Many Milestones

Today's milestones...

1. Ella Grace graduated from the infant room! Mixed emotions for me but as her teachers say, she is ready! She's been transitioning over the last week and they mentioned that she has been quite testy and threw a pretty good screaming fit today! But supposedly, she's most happy when she's in the Waddler Room (her new room) so she will be very excited to be back with Wesley tomorrow. When a child graduates, their teachers put together the cutest scrapbook of pictures captured during their 1st year and the adorable artwork they made (they make TONS of artwork and I love it!). The pictures below don't do it justice but you can get a glimpse of what it looks like - it even includes a snapshot of all of her friends so we can keep those memories:)

Look closely. That is Ella and Wesley sleeping when they were little babies.

And together when they're a bit older. Ella is about 8 months in this picture.

2. We finally witnessed her first steps on her own today! She showed me when we went to pick her up this evening and then again for both of us at home! So exciting and she is SO proud of herself too. She will stand on her own for quite a while and then look at you and take a few steps. She even tests herself by removing her hands from her grocery cart and just stand there. Mom, I know you're sad that she didn't do this while you were here b/c I think she'll be walking by her birthday!

3. She said "baby" tonight several times as she held one of her babies. Such a smart little thing!

Some other pictures I took tonight...

Eating chocolate cream pie...our favorite! You can tell she loved it.

Like her new jammies? And her booka belly!

Cookie Monster

We have a cookie monster in our house. Not kidding! So this is how the story goes...

I walk up to the main level after working out and see Ella in the corner of the kitchen munching on a Snackwell cookie with her grocery cart close beside her (you usually find them together). Brian wasn't in sight. I called his name and realized he was quickly folding some clothes upstairs. He comes down and tells me that he was watching TV and heard some rattling/crunching noises coming from the kitchen. He walked over and found Ella shoving 3-4 cookies in her mouth. The child had opened our lazy susan and reached way in the back to get this box of cookies. Somehow she figured out how to open them and went at it.


I guess she really likes them!

Weekend in Seattle w/ Mimi

Mimi came to visit Thursday through early today to spend some time with Ella Grace before she turns 1. Although the trip was too short and I had to work Thurs. and Fri., we had a great time. Thursday and Friday, they spent quality time together - enjoying the nice weather, taking walks, visiting the coffee/cupcake shop. Saturday, we visited the Arboretum Japanese Gardens in Seattle. I hadn't been there before and didn't realize how pretty they were. Below are some pre-Easter pictures we took of miss priss in one of her new outfits.




This is the position she put herself in b/c she didn't want to touch the moss on the ground. Notice the back leg up and arm resting on it. Too funny.

Her downward dog pose she does often

Saturday night we ate on the water at Salty's. What a great view of the sound and city! The food was great - think salmon and crab mac n cheese - and we watched an awesome fireworks display occurring across the water. We have no idea why the show occurred but it was a cool surprise for everyone at the restaurant!

Sunday, we had a little coffee talk at a local joint across from our house before we had to head to the airport.

We had a blast! See you in May!

Lima Beans=Ella's Fave!

11 Months Old

So...I believe it's very obvious we have an 11 month old after you view the pictures below. No luck getting Ella Grace to sit down with Mr. Giraffe for her monthly picture. We'll probably retire this monthly photo shoot after she turns 1.

Anyway, we are less than a month away from our little girl turning 1 YEARS OLD! We can't believe it but are loving watching her grow up into a little toddler.

1. Ella is still not walking. She knows how but chooses not to. Over the last week, we have caught her standing all by herself for more than 30 seconds. As soon as she realizes she's doing so, she falls to her knees. Scaredy cat!

2. As you all know from other recent posts, she is quite the bully at school. It's obvious she's ready to move on to the Waddler Room. She's bored with all the babies. Yesterday, we were told that "Ella is truly Waddler age today, mostly 'my way or no way.' We don't let her escape the gate; she gets mad. She picks food and throws it on the ground if we don't sit next to her (they sit at a table, not high chair). She wants to put coat on to go outside but teacher says it's too early. She didn't agree."

3. She's 99.9% off bottles. We give her one every now and then at night or if her sippy cups aren't clean.

4. She still loves music and dancing. She's learned how to make noise through her microphone. It's really funny when she gets going.

5. She continues to be a huge talker. She babbles all day long. She even gets her hands and body into it looking right at us as she speaks. We don't know what it means but she talks, talks, talks and gives us expressions like "you know what I'm talking about, right?"

6. She doesn't listen. Time outs will probably be frequent around our household.

7. We found out today that she loves the baby doll at school - patting it, pulling its pants down, carrying it around. Brian mentioned that she points to her Madame Alexander doll on her wall shelf in her room. So tonight, I pulled it down and gave it to her. She loved her! She would hug her, give her a big, wet kiss, pat her, and of course, throw her on the ground. So cute!

8. She LOVES soft things and every now and then, carries blankets around. She cuddles her bunny and bear that are in her bed. She might turn out like Aunt Emily and carry around a kitty cat and blankey around. Emily actually still has her baby blanket.

