Yep.

Definitely still the cutest! It's amazing that now all of the babies are big enough to sit up on their own. The boys on the ends are also starting to crawl (yes, the youngest of the bunch is crawling. He puts others to shame.) And for once, Missy Moo didn't cry during group photo time. Good work, little lady.

And so it Begins.

Friday, mommy class yay! It was a small class, but most of the babies were Ellie's usual crew of pals. It's so fun to watch the babies now that they're more than wailing little lumps. They're finally starting to notice one another and even play together a little. Witness the following:


This is Elizabeth and her little buddy Lexi, sharing a little quality time with Sophie the giraffe. Originally, the two girls each had part of Sophie in their mouths, like Lady and the Tramp. Sophie really gets around. It's just cute to see them interacting. Lexi's mom Kristen and I came to our first mommy class on the same day - Ellie was 17 days old, Lexi was 27 days old. And now, they are both big sitting up girls, who babble to themselves in their own secret baby language. So fun! Technically, they are each other's oldest friend.

Tomorrow we're hosting a BBQ for all of the moms, dads and babies. Ellie can't wait to share drool with even more friends!

Ellie Gets a Job.

She's her grandpa's new paralegal! She can write memos, she can file and fax, she can take dictation, she can get coffee! (sorry for the quality of the picture - I took it using my phone.)

We had a great afternoon out in Africa with Grandma and Grandpa. Went out to lunch, where she chewed on Sophie while the rest of us had delicious pasta, and then back to Grandpa's office to send out a few strongly worded emails.

Then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house to check out all of the great toys that Grandma has.

"Grandma, Sophie and I approve of your puppets. Those are great."

But we all know what she really liked
Yay big piano time!

We had such a fun, tiring time, that Ellie was asleep before I even made it on to the freeway. She's continued to sleep well at night lately, and this week has started falling asleep while having her last meal of the night AND staying asleep while being put in her crib. It used to be that Tim would snuggle and rock her for up to 30 minutes. Oh, how we've waited for this day. He's getting so much video game playing done! And me, I've read two whole books this week. Next thing you know, we'll be drinking wine and hosting chic parties or the like, with all of our free time in the evenings! Or you know, she'll go back to torturing us with her unwillingness to sleep. Such are babies.

Adorable.

Could she be any cuter?

I think not.

Monday.

We had a pretty fun day today. Judy came down and we went out to lunch at the conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Five plates of sushi for $10! Food poisoning free! (just kidding. It's decent quality. Not great, but above cat food variety, I would say.) Ellie spent most of the meal licking the lid things that they put over the sushi while it rides the conveyor belt. Whatever works, right? If you'd told me a year ago that I'd be coordinated enough to grab a sushi plate off the belt, feed myself using chopsticks and manage a wriggly little baby, I'd say you were nuts. But it turns out, moms have many super powers.

We cruised the mall for a bit afterwards, then came home and took a nap and snuggled. When Tim came home we all had dinner together. Ellie totally slurped down her cereal, but when I put a spoonful of avocado in she totally gagged and spit it out. I get it kid. You don't like avocados. Fine with me - we used the rest of the avocado on our turkey sandwiches. Tomorrow, we'll try pears and see if that goes over better.

Here's what Tim and I do to entertain ourselves in the evening.

Ellie's First Easter (in photos.)

We got up kind of late, and she got to come out to the living room and see what the Easter Bunny brought her. A piano!

Her daddy showed her a few tunes. He may be more excited about the piano than she is!

Then she took a two hour nap (not pictured. I should have taken a picture, because those kind of naps are a rarity.) When she got up, it was time to get dressed up!

Her vintage dress belonged to her Grams. Her ears are from the Target dollar bin.

Before we left, she needed a tiny bit more piano time. To get her practicing in, you know.

We went over to Grams and Gramps' house so they could see their little Easter bunny. Auntie Sara helped her say hey to her chicks. We also got to Skype with everyone in La Crosse, where Hailee was also rocking bunny ears!

She also got to play with some of her favorite toys on her dinoland playmat.

From there, it was off to Mike and Debbie's for Easter with the Ford Hoard. She spent most of the day with her Grandma, as expected. Here she is, taste testing her dress. She was a good girl, smiley and having fun. She did not however, take a nap while we were there, except for a few minutes in my lap while nursing.

So as you can imagine, she sacked our pretty hard on the way home. She ate and went straight to bed with no fussing. All in all, a great first Easter! Next year, she'll even be able to eat the party potatoes!

Just Pictures.

Six months old!

"What is this? This is gross. I'm not eating it. I'M NOT EATING IT AND ALSO I HATE YOU GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"This, I will eat."

Playing pattycake with mirror baby before bathtime.