Ella the Smarty Pants

Ella has started learning to use her toys! It makes me so amazed how fast she is learning and understanding things.

She puts blocks in the holes of her sorting toy. She puts blocks on her stacking train and even has it make noises! She plays with her doll and her animals. She loves any game that means putting one little thing in a bigger thing. (My impromptu toy.)

When we go out, she loves to figure out new things as well. (Sometimes it takes more time than others.)

Lazy Halloween

I'm kind of a Halloween downer. I'm way too old to ask other people for candy. I don't like to dress up. My baby has a 6:30 bedtime.

This year my excuse was that my baby shouldn't even eat candy, and I don't want to worry about it. Don't worry though we still gave out 3 bags of candy. We made it to just after 8pm.

If anyone asks, my baby was dressed as a "sleeping baby" and I was a "relaxing Momma"

(Alternatively, we caught Ella dressed like the cutest world dictator ever?)

Sick Ella

Sometimes babies get really sick. Sometimes it feels like this. Sometimes it lasts a long time and you have to go to the doctor. Sometimes the doctor calls after a stool test and tells you that your baby has Salmonella. Most of the time, your baby gets better and then feels like this.

Ella the Climber!

Ella is learning how to climb. She is mastering how to go up the stairs (going down is definitely still a ways away). She is working on climbing on other things too (like the guest bed.)

I've also started to get into things. This is Ella being really sad that "somebody" pulled out of the towels. (This is Ella  5 seconds before that sad face)

Ella Goes to the Park

Ella loves to play outside and she loves people. This makes it no suprise that we spend lots of time at the park! There are a couple of near by parks and on special occasions we'll go find new parks to explore.

Ella especially likes mulch and rocks. She is finally getting the hang of the equipment now that she can climb some. She enjoys going down the slide with help from a grown up, but she is not so sure about the swings.

As a mom, I especially live that she is super independent at the park. I can be yards away and she will enjoy playing with Dad.

Dad is great at teaching us new games and new equipment!

Ella the Dancer

I'm not a particularly graceful duckling, so I never put much thought into the fact that my baby girl might want to be a dancer. Her opinions on lots of things (including this one) are likely to change, but for now I like to capture Ella's "dancer moments"

Ballet Positions in the Window
With a Partner
With a Partner the Right Side Up
Interpretive Dance on Video
Dancing with Props

New Table

At our house, we have a running list of things we want to buy at some point once we save some extra money to get them. This list grows and shrinks; it can be pretty fluid in fact. If you asked to see it, I would tell you that it is more of an ethereal list than a real one. On this list, especially since we bought our house, was a dining room table that could seat more than four and was big enough to play board games without having to hold your pieces on your lap!

One morning while browsing craigslist, I found a table that I thought would work pretty well, especially for the price. So, we set up an appointment to go see it. Upon inspection, we decided that would buy it and take it home!

One item down checked off our ethereal list.