Happy Birthday Steve!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say Happy Birthday to Steve, who turns the big 3-2 today...thanks for being such a great husband to me, and daddy to Ella. We love you!!

Monkey Joe's

This Saturday afternoon my friend Shruti and I took our girls to Monkey Joe's for the first time. Avni is just 2 days older than Ella so it's a fun little pair -although they seem mostly oblivious of each other at this point :)

They have a "Mini-Monkey Zone" that is an inflatable boat just for age 1 - 3. There were some big kids on there that I wanted to tell them to get out of there but instead I just stuck very close to Ella, or rather she stuck to me like glue, and we had a fun time. Avni was really adventurous and bounced all around and took off. Ella was more cautious and had a good time as long as she stuck close to me. Here are some pics from the adventure.

Ella on the slide


Ella and Avni stuck together


Avni bouncing


Shruti and Avni


Ella getting brave (relatively speaking :0)

Fun with Grammy

Mom was here last weekend and Ella had lots of fun with her.

Snuggling on Grammy's shoulder


Getting pushed in her rocking chair by Grammy

This was my rocking chair when I was little and Mom and Glenn fixed it up for Ella's first birthday, so now it is hers!

Me, Mom and Ella

Ella's Hairdo Do's

Here are some lessons from Ella's list of Hairdo "Do's"

#1. All that's required for a ponytail is just like it sounds - a little tail of hair!

I call this one 'the Thomas Jefferson'

#2. Let Mommy put in a hairbow and give an angelic smile


#3. Wait 30 seconds, then yank hairbow out, then eat hairbow


#4. Actually, hairdos are overrated...bed head is the way to go!

Snow Day!

In my 2 1/2 years living in Fayetteville, 2 years in Missouri, and now 3+ years in Raleigh, I have not seen more than 1/2 inch of snow total...until today! Yesterday we started hearing in the forecast that it was supposed to snow and got more certain throughout the day and did start raining late last night, which turned into ACTUAL snow over night, and even more than that, actually stuck on the ground!

So, it's Ella's first snow day - and the first one for us in several years. Altogether we got about 5 inches, definitely a real snow storm.

Here are some pics of the snow






Steve took Ella out for a minute to see what she thought of it


Here she is checking it out - most important thing - scoop it up and try it!


Yummy!


They were just outside for a minute but she definitely seemed to enjoy it, and was unphased by the cold. As pretty as it was today, I'll be glad for it to warm up again!

Gymnastics Class

We signed Ella up for a Little Gym gymnastics class, and had the first class this past Saturday. It's for babies age 10 to 18 months, and there are 5 kids in the class and their parents too.

It was so cute - there is lots of singing and playing and Ella really had a good time. She crawled through the tunnel (and was the only baby that made it through - not that I'm bragging ;0), "walked" on the beam with daddy's help (aka Steve holding her up while she tried to sit), rode on a parachute, did some log rolls, played with balls, tried to hang on uneven bars, and bopped and danced to the music. In possibly the cutest moment, at the very end of the class, they were supposed to help the teacher put these bells and maracas back into a basket, and Ella scooped up as many bells as she could get her hands on, and put them all in the basket. Then, as the teacher tried to take the basket away, she put both hands out and made an attempt to get all the bells back...it was precious.

It was a really fun class and definitely something we'll look forward to every Saturday morning! One of these weeks I'll have to take some pics to post.

Checking on Nomar

One of the first things on Ella's "to do list" every morning is check on Nomar, who is almost always sitting in the windowsill in the dining room. We give her a cup of milk in the kitchen which she quickly abandons to go see what her buddy is up to. After she's satisfied that all is good with Nomar, she tackles her next morning project, checking on the dogs!

One Year Doctor's Appointment

This morning we took Ella to her one year doctor's appointment. She did pretty good but got a lot of shots - 4 of them, right in the chunky thighs, plus a finger prick test to check her blood. She was very, very upset and it was the hardest to console than any other time of getting vaccines.

She weighs 18 lbs 11 oz, and is 28 inches long - so, she still needs to sit backwards in the carseat a while longer but we know she's ready to turn around as soon as she can!

Ella is very healthy and the only thing we need to work on is getting her to drink more milk...she prefers water or juice but from now on, it is just milk until she has had enough for the day.

So, another good appointment and I am very happy that we managed to get through her entire first year with just one ear infection and a few colds.

Here she is in her Cougars t-shirt from Uncle Craig, Aunt Jackie and Cayla, Cammi and Gavin

Bath Time (last bath pics post!)

As hard as it will be to resist posting more bath pics, I will try to make this my last time posting pics of Ella in the tub - don't want to give her too much ammo against me once she is older =0). (Just ask me and Erin about our Mom's old keychain, which we still talk about).

So, here we go...here is my adorable one-year old enjoying her bath and waving at daddy taking a picture


She is sooo active in the tub now and spends most of the time, kicking, splashing, crawling around, or standing up


All bundled up to dry off


Another successful bath!

Stair Master

Ella had another first today - she climbed up the stairs! Steve was in front of her and I was behind her and as soon as she got the hang of it she kept moving and got up one step at a time and was very proud of herself and the top and gave herself a few claps - too cute!!