Almost Birthday!

The old blog has been pretty quiet lately because we've been pretty busy! Tuesday we had an excellent swim lesson. The instructor has started letting go of Elizabeth while she's in her back float, and she floats herself for a few seconds. Then we went to go see Great Lisa, who had arrived in town for her summer holiday. It's so fun that she's getting to see Elizabeth so often, and that she's so much bigger and more fun each time she visits.

Then on Wednesday, the happiest day ever, Becca flew in to town! She and Kate were supposed to be on the same flight, which was awesome. Except that around 3am their time, their flight got canceled. Becca was able to book herself on the flight to LAX that landed around the same time as their original flight, but poor Kate spent almost the entire day at O'Hare, waiting to get finally put on a flight. While we usually avoid driving up to LAX to retrieve visitors, it was worth it for our Auntie Becca, and plus the timing was perfect to scoop her up and then jet off to Bottega Louie for lunch together. Ellie behaved herself (mostly) and thankfully, the restaurant is pretty loud. Last time Becca was here Ellie was only nine weeks old, and all she really did was lay around and cry. Now she's a real person! Crawling, waving, clapping, eating portobello mushroom fries!

Today we hung out and relaxed in the morning and then headed over to finally see Auntie Kate, who'd arrived around 10:30 last night (but thankfully, got into Santa Ana instead of LA.) Ellie showed off her crawling skills and then clapped for herself when she'd launched her chubby buns across the room. Mom got some alone time with her little babydoll while the rest of us went and got our hooves done, which was incredibly sweet of her. Too bad Becca was loud and mouthy and we embarrassed ourselves at the salon by laughing too hard. THEN we went and bought fabulous fake eyelashes for the upcoming costume party. I'm feeling ready to go! Now if only we had the food all bought and the house cleaned. It'll happen in time, I suppose.

Tomorrow it's time for some serious party prep... after tumbling class of course!

Get that Kid a Wheelbarrow!

Crawling's hard when your head is so huge.

Working Out.

Here's a few more highlights from today's baby gym class. GETTING RIPPED!

Doing a little time in the hole.

Harnessing a dolphin for an awesome ride (sorry about the picture quality.)

Hanging out in the ball pit, thinking "SAVE ME, UNCLE JOHN!"

And shooting the cannon!

Like Father, Like Daughter.

Up Hair.

How do you like my new haaaaair?

We're Gonna Win Twins!

(...except when we don't.)

Yesterday one of my mom girlfriends emailed us and asked if we wanted to join her in her company's suite at the Angels/Twins game. I of course, jumped on it, since Dad said he didn't care if I went, seeing as I'm already dead to him for taking Ellie to see a game in April (a stupid Angels game! It didn't even have any good Twins players!) I was able to get two tickets, so I brought the two biggest Twins fans I know - Ellie and Auntie Sara.

It actually worked out great, because dad was also at the game, in another suite. We got there in time to see Bert throw out the first pitch to his grandson and then got some snacks and settled in. The suite was amazing. There were 12 seats outside, and then it basically had an attached living room with a couch, a nice chair, a TV, a bar and your very own bathroom. It's perfect with a baby - we were able to set Ellie and her buddy Jonathan down and let them wander around, it was air conditioned, and we could walk around with her if she got fussy. Ellie did GREAT. Very little fussing, overall. It helped that we had Auntie Sara there. She snapped the ergo carrier for me and she was always ready to put her hands over Ellie's ears if the noise got too loud. Kelly remarked after Sara left that Ellie is lucky to have such a great, attentive aunt.

We did get a chance to go over to Dad's suite and say hello (and eat some of their catered food, as you do.) It was really a nice evening, and she did so much better than I ever expected. I changed Ellie into her PJs before we headed out, and she slumped over in her carseat on the drive home. Hopefully she'll sleep in tomorrow!

How embarrassing. We're all wearing the same shirt! (Sara and I have our names on the back - Ellie's is a Joe Mauer shirt.)

The view from our seats

Shot of the sunset from Dad's suite

Ellie and Jonathan having a stare down!

"Gramps, why is my team losing!!!"

Seis.

This weekend, Tim and I celebrated our sixth holy weddiversary. And we did it up right, because both sets of grandparents volunteered to watch the baby so we could go out and celebrate. So we double dipped and got Grams and Gramps to take her on Saturday so we could go out for a nice dinner, and on Sunday we brought he to Grandma and Grandpa's and then we ditched out to see Harry Potter and have something to eat. It was so hot and humid in Yorba Linda that the theater was packed and we ended up having to go see a later show. To pass the time, we went to Knowlwood and had milkshakes and beer, and played some air hockey. I sadly, sustained an air hockey injury. That's why I lost three games straight. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ellie had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. Check it - they taught her how to walk!