Almost Zero Hour!

The time is finally here! Ellie is ready for her very first trip to her ancestral homeland of La Crosse, Wisconsin. Will she and I survive the trip together? Will we manage four days without our helpful, hands on Superdaddy? Will Grams make it through four whole days without her little girlfriend? Stay tuned to find out!

New Favorite Toy.

She loves staying hydrated. If she's been fussy over the past few days, all I have to do is hand her the water bottle. Will she drink out of it though, if I squirt it into her mouth? Of course she won't.

Oh my goodness, have we had a busy, tiring weekend!

Friday Elizabeth did a little hanging out with Grams and Gramps while Tim and I went out for a sushi date. It's so strange to me to be out without her now. It's like I'm undercover and no one knows I'm a mom. And after almost seven months of being her mom basically around the clock, it's weird - it's like I'm incognito or something. But Tim and I had a great time, and Ellie enjoyed partying it up with her grandparents and Auntie Sara, so everyone wins!

Saturday morning she and I went for a walk, and then got ourselves ready to head out to Yorba Linda to FINALLY meet Ellie's true love boyfriend, Logan. Logan belongs to Cory and Natalie, Tim's best childhood friend and his Scottish bride, and man, is he ever cute. It was so darling to see the babies finally together. And as you would expect, they are in love. We had to head out to Chino for an interlude of family, celebrating a First Communion and a Confirmation, but then we were back and hanging out with the babies until WAY past bedtime. It was great to catch up with Cory and Natalie, who we haven't seen in almost two years. The kids were fun together - Ellie is better at sitting up, while Logan was rolling all over the floor and crying when they kept him from clunking himself into the coffee table. Natalie sang cute little Scottish songs to both kids, and they enjoyed their Sophie's together.

A funny story: we were out at dinner, and Logan had been eating some delicious baby food squash. He was full, so I asked if I could try feeding Ellie a bite, thinking that she'd make her horrible disgusted face and start gagging and it would amuse the other guests at the table to see how dramatically she hates human food. Of course, the little turd had to make a liar out of me, and it turns out, she LOVES squash. Loves it. Gladly ate several bites, and had some more this morning when we bought her a small supply. Further proof that she is not my child - hates avocado and pears but loves squash? The exact opposite of me.

We left Yorba Linda after eight and had a rough ride home. Elizabeth was so tired that she cried the entire drive, which she hasn't done since she was wee. Usually now she just falls asleep after a little fussing. Uff da. She slept okay once we got her home and fed and cuddled.

And then today I awoke to my first ever Mother's Day. Ellie and her daddy got me cards and a very pretty bracelet, and Tim went and got us bagels for breakfast (though the first thing I did this morning was give the baby breakfast in bed. She'll repay me next year, I'm sure.) She and I went for a nice walk and then we went over to mom and dad's to hang out for the afternoon. Don and Eileen came over and we had a great time just spending the day together. Ellie was still pretty overtired, so we resorted to having Tim drive her around the block so she'd conk out in her carseat and at least get a little napping done. Ugh - at six and a half months, she will NOT go to sleep on her own if there's action around her, no matter how bad she needs the shut eye. After some rest she showed everyone how much she likes to eat squash, she played with her toys, she cried when everyone laughed loudly, and she was generally the best little entertainer in the world. It's amazing to think that a year ago we were announcing to the world that Wolfie Von Focker was in fact a baby girl, and 365 days later, that same baby girl is sitting on the dining room table in her bumbo, chatting at us through dinner.

I am a very lucky mommy. And a very lucky daughter.

Can you imagine how melonheaded their babies are going to be someday?

Bob, Natalie, Cory, Tim, me and Jake, plus babies.

"Mmmm... squash!"

Ellie and some of the lovely ladies in her life.

Ellie and the Fockers/photographic evidence that sometimes, sometimes, grandpa gets to hold her.

We do not gnaw on our kitties!

Though sometimes, they kind of ask for it.

Sophie.

Have you met Sophie? If your children are in their 30s, you probably have not, though allegedly, Sophie has been around since the 1960s. But up until recently, she lived exclusively in France. She's supposedly the most amazing toy for babies, because she's easy to grip, she has contrasting colors that catch a baby's eye, and she's delicious to chew on. Since Sophie costs about $25, she better be the most amazing toy ever, amirite?

Ellie LOVES her Sophie. She likes to chew on the legs, or stick Sophie's snout in her mouth for some French kissing action.


They are true loves. It especially makes me laugh because when I'm out with my mommy friends, someone always comments on how their kid doesn't go to town on Sophie the way Elizabeth does. I have to remind them that their kid takes a paci. When my kid gets fussy in her stroller, I can't stick a binky in her mouth. Instead, I jam a giraffe leg into her pie hole.

Tim took the day off today (and tomorrow too) because our friends Cory and Natalie and their son Logan are back visiting California while Cory's on leave from the Marines - normally they're all the way in Japan. We'd hoped to meet up with them today but plans did not come through (understandable, as both sets of grandparents are just meeting Logan for the first time - Natalie's parents flew all the way from Scotland!)

This morning we had a professional photo session with a local photographer, thanks to a gift certificate from Don and Eileen from Christmas. I'm glad we waited so long to use it - at Christmas time I did not have my bananas together enough to do a good photo session, and now that Elizabeth is big enough to sit on her own, it gave us a lot more options for photos. We did a lot outside, we did some in her bedroom, but it turns out our bedroom had the best lighting. We did some cute family shots of all of us sitting together in bed, and then a lot of our little sweetiebean alone, including some of our little roley poley in the buff. Is there anything cuter than a baby butt? It was funny - the photog asked if we wanted Elizabeth's strawberry mark airbrushed out of the photos (it's a little red splotch on her back) to which we said of course not! It's her cute little birthmark (though it's allegedly going to go away as she gets older.) I cannot wait to get the photos back and see how cute she looks. It'll also be nice to finally have some great photos of the three of us as a family, and some of the baby and I together. I feel like I catch a lot of good moments between Elizabeth and Tim, but there aren't very many between the two of us together. Mostly because I look so dang haggard all of the time!

Tricked Ya!

Haha, tonight we got Elizabeth to eat something other than cereal. By pureeing the heck out of a couple of slices of pear and mixing the pear with the cereal. I tried giving her a few bites straight up, and she gagged, spit it out and then glared at me. But mixed with cereal, it was palatable. Not sure how much pear she actually got, but hey, it's progress, and we'll bust out the magic bullet again tomorrow and try again. I also got some ice cube trays in the dollar section at Target today, so some weekend soon I'm going to puree the crap out of a bunch of vegetables and freeze them in batches... to eventually be refused by my willful daughter who's perfectly happy to just nurse.

This is her favorite new face to make. The crinkle nose smile. Kills me!

Here she is with her favorite rattle, thinking about her favorite team.

And lastly, here she is yesterday at MY favorite restaurant, Bottega Louie in downtown LA. We went up and met Ingrid and Emily for lunch and some wonderful chatting, and had a fabulous time. She sat with the girls so I got to eat a whole meal without once holding my baby! Emily is expecting a baby boy in August, so pulling her plate out of Ellie's hands while trying to steer food into her own mouth was good practice for her.

The Poor Kid Stands No Chance.

Her weird parents are totally going to turn her into a weirdo. AKA: this is how we amuse ourselves. By amusing our baby.