Aloha

We are having a Luau for Ella's birthday. Here is the pic that is on her invitation-
Here are a gazillion more we took..

Daddy's Girl

These pics do not capture how cute Ella and her daddy were at the beach last weekend. We drove up to our beach on the bay not even a mile away. It is so nice there-so close to home, the beach is big, it is not crowded and there is just a small dune to walk over to get there. There are not really any words that can express the love these two have. They are amazing to watch together.

Grandma

Mom came to visit last week and to babysit. I asked her months ago if she would watch Ella while we went to a Maroon 5, Counting Crows concert with Angela & Kyle. We had amazing seats and had a blast! It was so weird to be out with our friends and no kids! It helped feeling completely at ease knowing Ella was with grandma. Only my mom and BT's mom have babysat for us, but this week we have orchestra seats to Dave Matthews and Aunt Becky is going to watch Ella. We will put Ella to bed before we leave, but I know everything will be just fine:) Anyway, Ella & I took mom to the Botanical Gardens which I knew she would love. All the pics are of Ella of course and her in motion. She is a lot braver running through the water now. We had so much fun with mom being here. She insisted we go out every night! Thanks mom for everything!

Random

Here are some random pics I downloaded from my mom's camera when she was here...

Singing with Ella

Ella loves to sing. She sings her ABC's almost flawlessly now. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Ring Around the Rosie, Row, Row, Row your Boat-these are a few of her favorites.

Sometimes I start a song. Let's say I start singing the alphabet- Ella then says, "No mommy, Row, Row." So I sing Row, Row and she sings along and we are both happy.

But sometimes Ella starts a song and I join in and she says, "No mommy, no sing," and continues the song on her own. Hmmmmph.

Now where my feelings get hurt the most is when she is singing a song and I join in and she says, "No mommy, daddy sing."

Seriously, my voice is that bad? Daddy doesn't even get the words right all the time! *sigh*

(Oh and I promise to get this precious singing on video!!)

Where did my baby go?

She is getting so big!!!

Ella and I went to Winchester for the week to spend some quality time with the grandmas. We both got spoiled :) Here are some pics from the pet farm and fun with bubbles.























I can't believe how big Ella has gotten and can't believe she is going to be 2 so soon!
Some things she is doing now:
She talks A LOT! I pretty much understand all that she says from her short sentences. She can talk up a storm lol! She is counting to 13 and can pretty much sing the entire alphabet (not to brag or anything). She knows her shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, star, heart). She knows all of her colors if I sign them and some without. She enjoys coloring, building puzzles, singing songs, dancing, dressing up, torturing- I mean playing with the animals and LOVES her books! I give her 5-6 books in her crib at nap and nighttime and she "reads" them before she goes to sleep and when she gets up (buys me some extra sleep;) I am pretty strict with TV, but she does love "Signing Times," "Elmo's World," and "Mickey Mouse Club House."
Ella has the girly thing down-she does not enjoy being messy and asks for a wa-wa (wipe)at every meal to clean her face and hands (and any other time she is messy). She is very dramatic and does a great fake cry! Her tantrums are daily, but the "I sorry," and kisses after time-outs make it all better :)
I never imagined my life being this fun, rewarding, challenging, and wonderful. I can't imagine having enough love for another baby, but maybe we will find the room somewhere in the distant future (no I am not pregnant lol)!

Giddy Up

Ella's friend from Gymboree, Porter had his 2nd b'day party at Hunt Club Farm. This is where Ella went the previous fall for pumpkin picking. Ella enjoyed feeding the goats, visiting the animals, briefly riding a pony, and chowing down on some birthday cake! It was a fun afternoon for all of us!










I am shocked she even sat on the pony!

Coming Soon....

LOTS of pictures!

What's So Funny?

The End of a Meal...

always ends up on the floor courtesy of Ella giving the dogs what she is done with. This to her is HILARIOUS! I don't usually find the humor in it especially when we are somewhere that does not have dogs to pick up the food-like say a restaurant!

Hot Dog

This is Ella dancing to a song(Hot-Dog)from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse(the cartoon). I have donwnloaded the song on my Ipod and set it on repeat. She will sing and dance to it forever. She says, "Hot Dog" all the time, but of course not for this video....oh and the chicken wing dancing from the Hoe-Down is apparantly part of the hot dog dance-just in case you were wondering because I know I was!

(dancing is almost always done with her 2 princess weapons-I mean wands)

Recent Pics

Cheese!

Hoe-Down

hoe·down (hdoun) n. 1. A square dance. 2. The music for a square dance. 3. A social gathering at which square dancing takes place.