Whew

These last few weeks have just been so insane. Thanksgiving went great. Dave's mom, my parents, and my sister's family all joined us for dinner. I was in charge of the bird. It was a hit with everyone but Ella. Not a big meat eater right now. She just chewed on it for about 20 seconds and spit it out. I will try not to take that one personally. My nieces and I went to see Enchanted last Friday. Such a great movie!! We had a great time and laughed a lot. It was fun because I don't get to spend that kind of time with them much anymore. Things seem busier sometimes because Dave and I don't see each other much and one of us is exhausted from chasing Ella Bella. Even my mom and sister said she is a very busy little girl. It's no wonder she is so skinny and eats as much as I do.

Ella is picking up stuff so fast now. She's still not saying many words. I think it may be becuase I talk too fast. Apparently there are two "ma"s in our house. Dave is ma too. He used to be "da" but lately she calls us both ma. We are working on calling him daddy every couple of seconds and were rewarded today with a "da". She says "more" a lot. I think that is her favorite. She will repeat things we say too but doesn't seem to remember what they meant. She has mastered both the spoon and fork now, but often resorts to hands when things just aren't going fast enough. She also climbed onto the couch for the first time today. Apparentally food is a big motivator for Ella because she came up onto the couch and sat herself in my lap to mooch my oatmeal. After that big accomplishment, I really couldn't say no. It seems like everyday now she does something that we are just shocked - "where did she learn to do that?" is often said.

Tonight Dave was working. We had a great girls' night. It was just one of those perfect fun nights with lots of laughs and cuddles. I really wished Dave could have been home to see and even document. There were sippie cups on heads and horsie rides and lots of climbing on Gibby (she's such a patient dog). Ella showed true appreciation for her first real glimpse of snow. I can't wait to take her out in it soon.

Ok enough catching up- I will post some really cute pics once I find batteries so I can upload pictures.

Things I learned from my toddler today

1. Gibby really needs to have her ears cleaned
2. Forks require constant supervision
3. There is more than one way to drink your milk

What a wonderful Halloween!!

Last year Ella was too small and was very cranky for Halloween. I barely made it home in time to even get her in her costume and then she didn't want to do anything but go to bed. This year was totally different. It was a perfect day! I got a lot of work done the night before and early so when Dave left for work it was just me and my girl. We played outside before dinner. After dinner we played on the porch until trick or treaters came for candy! We even hit a few houses ourselves. So much fun. Ella was a pony this year, and if I do say so myself- the cutest darn pony ever! Her favorite part of Halloween was definitely the pumpkins. She liked her costume too but she loved on the pumpkins. They were her buddies. Here are our pics to share (lots of them- it was so hard to choose)!! And thank you to everyone for all their adorable pictures of their own pumpkins!

Bet you have never seen a horse in a boat before


And here's the back

Halloween already?

*Edited to update on back- my back is fine. Dr. said I probably had a spasm due to a slightly herniated disc. He said they usually fix themselves with some anti-inflammatory drugs. It still bothers me when I decide to be a human airplane or a horse for the day but other than that I am good.

I just have no concept of time anymore. Halloween is almost upon us. What is everyone going to be? Ella is going to her first Halloween party and her friends, Annabel and Sophie's house. We are all very excited. We were going to be a monkey- see below. But I decided that I have no time to make a monkey and the ones i found were super expensive. So we went to Walmart (to maybe find parts to a monkey) and found a horsie costume. It is pretty cute but how much you want to bet that the hood will not be acceptable? She won't even wear a hat so how am I going to get her to wear a horse's head? This year has flown so quickly. I have been really bad at this blogging thing again. All I can say is the last few weeks, work was hell and not worth talking about. On a great positive note, I am working from home a couple days a week and loving it!! It has been going really well. My boss is ok with it as well so far. Ella seems to be really taking off now. She is walking almost running more, and she seems to be saying more now too. Her official repertoire includes "mama", "dada", "oosh" (shoe), "more", and lots of baby language that I think we need a translator for. Oh and she makes monkey noises. It was a total fluke. I started being a monkey - "ooh ooh ahh ahh" and next thing I knew, Ella was going "ahh ahh ahh". So she does it all the time now. To make up for my lack of posting. I am finally adding pics and video to show. Hope you enjoy!!!

I think there should be a law that no parent is allowed to throw away appliance boxes without first letting their child play for at least a day. Ours lasted 2.5 days before Ella stopped paying attention to it and it just took up space.

What kid doesn't love spaghetti? Ella gets really serious about hers. Now there are sometimes pics of your kids that you are not sure you want to share and the one below definately falls into that category....this is not my child. I am thinking of getting an exorcist or the TAPS team out to my house.

Here is a cute video of Ella. It is a demonstration of her extreme intelligence

We're walking!

Ella is finally taking off. She has gained some confidence now. Last week she was just going between point A and B, and as of this weekend, she just takes off with no known destination. She is so proud of herself, and we are too!

