My heroes!

Sometimes, it is so hard living far away from our families. Especially times like last night and this morning when Damian is out of town and Ellie can't stop throwing up long enough for us to get out of the house. Thank goodness for the kindness of friends! After working all week and instead of going straight home and relaxing, Kristen went to the store and got us pedialyte and apple juice, and then this morning, instead of enjoying a restful Saturday morning and before going to work, Karen came over and watched Ellie (risking being the first to discover that Ellie is still sick this morning) so I could run Gracie to the vet to be boarded. I don't know what I would have done without these wonderful ladies -- thank you, thank you, thank you!

The good, the bad, and the icky!

The good...Ellie and I went to an amazing warehouse sale today (thanks, Celena, for telling us about it and for being our "inside woman" while we were still outside in line...we waiting for over an hour and a half just to get in!). We did some really early Christmas shopping (yea for Ellie being young enough to help with her own gifts) and got a little toddler table with four chairs, a nightstand to go with Ellie's toddler bed, an adorable pink retro play kitchen, a little pink rocking chair for Ellie, and a high chair and cradle for Ellie's doll (I'm thinking the last two might be good "big sister" gifts for Ellie when the baby comes).

The bad...Damian left yesterday for Milan and Ellie and I already miss him. It doesn't help that Gaga and Papa left just a day earlier, so we went from a full house to just the two of us in two days. Ellie is really missing her audience!

The icky...poor Miss Ellie started throwing up late this afternoon. ;-( She had been fine all day -- ate fine, played normally, napped normally, etc. -- and then suddenly she started throwing up. Poor thing! The good thing is that she's happy in between episodes -- she gets pretty upset when she gets sick, but then she runs around and plays until she gets sick again. She really wasn't a fan of getting sick in her crib after going to bed for the night...and neither was I! It's hard to change the sheets and mattress protector on that crib with a belly! She's asleep now, so I'm praying that she'll have a good night and wake up feeling better.

Gaga and Papa's visit

We had such a great time when Gaga and Papa visited for a few days! Ellie was Gaga's little shadow the whole time -- she loved exploring the backyard with her and just generally wanted to be wherever Gaga was.

Ellie loves her Papa too! He was the first person she asked for when she woke up and she still asks where he is -- she likes looking at the picture of him on the fridge and just saying 'Papa, Papa' over and over again.

We went to McKinney and visited some friends of theirs, which was nice, but the highlight of the trip was probably the trip to the swimming pool. It had a beach entry so Ellie could walk in at her own pace - she loved it! We stayed in about a foot of water most of the time and Ellie thought it was pretty cool that she could walk around. She also went down a water slide by herself for the first time. We thought it might be a bit much for her, but she just kept doing the sign for 'again' over and over.

Daddy putting Ellie down the slide:

Ed and I compared bellies -- I think he won, but I'm catching up!It was so nice to have Gaga and Papa's company -- we always love their visits and appreciate everything they do while they're here -- I get so much done!

Welcome, Molly Elizabeth Greco!

Miss Molly was born early this morning, weighing 6 lbs, 8 oz. and is 19 inches long! I can't wait to meet her. Congratulations, Natalie and John!

Jumping bean

About a week ago, I started really feeling the baby move and now he/she is kicking hard enough that Damian can feel it -- so fun!!

A day in Tyler

Yesterday, we spent the day in Tyler. We didn't do any research beforehand, thinking that it would be easy to find a nice walking mall or somewhere similar to have lunch and check out the shops. Not so much. We did, however, stumble upon the cutest children's park! It was the perfect place for Ellie to stretch her legs after a long car journey.

These teddy bears were made out of granite -- not so cuddly, but fun to climb on!

Ellie looked like a photographer's assistant carrying the camera case (which looks like a briefcase compared to her) and a bottle of water

This isn't a great picture, but it shows the growing belly

The azaleas were amazing...and matched Ellie's shirt perfectly!

Getting ready to sample a local rock

The park had two little waterfalls and Ellie wanted to paddle in them so badly! She settled for dipping one foot in the water

A delicious meal...really!

I've posted about the crazy things we feed Ellie, so I thought I should post about the truly delicious too! Last night, we tried a new recipe (which we made up)...turkey burgers with spinach, roasted red peppers and goat cheese. We sauteed the spinach with a ton of garlic, chopped up the red pepper, a bit of onion, and a little bit of goat cheese -- mixed it all together and made it into burgers. Oh. My. Gosh. They were DELICIOUS! We made an extra, slightly smaller one for Ellie (we both considered eating it ourselves for breakfast, but decided to at least let Ellie try it). She had it today at lunch and loved it! She ate an entire burger, a couple grape tomatoes, a cutie, a bit of apple (she likes eating BIG slices of apple), and some avocado. After several days of not having much of an appetite, it was so great to see her eat such a big, healthy lunch...even if Damian and I were salivating over her burger the entire time!

Before I forget...and because Hillary told me to

I told Hillary this story several weeks ago and she said it needed to go on the blog, so here it goes...

When Gaga was here in January, we decided to take Ellie outside to use her swing in the front yard. We hadn't used it in ages because it had been too cold. When we got out there, we saw that it was covered in bird poo! Gaga cleaned it up, while a big black bird screeched at us from the branches above. I got Ellie settled in and within 2 minutes, the bird poo'ed on my head and on Ellie's leg. We haven't been back out there since -- the bird has definitely claimed it as his territory!

Sit, stop and other directives from a 14-month old

Miss Ellie has become quite assertive. Earlier this week, Hillary watched Ellie AGAIN while I went to the doctor (thank you, thank you, Hillary!) and she loved playing with Jackson. They are SO cute together! Ellie has learned to say "Jajin" and she gets so excited every time we have a playdate with him. Anyway, on Thursday, Jackson was loving on Ellie and apparently gave her one too many hugs, so she put a hand in the middle of his chest and said "stop!" I wish I had been there to witness it (this is all secondhand from Hillary)!

While in Colorado, Ellie also learned how to say "sit" (probably because Jamie, Eric and I would all yell it in unison anytime Ellie got near the stairs) -- unfortunately, it sounds like it has an 'h' in it when Ellie says it. She's watched us tell Gracie to sit before giving her a biscuit and now Ellie points at Gracie, acts like she has something in her hand, and says "s*it, s*it." Hee-larious!

Ellie is also a pro at the "bah-bye" now. She says it every time she leaves a room or anytime someone else leaves the room. She'll also say it if I grab my coat, purse, diaper bag, or car keys. The other day, we went to Target and, as we were walking out the door, Ellie yelled "bah-bye, bah-bye" at the top of her lungs. People standing in line at customer service, at least 20 feet away, started laughing and waved bye-bye to Ellie. I guess she wanted everyone to be aware of the fact she was leaving the building! What's really impressive is that she knows when I'm about to get off the phone and she'll shout out "bah-bye"...even if she's across the room and seems not to be paying any attention to me. Hillary and Jamie can both attest to this -- it's pretty amazing (if I do say so myself) and pretty consistent.

People have wondered whether it's necessary to bathe Ellie every night

Here is my answer, in pictures...

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

We love you and hope you have a great one!