Friday, April 30, 2010

MS walk - still time to donate

It's not too late to donate to the MS walk. Buzz, Ella, me, my parents, Buzz's mom, the Gormsens, the St. Legers and many more will be walking on Sunday, May 2nd at Harper College rain or shine. You can donate by clicking the link on the top right corner of this blog. Every dollar counts!
If you do this, the MS fairy below will be very happy!

Seven years of bad luck

Guess who's responsible for this gem? That's right. Gretti-Eviti-Aba. In her defense, Buzz was chasing her around the house and she banged into the mirror. Now where are me and Ella supposed to put our make-up on?

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ella's birthday invitation

My sister took this photo for Ella's birthday invite and I added the wording in Picasa. I had them printed at Costco for 15 bucks for 50. What a steal!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

My Sister - the photographer

Over the last, oh I don't know, five years or so, my sister has taken a real interest in photography. She has an eye for it and does various things for the school, sports teams and local townsfolk. She's become really good and with some classes could turn it into a money-maker. Maybe some day she'll get off her lazy butt and take some. I kid, I kid. So without further adieu, I present her Bluebonnet photo shoot.
















I used one of her photos for Ella's birthday invite but I don't want to post it yet since I just sent out the invites...

Monday, April 26, 2010

I'm 11 Months Old!

Where to begin? Ella is one busy little bee! She is constantly on the move. She is cruising the furniture but when you try to help her walk by holding her hands she collapses her legs and falls to the ground. She is using her walker but it doesn't turn so well. She is climbing stairs and super fast. I realized this when I left her for a minute and came back to find her on the third step!
She will not lie still for a diaper changing anymore. I was warned by friends about this but didn't realize it could be so bad. I have taken to strapping her down on the changing pad. We try to hand her interesting things to look at like the fan remote or a bottle of Jack but sometimes that doesn't even work.
This little girl has some serious bangs that need to be held out of her face but guess what? She won't leave bows or headbands on anymore. And when she takes them out she gives you a sly look.

She has started doing her own laundry so that is helpful. You still can't leave any type of container around this kid or she will empty it, and fast. When I put my make-up on, I hand her my make-up bag and she loves to take all the makeup out.
I think I mentioned last month that she was starting to protest things. I didn't know what protest meant. Now she growls like a wild cat when you take something away from her. She isn't too content to stay in her exersaucer or jumperoo either.
She loves to look out the back door so now in addition to dog nose prints, we have Ella nose prints. We took a nice family walk in the woods behind our house and she came home with her first tick - in her pants!
If we're at home, her meals are starting to look like this. She loves people food and is losing interest in any kind of baby meals that aren't fruit based. Since I'm a vegetarian, I hate feeding her chunks of meat. She's going to owe me for that. She drinks out of a straw like a champ.

She goes nuts when her dad comes home from work. Sometimes she squeals. He deserves this as he devotes his evenings to her.
She went to Texas for the third time to visit my sister's family. The pilots were crazy about her. She's feeling quite comfortable at my sister's house.
The boys took great care of her while she was there. It makes me sad that she doesn't have any older siblings to look up to. She really enjoyed watching those boys.
She was a really good sport while in Austin, putting up with lots of car and stroller rides.
It is SUCH a task to get this child to look up for a photo. She is too busy crawling or picking things up. You can be screaming your head off and she doesn't even give you a glance. For some reason when I sing to her she will look up - it must be my angelic voice - not!

What else? She is getting her top left tooth and now she grinds this one with the bottom two and it makes me feel ill. She thinks it's hilarious. She babbles to herself. She has recently started napping again. When I read her a story and tell her to turn the page, she does. She gives kisses (on occasion, if she feels like it). She does that cute burying her head thing when people talk to her. She likes to drag strange things around when she crawls like my nursing wrap, a bib, a plastic egg, a key chain... She is changing almost daily and she is so much fun to be around.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Austin Day 5 - Austin Children's Museum

As I sit down to write this post I am explaining to my 1st grade nephew that he does not in fact have a "gina" - as in vagina!

His older brother, Blake, likes to sing the Green Giant ad but instead he says, "Green Gina." When asked what a "gina" is, Aidan pointed to his lower region. I asked my sister if she was going to take this one or if I should. She said to leave it alone and I said we can't have him walking around thinking that he has a "gina." I told him that girls have "ginas," actually vaginas and boys have a penis. That's what makes us different. Then he told me that he knows. This is the same kid that loves to say, "Is Ella breastfeeding right now?"

So anyway, yesterday Michael was off so we decided to have a family day. Blake was going to some all-day Christian rock fest with his church group (don't ask) so we asked the little ones if they'd rather go do a safari or go downtown to the Children's Museum. They chose the latter.

First we headed to lunch at a dog-friendly restaurant downtown. All the dogs just chill under their owner's tables.
Michael was so excited to go to the Austin Children's Museum. He wanted to stay all day.

There was no where to feed Ella and I forgot my nursing wrap in the car so I snuck into a mini-classroom and used my sweater as a wrap. First my sister busts in on me and next a few of the workers find me and tell me that they need the room for a birthday party. Is Ella one yet cuz I've just about had it with this nursing crap.
Ella enjoyed the baby section but I did find her with dirt in her mouth at one point and wanted to vomit. She was spitting it all over. Somebody must have trapped it in on their shoes.
This thing was the coolest and Ella had a blast going up and down the stairs and slide. Kerry's camera battery died so these next few pics are from my iphone.

Next we headed to Amy's ice-cream for a sweet treat.
We ended the day by heading to the Cathedral of Junk. This guy has built structures in his backyard out of old junk and it's really sort of beautiful. So you can go in his backyard and check it out and climb all over the junk. Unfortunately when we arrived, we found out that the city has shut it down. I did get a glimpse from the fence.

As I end this post, my sister is asking her 3rd grader if he knows what a "gina" is. He says, "yeah, it's a weiner."

Cousins: Separated at birth

When Ella was born, she seemed to be a spitting image of her dad. But as time went on, she began to look just like my sister's oldest son, Blake. Tons of people have mentioned this and we were looking at some photos of Blake around the same age and they are pretty darn similar. This first one is Blake at 9 months old:Here's Blake around Ella's current age of 11 months. She makes that same face.
These next two are uncanny. Here is Ella from the other day...
And here is Blake at about 10 months old. They look like they could be twins. I say that Ella is a lucky girl because he has always been such a good-looking kid. The weird thing is my sister and I don't look like either one of them. Maybe this post will prove it to my dad who always insists that Ella looks like Ella and nobody else!
I found this and had to throw it in. I think the kids were about 2, 4 and 7. How cute are they?