2 years ago...

Two years ago today, I was in the hospital, getting ready to have a baby! Hard to believe it's been 2 years. Best 2 years of my life for sure!

Ella's bday party was yesterday. We just ended up doing a family party and that worked out great. Ella was a little overwhelmed by all the presents! She just wanted to stop and play with each thing. Overall she did great and got lots of fun new toys! Minnie Mouse was definitely the theme of the day-I certainly hope she loves Minnie for a LONG time!

Here was her Minnie cake...I did NOT leave myself enough time to make this! I'm not sure what I was thinking-I didn't start icing it until about 2 hours before the party. It was much harder to do than I thought it would be and I didn't even ice the edges. Oh well! It definitely wasn't perfect but I don't think Ella cared :) One mistake I made was showing her the cake at the beginning of the party instead of right before we were about to eat. All she wanted to do was eat that cake! I ended up putting her in time out at her own party because she was just out of control!


Looking at her gift pile, ready to dive in!


I was so excited to find this-its a Minnie Mouse oven mitt! She loves to "borrow" mine and pretend to bake. This also came with a little mini cupcake pan, spatula and decorating kit. Cute!

Aunt Rachel got her these dress up Minnie Shoes! They are so cute! Today all she wanted to do was twirl around in her Minnie Shoes :)

This was probably her favorite present of the day-a Minnie Mouse and Car from Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah. We were able to skype them in during present time! (oh, if you are wondering about that bump on her head...she had a little run in with a brick fireplace-so sad)

Time for Cake!

This was about the best family picture we got-Ella was NOT in the mood all day!

Reading her new book with Aunt Rachel

Much happier after her nap!

Here are some things about Ella at 2 years old...

*she's still mostly a mommy's girl, but has gotten MUCH more attached to daddy

*not a great eater lately-her favorite meal is cheese in a tortilla and grapes

*talks so well! her favorite phrase is "oh goodness!" and "I'm Ok Mommy!"

*sleeps from about 8pm-6:30am, 1 nap a day, usually around an hour

*loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Agent Oso, Pooh Movies, Finding Nemo and Cars

*Loves reading-her favorites are Pokey Little Puppy, Goodnight Moon, Guess How Much I love you, and her "Alice book"-a pop up Alice in Wonderland book

*talks on her play phone a lot-mostly to Aunt "Fra" (Sarah)

*Has gotten much better about recognizing people and going to them, much to the delight of the grandparents

*In mostly 2T clothes but some of her 18 and even 12 month clothes still fit!

*Giving kisses is probably her favorite thing to do-she probably kisses me at least 50 times a day-love it!

I'll probably go back and edit when I think of more things but my mind is going blank! She's just a fun loving and sweet little girl. She's so affectionate and sweet-most of the time! We can tell she's transitioning into the phase where she will really be testing her boundaries and seeing what she can get away with. So far she is very responsive to time outs and the occasional spanking. We have not had to spank her too many times but I can already tell she is staring to work the system with the time outs, so spankings may be happening more often in our house. I'm thankful for her sweet spirit and look forward to seeing her personality develop more and more!

I was catching up on some of my regular blogs today and realized what a post slacker I've been! So here is my attempt to catch up!

I realized I hadn't even posted 4th of July pics, oops! So here are a few. Here is Ella with her Uncle Chris, who (whom?) she loves dearly. She'll be so sad to see him and Aunt Sarah leave in just a few weeks-they are moving to Texas!

Ella's obsession with Mickey Mouse continues.

Jen-this one's for you! We had a play date a few weeks ago and one of the little boys, Tyler, had this cool Mickey Mouse sippy cup. Ella just fell in love with it! So a few days after they left, I found a 3 pack at Walmart. I intended to give them to her one at a time, every once in awhile. But she saw them before I could put them away and just got SO excited that I just let her have them all :) She is pretty much always with these things!

Since it's been so hot here, we've been going to the Children's Museum a lot. Ella loves these wooden bears in the PlayScape area. She loves to hug them.

A few weekends ago we went to my Aunt's to celebrate my cousin's 19th bday.

I think Ella is saying "why are you taking pictures when we could be eating cake?"

Practicing her moves

Visiting my aunt always makes me want to move to the country! They have lots of wide open space and just built this beautiful wrap around porch, which Ella loves to run on!

Next up-State Fair! Hopefully we can go a few times this week as long as we can handle the heat!

