Granddaddy

Hi everybody! Sorry we've been away so long. We had a very exciting weekend! Granddaddy came to visit and we had so much fun.

We read stories

played blocks

(notice the chic hairbow from Aunt Megan delivered by Graddaddy. Also notice how exciting blocks are.)

tried on Graddaddy's Bronto hat

and also worked on a grown-up project.

We did not document it photographically, but Lucie was also overjoyed to see Granddaddy. He mostly sat surrounded by adoring small creatures and played with them.

By the way, the last photo shows the dismantling of the fabric wall. It was a little bit of a milestone for the living room. I put it up about 3 years ago, right after we moved in. But I was just getting kind of tired of having to incorporate the same colors and patterns in the room for so long. We are having a refreshing January here in decor at least. In weather, after a beautiful weekend, we are back to cold and brown again outside. I'm putting a lot of hope in Punxsutawney Phil this year. Don't let me down buddy!

Walking!

Ella-belle took her first steps today! For a while she had been taking one unsupported step and then dropping down to crawl. But this morning, on her own, she decided to take two. I was very excited about that, but when I tried to get her to do a little more, lo and behold, she started walking! Look at her go! And all those first steps were in that sleeper! She was just waiting for a good chance to show off I guess. Of course she did wait until 15 minutes after Daddy left to perform! Oh well.

Rhymes with "ott"

Well, as you will soon understand, not a lot happened blog-worthy here with me and Ella today, but it has been a few days since I last updated, so I thought I would share with you something amazing Paul and I realized after dinner tonight. Paul may not have been as amazed as I was. You may not either. However, I think some of you may just find this little tidbit quite delightful. (In direct proportion to your nerdiness ; ) )

So here's how it happened. We eat Mott's fruit snacks. We had a fresh pack from the grocery store today. (Sidenote: I tried online shopping at my grocery store today--Revolutionary! You go through the website and pick everything you want from a menu that is better organized than the food at the store, I find. Then a nice lady calls and tells you if they don't have anything and asks if you want to switch in that case. She also let me add something I forgot. (TP--very important!) Then you send your obliging husband to the little drive thru pick up spot on his way home from work, and you never have to deal with one carseat strap or shopping cart. He even brings the groceries in the house for you! (Not sure Harris Teeter universally guarantees the last part, but I enjoyed it.) Thus concludes the sidenote.) Paul took out a pack of fruit snacks and said, randomly, "Mott's, rhymes with dots." And I replied, "Rhymes with lots," very happy with my pun. But then I started going through all the consonants in the alphabet in my head because that is what my word-obsessed brain does when presented with something like a little rhyming game. Ok, get ready. Do you know that the only consonants in the alphabet that don't start a word that rhymes with "ott" are k, q, v, x, y, and z? Give it a try. You will be amazed. Or you may just be staring at your computer in disbelief that this is the point of this whole two paragraphs of text. What can I say? I have a new appreciation for this particular phoneme and, I hope, now you do too.

Lucie love

Seasons

 January relented a little today! All week really, it's been close to, if not quite, 50 degrees every day. But it was just beautiful outside this afternoon. Ella and I decided to spend some time on the dear old back porch we've avoided for the past few months. True, I was basically just finally winterizing things that should have been winterized about 4 snowstorms ago. But at least it felt a little like spring while I was preparing for more of what I'm sure the mean old man (Winter) will throw at us.

Ella was so happy to be reunited with pine needles.

They are really yummy too:

random funny face:

 It was actually so nice out that after our hard work we decided to sit at the little cafe table to sort the mail.

It will be really nice to look out the window at a porch that is officially winter looking, not just dead, and to know that my pretty pots are cozily waiting for spring in the shed. It won't be long til it's time to take them out!

They say that kids grow up so fast and the time just flies, and yikes they are right! I can't believe Ella is now in the double digits for months. She turned 10 months old last weekend! One year old seems like it is right around the corner now. It makes me just treasure more and more her little tiny self even as I'm so excited to see all the new things she can do day to day.

Sweet sleeper

This is how we've been starting naptime lately:

It's all Ella's idea. We are in the living room, Ella playing and me working at the computer. Then she crawls over saying, "Mmma, ma, ma, ma. Mmma, mmma ma." She wants to climb up into my lap. Then she puts her head down, snuggles up, and goes to sleep. I adore this. : )

Pensacola for New Years

Yesterday Paul's parent's sent me a disc of the pictures they took while we were in our second week of Florida holiday vacation. We spent the week of new years at a beautiful beach condo with them. Somehow I was too busy relaxing to get any good pictures of my own, but can you blame me? This was the view out the back door:

 Yes it was cold by Florida standards, in the 20s some nights, but we acted like the true tourists we were and went swimming anyway! Ok it was the hot tub. But still, I was in my swimsuit outside! Here we are bundled up for a walk on the beautiful beach, just over the hill in the picture above:

We also got in lots of grandparent and great-grandparent quality time. It was a really nice trip.

Inspiration

For the second time today my little darling has fallen asleep on my lap. Poor thing is so tired! We woke up at 6:30 again today. The new routine is to just wake up early instead of waking up reaaallllly early to nurse and then going back to sleep. It has been working well, but sometimes makes for a tired little Ella. This week I've seen two of the first 2 hour naps I've ever seen in Ella's life! I can handle that! Also can handle not getting out of bed in the middle of the night.

