A Trip to the Thinkery

Here in Austin we've got a place called the 'Thinkery'.  It's a children's museum, but it's different.  The only way I can think to describe it is that they seem to have taken the montessori idea to the extreme in a children's science museum.  I don't recall seeing any signs or plaques with information about displays on them.  In fact, the displays we saw were more like playgrounds than the typical museum display.

On Wednesday, we decided to meet up for cookie time (at my work cafeteria, they start serving freshly baked cookies at 3:00 most days), then spend the afternoon hanging out as a family.  We decided to go to the Thinkery.  We also ate out at Verts, by the way, which was a tad expensive, but very tasty food.  I approve.

Ella found the Thinkery to be really fun.  They've got a couple of areas that are appropriate for kids her age, and we started with the 'sprouts' area (it's themed about growing food or something, I think).  Here she discovered the wall of mirrors and the tunnel of mirrors.  I'm not sure why mirrors and growing stuff go together, but she thought these were awesome.  I couldn't resist getting this picture.  See if you can decide which Ella is the non-reflection Ella.  I have it narrowed down to 2, but I can't decide between them.

They also had a ridiculously large water toy.  It had waterfalls, buckets that would tip over when they were filled, and generally anything else which would help illustrate water current.  ('Currents' happened to be the name of the area, I think).  Ella was a little young for this room, but we found some spots (here, and here) where she just had a blast.  If you're curious about why her hands are moving so furiously, so are we, but this video may help (it starts a little slow, but the end is worth it).

Daniel's First Father's Day

This is Daniel's first Father's Day. We started the weekend by giving him a project to do. We finally got around to putting up a baby gate. (and an unspecified me didn't think to measure stairwell wall) Daniel got a saw, and Ella was his little helper on the project!

While some people remembered to get cute "Daddy's 1st Father's Day!" pictures, others of us got "Daddy is Really Patient!" pictures instead.

Sometimes Daddy has clever ways of playing with Ella. (also, Ella Fishing)

We look like this when Daddy comes home because we love him so much.

She gets excited every time we call someone on the phone because she thinks that it will be Daddy (or a Grandparent)

Ella just loves her Daddy.

Projects

This year for my birthday I got a staple gun. I've been wanting to do projects around the house, and I finally decided that I would upholster a table we got from our neighbor down the street. The top had scratches and a dog bite out of the corner, but it was made of good sturdy wood. I decided that made it a perfect candidate for an upholstered coffee table that would also work for "emergency" seating. (For that one time we have more than two or three people over). The plan was to cover it with a red curtain that I had gotten for a steal at a garage sale to put in our library/piano room.

I got some compacted batting at the craft store while it was on sale at the craft store. I was going to use all of it for my project to make the bench seating, but then after stapling on the batting I remembered that I had a blue curtain panel that would look great on the bench  in our living room. 

After careful consideration, I decided to put the bench in the living room (picture of "in progress") with the blue cover, but I would use half of the batting and use the other half to make another bench for the piano room. (I found this bench at the thrift store for $5, and I'm trying to decide if we are going to gel stain it, cover it all in the red stripe fabric, OR cover the bottom in the red stripe fabric and the top seating in coordinating fabric.) 

Ella News:

Ella has been busy working on learning to stand and walk. I found her like this after waking from her nap one afternoon.

Ella at 10 Months

Learning to Do New Things:
Learning to pull herself up and sit up in her own. Daddy found her sitting in her crib one morning!
She is also walking around furniture!
Going on adventures by rolling around. Sometimes she even finds treasures!
Takes things out of boxes and down from shelves
Taking toys down from her playmat bar
Trying to figure out waving

Favorite Things to Say: (now that she talks more)
Dada
scream then giggle when you look
growl/roar
excited squeals
Clicking her tongue. (Daniel didn't believe it was her until he saw it for himself.)

Favorite Things:
She also loves her little cougar. She will get really excited when the cougar comes to say "Roar!" ( Ella even roars back sometimes.)
Eating more solid foods.
She has really gotten into all her toys recently.
Also loves playing outside! (especially trying to eat outside)
Daddy and Momma

Tooth Count
Five: two on the top and three on the bottom (Three more teeth this month!)

Daddy-Daughter Activities

Lately Ella has taken a liking to hanging out with her dad (that's me!).  It's been really fun to have some games to play with her.  I've got some pictures of a few of the highlights:

• We call this activity Ella Fishing.  As you can see, the object is to use my work access badge as bait, and she can't resist it.  Sometimes she wins.
• Sometimes we play 'dress up'.  (Though it's really just Ella that wears stuff).
• She's learning to stand up so I'll spot Ella while she sidles along tables, couches, etc.
• It's really fun to play with Ella while she practices standing and holding herself up in her crib.  Sometimes she even gives an 'I love you' smile.

This doesn't really have anything to do with my blog post, but Ella did this with her hair, and we couldn't pass up a picture.  We think it might be because of some sunscreen that got in her hair.

So there's an episode of Doctor Who, where they try to get Queen Victoria to say "I am NOT amused" for the whole episode.  Since seeing the episode, I've thrown the quote out a few times.  We're pretty sure Ella must have heard.  But she was just playing.

Also, an update for me -- I have started playing organ for the congregational singing in my ward (and pre-/post-lude), my project finally shipped, and I think that must have been the last requirement before they gave me a promotion to 'Staff Hardware Engineer'.  'Cause they promoted me.

Getting Ella to Smile

Some of you might wonder my method for getting cute Ella pictures. Here is my secret: pull out my camera phone. Ella knows when she is getting her picture taken and smiles for the pictures. (No wonder I have over 900 Ella pictures on my phone!)

Here is my evidence:
1. Doesn't know Momma has out her Camera
2. Sees Momma
3. Immediately after seeing Momma with her Camera

This is super convenient 95% of the time. Sometimes I want to catch her doing something, but she sees the camera and stops what she is doing to smile! Here is me trying to get her to click on video.

This phenomenon is not limited to just Momma's camera. The same thing happens when Daddy comes home or sometimes even when he just walks in the room! She loves to smile for her cougar and her bear. She sometimes even gets excited because Mom came back from the other room!

Contrary to popular belief this smile isn't her only look. It is just really close! (This week was an off week so some of her smiles were a little less sparkly than usual.)

Ella the Explorer

This last week Ella has become an explorer. She still doesn't crawl, but she rolls! I look away and she is across the room! She also loves to stand and is learning to scoot around furniture. She hasn't quite figured out standing on her own, but she is getting close. Mom helps her to stand, and sometimes Mom helps her "find" things.

One day Ella found our trash box in our family room. It was full of papers that she wanted to eat. I stopped her from eating the trash and put our disposable storage ware in the the box for her to find and play with.