Way Back Wednesday

This video was wayyy back from a few whole weeks ago! Ellie was crawling all around, and still pretty much is. A few days ago she started walking, but now she's back to crawling where she can really move it move it...which she likes to.

First steps and other cuteness

Eating goldfish off the floor

Happy 14 months big girl! In the last month...

• Mom ate a lot of cake and her pants don't fit... ooops, this isn't about me
• Ellie says momma, dada, ut-oh, odie, baby, bye-bye, wow, boo, and rough-rough (dog barking)
• Ellie is down to one bottle, right before bed
• Play date with friends
• She LOVES seeing her mom more often - just ask her, she'll tell you
• Throws an occasional temper tantrum complete with trashing and pelvic tilts
• Still cautious about walking - needs to hold someones hand at all times
• Went on vacation with the Baileys - It was so much fun! We had a camp fire, went kayaking, relaxed, ate lots of yummy food, "broke all the rules," visited the beach, rode bikes, went out for ice cream, and called poison control when she ate a pill from under the bed
• Finally got her ear tubes after months of infection
• Loves shopping and touching all the hanging clothes. Sometimes will go through a rack all by herself
• Started sleeping in later - sometimes past 9!
• Points to her nose and mouth when asked
• Jumps on the bed
• Jumps on momma's bed
• Threw a birthday party for her grandma - Ellie picked the menu - lasagna, herb bread, Cesar salad, and yellow cake/chocolate frosting
• Likes playing upside down and other rough house adventures with daddio
• Plays peekabo around objects and enjoys being chased
• Likes pickles - but still pretty fussy with most food
• Loves the sponge bob theme song, but will only tolerate about 10 minutes of tv, no matter what it is.
• Likes to stack things - usually just two high
• Dance parties - loves the ABCs and I'm a little tea-pot
• Screams DADA quite often - her favorite go-to word. It is nice for those occasional middle of the night scream sessions
• Play with grampa's watch - gets sad when our watches don't perform the same way
• Stacking her food
• Feeding Odie
• Brushes her own hair, then brushes everything else (my hair, odie, her stuffed dog, the rug...)
• Laughing at... er... with her mom!

Here are a few pictures of the fun!Oh, found a goldfish on the floor - looks yummyHanging with my buds Playing with my hair brush First time in the big lake - I loved it, can't ya tell?With the family, and I'm looking at the camera!Top Model - Season 40

No more photos please

Way back Wednesday remix

In honor of midweek, hump-a-licious day, Wednesday... I shall title this way back Wednesday and try to catch up on some recent events. A lot has been going on with us lately, except in the blogging department. I've asked Scott to fill in here and there, but he keeps politely declining. In the meantime, I would like to rewind and recap our NC trip and and Ellie's birthday par-tay!

NC Trip: Happy trails with a 11-month old

The adventure begins on a lovely balmy Friday near the end of June. Both Scott and I were supposed to work a short day so we could pack up gobs of crap before picking Ellie up from daycare. I was delayed at work, but Scott got home at a decent hour. When he got home, he discovered water in our basement. Thankfully, we recently bought a shop vac, so cleanup wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. Last time this happened, we used our green machine, which has about a half gallon suction in addition to every towel in our house. Like last time, the water was coming from the air conditioner. Easy fix - maybe an hour of wasted time.

Traveling with a 11 month old goober is never easy and light, so we had a ton of stuff to pack up and I was trying to be methodical. I also wanted to make sure the stuff we needed for our overnight stay was easily accessible. This took a bit of time. I stayed at home and Scott went out to drop Odie off at the kennel and pick up a book on CD at the library and to run a few last minute errands. A little while later, I get a call from him saying that our car won't start at the library. Of course it won't. We haven't had any recent issues with the car and it would pick today to act up just to spite us! I pick him up from the library with our other car and we pick up Ellie from daycare.

We're still barely packed. Scott takes car #2 back to the library and messes around with the car. He's able to start it and drive it home. 5 minutes later, it dies in the driveway and we're unable to start it again. We resign to the thought that leaving that evening. We call the tow truck, order Jets for delivery, and spend the evening leisurely packing and catching up on some TV.

