I'm 8 months old - well I was over a week ago!

So Ella is 8 months old. The golden age of discovery. This is the month that people talk about. Babies are so fun and cute at this age. And she does not disappoint. She's feeding herself now - as you can see she's really good at it. She went swimming for the first time and loved it. She also took her first vacation with friends.
Her eyes are still blue. It's pretty weird considering Buzz has green and I have brown. None of our parents have blue either. But boy are they pretty eyes.
She's getting too big for the baby bath but too bad. I am so not letting her bathe in the place where we shower and bathe the dogs.


This girl just does not like green veggies. We try to trick her by putting fruit with the greens but actually that does sound pretty gross, doesn't it?

A few weeks ago I could have sworn she was days from crawling but, nope, not yet.
She gets around by rolling to where she needs to go. She rolled right under Otis' (side note: I actually looked up the correct form of a possessive Otis and it turns out it can be Otis' or Otis's - yes, I'm crazy) favorite hiding spot.

She traveled by plane to Austin, TX for the second time in her short little life. Once again she rocked on the plane.

She claps her hands and waves at people now. She is also still a loud mouth. That girl has a voice that can carry - I have no idea where she gets that from. Weird.


She is so very interested in everything around her but especially other kids. She adored spending time with my nephews.
The poor baby had her first sickness in Austin. 102.5 fever and chest congestion. She was a trooper through it all. The poor dear fell asleep while eating dinner.

She finally sprouted a tooth! Front, bottom left. She started eating puffs. She dances to music. She cries when we leave the room. She has mad hand-eye coordination. She can pick up a pacifier, juggle it, spin it and pop it into her mouth. She's starting to have opinions like, she doesn't want to drink that bottle or she's done nursing, or don't take that phone/remote away from me.

Someone told me recently (I'm sorry that I can't remember who-was it Beth?) that every day is something new with a child this age and boy is that the truth. I can't wait to see what this next month brings.

We miss Austin!

Alas, our Austin trip had to come to a close. We had such a great, relaxing time.

Cole and I rocking out to Taylor Swift.

Cole enjoyed Ella's x-mas toys more than she did.

Ella fit right in with those boys.

Did I mention it was gorgeous and in the 70's the whole week? Why do we live here again? We tried to store up as much sunshine as we could since it will be a few months before Chicago sees any.

Cuz they're cousins, identical cousins yes they are. Blake played some ACDC and Guns & Roses on his guitar. He's taking lessons and getting really good. The kids (especially Cole) were so excited to see Buzz. He always plays with them. Kerry's beautiful dog, Ziggy. Ziggy got busted licking Ella's face.

It is always fun to see my sister's family. They always make us feel very welcome. She has three amazing boys and they are growing up so fast. The boys offered to trade their house for Ella but I told them I'd have to think about it.

You're just going to forget about those blueberries...

"Beat it," Buzz said as I walked downstairs. This is how our lovely conversation ended. Oops, it actually ended just now as Buzz told me how he didn't do anything so I need to get over it. Let me start from the beginning.

We're in the kitchen counting how many berries are left in a bag because we disagreed on the amount so Buzz actually counted them out on a paper towel. I pour a bowl of frozen blueberries and leave it on the counter and he tells me, "You know that you're going to forget about those blueberries." For some reason this irks me and I respond with, "Did you ever think that your negative attitude affects me."

He looks at my questionably and I go on, "whenever I get a piece of work out equipment you laugh and says how much dust it's going to collect. Or when I want to join a gym or a class you laugh. Or recently I mentioned that the Wii could be my key to exercise and you told me that if I think I can lose weight using the Wii then that is sad. Did you ever think that your negative comments are partly why I'm failing at this? You know, like when all a kid hears is how they're worthless and won't amount to anything and they start to believe it."

Missing the point, Buzz tells me how I hate to break a sweat so maybe I should just join Weight Watchers. I argue that I totally broke a sweat while playing a dancing game on Wii plus I had fun! He tells me how I would benefit from these Weight Watcher meetings. Here's the thing though, I don't just want to lose weight, I'd like to be healthier. I just want him to say once, "that sounds like a good idea, good luck."

Poor tired baby

Band Hero featuring Kelly, Buzz & Michael

Just Dance - Starring: Buzz & Michael

My nephews got this awesome game for the Wii called, Just Dance. You hold the Wii remote and copy the dance moves on the tv. We've had so much fun playing this whole week. Please enjoy Buzz & Michael dancing to Step by Step by The New Kids on the Block.

My sister has a blog!

Finally! My sister, Kerry, always tells me the funniest stories about her kids and we've been talking about getting her started on a blog for a while now. She needs to get her butt away from Facebook! Her blog is www.thesepeopleilivewith.blogspot.com

Austin - Photo shoot

Yesterday we took the boys and Ella down by the pond so my sister could do a little photo shoot.

For some reason, it was really hard to get Ella to smile.

Things got progressively worse...

We had to stop finally because she kept crying. That's very unlike her. She felt warm so I took her temperature when we got home and low and behold, she had her first fever - 102.5. I figured it was due to her teething so I called a few friends for medication dosing information and finally ended up with Dr. Nick St. Leger on the phone (thanks Nick).

Because according to my sister and I quote, "It's not like I've had three kids or anything!" But when asked the correct dose for an eight month old infant she had nothing else to say...

Austin - Boys and Blowouts

The other day I felt Ella's first tooth pointing through. Well on Monday the teething diarrhea hit hard. I got her dressed in this cute little get-up for a day at the outlet mall and she blew out the whole outfit first thing in the morning. This pic was taken post blowout when I asked my sister for help and she said, "lemme get my camera first cuz she's so cute in this sweater." I was just thankful the blowout happened at home. Later that day my dad was babysitting Ella while the girls took the little guys to hip hop class. My dad called to ask where Ella's clothes were - she had blown out again! Here is her third outfit of the day...

That same night, the girls went out to dinner while the boys all went to see Avatar. At the restaurant, Ella blew out again - in the high chair. I had no spare shirt because of the previous blowout so she was forced to wear her sweater as a shirt...

The blowouts have since ceased and now I can see a little tooth coming through! Finally.

Here is Ella with one of her Christmas gifts from my sister...a dead dog. Actually it's one of those Fur Real dogs that moves its head, blinks eyes and makes noises. It sounds like a laughing demon and we're all kind of scared of it. At least she got it on clearance.

Yesterday we took some outdoor photos:

Did I mention it was over 70 degrees?