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!

Almost One!

It is bizarre to think about what I was doing this time last year. I was one day past my due date and Scott and I went out for our "last supper" before the big event. We cut the festivities short after dinner, even though we planned on seeing The Proposal. Instead we watched a Tigers game in the peace and quiet of our home while I fussed over itty bitty baby contractions that seemed painful at the time. I slept maybe 2 hours that night, and another two the following night when I was actually in labor after receiving the blissful epidural. And now, a whole year has passed and sometimes it feels like we've known her forever and other times it was just a blink...At (almost) 12 months, Ellie says momma, dadda, ut-oh, and bye-bye while waving. Bye-bye actually comes out "bye-bitessss" which is equally as adorable. She is a very happy girl and enjoys cruising, "reading" books, dancing, singing, swimming, playing "where's Ellie, there she is!" ice cream, Cheerios, puppies, playing in general, getting tossed all around, and stalking Odie. She also loves playing with things she shouldn't, like the wobbly bakers rack, nasty trash can, and not so safe stove. She keeps momma busy chasing her! She loves it when I shuffle across the floor in all directions and then run at her and tickle her. She's always full of expression and loves to laugh, make surprised faces, and clap. She's staring to show a bit more shyness now, especially around large groups, but usually warms up after a few minutes. She just needs to bury her face in her mom's chest for awhile!

I started part time at work, which I LOVE! I'm only working 20 hours and feel a little slackerish, but hey, maybe more time for blogging? Ellie also started a new daycare and now goes to a center. I was a little worried how she was going to transition at this age, but so far so good. She seems to like it and her first report of the day was "Ellie had lots of smiles and hugs for her new friends. She especially liked playing with her books and toy doggies." I knew they weren't making things up when they said toy doggies! Lately she doesn't like to see me leave a room, so it is harder on days when I have to drop her off, because she'll cry for awhile. She doesn't seem to mind when Daddy drops her off though!

Ellie really changed her eating habits lately! She used to love her baby food but decided one day that she was done. Normally this would be fine, but she doesn't eat table food all that well. Even though she has a mouth full of teeth (Now including molars), she just doesn't chew and swallow all that well. Thankfully, she is learning fast! When she first started refusing baby food, she only ate bananas and cheerios for a few days. I kept trying all sorts of new foods, but she just wouldn't eat it or would gag on it. Then one night I gave her some of my take out enchilada, and I guess that sparked some adventurous eating. She still doesn't eat all that great, but she's adding more and more variety. She'll eat any type of bread, pasta (with cheese or marina sauce), rice, grilled cheese, mozzarella cheese cubes, egg yolks, peas, sweet potato cubes, grapes, baked apple cubes, and baked pear cubes.

Wow, that was a lot to catch up on. If you're still reading, you get a prize! Leave a comment and I'll randomly select someone to babysit! All you can eat Cheerios!

Wayyy back Wednesday

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!

Faaake - chooo

ZZ Ellie

Ellie breaks it down during dinner

Crazy Times

Oh, the dreaded hill. The full sun - composed of clay - half of my yard – invaded with weeds - that sucks up all of my free time hill. If it wasn’t for you, surely I’d have more time for blogging! The marzes have been BUSY! With Ellie’s birthday around the corner, we’ve been spending a lot of our time trying to make our awful yard more presentable and the inside more organized. We still have things stacked in random places from our move FOUR YEARS AGO. If you're buying a house, do not buy a bi-level. No storage! That is, unless you want to buy our house so we can get the heck outa here.

On to more exciting news! Ellie has been doing the most adorable things lately. She says momma all the time, in addition to ut-oh, dada, kaka (cookie monster), gaga (Odie). She copies a lot of noises (stop swearing all the time Scott) and actions. Sometimes she'll "wisper speak" and say all of these sound combinations, but in a very soft sweet voice. Other times she'll yell with tons of animation in her face and look at you like you know exactly what she is talking about. She fake sneezes - super cute and kisses while saying "muah." She loves to look at pictures, especially her own baby pictures and pictures of Jamaica. She likes "reading" and she'll turn the pages at the right time. She also likes to flip through books on her own while hanging out on the floor. She's a horrible eater and won't touch anything chunky. She's sticking with baby fruits, veggies, yogurt,and cereal and gags at everything else. Oh, she does love her cheerios, but recently discovered it is equally as fun to feed them to Odie. Odie is her favorite and she can't contain herself when she sees him. She kicks her legs, thrashes around, and smiles or giggles. If only she'd react that way to us!

She's crawling all around and pulls up on everything and everyone. She loves walking while you hold both of ther hands. She'll occasionally go in her jumper or pack and play, but prefers to crawl around. She loves to play and crawl around with her owl in her mouth

She still has a sweet little disposition for the most part and only occasionally protests when we take something away from her, or move her from getting into some place she shouldn't be. I can't believe how much she has changed in the last few weeks!

Daddy's Home!

One of my favorite times each day!