This summer:
Well, as several people have recently reminded me, I have been a slacker with Ellie's blog. It's summer and besides truly being busy at the beginning of the summer with a HUGE time-consuming commitment I undertook, we have been busy traveling and just hanging out enjoying those long, hot summer days! Ellie has gone to "half-time" daycare this summer so that mommy can spend extra time with her while she's off for the summer but then she also stays used to going to school and the routines there too. Frankly, she loves school right now and they do so much that I think she gets bored staying home with me some days!
So, it's only been a month since her birthday and I'm just now getting photos up. Beware, there are lots of pictures in this post. Ellie had a great and very busy birthday weekend. For starters the weather was ABSOLUTELY perfect all weekend long. It was sunny and warm, but not too warm
Friday, Daddy finally got to take his daughter to her first Cincinnati Reds game. Ellie has been to a lot of ball games in her life already with cousin Joey's t-ball, mommy and daddy's vintage base ball and the Dayton Dragons, but I think she was a little overwhelmed with her first major league game. She didn't cry, but she clung to me and didn't let go while we were in the stands. She just looked wide-eyed around her at all the people. When the crowed roared and clapped, she would look around and start clapping too. It was cute! After a while though mommy, cousin Joey (who also came with us) and Ellie went to the courtyard area of the park to play on the jungle gym and check out the interactive exhibits. While nursing, the Reds got a home run that sent fireworks into the air. Ellie never stopped nursing but turned her eyes to watch them above her head-dinner and a show!! Ellie also got her second Reds shirt (the first was last summer even though she never went to a game) a black Adam Dunn shirt to match mommy! Here are a few photos from the game.
Saturday we started the day having and early lunch with our friends Jolie and Lily who were visiting from Michigan. Jolie is a long time friend of mine from camp and Lily is her daughter who is just a few months older then Ellie. It was fun to catch up and see each other as our last visit with them was in August.Here's a picture of all of us after our meal.
Next we went to watch cousin Joey's first t-ball game of the season, his opening day. Last year Ellie arrived 5 hours before his opening day parade, just in time for Aunt Amy and everyone else to get home and watch-wasn't that nice of her!! Ellie enjoyed being outside and playing with Emma and Great-Grandma and the rest of the family who came to watch Joey play. Afterward we had to stop and get some ice cream of course!
Sunday was the BIG DAY! Ellie's first birthday. Ellie was born at 4:00 am on April 22nd. When Brian was little, his parents would take a picture of each of the kids at the exact time of their birth. Brian and I thought that would be fun, but we never bargained for a middle of the night baby and even though we set our alarm with good intentions, I'm sad to report we did not get a picture of Ellie at her birth time, although we did get one when she first woke up. Maybe next year!!!
Ellie's birthday party was held at Aunt Amy's house. She has more room for all of us there. Ellie was lucky to have great-grandparents, grandparents, great aunts/uncles, aunt/uncle, cousins, and family friend Uncle Peach there to celebrate with her. She did as I predicted she would with the cake. She poked at it a bit but overall didn't care for her hands being covered in icing and just wanted mommy to wipe them off. I don't think she appreciated everyone staring right at her either. We didn't get a lot of pictures of the cake-eating as we were too busy enjoying watching her. Here are a few videos to enjoy also.
"Sliding into first and your pants begin to burst . . . " You know how the song goes, right?! That might as well have become our theme song here in the world of Ellie! We just spent the last three weeks dealing with the nasty rotavirus, which for Ellie meant a slight fever and LOTS of diarrhea. She had it for a week, was well for a week, and got it again for another entire week. The entire process was messy and inconvenient as she couldn't attend daycare, but through it all you would have never really known she was sick at all if it weren't for her bottom. She was as happy as could be and enjoyed spending extra time at home with mommy, daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, and Nana who all took turns caring for her. I'm glad to say all is well again.
Last weekend mommy had a meeting in Cleveland so we took a family trip there and stayed with Aunt Renee and her family for the weekend. Ellie enjoyed playing with her big cousins Sarah, Kristen and Evan and especially loved their big dog Tucker. Their stairs and piano were also a great source of fun and adventure as she hasn't had a lot of experience with either before. The weekend was too short but luckily it isn't too far away so we can visit again soon. 
Wow! A lot has happened since our last blog entry. Ellie turned 11 months old last Thursday and decided it was finally time to start walking! She's been cruising since October and started taking small steps here and there a couple of weeks ago but this week, she's just walking all around! Last night we went to the mall for our usual Friday night outing with my mom, sister, Brian, Joey and Emma and the kids went to play in the new kids play place. Ellie walked around the entire time just in total bliss surrounded by all of those noisy, busy kids. People kept looking at her in amazement and asking how old she was since she is so tiny. Yes, despite her love of eating big people foods and breastfeeding a lot, she is still just a tiny thing probably still weighing 17lbs or so. I can tell that she is growing though and I think her features are starting to change and mature-our little baby will be one in just a few weeks!!! Here are two short videos of her taking some steps. 
Speaking of changes, Ellie will be moving up to the next room at daycare in one more week. I have been talking with her new teacher and visited her new classroom last week. She will be in a room with three other girls who are just a couple of months older then her. There are only four babies so the numbers are nice and low. They each have their own crib still but sit at a tiny table and chairs for lunch and various projects. The biggest difference in this room will be that they now have a lesson plan and set schedule. They go outside twice a day or play out in the big long hallway if the weather doesn't cooperate. They go on wagon rides outside, have an art project everyday and on Tuesday's she will start going to chapel with Pastor John. He tells stories, plays his guitar and sends them off with a hug blessing. I'm so excited for her and think she is going to have so much fun in her new big girl class. 