We call the the repair shop around noon and they still can't figure out what is wrong with the car. We're somewhat packed, but the bags are in the bedrooms and on top of the counter and table so that the curious little one can't get into everything. Later in the evening, everything is fixed and we're on the road by 6:30! Ellie does ok for for the first hour or so, but then expresses her displeasure for being in the car for so long. She cries for awhile and then falls asleep. She stays alseep for awhile, but wakes up everytime we stop for gas or a break. We continue the crying/waking pattern for awhile. Sometime between midnight and 1:00, we decide enough is enough and look for a hotel. We were in southern Ohio and I had no idea how long of a state ohio is. After a couple of stops, we found one with vacancy. Ellie did not want to go to bed and Scott held her for TWO HOURS while she cried cried cried and tried to fall asleep. Where was mom during this? Passed out in bed, I barely heard anything. Sorry daddy!

A few short hours later, we woked up to a screaming Ellie and hit the road as fast as we could. She settled down for the rest of the trip and it seemed to go by pretty fast. Maybe because I fell asleep again!

The rest of the trip was way better! Scott's side put us up in a really nice hotel suite and we spent lots of time relaxing, eating, drinking, and catching up.


We traveled with Scott's brother, sister in law, and two nephews. Quite a crew!

When the kids got too rowdy, Linda and I ran as fast as possible to the nearest mall while the boys watched the kids.


We had both wonderful home cooked meals and also went out to eat a few times. I've never been in the area and LOVED bojangles and chick-fil-a. We seriously need both in Michigan! We also went to Hopps, which was good, but maybe not quite as good as I thought it would be after years and years of Scott talking up the "greatest steak he's ever sunk his pearly whites into." The one thing I could have done without was the heat and humidity. It was unseasonably warm, but come on. Day after day over over 100 degrees. My sweetness was just a meltin away! I also loved their doggies Boopy and Rocky and seriously wanted to take Boopy home with me. I'm still plotting away to bring that sweet girl home where she belongs!



On the last full day, we ventured out to some nature place for the kids. Not sure what it was called. I could tell Ellie wasn't feeling well at all. I took her temp that evening and it was over 102. We gave her some drugs, and the next morning wasn't any better. Infact, it looked she had pink eye too. We packed up to go home and decided we'd better stop at an urgent care. Not knowing the area, we just happened to run across one on the main road. Nothing like a strip mall urgent care to provide excellent care. Anyway, she had another ear infection and they gave her an antibiotic and told us not to worry about the pink eye because it was probably from the ear infection and not real pink eye. (side note: Scott woke up with the same pink eye the next day so it really was pink eye. And our pediatrician said they prescribed her something that doesn't work for children. Awesome!). So after filling her prescription and getting me a much needed chick-fil-a, we hit the road.

Here she is giving her uncle Dan pink eye:


The ride home was far less traumatic that the way there. The first few hours were Baaaaaaad, but they were all mountain driving so that really hurt Ellie's ears. After we got through the mountains, she fell asleep. We were heading toward the never ending state of Ohio and decided to play it by ear (haaaaa! punny!) on whether we stopped for the evening. We ended up driving straight through. We had one of our biggest fights ever around Ann Arbor. Scott wouldn't let me drive, but I saw him falling asleep at the wheel. He denied it.... Anyway, we made it home by 3 am safe and sound because of my constant nagging and then slept VERY good. I never wanted to take another road trip again, but since then, we've made a full recovery!

Way Back Wednesday Part 2

Ellie's Birthday from way back. The lazy blogging catchup continues below.

We celebrated Ellie's first birthday with family and friends on July 18. It was fun, but I think I went a little overboard. I set the stage to my own destruction by ordering custom invitations. They were absolutely adorable (just like our peanut) though!
They looked like this and maybe I'll get around to scanning Ellies actual invite someday:
We had lots of pink! Pink cups, plates, tablecloths, napkins, forks, spoons, knives, balloons, banners, yard signs! We placed the silverware in cute little green buckets. I was impressed with my skilz!

We also ordered way too many balloons. It took 45 minutes to untangle them once we got home.
I think they were worth it and they jazzed the place up a bit.



We had about 35 guests (including lots of adorable baybies) over to our small home for a full lunch.

