My Baby is 4

I don't know where the time has gone.  My baby turned 4 on Monday.  It doesn't seem so long ago that I looked like this.  This picture was taken around Christmas 2005.  I had so many people tell me I wasn't making it until February.  Oh, how I loved being pregnant -even with the 9 months of morning sickness!

I was in labour for 27ish hours, at 2-5 minutes apart.  Not much rest for Momma, at least not until we got the ambulance ride to Ottawa and Momma got her epidural  :)  Thank goodness for c-sections.  I was so exhausted, I don't think I could have delivered Ella, even if the pitocin had of worked.  As it was, Ella was tired too and her heartbeat started going 'wonky' so off we were whisked to the OR.

Ella was born at 11:49 pm on the first, so this picture is actually just a couple hours later.  I got to hold her briefly in the recovery room, but not for long because she had jaundice and they wanted to get her 'under the lights'.  I was so tired, I just wanted to finally get some sleep  :)   Ella was 6lb 11oz, just a nice 'baby' size.  People are so used to everyone having such big babies that I was always being asked if she was a preemie.  I would laugh and say 'yes, by eleven minutes'.

  My Grandma and Uncle came up a couple days after we got home from the hospital.  This is a picture of 4 generations of Heard women.  My Mom has a picture with my Great Grandma Heard, so we're continuing the tradition.  Ella is Grandma's third great grandchild.  And she was very pleased.

This is Ella's first birthday.  As you can see, she doesn't have too much hair.  At least she had more than my sister, she was nearly bald until she was 1.  We gave Ella a piece of birthday cake, but she didn't want any part of it -she wanted her applesauce.  That certainly has changed!

This is Ella's first time actually helping me bake.  She's rolling out some sugar cookies.  Ella loves helping me in the kitchen.   

Ok, technically, this is a birthday picture for Daddy.  But his birthday is March 9th, so it's not far off.  For some reason, I can't find any 2008 pictures on the computer.  They must have been lost when we got the new computer and the originals are 'away' somewhere.  My girl is getting so tall.  She grew 4 1/4 inches.  Obviously Ella's taking after Daddy.  She's also taking after Daddy because she just devoured her 2nd birthday cake.  She's a 'Fletcher' through and through, I think she'd eat anything if I covered it in chocolate  :)

Here's our birthday girl last year.  It's so hard to get her to sit still long enough for a picture.  It's nice when we can get a family shot.  Ella grew another 4 1/4 inches.  I'm going to be the shortest one in this family in no time.  I have to agree with my friends.  I actually think 3 was harder than 2.  With 2 Ella was just testing the boundaries and needed firm 'rules'.  With 3 she was actually starting to form her own opinions and was trying to exert her own personality and wants.  I can't believe how bright she is.  Ella is just like a sponge when it comes to learning.  And she's such a loving child too.

Everything was so crazy this year, I forgot to get a nice birthday picture of my princess.  This one is from the family birthday party we had at my in-laws.  It was Auntie Lizzie's birthday on the 30th, so they share a party.  That's Grandpa Jack with Ella in the picture.  Ella's already 41 inches tall, she grew 3 1/2 inches last year.  We'll be looking eye-to-eye soon. Wow, my baby is 4.  She is such a joy to be around.  So loving and caring.  I can't wait to see what this year brings.