9. She's refusing to drink formula. We're going to start her on whole milk this week. Her 9th month doc appt (yeah, we're a little late) is next week but her yogurt has whole milk in it, so I'm going to go ahead and give it to her.

10. She loves Otis and loves his water bowl even more. If we're not paying attention, we'll look over and she's already splashed the water everywhere making a complete mess.

What else?....

She loves being outside. I can't wait for it to get warm so we can be outside all the time and on Alki Beach playing in the sand and walking barefoot. At daycare, they take her out at least once a day to walk around the city in the 9 seater stroller. So adorable! She's been known to wave a lot, kick her legs, and stick out her tongue to people.

She's eat pretty much everything.

Still wears Size 3 diapers.

Is getting the cutest curly hair and TONS of extremely light blonde streaks in the back (we call them her highlights). Love it!

And after last weekend's restaurant episode, she probably won't be going out to eat with us much anymore. She was awful and I'm afraid her pink bow ended up in someone's food or drink down on the 1st level. We never found it.

All and all, we love her to death. She's the cutest thing ever and makes our days brighter and more fulfilling!

The Sweetest Thing

Love this one!

Our Friday Morning

Wanting to eat standing up

Telling me what's on her mind

And quite possibly what to do

And when I tell her not to put her foot on her tray, she does anyway

She's still cute though

What Have We Been Up To?

I'm always posting pictures but not really sharing much of what we've all been up to around here in Seattle.

Well...Brian has been busy with triathlon training. He is going to participate in the Memphis in May Triathlon. If all goes well, Ella and I will make it too and then Brian and I will sneak off for a few days to Florida or somewhere warm.

Same ole for me...trying to get back into a rhythm with working out. It's not working so well with all the sickness we've had around here. A few weeks ago, it was an upper respiratory infection; this week a swell stomach bug. Killing me!

Our new jobs are going well. We're very busy! We're now in the same building so we carpool. How cute! Brian is now working in Retail. He's a Finance Manager for Baby and Amazon Fresh, our online grocery & delivery service. I can't speak for Brian, but I wanted a new challenge and boy did I get it. My new job is tough! I'm really enjoying it though (as long as I can quickly replace my boss and temp who both just left the group!). Oh, and I've had many people ask me "so what do you do at Amazon?". In a nutshell, I manage the Audio Video Accessories category of Consumer Electronics (it will soon be a 2 man team!). Think headphones, blank media, batteries, remote controls, TV mounts & stands, surge, cables, etc. This includes managing 850+ vendors and roughly 46,000 SKUs (not kidding) - lots of negotiations, deal buys, developing promotions, competitor price matching, etc. The super fun part of the job is partnering with the vendor to develop their upcoming line of headphones. They actually come to us wanting recommendations on styles, colors, etc. Really fun!

Ella is just as cute as a bug! She's starting to lose her baby rolls and looking like such a little toddler. She moves up to the Waddler Room (1 yr olds) on April 1st. I'm so sad! They gave us back all of her bottles this week:( On to 100% sippy cups.

Speaking of that, Ella Grace turns 1 in one month. So exciting yet so sad! We've already received her birthday hat and bib we had made. It's absolutely adorable! Her party accessories are being made now, and now I need to order cards, figure out what we're going to have on the table to eat, and buy her some presents.

Brian's parents are coming out here the weekend of her birthday to celebrate. Since we live so far away and only have 1 extra bedroom, we're doing the every other year thing with the grandparents. Next year mine will come but my mom is coming March 25-28 for a pre-party! We're going to have Ella a faux birthday while she's here. Hehe!

Oh, and we can't forget Otis. He's just the same - lazy and stinky. He and Ella are really starting to bond now. We all know it's because she gives him food.

Seattle has had amazing weather this past year. I'm getting a little nervous that summer could be a little wet. We really haven't had a lot of rain since last April which is nuts. Flowers were already in bloom in February and last weekend it was in the 60's. Of course, it didn't stay that way but overall, it's been a more than mild year. Can't wait until 7/4 when summer starts.

No Comment

On Monday, I got home around 9:45 after a LONG day at work and dinner with a vendor. Everyone was already asleep but I knew I could find out how Ella's day was by reading her report.

First few sentences:

"Ella doesn't seem so nice to her friend Madeline this early morning. She pokes Madeline to get the reaction, the more her friend whines, the more Ella pokes and touches Madeline's shoulder. Sometimes, I move Ella somewhere else to distract her silly behavior but she comes back to take Madeline's toys away. Jen offers her for an outside walk and she comes back happy."

Enough said. No comments.

Hilarious!

So my friend Julie told me about this blog called Dooce. Basically, this woman chronicles her life on this blog and it has received so much traffic and she has been able to make enough money off the ads on her site that it has become both her and her husband's full time jobs. Lucky! Nice job. Anyway, I was looking through her photos and ran across this video. I found it funny! If you want to follow her blog, it's among the list of blogs I follow on my page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dooce/4215625033/in/photostream/

Afternoon Play

Her mohawk after she took her pony out