Party Time!

We had a pretty great afternoon yesterday - first off, we got to clean the kitchen and actually move our make shift fridge and pantry back into the actual kitchen. LOVE the fancy new fridge and all the amenities! (I think Tim is excited that this round of nursing a newborn, he won't have to have so much work keeping me hydrated, with the ice maker and the water in the door.) I also tried the oven out, with a round of lemon cupcakes. It was a dream come true! Our tiny LA apartment may not have had many nice features, but it did have a gas oven that I've often missed. Cooking with gas again was a beautiful thing, and the cupcakes came out great (even if I did spend a lot of time digging around in the office to find a cook book, and all of my spices and supplies.)

We took our cupcakes, our semi-cranky daughter (she takes wretched naps on the weekend, no matter what we do) and ourselves out to Redlands for Pari and James' holiday party. We were able to go two years ago when Ellie was barely seven weeks old, and it was such a surreal night - so good to see her family, but we had this teeny tiny baby and I just remember spending most of the party nursing her upstairs, and then sitting in the back seat holding her hand on the drive home, praying she wouldn't wake up and be upset (because it's a loooooong drive.) This time we made the journey in good time, and Ellie remained in good spirits for most of it.

And then she was an absolute CHAMP at the party. Spent most of the time asking to eat carrots or cookies (more carrots than cookies though, unbelievably) and playing with Pari's dog Jango and her brother's dog Kobe. Both dogs were remarkably good with her, and when they got a little wild they went outside for a bit (and I explained to Ellie that they were in Time Out, which she was okay with.) Everyone kept saying "oh, I can't believe how good she is an entertaining herself," and frankly, I was pretty amazed too, because that is not like her. But hey, I got to have an evening of adult conversation, Tim got to drink some beers, and we all had a great time.

Pari and I are due within two weeks of each other - she is having a girl, I am still having a boy. So yesterday I dumped off five giant garbage bags of girl clothes, which I wept going through the other day. I can only hope her baby enjoys them as much as Ellie did. To think that 14 years ago Pari and I were borrowing clothes out of each other's dorm room closets (often without asking) and here we are now, sharing clothes between our babies.

Ellie loving on Kobe

Looking longingly at Jango who, for being a puppy still, was really well behaved with her. Except for when he clearly wanted to eat one of her stuffed bunnies

Miss and her stuffed bunny prior to the car ride

Some amusing things has started saying recently:
"no problem mama!"
"are you okay?" (following one of us sneezing or coughing)

Yesterday Tim was warning her not to pet too close to Kobe's butt, and she looked at Tim, then pointed to Kobe's rear section and goes "the butt is over here, dada."

Also, the other night she was whining in the car about music, and I said "do you want to listen to Single Ladies or Call me Maybe?" and from the back seat she sniffled and said "Single Ladies."