Her Way or the Highway

Well, let's just say that lately, we're having some trying times around our household. It is quite obvious Ella Grace is 1.

- Tantrums: Kind of a daily deal. They usually consist of bouts of screaming, a head butt to the floor, and/or biting whatever is closet to her - a chair leg, MY leg, MY face, the table, you name it. We try to ignore her and actually started to burst out laughing tonight because she looks so ridiculous. That required me to tell Brian to stop laughing and both of us covering our mouths so that she didn't see our reaction.

- Her way, and only her way: Tonight, while in her PJ's, she insisted to put her coat on. Whatever, I put it on her. She then started screaming. We ignored her. Then she walked over to me (yes, walked over!!) and gave me her shoes. "No Ella, we're not going anywhere," I said and quickly distracted her by taking her to her coupe to play in.

She's exhausting!!! Oh, and her teachers told us this morning how they love her personality and how she defends herself (aka pushing or biting her teachers/friends) and makes decisions but that we have to work on the biting and tell her "Ouch, that hurts" when she does so. THEN, on her daily report it says:

"When it was time for circle time, Cecilia tried to make Ella more comfortable and helped her find her spot. Ella didn't like that because she loved to make decisions of what to do and where to sit and bit Cecilia on arm."

By the way, Cecilia is one of the older ones of the class and Ella bit her! On the way home, I told Brian Ella's going to be kicked out of school and I'm going to be out of a job!

Wearing her coat...because she insisted - 4/26/2010

But she's so stinkin' cute!!

Party Time

Ella Grace's birthday party was so much fun! We had an adorable birthday girl, great company, and yummy food! Oh, and check out the cake. Long story short, the bakery made a 4 layer 9 in. instead of a 1 layer 4 in. round, and miss priss didn't get a smash cake. But we saved the day by giving her a big ole slice of that cake! She loved it!

Not liking the hat but as we starting singing, she forgot about it.

Lily

Ella Grace & Heath

Henry

After her bath (cake was everywhere!)...Henry pushing Ella around. This car was a hit Juli!

She loves her baby and stroller.

Out for the count! Long, fun day!

Birthday Night

We didn't go all out on Ella Grace's birthday since her party was going to be over the weekend. We did make her a little strawberry shortcake though. Of course, she loved it! She had a rough week with teething - lots of crying and sleepless nights - so yes, the picture below does show her crying on her birthday:(

Happy Birthday Little Monkey!!

Happy 1st birthday Ella Grace! We love you so much!

11

My lucky number and the # of teeth miss priss now has! Poor thing has THREE molars coming in all at the same time. She's more drooly than she was at 4 months and soooo fussy! Tylenol is my best friend right now:)

Honk Fest

I had never heard of this event before until today. Honk Fest is basically a marching band style "battle of the bands" festival that was held 1 block from our house on the main strip today. One block of the strip was blocked off and every 100 ft or so was a new band jamming it out. Ella Grace and I went to check it out. I forgot to take my camera but check out the link below. The costumes were pretty crazy and cool and let's just say many bystanders of all ages were freestyling to the music - hippie style! I saw some crazy stuff. What do you expect? We live in granola land! Anyway, Ella loved it. She danced along and snapped her fingers.

Oh, and please watch the 2nd video. Explains it all! Not sure what the girl with the tamborines is doing...maybe showing her boobies?!

http://westseattleblog.com/2010/04/happening-now-honk-fest-west-fills-the-junction-with-music

Birthday Dress

Mimi had a birthday dress made for Ella Grace so of course, that brings another opportunity for pictures. It was a gorgeous day, but by afternoon the weather became cooler and very breezy. Not knowing what the weather will bring next weekend, I took my chances and got Ella dressed. I took Brian as my assistant and knew this was going to be shortlived. This child was a sport and we got a few cute ones. Hopefully, next Sunday afternoon will be nice and we'll try again post-birthday.

Not into the camera at all...only the dandelions on the ground