A Little Update

I just had to jot down some of the stuff Ella has been up to. She is just so stinkin FUN! When Ella was a baby-probably around 3 months old-I remember being a little bummed. She just wasn't that FUN. She was cute and sweet and I loved her a ton, but I just didn't have as much fun with her as I thought I would. Is that horrible to say? Then a friend of mine said that she was much more of a "toddler person" than a "baby person". At the time, I thought "No way, I am totally a baby person. I love babies!" But now that I have a toddler...I SO am a "toddler person". Not that I didn't love the baby stage and often miss holding, rocking and nursing Ella, but I have to say I just enjoy the stage she's in right now so much! Rusty and I were talking the other night about starting to think about baby #2, if God blesses us with another one, and Rusty said "I wish they could just be born at like, 6 months old." :)

Ella is just such a joy to us. She talks up a storm and it is so funny! It's amazing how much her vocabulary has expanded, just in the past few weeks. She knows pretty much all her colors-she is consistent with orange, yellow, pink, purple and black. She's been doing better with green and red, but blue is still iffy. She can say her numbers 1-10 but not always in the right order :) She knows most of her animals but we need to work on the animal sounds, I've been slacking in that area!

Her interest in drawing/coloring has gone down a lot but she loves to play with play-doh. She also loves to just sit and read books or do puzzles. She's also discovered her shopping cart, which she's had for months but hasn't shown much interest in until now. I line some of her play food on my lowest pantry shelf and let her "shop" out of mommy's pantry. That will keep her busy for the longest time! She also has started pretending and its so cute to watch. Most of the time I'm not really sure what she is pretending to do but she gets really into it! She loves to pretend to be asleep, play hide and seek, and build a "house" out of couch cushions. She loves to touch the ceiling when Rusty holds her up high and she loves to climb up me with her feet and then flip over.

One of her newest sayings right now is "Oh gosh!"-I'm not so happy about this one. I try not to say "gosh"-I'm not really offended by it, but I'd just rather her not say it. She heard it on Mickey Mouse of all places, he says it all the time. She's also gotten really into watching the movie "Cars". Cute movie, but they say "idiot and moron"-why? So far she hasn't picked these words up. I don't want to be the super overprotective mom that doesn't let her kids watch anything, but I don't want to wait until she starts saying those words to address the issue. Not really sure what to do!

As far as her vocabulary goes, I feel like she really knows most common household words and can communicate what she wants pretty clearly. It does usually just come out as a bunch of babble with just a few recognizable words but it gets the point across at least! Her sentences are short and missing words but I think she does really well! Her memory is also starting to develop more. She retained a lot of what we did this week and has continued talking about it for days after! She remembered going to Monkey Joes and the Childrens Museum. Today we hung out at my sisters's apartment and Ella remembered exactly the spot where she had found a rock the last time we were there-probably 3 weeks ago now!

This Friday, Rusty and I are celebrating our anniversary by going to Kings Island and IKEA! Yippeee! My sister is watching Ella for us all day-I will definitely be missing her but it will be so nice to get away for a day!

Summer Days

We are having such a great summer. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed summer so much! Normallly I'm not the biggest fan of summer but this summer is different. Ella (like all kids I guess) LOVES being outside. On most days, we're outside more than we're inside. Even 90 degree weather hasn't bothered me like it usually does which is a blessing! Here's a little of what we've been up to the past few weeks.

Ella loves running down the hill in our back yard. Actually, it's really just a small slope. But to her, it's like climbing Everest! The angle of this pic does make it look pretty steep but it really isn't. She likes to climb to the top and then run down, saying "WEEEEE!" Then she says "Fun! Again!"

Ella also loves taking her babies for walks in their stroller. This usually ends badly, with her getting tired of walking and wanting me to carry her (and the stroller and the baby) home.

Last week we went to the zoo-probably for the last time this summer. Ella was surprisingly not into the animals and wanted to just run. Everywhere. She didn't even like the dolphin show, which surprised me. She kept saying "all done!" Stinker.

And...most of our afternoons are spent like this. Outside, playing in the water and taking a break to eat a popsicle.

After Rusty gets home from work, Ella likes to help him water the flowers (please ignore our totally dead hanging plants that died while we were in FL. We are trying hard to bring them back to life but I think it's a hopeless cause).

Guess that's about it! Hope your summer is going as great as ours!

Our Disney Vacation!!

We've been back for over a week and I'm just now getting to blog about this! It's hard getting back in the swing of things!

