in the store....just what I need, another golf-aholic :).

Friday night we laid low as a family and had a movie night which meant Ella and me fell asleep on the couch about 20 minutes into the movie while Gabe stayed up watching the entire thing :) Saturday morning Gabe and I went golfing in the rain and cold while my brother and his girlfriend came to watch Ella for the few hours. They couldn't believe how much she had changed in the couple of weeks since they had seen her last. She has really begun to drool EVERYWHERE and is so much more alert to her surrounds. She loves to grab at things now and especially love to play with other peoples hands while they are holding her.

Sunday we went out to Gabe's brother's house for a birthday party for him. All of Gabe's family was out there so it was great to see them all and for Ella to get to play with her cousins. She stayed up most of the time that we were there so she crashed pretty hard that night when we got home.

This week has been up and down for her with sleeping and eating. Seems like she is growing again because one day she will just much on the bottle and sleep most of the day and then the next she is back to her clock-work eating and napping normally again.

Yesterday was gorgeous out...almost 75 degrees, so Ella and I were outside or just out and about for most of the day. We went to visit the Mount Royal clinic where I used to work to take some pictures for my co-workers for work related stuff. A few of my former patients who are residents at the apartments stopped by to see her. Most of them had not seen me since I had first found out I was pregnant so poor Ella's cheeks were subjected to multiple pinches by these elderly women who wanted to eat her up.

We also went down to the boardwalk with my friend/co-worker Jill and walked for over an hour. It was so great to get outside and not have to bundle her up either. Needless to say both Ella and I crashed last night and slept in until 9am this morning. She has been sleeping a lot today but very happy and playing when she is up. She loves to play in her Bumbo chair with her toys on the tray now and is realizing she can bang things around on it (not too sure we are going to think that is so cute very soon).

She is also doing a great job on her tummy as you can see by the pictures. She is developing really well and is right on schedule with all of her gross motor milestones. This includes her starting to try to roll over. She has started to try to roll on her tummy from her back. We have been helping to show her how of course (punishment for her having a mom that is a pediatric therapist :) ) and she has been responding very well over the last couple days. In fact yesterday she started to initiate it all on her own!! She can get her upper body to start to roll, but can't quite get her legs to follow yet. She is so close that I am sure it will be withing the next week that she has it figured out. I really think that she's going to be up and running when she starts to move.

It's so great to have a great husband/dad like Gabe who is so eager to see her develop and so encouraging and supportive of her already! Its just as much fun to see how much he lights up when she smiles at him or does something new for him. I know both of us are excited for her to be able to start playing sports and activities, but at the same time we are just having so much fun seeing her grow and develop right now.

Well, Ella is starting to move around so I need to get ready to make goofy noises and funny faces for a while :) Hopefully the next blog we will have been out on the golf course and out in the sun!!!

Girls Weekend

Despite the blizzard we had to start this weekend it turn out to be a chilly but sunny, relaxing weekend for Ella and me. Gabe headed down to the Twin Cities for a bachelor party for our friend KK early Saturday morning for the weekend which left Ella and I for our girls weekend. I had originally planned to meet up with some friends in the Cities as well this weekend ,but things changed when all the nasty weather hit on Thurs/Friday...amazing how your plans change so quickly when a lil one is thrown into the mix.



So Ella and I met up with my friend/co-worker Jill on Saturday and did some shopping around town and went out for lunch. Ella loved riding around in her stroller and stayed awake for most of the trip while humoring us both as we held dozens of outfits up to her. She fell asleep while we were out to eat and pretty much slept pretty much the rest of the day when we got home. I joined her for a much needed nap when we got home and vegged out for the night with movies and snuggling.




Ella woke up bright and early this morning at 7:30 ready to play of course and was all smiles. We played for much of the morning in between me doing some laundry. After her bath I put her in a new outfit that I had bought for her at the Nike Outlet in Albertville about a month ago. Of course she wasted no time hamming it up for the camera as you can see.



Ella had another first today...she offically held her bottle all on her own for her feeding. She has propped with one hand before, but never actually grabbed at her bottle to hold it up before. She started to grab at it and I thought it was just a fluke, but even after her burpings she grabbed at it again to hold it up! I had to take a picture to show Gabe since he was out of town still. Notice again how she hams up and shows off for the camera :)


The rest of the day includes watching the Masters (golf) and continuing to veg out since tomorrow it's back to work again for me while Ella gets to stay home with Daddy for the day who will be working from home with her.

Ready For the Next Season

Well let's see....last Friday my close friend from college (pitcher on the softball squad), Azur, came over to visit us in the afternoon. Azur herself is pregnant and due the end of July so it was great to visit and talk with her about her pregnancy and everything to expect. Ella is so excited to meet her future teammate :) and I can't wait for Azur to be a "mommy" with me so we can have play dates!!

Over the weekend Ella had the joy of meeting my mom's best friend from high school, DeeAnn and her significant other Don. Both of which are very close family friends and we always enjoy when they come to visit...even though it isn't near enough! Friday night we had them, my parents and my brother and Jen over and we all just vegged out and visited which was great.

Saturday, Gabe, Ella, and I ventured over to Mille Lacs to a resort bright and early in the morning to get a "prize" that Gabe had one from a drawing....needless to say it was a pitch for a time share. To sum things up we worked them over and got a great weeks vacation next year for dirt cheap :)

Once we got home we met up with my family and friends down in Canal Park and did a little shopping. Sat night we did much of the same as Friday. One of my best friends from college, Diana, and her fiance, Jeff also stopped by to visit...it was Jeff's first time meeting Ella. Diana looked like a nature holding Ella :). Later that night Gabe and the guys tried to get a fire going....which they did, only to have it downpour/sleet on them :( . Us girls took a road trip up to Walmart and bought Ella a mobile for her crib and put it together. Ella loved it and went to sleep about 5 minutes after lying her down.

