Wednesday, July 9, 2008

She takes after mom

So Ella got a gift card for her bday- (Thanks Anthony family!!) I knew exactly what to get her. Ella loves Playdoh. I got her the stupid Fun factory but it is too hard for her to use and I hate cleaning it out. I saw this set at Target that was like Mr.Potato Head with Playdoh. I was still getting the pieces out of the box. I had experimented in making some playdoh feet. I turned away for a sec and here is what my daughter came up with:



I only made the feet and balled up some playdoh for her :). I am so proud.

So speaking of creativity, I have lots of new stuff at my etsy store. I am really happy with the direction of my creative flow lately. I stopped trying to imitate and am now just doing my thing. It's fun. Check it out by clicking the button on the right!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Just another day

We had a great holiday! I hope everyone else had a fun one. We headed to Cleveland on Thursday night and hung out with my bro, Jason, and family. Many ppl know that my brother happened to marry my best friend, Jenny. Well, Jenny wanted us to hang out so for the first time in a really long time, we went out by ourselves. It was such a great evening. First we went to an outdoor mall where all the stores were closed because it was the Fourth of July. We still got to do some window browsing and hear some fun live music. More than anything we got to talk. We never get to do that without kids and the rest of the family around. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had drinks and appetizers and dessert. God, did we do it good! It was a great time.

During our window browsing, Jenny had told me about this store I had to see. Check it out:




Just think for a mere $3.00 you can get Heather's Butt Rub too. I know I am a weirdo, but how fun is that? We also got Dave a shirt that says "I got the best butt rub at Heather's". First thing my ultra conservative husband says, "Wow, I can wear that everywhere." Inject sarcasm in that please.

We really just relaxed all weekend and got to spend some quality time with them. My niece is three and just so much fun. I think its hard on her though. She has very high expectations with Ella and my little girl just doesn't keep up yet. I think it would be better if she talked more. She is getting there though. We hear a lot more from Ella.

Speaking of...Ella had her two year a couple of weeks ago and I forgot to post.. She was right at the 50th percentile for all except her head which was 55th percentile. I was happy with that. He said that he wasn't super concerned yet with the talking. He said he wanted us to get intervention at 2.5 years. I was thinking about still going earlier but she is making progress right now. Everything was fine on the motor control front. He basically had her just walk to me which you think she would have done right away seeing how we put her on the other side of the room with the doctor, but she just stood there. Then he offered her a hand and she took it and walked with him. That was cool. It means she was comfortable with him. Basically our dr appts aren't too bad once we get past the nurse. Sometimes the eyes and ears are rough but she didn't fight nearly as hard as she did at 18 months. And she has smiles for him now. Really so far, two is so much fun. The tantrums can get old but she rarely has them. I know how lucky we are. Ella is happy 99.9% of the time. The other .1% usually comes around food. She is such a picky eater all of a sudden.

Here are some of Ella's two year pics to end on :)The last one isn't one we got but it was on the CD and I thought it was cute and kinda represented the age.




Tuesday, July 1, 2008

What a long month







Those pics make me want to be a kid again. While watching Ella play in the fountains, I felt like I wanted to jump in too. These are the pics I promised from the mall with the cool fountains. Ella has so much fun there.

The last two weeks have been so insane at work. I am behind now but at least feel a little less pressure. One of my coworkers got married and while she was gone I tried really hard to step up. I did a good job but the effort left me brain dead.

We have had a lot of things going on. Ella turned 2 on June 20. Yay Ella!! We had a great birthday party with lots of friends and family. I have zippo pics from the party right now except what my friend Barb was nice enough to send me. Thanks, Barb!!

I do have pics of the family party later that night to celebrate both my niece Sydney's 9th birthday and Ella's. Ella got the cutest doll from my mom and some yoga videos from my brother and fam. Sydney got a huge Star Wars lego set from us and my folks. And then she got the guitar from my brother and Jenny. Our Syd is such a character :). The last pic is the birthday hat Syd made for her


Ella and her cuz Saoirse




Ella and her cake







Sorry about all the funky spacing. Still can't figure out what I am doing wrong!