We had such a great vacation! God is so good and really answered a lot of prayers! Things went very smoothly for the most part, we were all healthy (HUGE answer to prayer) and the weather was-well, good enough I guess :) The next time we go (definitely going back when Ella's a little older), it might be a good idea to go in the spring or fall when it's not so hot! It was in the mid 90's and so so humid every day! Luckily there are lots of air conditioned little shops to duck into and spend lots of money at!

We left on a Tuesday night. Rusty, Rachel and I left our house around 5:30 and headed to Rusty's Mom's to pick up Ella. We got on the road around 6:20. Here's Ella-ready for the long road trip! Other than hitting some bad weather, the drive to FL went pretty well. Ella fell asleep around 10 and slept until 2:30 when we stopped for gas. She didn't fall back asleep until 4ish and then slept until we stopped for breakfast at 7. We got to Disney around 11:30.

Once we got all checked in, we all took naps and then headed out to Magic Kingdom! As you can see, Ella is just super excited to be here! :)

We didn't do much that afternoon. Rusty and Rachel went out to ride some rides while I stayed with Ella and rode some kiddie rides. She really liked the Pooh ride although it did scare her a little.

The next day (Thursday), we went to Epcot. Despite the horrible heat, Ella managed to fall asleep for over an hour. (she's holding on tight to the pooh and Eeyore we got her at magic kingdom-she held on those and played with them every day!)

While Ella was napping, we walked through a lot of the different countries. And we had a Snow White spotting!

Once Ella woke up, I decided to go ahead and wait in line to get pics taken with all the Mickey's Clubhouse characters. We had to wait for about an hour but I'm glad we got the pics! Here's Ella waiting in line. She was pretty good!

She doesn't look it in this picture, but she was actually VERY excited about seeing Mickey Mouse! She saw him while we were waiting in line and had a mini meltdown because she wanted to run to him and give him "pats"-which is what she does to show love, it's very sweet! More on that later...

I didn't put the rest of the pics but we also got pics with Donald, Daisy, Pluto and Goofy (who she was scared of).

Next day was Hollywood Studios, which we all really liked. Tower of Terror was a really good ride! We also got pics taken with Handy Manny! I really wanted to ask him what his intentions are with Kelly but I didn't :)-everytime Rusty and I watch this show we wonder if him and Kelly will ever get together. Ha!

Ella's favorite part of the whole trip was probably seeing a live playhouse disney! it was so well done. They had Mickey's Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Tigger & Pooh and Handy Manny. It was basically a big puppet show but it was really cute and Ella was just glued the whole time.

After the show, Rachel and I went to ride Tower of Terror while Rusty took Ella around.

We went to Downtown Disney in the evening on Friday. Here is Rusty and I in front of the "Jenny" from Forrest Gump!

Ella exploring some of the statues and giving them "pats"

Rachel and I trying to cool off!

I don't have any great pics from Animal Kingdom but we did go there! That is where we went Saturday and it was just so busy and so hot. Rachel and I rode the water ride first thing and we got so wet that I just felt disgusting the rest of the day and neither of us felt like being in any pics!

Saturday night, Rachel watched Ella so Rusty and I could head back to Downtown Disney for a date night! Despite it pouring down rain, we had a great time! We ate at this amazing Irish place, wish we had it here! I wanted to try everything on the menu!

Sunday, Rusty stayed with Ella and Rachel and I headed back to Magic Kingdom, just the 2 of us. I felt so free! I loved having Ella there of course, but it was so nice to just walk around and do what we wanted without having to worry about stopping for diaper changes, snacks, etc. We met up with Rusty around 1pm and headed back for our LONG drive home! That was not fun! It was WAY better to drive at night than during the day! But, we made it!

So, that is our trip in a nutshell! Lots of fun memories. We LOVED the place we stayed-we stayed at Fort Wilderness Cabins. It was a great setup-it was basically just like a little apartment with a bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. It would even be fine for 2 families to share since there are 2 double beds, bunk beds, and then they have pack n plays to let you borrow! We also learned for next time we go that we need to bring umbrellas/ponchos everyday-that would've been super helpful because we got wet every day we were there and I guess that is pretty common! We also found out that its much easier to drive than to take their transportation. It's nice to have if you don't have a car but be prepared to spend lots of time on the shuttle. We also had to remind ourselves to just not stress about things. We saw SO many people arguing with each other and yelling at their kids. Its so easy to do, especially when its hot.

Since we've been home, Ella has just been fiestier than ever! One little story to leave you with. The other night I put her on her time out bench and she was NOT happy about it. She sat on her bench, looked up at me and said "Mommy NO PATS!" It took me a minute to figure out what she said but once I figured it out, I was shocked! Of course it hurt my feelings that she was basically telling me that she didn't love me at that moment, but I was also pretty shocked that she had figured out a way to communicate that using the things she knew how to say!

