Snow day fun

To remedy a little cabin fever yesterday, we made some finger paint and turned the girls loose to make some Easter cards. Miss Ellie wasn't in the mood to have her hands painted (or, more generally, to be told what to do), but she had fun doing some free-form painting (her first time painting), and Alex made some great cards.

Earlier in the week, Alex and I made an "airport" (it was really barely a tent, much less a fort or something as impressive as an airport, but Alex was feeling generous when she named it):

Zzzzzz...did I just sleep through a first?

Well, after much planning and anticipation, we took Ellie outside yesterday to experience snow for the first time. With her never-ending curiosity and her ever-improving mobility, we thought it would be a pretty exciting first. Surely she would squawk with delight, run to the snow, crawl through it, enjoy tasting it, etc. The moment had finally arrived. We wrestled her into more layers than I can count and off we went. In the end, she spent about 10 minutes outside. Here is a video of the most thrilling 5. Try not to fall asleep.

For Daddy

It's been a week now since we saw Daddy (he's in China and we're in Colorado) and we're really missing him! I suspect that he might be missing his little girl, so here a few pictures to help remember what she looks like, honey.

Check out the snow in the background! It started snowing at about 6:00 a.m. and within just a few hours, it had snowed at least 6 inches...and it hasn't stopped since! It's too cold to get Ellie out in it right now, but hopefully tomorrow the wind will die down and Ellie can experience her first snow. She's already very interested in it through the window, so it will be fun (hopefully) to see her reaction when she first touches it!

So will she be a volleyball player or a basketball player?! Maybe both...as long as she didn't get her mother's coordination.

Offering up her babydoll!

Ellie has been loving Alex's etch-o-sketch. She carries it everywhere!

One of my favorite pictures ever!

And a (large!) bun makes four

As promised, here is a picture from our sonogram yesterday:
Baby Bean is doing great! He (we haven't found out the gender, but we both think it's a boy, so I'm opting for the male pronouns) was so fun to watch -- he crossed his legs a lot, just like Ellie, and although he didn't clutch his hands together as much as she did, he did seem to like to have his arms resting on his budha belly. He's measuring pretty big, so who knows whether my due date is correct. According to his measurements yesterday, I'm due August 31, not September 5. We shall see. I'm hoping that this is just an early growth spurt and not a sign that we're having a gigantic baby! He's 5 inches long already and weighs 5 ounces -- the doc said at this point, babies normally weigh 2-3 ounces. Yikes!

We have a level 2 sonogram early next month to check for heart defects (my OB seems to be pretty aggressive with testing, etc. and wants to do the level 2 since Ellie has a VSD), so we should get an even better look at this little guy. I can't wait -- I'm not feeling much movement yet, so it's fun to get a glimpse at what's going on in there!

Jackson-induced exhaustion

We had another sonogram today (Baby Bean is perfect and I'm hoping to post a summary and a picture tomorrow) so Hillary watched Miss Ellie for us (THANK YOU, HILLARY!). Ellie took a little nap and then enjoyed playing with Jackson. It's hard to imagine, but I think Jackson had even more energy than normal and, apparently, just trying to keep up with him wore Ellie out! We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and Ellie zonked out on the 2 minute drive home. Normally, she wakes up when I take her out of her carseat, but today, she opened her eyes, looked around, and passed out again. After a few failed attempts to wake her, I let her take a little snooze on the couch. Now I know what to do with Ellie when she has extra energy that she needs to burn off. ;-)

Princess Grumbalina explained

For the past week or so, we haven't seen much of Miss Ellie. She's been replaced by Princess Grumbalina, an adorable, but demanding and fussy (and did I mention demanding?) toddler who bursts into tears (and tantrums) with little provocation and no warning. I was starting to worry that we were doing something terribly wrong and making her completely miserable...until Damian noticed that Princess Grumbalina's gum was really swollen. Could one little incoming tooth really transform our sweet Miss Ellie into demanding Princess Grumbalina? Probably not, but THREE incoming molars sure has! Poor Ellie has at least three molars and possibly a few other teeth coming in and they are clearly causing her quite a bit of pain. Two of the molars have broken the surface and one is very close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that once that last one pops through, Princess Grumbalina will take a very, very long vacation. In the meantime, in the face of repeated tantrums, my mantra has become, "three molars, three molars, three molars."

Dallas Blooms (almost)

Tomorrow, Dallas Blooms at the arboretum starts and it turns out that they don't plant all of those amazing flowers overnight! We went today (with Alison and Baby Jack) and the place is already in full bloom. Sweet Baby Jack slept through the picnic and most of the fun, but who can blame him?! The weather was perfect for napping! Ellie thought the weather was perfect for enjoying her new-found independence -- she loved walking around in the grass and welcoming visitors to our little corner of the arboretum! Here are just a few pictures...

Alison and Baby Jack:

Ellie sampling the mulch:

I remember trying to get pictures of Ellie with the flowers last spring -- I just sort of set her infant carrier in front of them. Alison was much more resourceful:

Doesn't this just look like the best nap?