Spotlight on Elli 2007

Elora Virgina Ferrara
(named after Dave's grandma Virgina)
Born June 9, 2007

Here are some random pictures of the past 6 months!

December Elli likes bananas!!

4th of July What a surprise! Elli is crying in both pictures. She looks cute though!

July Blessing Day. Grandma Johnson has made all 6 girls a beautiful and unique blessing dress. This is my favorite so far. Elli looked like a little angel.

December 6 months I can sit up all by myself now! Elli has crazy hair! Poor kid. As it grows in it gets fuzzier and fuzzier. I can't get it to comb down. She really looks like a little elf with her big eyes and ears that stick out! We like bows on her head for a reason!

December Queen of the laundry mountain! Ever wonder what happens when you don't fold the laundry right away at the Ferrara house? YIKES! Who's going to iron all those clothes?

December Red cheeks and nose from being outside!

November Elli got to go to Disneyland with the girls. Carissa liked her until we decided to go on Space Mountain. Carissa was tired so she offered to take care of sleeping Elli. Right after we left Elli woke up and started crying and when she starts there's no stopping until mommy has her. Poor Carissa! We hope she will forgive us and Elli. Someday she'll laugh about it when she has her own baby and I have to take care of it! Elli did get two teeth the day we got home from that trip, so we know why she was crabbier than usual!

October The family has gotten really good at doing what we need to and taking care of Elli at the same time. Corina just keeps practicing away!

September Mariah thinks Ellie is her dolly! It was actually nice to have her push Elli around a little bit because she wouldn't cry!

June Elli had a tough time at first. Notice in all the first couple of months she was crying constantly. She was born 7 lbs. 9 oz. which is a good size for a baby (she's even chubby looking in the first pictures), and like most babies lost weight before she left the birthing center. She was still only 7 lbs. 2 oz. at her two week appointment, then at her 6 week appointment she was 7 lbs. 10 oz. The doctors were concerned because most babies gain a lot faster than that. I have such troubles with nursing (OUCH!), but I was nursing ALL the time. She was always fussy and she looked like a little skeleton. She didn't even register on their charts for percentiles. It was scary. The doctor encouraged me to just give her one 2 oz. bottle of formula a day. We did that and she started gaining really quickly. She's almost 7 months now and she weighs a little over 14 pounds. She's in the 20th percentile now. HOORAY! She's still a fussy little stinker. She really likes her mama and she cries if anyone outside the family tries to even look at her. She's very sensitive. If she hears loud noises it will get her really upset. She's much happier now though. She thinks her brother and sisters are really funny and likes the older ones to hold her. She's starting to like toys and eating some solids so things are looking up!

We love you, Elli! We can't wait to see what great things you are going to learn this coming year.