Ella update!

Happy June!

Enjoying a juice date with her friend Zoey on Memorial Day...

One of her favorite past times...guess she sees Mommy doing this a lot!

We've been spending lots of hot days at the park by our house! Classic Ella face.

And...it's a splash park! Ella loves it but is a little intimidated-some of that water is pretty strong! I'm not sure if Ella is more fearful than other kids, but I usually feel like I'm the only mom having to run through the water with her child! Oh well! I've learned to just wear my swim suit whenever we go-I usually end up more wet than she is! This day there happened to be just a few kids. We went today though and it was PACKED. When I left, there was someone sitting waiting on my parking spot. It's a popular place!

Ella loves the playground equipment they have there. I like it too because it's easy for me to keep track of where she is. Some of the parks we've visited have so many tunnels and bridges, I lose track of her all the time!

Ella and her friend Ally, planning their escape! They didn't get far.

This picture cracks me up! Ella, practicing her matrix moves, with her friend Ally again :)

So it's been awile since I've given an Ella update! She seems to be changing every day. She goes to Rusty's Mom's every Monday and Tuesday and it seems every Monday, they comment on something new she's doing since they saw her the past Tuesday! Her vocabulary grows by the second it seems. She's very curious and constantly asks "what's that?" She has started walking up to people we don't know (usually in the park) and will look up at them and say to me "what's that"? It's a little embarassing! But she just wants to know who that person is and I guess she doesn't know to say "who's that?" :) Here are some other tid bits about Ella at 20 1/2 months:

*she's quite the perfectionist.

*she hates for things to be dirty, messy or out of place. She was pretty upset at Walmart the other day when one of the tubes of chapstick had been knocked out of the box, so we had to fix it. She's extremely persistent and will not let it rest until it's put back into place!

*Her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries, peaches, (soy) cheese, (soy or almond) milk, and juice-in that order! She is a pretty good eater overall but dinner is by far our hardest meal with her. I've learned to just not push bites on her and eventually she'll take bites on her own. Her favorite dinner is spaghetti!

*She had gotten really good at feeding herself until recently-she wants me to feed her. It's a little annoying and my food always ends up cold. But as much as I persist for her to take her own bites, she'll just say to me "YOU do it"-even if it's taking a bite of toast.

*Has finally transitioned into 1 nap. We were going back and forth between 1 and 2 naps for over a month. Finally I got sick of never knowing from day to day what our schedule was going to be and just decided to do 1 nap. Eventually her body figured it out I guess, because now she'll consistently go down at around 12:30 or 1 with no problem and sleeps about 1.5-2 hours.

*LOVES bath time! This was such a triumph for us-we struggled with bath time for quite awhile but now as soon as we say "bath time", she runs to the stairs. Actually, a few nights we tried to skip bath time but as soon as we tried to put her PJ's on without doing a bath, she would just cry and point to the door, saying "bath...bath". So now we pretty much just do it nightly as the start of her bedtime routine.

*Her bedtime routine is great right now. Bath starts around 7:30 and by 8 she's usually in bed and close to asleep. I used to sing to her and rock her before putting her in her crib, but now she prefers reading 1 Pooh book and Goodnight Moon. Wake up time is around 6:30. She usually wakes up talking about something-not sure if it's something she had a dream about or what. This morning she woke up saying "swimsuit! Water!" haha! She also is still in her crib and has not shown any signs of trying to climb/jump out so we're not planning to put her in a toddler bed any time soon!

*She loves Finding Nemo and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse-she'd probably watch those 2 over and over all day if I let her. We've scaled back a LOT on TV-she usually watches 2 Mickey's in the morning and part of Finding Nemo after her nap in the afternoons. Other than that I try to keep the TV off! Definitely a challenge on rainy days!

*I've bought her a potty chair but haven't really tried using it yet. She's just recently started telling us (sometimes) when she's dirty or wet so I guess that is the first sign that maybe she is getting ready!

Well, I could go on and on but I'm sure this is getting boring! If you're still reading at this point, thanks! :) I'll end by this video of her, which I find hilarious. Most of you that read this blog probably already know about how her new favorite word is "dangerous". She likes to point at things and say "that's dangerous!" It's pretty cute. So here she is saying "dangerous".

Oh, and one more thing. We live for Disney in 5 days!!! Any tips on long car trips/vacations with a toddler would be greatly appreciated!