Surprise!

She hates the Easter Bunny almost as much as she hates Santa! Even having her little hop hop with her didn't make it any better.

Happy First Day of Spring!

She's the most beautiful flower in the patch!

The picture from a year ago is my FAVORITE shot of her from her first year. And even though looking at those pictures side by side I can see so many of her baby features in her little girl face, I feel like I hardly recognize that baby.

In addition to being a flower, she is also unicorn, apparently. Check out all of those molars!

17 Months.

We are almost a year and a half, can you believe it?

Ellie's biggest development at this age is all of her crazy talking. She's begun to put words together, which is very cute. I just wonder how many words it takes before it becomes a sentence. Does "mama shoes" count as a sentence? She is big into discussing people's shoes, food items and her babies. Oh man, is she in love with her babies. She is constantly pushing one or both around in her stroller, and sometimes she lets her bunny join in the fun. Today she put her baby in the stroller and placed a washrag over her, and then told me "shhh... baby night night." It's way cuter than when she barges in on me in the bathroom and yells "mama pee! Bye bye pee!"

She loves music, and will often ask us to start playing music so she can dance. She's also definitely warmed up to our weekly music class and will play along pretty loudly. In music class, we do a song where there's tap-tap-tapping and clap-clap-clapping, and she loves to do it in the car (the mommy in the front will tap tap tap and then the baby in the back will clap clap clap.) Tim was sort of amazed the other day to realize that she can differentiate the two and perform the right action when asked.

Vanity Smurf is still the vainest baby in all the world and adores looking at pictures of herself. I realized the other day though that in her little baby flip book, her favorite pictures are the ones of her with someone else. She likes to look through it and point out all of her family members, including Howe and Ro, which always makes me so incredibly happy - I can't wait for her to see her great grandparents again this summer. She also loves skyping with people, and when she hears the skype start up noise, will look at the computer and ask for Howe or Ro.

Overall, she's a pretty great little egg.
Sitting in her lawn chair with her babies.

Reading "Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog" to her pals.

"Oh Grams, don't go on vacation EVER AGAIN."

The Many Faces of Fusserina.

It appears we are in the throes of the terrible twos. I've been kind of down, feeling like no matter what I do, I can't seem to make my baby happy for more than ten seconds at a time, unless I let her sit in my lap, nursing and eating yogurt while also zoning out to pictures of herself on the computer and kicking me in the chin.

Good thing she's cute, eh?

First Sleepover!

A few months ago, I got an alert that Guster, a band I loved in college (and beyond) was playing a small acoustic show in LA on a Friday night, so I bought some tickets for Tim and I to go, assuming as I normally do, that my parents would be able to take care of Ellie for us. When I realized they were going to be out of town being snowbunnies, I had to come up with a second plan, and so we called Grandma and Grandpa (note: this is not a comment on anyone's grandparenting - it's just easier for my mom to come over and put Ellie to bed in her own bed at night than it is for Don and Eileen to drive a half hour here and back during the evening-times. And since baby sleep can be a tricky thing, my goal is usually to ensure that E is asleep in her own bed at the end of the night.) Because Friday was a workday, it was a lot easier for us to bring Ellie to their house than for them to come to us in the timeline allotted (Tim and I needed to be in LA, at the show no later than 7:15.) When we were discussing it, Eileen volunteered that we could leave the baby with them and have AN ENTIRE DATE NIGHT TO OURSELVES. It was like she had just handed me a winning lottery ticket. Seriously. There is something so nice about imagining not only going out on a Friday night, but also sleeping in on a Saturday morning.

So we got our wheels turning. We needed to leave early enough to be in LA for a 7:30 show, we needed to have all of Ellie's items packed for the overnight, we needed to find ourselves a place to stay and think about what we'd have for dinner, etc. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa (now renamed Mimi and Paw... I know - it's getting so confusing!) went above and beyond, getting a bed rail for the guest bed and a baby gate to ensure that the Peanutty Buddy could not find her way down the stairs. We brought over our stroller and a car seat so they could get out and about as they wanted, and I booked Tim and I downtown at the Biltmore Hotel, where we stayed for our fourth wedding anniversary, low those many years ago.

It was a perfect night. The Guster show was in a tiny little theater and so intimate and fun. They played great songs off their new album and a lot of old favorites, as well as doing some goof ball conversational stuff with the audience. We'd arrived early enough to get some delicious sushi across the street, and then after we checked into our hotel we scampered down to Bottega Louie (my favorite restaurant) for a couple of desserts, and then we had a cocktail back at the hotel lounge. Went to bed late, slept in, and then woke up and laid around for awhile. I will admit, it warms my heart when I wake up and hear Ellie's happy little voice over the monitor asking "mama? Mama? Milk? Mama?" but it also warms my heart to roll over and snuggle into a pillow because I have nothing to do and nowhere to be.

Once we got up and going we hit up the Nickel Diner for good old fashioned diner food, and maple bacon donuts. My sinuses were all wonky and giving me a terrible headache that made food look not so good, which was sad, because everything was pretty amazing. We managed to make good time driving home in the crazy rain, and our little lovebug was only sort of happy to see us - she had slept like a dream and was still in full on Mimi and Paw-loving mode, which is about the best thing ever.