So for now that leaves me to cozily snuggle here in front of the computadora and read blogs and wish I could give you a nice post from my blog, but my darn camera is under the weather again. We are working on this issue, really!

Anyway, want to see something awesome I found? This is an AWESOME presentation Renee Garner from Wolfie and the Sneak made and posted on Modish today. I don't know how to make it link more fancily, but I'm putting the link here:

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ddb63tz9_156dgjqhzdd&interval=5

And one of her great images here:

She made this whole incredible 14-slide plan for her yard that is really inspiring. I'm inspired by everything this time of year! I'm also deeply conscious that it is pretty difficult to do anything with a precious angel sleeping on your lap or tearing around the house laughing with glee as she tries to get away and get into trouble before mama can catch her. At least I have some ideas for what I would do if I ever got some time or more importantly, free hands. But for the moment, I'll just enjoy the snuggle.

Raggedy friends

When I was little, tiny, my mom made me a Raggedy Ann doll. She is still in good shape (although she has needed some loving restorative surgery over the years after an unfortunate doggy attack). And she is now in Ella's room sitting happily beside the new Raggedy Ann which Gramma made for Ella for Christmas. It was an awesome and special gift from my mom, regardless of whether they became favorite toys or not. But to my great delight, they are favorite toys! I had been a little nervous to take them down and let my nine-month-old destroyer handle them too much. But every time we walk by them, Ella reaches out to hug them. Today I thought, they're toys! They probably want to be played with (gently!). I put them on the couch before breakfast and forgot they were there till I set Ella down to play after breakfast. She had not forgotten. She made a beeline for them and they have not left her hands, either of them, since! Here's a little snippet of their adventures. Things to note: Ella seems to be suspicious of old Raggedy's diaper, a ferocious Lucie is narrowly avoided, and absolutely on her own Ella decides the Raggedys should go for a ride in the stroller--so cool!--I promise I didn't prompt her to that.

On a cold winter's day when Mama's Bible study is cancelled due to icy roads and you can't go play with the other babies in the nursery, it's good to have such a nice little group of friends to play with

Not again!

More camera trouble! I don't know what is up with it except that maybe it is just getting old and has been dropped one time too many.

The main thing I wish I could have posted was a video of Ella playing with Lucie, laughing her head off. She is just delighted that Lucie will try to take a toy or give it back. She's been offering Lucie not only Lucie's toys, but her own toys, as well as her shoes. Very sweet. And I think Lucie is finally starting to think of her as a friend, not just someone to run away from.

We are bracing for an ice storm tonight. So far we haven't seen anything but a dusting of snow. But we've been to the grocery store and we're ready for whatever may come, I hope. Except a busted camera! Hopefully we'll be back with more sweet smiles to show soon!

Goody two-shoes

Ella loves her shoes. Any of them. They are seriously some of her favorite toys. She would much rather hold them than wear them. She has cried at times when I took them out of her hands to put them on her feet, only placated when I gave her another pair to hold. I'm hoping this is another good sign that she will share Mama's interest in fashion. But it also has another immediate benefit. If two hands are occupied holding shoes, that leaves zero hands for pulling laundry onto the floor or getting into other trouble!

 

Peek-a-boo, as promised

 Where's Ella?

There she is!

And repeat, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat, etc. etc. etc. etc.

She really get's into it. So cute!

Nooo!

My camera is on the fritz! And I had the cutest thing to show you. Ella is getting really good at peek a boo. It's adorable. But we'll just have to wait til tomorrow, hopefully. I'm hoping Paul will be able to fix the camera with his magic tech-y ways. (Either that or buy me a new one! ; ) )

Christmas morning

Ella really got into opening her presents on Christmas morning!

And when she finally broke through, the gift was even more fun! She LOVES those stacking rings. She carries them around banging them on whatever she can find, especially Lucie. It is so much fun to see her really enjoying such a simple pleasure. I've been struck lately by the idea that God loves me as much, no, more than I love Ella. Amazing! I wonder how much fun he's having watching me with my gift of a beautiful little daughter!

Back to Christmas morning, here she is in action, trying to unwrap. I did have to help her get the paper off, but she definitely had fun with the whole thing.

Onwards and upwards

Helloooo again friends! Thanks for putting up with our long blog vacation. It just feels wrong to be spending tons of screentime on vacation to me. We made it back home to wintry NC last night after a really nice visit with both sides of the family. I have some great pictures to put up, but for tonight I'll just show you our happy homecoming. ( A day later. Last night at 11:30 when we finally rolled in the driveway it was more adrenaline than happiness and warmth that we were feeling. : ) )

It was a great vacation, but it's also great to be back home.

Tonight we've just been enjoying the fire and thinking all sorts of New Years-y thoughts. It is kind of energizing to have the holidays done and be able to think about how to go forward. For the first year in a while, I'm exploding with resolutions. Now we know how those things normally tend to go. But it feels good while it lasts right?! Hope you've had a happy Christmas and an energizing New Year!