Other than walking, she is really staring to get her personality now. She does things now to make us laugh and is purposefully (an not so purposefully) being silly. She is talking a lot, although most of it is still gibberish but now and then a few real words are popping out. Her favorite term right now is "hi da-da!" but she can say ma-ma, da-da, uh-oh, and no, no, no. Here is a video of her saying no (which we find ironic as we have been very deliberate in not using no for every little thing!) Anyway it is cute, at least for now! 
Speaking of cute, Ellie has now attached herself to a lovey for the first time. She hasn't used a pacifier forever, never cared for a blankie but has fallen in love with her bear from Aunt Sharon. She picked a good lovey as he is made from extremely soft, squishy material and is super cute to boot. For a few weeks, she was desperately holding onto him when we went out of the house or when she went to school. It didn't take long for his nice pink outfit to start looking a little black and gray and I worried about what would happen if he were lost or needed a bath so I went ahead and bought two more identical bears which we now rotate often and have back-ups. Every once in a while she will see them all together and seems overwhelmed with love and affection!! Her infatuation is not as intense these days but she still prefers to have him close by and will stop, lay her head down on him and say "ahhhhh" if she passes by him while playing. 
Yesterday we got our first taste of SPRING and it was glorious! The temperatures were in the 60's, the sun was shining and everyone was out and about soaking it up! Sherry, Ellie and I were feeling the urge to get outside so we headed out on a walk to our local park. This park is actually in the affluent Oakwood neighborhood and is two blocks from our house (our neighborhood is called "Oakwood View!") Ellie had not been in her stroller since last summer and she really didn't care for it then more than 15 minutes at a time. Yesterday, she LOVED it! She sat up like a big girl, kicked her feet, smiled at everyone we passed and just looked at the world around her. I have been waiting for the day to take my own kids to this park as it is so cool. Joey and Emma have longed loved it. It has a huge sandbox; play gyms and swings for little and big kids; a picnic shelter; basketball, handball, and tennis courts; a baseball diamond; restrooms; and the coolest thing is the wading pool which is staffed with a lifegaurd in the summer! While most parks have all these things, this park is right in the middle of a little neighborhood, surrounded by houses and is contained in one block and has no parking lot. It's a fun place, close to home and a short walk away. I though Ellie would love to try out the baby swings and boy was I right! She LOVED the swings and LOVED looking around at the other kids and babies running all around her. Here's a video of her swinging. 
This past week was rough as Ellie was sent home from daycare Monday with diarrhea which then continued for the rest of the week. You would have never known she was sick as she never fussed or acted cranky or tired. Brian stayed with her Monday and Tuesday and then I took my turn on Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday morning not feeling too great and it progressed quickly to full fledged, knock out illness that had me on the floor. Poor Brian had to leave work yet again to come home and take care of both of us through Thursday. Friday we were happy to all return to work and school but the daycare called again due to Ellie having goopy eyes so Brian was back home again! Ellie was cleared by the doctor and hasn't missed a beat this week. She is even more verbal, "talking" all the time and took a few steps the other night. She's an eating machine and while she still loves to nurse, she is a big fan of big people food too. She found a pack of girl scout trefoils the other night and proclaimed them good with one in each hand and a smile on her face (cookie schmootz too!) 
I have had little time to update the blog so obviously we haven't had any snow days lately! Two weekends ago we FINALLY got to visit with Meva and Chuck and their triplets Ryan, Sarah and Perrin. This was the first time for all of us to see each others babies! We had babies everywhere and luckily Ellie was the only mobile one. The triplets are 8 months old (around 6 months adjusted age) and are all bigger then Ellie already! They can all roll over and pull themselves around and are very sociable and cute. Brian and I seemed to already have parent amnesia about that immobile stage as we kept trying to sit them up or stand them up on the floor-which of course didn't work! Ellie seemed interested in her new friends and would kiss them and pat them on their heads. Here is a video of Ellie kissing Sarah. Ellie especially enjoyed checking out her new surroundings and toys and seemed to have a knack for finding the grossest things possible to chew on such as Gus the dog's rubber duckie and Ryan's snot sucker! Ewwwww! She also showed a subtle bit of jealousy. If I held another baby on my lap, she would crawl over and climb into my lap also, right on top of the other baby!
On Sunday we took oue maiden voyage to Ikea. I LOVE Ikea and am excited that we are getting one very close to us in Spring 2008 but I had never been to one yet. Meva and Chuck live about 15 minutes from one and we decided to make a visit with all of the babies. It was a fun adventure getting four babies ready to go, including all of their gear. We all fit into the mini van quite nicely and I had the privilege of sitting in the back with all the babies. I had a very attentive, smiley, adorably cute audience for most of the trip until the babies one by one fell asleep. Here's a video of the napping car. Ikea was awesome and I had so much fun looking at all the cool things and had to restrain myself in only getting a few smaller items. Our gaggle of babies seemed to attract quite a bit of attention as we moved through the store, especially with Meva pushing her big triplet stroller. We heard the words for three and four babies in many different languages as people walked by and tried to guess whether they were triplets or quadruplets. When we were asked, we would reply "triplets and a friend!" It's amazing the questions and comments people would make, some very personal!! The babies were all very good during our excursion and all in all it was successful and enjoyable. 
