Cell Phone Pictures.

I LOVE YOU, TUPPERWARE DRAWER!

Look at this picture and tell me she is not seconds away from heading to college. Such a big girl!

OMG, Grizz's side of the bed makes for the most luxurious naps.

Speaking of luxury, who's up for a fancy accessory walk?

Petting Zoo Party Time.

Monday morning our little friend Penelope had her first birthday, so now all of our friends are one! This is just as our first group of baby friends from Mommy Matters class are on the downhill slope towards two (including Beanserina herself.) Penelope's party was especially fun because they had animals there for petting and loving.

Here she is trying to horn in on the birthday girl's bunny cuddling time.

Plus there was plenty of cake for she and her friend Clare to shove in their pieholes. Basically, a toddler's dream party.

American Dream.

After a lovely dinner last night, Tim and I sat outside nursing beers while our food stained, diaper clad baby ran around the backyard, eating slices of peach from our very own peach tree, chasing bubbles and chatting up a storm. It's a good life.

Dying Laughing.

Just your every day antics!


This one features my AWESOME singing. You're welcome

My Marvelous Girl.

Being a stay at home parent can be draining. The day to day is a lot of work - all the diapers, all the meals, listening to all the whining, mitigating all the temper tantrums, all the naps that end hours before they should...

And lord knows, we have had some really horrible, rough days over the past almost 20 months. since she turned one and started walking and talking, we've really had a lot of fun, that little girl and I. She's getting so big so quickly. I feel like she looks enormous when I lay her down in bed, which also makes me laugh because most people would see a toddler in a queen sized bed and marvel over how small she looks. I'm just amazed by her - how cute she is, how funny her little curls are, how enthusiastic she is about almost EVERYTHING in life. I just feel so lucky that she wants to wrap her little fat arms around my neck and hug me a million times a day. She makes me laugh with her antics and her creativity and her joy at life. I'm lucky to be her mama.

So, below is a reeeeeally long video (7 minutes.) I wanted to catch on tape what it's like to have a conversation with the little goofball. Pretty boring, but I know in six months I will look back and get misty eyed, watching her.

Yet another busy weekend! We:
-went to the petting zoo with Auntie Sara
-had Lexi and her parents over for some hot dogs, some beverages and some splashing in the baby pool
-went out to birthday breakfast with the family in celebration of Mimi's birthday
-sat quietly almost alllllll the way through breakfast, despite the lure of the ocean only a few yards away
-splash splashed in the ocean until her lips turned blue and she started shivering
-took some wonderfully long naps
-went to the park for plenty of sliding (wheee!)
-skyped with Gigi and Grizz
-gave Petunia and Rocky some happy birthday hugs

And now, I am ready to go to bed early. I am a tired old mama.

Crabbiness Managed

It's the end of our week now, and thankfully it's finished better than it started. We had about 48 horrible, rashy, sleepless hours, and then Ellie slept 12 hours at a clip and woke up relatively rash free on Wednesday. We got to go to music class and spend the rest of the day celebrating Mimi's birthday.

Today we got to see the whole fam-damily at cousin Daniel's graduation luncheon. Ellie was a little overwhelmed when we arrived and refused to sit with Mimi, which broke her heart. Especially when Ellie was then happy to sit in her own chair and chat with Paw (I think it's because he was funneling french fries right into her piehole.) In the end, she did a lot of snuggling, and was very pleased to bring Daniel a "special mail mail" (ie: a card.)

We had dinner with Gigi and Grizz tonight, before they ABANDON us for a vacation. I kept telling Ellie tonight that I had an owie on my heart because Gigi was going away. Ellie is finally starting to understand the concept of owies, and the other day when she smacked me, I told her she'd given me an owie and she immediately started crying. Good news, I'm not raising a sociopath! She has empathy!

What else has Ellie been up to... she's continuing to pick up more and more words, and sentences. I wouldn't say that it's stuff that everyone can understand, but if you're around her long enough (and follow her hand gestures) it's easy to pick up on her little language. The funniest thing is how her statements come out of nowhere. The other day after her nap we were having a yogurt pouch (a tube of yogurt that I froze) and she starts petting the carpet and saying something like, "ha ha ee das" and it took me a minute until I finally agreed "yes, that's right, the hop hops do eat grass!" She especially likes exclamations, like "oh my!" and "oh boy!" and "boom ace!" the latter of which Tim taught her at the playground. The best thing about her is when other people are laughing, she will sometimes chime in with this huge fake laugh, like she gets the joke, and then we all start laughing even harder because it's this goofy little kid guffawing at something she doesn't understand. Her other favorite thing is climbing onto regular chairs, so that she can tell us whose chair she's sitting in (Sara's is her top choice.)

She also loves the doll crib, of course.

Oh, and the funniest new development? She will try to stand on one foot. And then she'll put her foot down and pick up the other one and say "other foot?" This is in addition to how she still stands on her tiptoes and prances around if you ask her to jump jump. I have to catch it on video soon - her dancing and jump jumping makes me laugh every time.