We grilled hotdogs (beef, no nitrate yum yums) and burgers. I also made veggie pizza, chips (does one make chips?), potato salad, and watermelon. My mom made the cream cheese jello to help me out - thanks Mom!

We ordered cake from Noel's bakery in Jamestown which is where we got our wedding cake from.
It was massive and I regretted making additional cupcakes incase we ran out of the other cake. She enjoyed her banana cupcake and approached it with a hands-free attack.



Ellie scored lots of loot. Toys for now, clothes, toys for later, clothes for when she's 16... Well maybe not that, but lots and lots of clothes.

We were so grateful that everyone could come celebrate with us!

Already August

Time is going by so fast! I owe two posts catch-up posts (NC trip and family birthday party) but for now we'll stick to the present.

Ooooh, wait. One other quick catch up. At Ellie's 12 month appointment, she was 29 3/4" and 21.6 lbs. This put her in the 56% for height and 60% for weight. They MUST have been off on the height. No child of mine is that short!!!

Ellie took two steps today! It was pretty exciting. She still isn't showing a whole lot of interest in walking, but she is standing for longer and longer increments and cruising at a very fast pace.

Other cute Ellie moments include, but are not limited to:

• Ramming her shopping cart into Odie - and laughing hysterically
• Answering her play phone "hewwwooo gaaaama" (maybe hello grandma?)
• Lots of blowing kisses and waving at people
• Dancing all over the place
• Fake laughing
• Riding forward facing in the car seat - lots of laughing and dancing going on, better concentrate while driving moma!
• So much animated pointing and gasping - I can't get enough of it

We also had a little separation anxiety issue for a few weeks, but it seems to be getting better. Not sure if it related to how she's been feeling...

Ellie has an appointment this week with the ENT specialist. She's basically had an infection since May that won't go away, so this is the next step. With all the pain and antibiotics, she's been a pretty good trooper. She has her moments, but overall, she's been very happy. She's even had a round of stomach flu a few weeks ago. I proudly blocked her first pukie round with my lap and legs. Didn't get a drop on the floor! Oh yea!!! I was able to get her to the sink for the rest of the sessions. I felt soooo bad for her, that was a really rough day. Thankfully Scott and myself didn't get it, but we've had our fair share of colds compliments of the daycare germ incubator.

With all the hardship, there is one thing that really cheers her up. She's had quite a few well deserved rounds!

Happy birthday munchkin!

Happy Birthday to Ellie! Also, I've now been blogging over a year! To read about what we were doing July 13 last year, click here. Enough about me, on to the party animal!

We let Ellie sleep until 7:30 today. Maybe that should be SHE let US sleep in today. Dad took the day off of work and I don't work Tuesdays (slacker!) and we had a great day starting off with pancakes! Ellie ate two pancakes, a bowl of cheerios, and a bunch of grapes. She was a hungry girl! Then we had a blowout that required a complete change of outfit. Next we all played together and Ellie opened her gifts from us. She got an activity table, musical penguin, and a bucket seat swing. She cried while opening the gifts, but seemed to like them once they were open! We played some more and then she took a nice little nap. Dad and I worked on weeding and putting up the swing. After she got up from nap time, she ate a grilled cheese and then had diaper blowout #2, thankfully only needing a change of pants. Then we went to the zoo. She seemed to like it and laughed and pointed at many things. We're not really sure if she really liked the animals or if she liked looking at the people and waterfalls. Her favorite was the pelicans. She was laughing out loud at those silly birds. Her second favorite part was getting a sip of slushee. Whoa-brain freeze! After about two hours, we all had enough and started the trek back home. We made a quick stop at party city on the way to pick up some more decorations for her family party on Sunday. I wasn't sure how she would do because we skipped nap #2, but she did great in the store. She sang la-la and danced to the corny music they were playing and pointed at all of the fun decorations. After we got home, it was dinner time. We tried sweet potatoes, yogurt, and cheese. She liked the cheese, but didn't want anything else so she had a few saltine crackers. Then she got the best treat of all - dairy dip! Next, she tried out the bucket seat swing. She loved it! She is ready for her friends to come over and swing next to her. Then she had a bath and bottle and passed out before the bottle was over. Happy birthday sweet girl! We love you!