This week in words, Part IV

Okay, I know there are a ton more from the last week, but these are the only words I can think of right now...

1. Tasty

2. Slowly, slowly (she actually sings "slowly, slowly, very slowly," which is the beginning of "slowly, slowly, very slowly, creeps the little snail," but so far, "slowly, slowly" is the only understandable part)

3. See-saw (again, she sings "see-saw, Margery Daw," but you can only understand "see-saw")

4. Yummy

She's also starting to put two words together -- lots of "Hi Daddy," "Bye Daddy," "Hi Gaga," "Bite please," "More please," etc.

This week in words, Part III

I'm starting to lose track of Ellie's new words, but here are the ones that I can think of:

1. Nice (she sounds very British when she describes her food as "nice"!)
2. Swim
3. Cock-a-doodle-do (I can't figure out how to type what she actually says -- it's 3 syllables though)
4. Outside
5. Bapa [refers to Peter]
6. Oops (Bapa is trying to teach Ellie to say "oops-a-daisy-doodly-do"...she still has a ways to go on that one though)
7. This
8. Jump (she said this one for the first time when telling Jackson to jump off of the windowsill that he was standing on -- I guess we'll have to talk about not encouraging our friends to do dangerous things)

The slippery slope

Today, Ellie had pizza (real, no-hidden-vegetables-or-redeeming-value pizza!) for lunch and frozen yogurt for dessert! Grandad (currently called "Papa" because "Grandad" is too hard) was the culprit, giving Ellie big spoonfuls of strawberry yogurt -- but I couldn't blame him -- Ellie was SO excited and, as Damian says, looked like "the cat who got the cream." With each mouthful, a sweet, this-is-the-most-amazing-thing-I've-ever-tasted smile broke across her face. I suppose it will be cheetos and candy bars in no time, but she's so sweet -- who can resist making her happy like that?!

It's never a good sign when...

the doctor who just finished your sonogram says "everything looks great with the baby -- the head's fine, the brain's fine, the heart is fine. The baby weighs 2...Whoa! When is your due date?" I'm not even embellishing -- that's exactly how it happened! The doc then told us that the baby already weighs 2 lbs, 13 ounces. Yikes! I'm measuring two weeks ahead of my due date (basically, I'm 27 weeks pregnant and the baby is 29 weeks huge!) so I asked him if that meant he would change my due date and he said "no, it means that you're going to have a big baby!" Gee, thanks. I also asked if the baby was huge because I was eating too much and he said "no, thin women who have big babies, just have big babies. Now, if you were a big woman, eating like a big woman, then I would say that 'yes, your eating habits were causing the growth.'" I clarified, "But what if I'm a thin woman, eating like a big woman?" He said that still wouldn't wouldn't make the baby big. So I guess that's good news and bad news -- I don't have to change my eating habits (thank goodness since a big ol' batch of Mandy's awesome chocolate meltdowns just arrived thanks to Hillary), but there's also nothing I can do to make BH2.0 slow down his/her (let's be realistic, it must be a boy, right?!) crazy growth. Guess I won't invest in any newborn clothes -- hope they have a cute going-home-from-the-hospital-outfit in 2T!

Happy anniversary, everyone!

It's hard to believe that it's already been two years since we got married -- in many ways, it feels like just yesterday, and in others, it feels like enough has happened since then to fill 10 years. I can't imagine being any happier with my life than I am right now -- I have the most fantastic husband who makes me laugh, who works his tail off to allow me to stay home with Ellie, and who loves his girls to bits -- as one schmultzy card said, he's "everything I want and more than I deserve." I love you, honey.

Our anniversary is especially fun because we get to reminisce about spending our wonderful wedding day in paradise with all of our close friends and family! I don't think either of us could imagine a single way to make our wedding and that trip any more special -- we loved the time that we spent with each of you and appreciate the sacrifices that you each made to be there with us. Thank you -- and happy anniversary of the best Corfu trip ever!

And the award for patience goes to...

Ellie! Peter, Sue and Sarah arrived last night just after I put Ellie down for the night. As I was rocking and cuddling with Ellie, I was going over the last minute things that I needed to do before they arrived and creating a mental to-do list. I was also very worried that I was going to leave the dirty diaper sitting on the changing table (and who wants to sleep in a room with a stinky diaper?!) or forget to turn on her humidifier, which masks the noise from downstairs. So I was thinking "okay, grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup. Grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup. Grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup." I put Miss Ellie in her crib, did all three things on my list and closed the door. As is somewhat typical, Ellie talked and played in her crib for quite a while. Damian and I were busy catching up with our guests and getting dinner ready and it wasn't until we sat down for dinner that I realized that she had been awake for two hours -- still happy and entertaining herself, but awake no less. At one point, she pulled the mirrored toy up from the side of the crib, put her head under it and just laid there for a while. I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to go up and rock her to sleep, figuring that after two hours of trying, she obviously wasn't going to be able to fall asleep on her own. I went up, opened the door and found Ellie bathed in light. Strange. Ellie isn't able to climb out of her crib (yet) and isn't tall enough to turn on the light. Could it be that my pregnant pea-sized brain could only remember the three things on my to-do list and "turn off the light" just didn't make the cut? Apparently. Poor, sweet Ellie had been trying to fall asleep in the bright light for two hours -- never crying, never protesting, just hoping that if she played with her feet for long enough, she would finally nod off. I felt so guilty! We rocked for a few minutes, I put her back in the crib, turned off the light, and she was asleep before I made it down the stairs. Sweet, patient girl!

Sit? I think I'll stand, thanks.

Ellie has decided that sitting is for sissies. She stands/climbs on everything! This is the sight that greeted me when I went into the playroom today:

Ellie doing a little jig on her Dora car

Standing on her car

Later, she climbed up on the Rubbermaid that is meant to keep her out of the stereo cabinet...now it just gives her a means to getting on the cabinet

A box on the floor? I must stand on it!

Man, that kid needs a sibling

Ellie turned on herself today. She got so excited (jumping on the couch) that she bit herself! She didn't even seem to notice, so I thought she must not have bitten down very hard, but the proof is in the teeth marks (you may have to click on the picture to see):
She really needs a little brother or sister to beat up on!

King of the coffee table

Today, Miss Ellie discovered that if she climbs up on the ottoman, she can get on the coffee table -- and how fun is that?! She did it over and over and over again. Previously, she was only able to pull, push, or throw things off of the table -- now she can also kick things off of the table...and she couldn't be more excited!

Rookie mistake

You know when you hear something, but it doesn't really register until your mind plays it back, almost like an "echo"? Happened to me a couple days ago at Super Target. Miss Ellie was sitting in the cart, which I "parked" on one side of an aisle, and I walked a few feet away to check out items on the other side of the aisle. I'm intently looking at the many options in green tea and slowly realize that I'm hearing things hit the floor. I'm totally used to this sound since Ellie throws lots of things on the floor; but my mind was working in slow motion. Finally, I thought, "wait a minute, Ellie doesn't have anything in the cart to throw?!" and turned around just in time to see Ellie clearing a shelf of Oreo cookies...one box at a time. There was a young Target employee a few feet from Ellie and another shopper across the aisle. They both looked at me as if to say "ah, you silly, silly rookie!"