Ella and I went to Illinois to see my dear friend Jennifer and her family over Labor Day. Ella was loved on by all. She even made a new friend! My good friend Lisa has a little boy who is only a couple months older than Ella. They got along pretty good! Ella was cranky though off and on which is odd for her. We thought maybe she was teething. Well when we got back, we took her to the doctor and sure enough she had an ear infection. She felt much better in a couple of days. She had her 15 month appt last Thursday and although she hated it and screamed, she was declared healthy and had actually put on a good deal of weight and jumped to 30th percentile from 5th percentile. That was great news! It was also confirmed that she was teething pretty good again and had some hemorraging in her gums. That doesnt sound fun. Of course right on cue, this weekend Ella got cranky again. Of course there were other factors too.

Which brings me to our excitement this past weekend- my sister and brother and their families all came to visit here in Michigan this weekend. We usually go down there so it was nice to have them come this way. We planned on going to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday. We were all looking forward to spending time together. As we got ready to leave Saturday morning, I started having pains in my left side. It started pretty slight and got sharper throughout the morning. I tried to ignore thinking it would go away, but eventually I said something. We decided I should try to go to the festival and if I needed to leave to go to prompt care I would. When we got in the car and started driving on our horrible roads, I started crying because the pain was so bad. Poor Dave!! He was so great! He didn't freak out when I started crying suddenly. He just stated we were going to the ER, and he called my mom to get Ella. After they gave me something for the pain, it didn't hurt again. The dr who saw me for like 30 seconds told me the whole process would probably take 4 hours because they werent sure what it was. 4 hours later, after the cat scan didnt reveal anything, they tell me I may be there for the night. I cried. I kept telling Dave they weren't going to find anything and they should just let me go home because it stopped hurting. The reason they gave was that they werent sure I could get in for an MRI and have the results before they left for the day. Luckily we got in for the MRI and eight hours after we arrived, we learn that I have a herniated disc in my back. ???? It seems like I am too young for that, but they said its possible that it happened during my pregnancy and is just now beginning to pinch a nerve. Ugh.

The good news is next week I start working from home two days a week and may actually be able to fit in dr appts and therapy if I have to. I know lots of people are telling me I need to take better care of myself but honestly I am!! I sleep better now, things are calmer for the most part, and I just started Weight Watchers again. I WAS planning on starting to exercise a few times a week but I guess I have to take it easy now :(. I have lost 7 lbs so far! Add that to the 7 I lost when I had mono and I am in a much better place! I am excited about that. I can't wait to fit into my clothes again.

Happy belated birthday, Dave

So I posted our first post yesterday and forgot to mention it was Dave's birthday too. Somewhere I lost a year and thought he was 36 again. So we made a pact. Dave will be 36 again and I will be 29 again come November :). So Happy 36th birthday, Dave!!

I felt bad because we didn't do anything big for his birthday. We barely saw each other. So wonderful wife that I am, I took cupcakes to his work to share. My mom used to do that for me when I was in school. Big difference- she made them from scratch. Yeah, I just went to Meijers. We had a nice dinner at McDonalds together and then he worked until 3 am. It was very romantic.

We did have a date this past weekend to celebrate anniversary mostly. We saw the Bourne Ultimatum. What a great movie!!! It was definately an action movie extreme but it was Matt Damon so.... Good date movie. We then went out to BDs Mongolian barbeque. That was fun because we can never do that place with Ella.

Two days of posting in a row...I'm on a roll! Ok truthfully my boss is gone so it is really quiet at work.

First post!!

We had a blog a long time ago but I lost it. If anyone knows where it is could you please return it? I keep up with our friends through their blogs. So much easier than email. I love theirs, but I realized we weren't being fair because we don't share our news. So here it goes! The first one is a doozy!

I had been feeling lousy for the last month. Finally I am feeling somewhat normal. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. It took a fever every night for a few days to get me to the Dr. I had mono!! How I got it is still a mystery. I told Dave I need to stop kissing on strange people whenever I feel like it. Now we have to wait and see who else in the house will be struck down. It is almost a guarantee that Dave will be inflicted but may be we will get lucky. I really just don't want Ella to get it.

Ella now has her own malady (sp). Unfortunately we aren't sure what it's going to be yet. She has a blister on her upper lip. It doesn't seem to bother her except when you try to clean around it. We spent last night at the after hours clinic which was the busiest I had ever seen it. Ella has a new fear of doctors. Our normally happy laughing girl turned into a screaming bright red demon. I had never seen her so upset. They told us it was either Hand Foot Mouth disease or the herpes simplex virus. Neither sound very fun to me. We are leaning towards the HSV because she has no other symptoms and seems perfectly fine except for the ucky sore on her mouth. I had just gotten over my worry of her catching more stuff from daycare. The joys of being a working mom. At least I get to go home early today!!

I promise to post pics soon!! I have some really cute ones from bathtime the other night!