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a rainy bust, but the clouds parted around 6:30 and we jammed Ellie in her stroller and took a quick spin around the neighborhood. Hopefully she'll sleep good for us tonight, after all the fun she's had. Baby's first sleep over!

A Day With Auntie Sara.

So, Grams (now apparently known as Gigi, per Dad's recommendation) and Grizz abandoned their girls (and Tim) to go skiing in Colorado. SELFISH SELFISH SELFISH. That's fine, we don't need 'em! I can raise my baby by myself, while also keeping an eye on Sara.

Since Sara had today off from working and volunteering, we decided to make the most of it. Ellie had a make up swim lesson, so Sara went in the pool with her. Beans still cried when forced to back float, but overall made less of a stink about being in the water. It just continues to prove the instructor's point that she cries not because she's upset or scared in the water - she just wants to cling to mom and not do the work. Then Sara and I had lunch and watched Family Feud (her choice) while Ellie napped. Hit up an afternoon play date and then off to our big fun - buying Ellie some new shoes. Her current ones are getting pretty beat up and I figured it was time to have her size checked. Plus Stride Rite was having a buy one get one half off sale. I love me a sale.

As a refresher, here's what happened when Gigi bought Ellie her first pair of shoes.

Which brings me to today. She was so cute - she just kept pulling shoes off the racks and saying "baby? Shoes? Shoes? Baby? Shoes?" It was really fun to see. I ended up getting her two pairs - one pair of red Mary Jane-like shoes, and then a pair of sequined jobbies. HOW COULD I RESIST? I couldn't.

(sorry for the quality - my cell phone's camera is a piece of garbage.)

I figure they'll be great for summer, as I'm not sure how a kid who is still klutzy as heck will do in sandals (please to witness her forehead bruise in the above picture.) She was so happy about it all, with no crying.

Until I took my Jamba Juice back and refused to let her drink it in the car. Sorry kid, I'm pretty sure you don't need an entire smoothie of your own. Next time, perhaps I will get her a little child sized one. Something to look forward to for her fall shoe shopping trip.

Sara also took Tim and I out to dinner tonight. Ellie is having some serious tantrum moments lately, especially if I don't let her stick her hand in my ice water while at restaurants. When I told her agua was all gone, there was much screaming, and a trip out to the parking lot. She never misses a chance to ruin a nice day, that kid. But then when we got home, I asked her for a kiss and she ran over and gave me a big snotty one, and let me snuggle her off to bed tonight with zero fight. I guess I'll keep her. I mean, I did just invest in new shoes, so she can stay until she outgrows them at least.

New Wheels.

Last week I realized that the wheels on my umbrella stroller were worn to the rims from all the walking Ellie and I have been doing. I called the manufacturer, and they said that they don't make my stroller anymore, and they never made wheel kits for it, so basically, the rims are the rims and the wheels are the wheels. It's still completely usable, but obviously not meant for the 20+ miles I'm putting on it every week. So after much hemming and hawing, I decided to get a fancy jogging stroller, like the Orange County yuppie I am.

Lulu loves the Bob.

She also loves the box. Ellie loves playing peekaboo with her - it's the most interaction they've had with one another since Ellie started crawling.

And in only two walks, the stroller has totally changed my life. It's so easy to push and steer, and it's got a much nicer seat for my little love bug. Sometimes I feel bad about hauling Ellie along on all my walks - she spends about 90 minutes a day in the stroller - but then on the mornings when I'm tired and want to lay around like a fat lazy slug, she will go and pound on the front door and say "a walk! A walk!" or bring me my shoes. She's a good little workout buddy. It doesn't hurt that we try to walk with friends, so while the moms talk, the girls will try to hold hands or exchange toys. And Ellie loves seeing all the dogs and scenery while we walk.

We had a really nice weekend. Saturday afternoon we had tickets to see a community theater production of Suessical the Musical. The kids in it were really great, and the show was super fun. The story was familiar to those of us who read "Dr. Suess's Alphabet Book" 12 times a day, so I don't know that I'd pay to see it on Broadway, but it was great as community theater. Ellie sat through the first half really well, though she got a little fidgety during the slow numbers. Lexi and Ellie chased each other around during intermission and then... the cause was lost. She hollered and cried through the first few minutes of the second act, so we took her out and let her run around and hoot at the birds outside. Still, it was a great experience, and I'm so glad that she seems to love the arts. She'd make her Grandma Rosie proud.

Lexi and Ellie love the Cat in the Hat

Yesterday the weather was beautiful here, and so after a nice long walk and a nice long nap, we decided to have friends over to BBQ. A couple of our baby friends came over, and a couple of Tim's nerd friends, and we all sat outside and had hot dogs and beer while the kids ran around, fought over the stroller, pushed each other in the Cozy Coupe, and in Ellie's case, took every opportunity to fall face first onto the patio concrete. Sigh. Lexi came over with a black eye from a fall earlier in the day - I think we'll just tell everyone that the girls are in a baby fight club. It's like no matter how close I am or how much she's been watched, she finds a second to take a digger. Right now Ellie's big fun is trying to go up and down little steps without crawling. Unfortunately, she lacks the coordination or the balance to do it without holding on to something. So she'll stand there, stay "step!" put one foot up, and then topple over. She'll get it eventually... hopefully before she knocks out all of her teeth.