Sunday was a lazy day....Mom and Dad came over before they left town and watched Ella so we could go hit a couple bucket of balls at the Dome. Well...not sure how much they "watched" since they all took much needed naps. :) Much of the rest of the day was like this.

Well, it was the first week back to work for me since Ella was born. I was expecting it to be really hard and long, but it proved to only be a little hard and very long! My first day back I had a full day schedule, but all of my patients except for the last one of the day were no shows so I pretty much twiddled my thumbs all day which made it extremely long. Needless to say, it was great to see my co-workers again....missed their sarcasm and jokes :).

Ella spent Monday with Jen (my brother's girlfriend) who will also help watch her on Fridays and Tuesdays she will be hanging out with Grandma Louise (Gabe's mom). She did really well for both of them and they both survived. Louise got a taste of Ella's frequent diaper changing, having changed her diaper only to have her poo in that one while she was buttoning up her outfit.

Ella has really begun to suck on her fingers/hand lately. It's funny because she tries to put her pacifier in her mouth with her hands, but gets frustrated and ends up putting her hands in. She hasn't rolled over since her first experience a couple weekends ago, but she continues to try to army crawl. She is also holding her head up higher while on her tummy.

Well, the "season" has begun...for those of you who don't know, that means baseball. Ella has already been corrupted with the Yankees plague. Her father and Grandfather (Ron) are well....a bit obsessed with the Yankees and Gabe has every intention of passing this disease onto his first born. If that's not bad enough, others have begun to support them...including my great aunt who got Ella this T-shirt (pictured) and also a Yankees pacifier. Gabe's former college teammate, Jake, got her a pink Yankee hat, which the way her head is growing will probably fit her next week! Needless to say, Grandpa Ron and Gabe were very happy to see she is fitting into her T-shirt and supporting the Yanks, despite their slow start this season.



Well for those of you outside of Minnesota or anywhere warmer than here, you might have heard that we are in the middle of a blizzard right now...hence me blogging in the middle of a Friday afternoon while I should be at work :). We have been hit with 60mph winds and a snow/sleet/rain for the last 24 hours...so much fun. Luckily Ella and I ventured up to Target yesterday and bought some extra wipes and diapers for the weekend.

I went to a jewelry party at my friend Kara's after Gabe got home last night before most of it hit...minus the winds. Once home, I bundled Ella up in her cuddly sleep sack and we vegged out on the couch for most of the night.

We woke up this morning to about 5 inches of snow and howling winds at about 60 mph which have been tossing ice off the trees into the side of our house.



The two trees in front of our house on either side of our front steps are completely bent over from the wind and ice/snow that have built up on them. One of the limbs is leaning right over our front door. You can't see it too great from this picture, but you get the idea.

Needless to say Ella and I will be watching some DVDs this weekend and probably taking a lot of naps (Gabe has a bachelor party in the Twin Cities tomorrow). Hopefully the snow will met soon so we can start the next "season".....GOLF!!! Ella can't wait to ride in her stroller on the course. Until then, she will continue to sleep the snow away :)

Spring is here!!!

Yesterday was so gorgeous out that I was able to take Ella out for a walk in the 57 degree heat wave we had! She had a "growing" day where she slept a lot so she slept a lot during the walk, but it was great to get out for an hour and walk myself! I only hope it continues through the weekend because my parents and some family friends are in town so hoping to do some shopping down in canal...something that is always easier when the weather cooperates :)




Ella achieved one of her gross motor milestones last Sunday and rolled over from her tummy to her back all on her own in front of Gabe. He thinks it was an "accident," but was so excited none the less. I was upstairs doing something and heard Gabe yell "Yeh, you did it! Kel, she rolled over all on her own!!!" I was so excited that he was able to witness cause having been home with Ella the last 3 months I have gotten to see most of the new "tricks" on my own so it was great that he got to experience the excitement.

Ella has also started to really use her hands to grab and play with toys. She really enjoys her floor mat that plays music when she moves it, but she has also started to pick up her rattle off her tray when sitting in her Bumbo chair. So fun to watch her get excited when she discovers these new things.

Ella also had one other first this week...she managed to poop all the way up her back into her hair. Now we have had up the back many times...daily occurrence usually, but into the hair was a first. So needless to say she went right into the bath! I thought about just dropping her and her diaper in the tub(a maneuver her father accidentally performed earlier this week) but realized it would only have to clean her and the tub! I would have taken pictures to embarrass her as a teen, but I was home alone with her and frankly the thought of wearing any more poo is just not appealing to me :)

Gabe's oldest brother EJ and his family have moved back to MN this week and are living here temporarily until they move out the the Carolinas. So Ella was able to meet to more of her cousins, Alona and Elisha for the first time when they came over to visit last night. Alona was pretty excited to hold her cousin while Elisha was still a bit shy around her. It will be great to spend time with them while they are here since they have been out of state for the last few years.

Well, that is it for this week, I will be sure to update after the weekend. Monday is my big first day back to work and Ella's first day to get babysat. I am sure it will be a hard and long day....only for me I am sure, but I am sure it will go just fine. The good news is that I am only going back to work 3 days a week for right now :)