Work to do

I have no idea how in the world anyone truly works from home and has kids. It's beyond me how day in and day out you get ANYTHING done. Last week I had LOADS of gala stuff to do, and so we spent some quality time in E's room, me with my computer, E with her books. I was so unbelievably impressed and thrilled at how well she self entertained. We stayed in there probably an hour, and she was happy as a clam, not needing any of my attention for probably 90% of it. I caught some pretty sweet pics and an amazing video. What you see went on for, no joke, 10 full minutes.

Goofballs

Couldn't love 'em more if I tried. 

Happy Valentine's Day from Eleanor Claire!

Flowers from Daddy for Mom and Bug :)

Heart by mama, scribbles by Eleanor. Happy Valentine's Day!

And an early family dinner out to celebrate LOVE!

A visit with the Greats

Great Gram and Great Grandpa Palmer stopped in Phoenix on their way to Tucson the weekend of Feb 12 (which also happened to be Gram's birthday!). We got to visit with them for a whole weekend, and everyone had a great time. It's always so special to see a 4 generation span, and I feel so fortunate for the time we all get to spend together. A few pics and a sweet video below :)

Dinnertime shenanigans

Typical dinner these days - being silly (I was "scaring" her and she decided to give it a try right back), throwing our food, telling me 'no', and being downright adorable. 

Little Mama

I know I post about it all the time, but the way this girl loves on her babies is amazing. I don't even have words for how it makes me feel and for how unbelievably touching it is. 

14 months old!

14 whole months old!
Ellie is turning into such an amazing little girl. Her vocabulary is exploding - it seems like every day she wakes up and says something new. She is still walking holding on to hands, but has yet to take her first solo steps. She has stood on her own a few times, but just for a few seconds at a time. According to my unofficial weigh-ins, she's still under 21 pounds, but she's getting long. Being pretty short-legged, this realization was mind blowing to me! Girlfriend has LOOOONG legs. I'll hope for her sake they stay that way ;)

She continues to be happy and insanely friendly. She makes people so very happy, and in turn, my heart just bursts with joy.
Her pigtails are becoming her signature hairstyle, and she doesn't bat an eye when I put them in.
We're just now for the first time dealing with major wiggles on the changing table - thankfully Elmo (whose face is on her saline spray bottle) keeps her attention.

Most recently, she's spoken her first real phrases: hi (or bye-bye) mama (or dada), and ni-nigh mama (or dada). "Noo" (no) and "down" (surprisingly said quite clearly) are two of her favorite words. Our favorite word she says is "boom-ah!" which she says with gumption whenever she falls, sees someone else fall, reads about falling, throws something on the ground, hears a loud noise, etc. It's ridiculously adorable, and manages to get daddy all giddy when she does it.
"Boo-bahs" (blueberries) and "chee" (string cheese) are holding firm at the top of her favorite food list, with "kwa-kahs" (crackers) a new contender on the list.

She still loves books and her baby dolls more than any other toy we own, and we continue to be completely enamored with, entertained by and in awe of her. Sweet Eleanor Claire.

Miss independent

We're slowly easing our way into Miss Independent-ville. Recently E has moments where she refuses to eat unless she can use a utensil. Thankfully she's figuring it out pretty quickly, and is still letting us actually get the food on the fork before she then takes over getting said bite into her mouth. Toddler-hood. It's starting. 

Our little neat freak

It seems we are raising a little neat freak. I'm admittedly freakishly organized, B loves him some cleaning, and apparently this is rubbing off on E. Her newest favorite past time is staying in her highchair after a meal or snack, taking the paper towel we used to wipe her hands, and using it to wipe the table, her face, and anyone's hands within reach. Hilarious! (She also get excited in music class when the teacher brings out the toy bucket when it's time to clean up. She excitedly grabs a toy and crawls over to be the first one to put her toy away. Too funny!)

lucky girl

You know you have the best hubbs in the world when you've had a long day, go to nurse the baby before she goes to bed, finish up, hand her off to said hubbs so he can do bedtime, walk into the bathroom to find a full bubble bath, glass of wine, candles lit, towel draped on the side of the tub, and all of my necessary bath products at arm's reach. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

Superbowl!

Superbowl parties look a little different these days :)
Ellie and Beckett enjoying the festivities...

Family winter weekend getaway

The Mama misses winter something fierce, so with Brad having a few weeks off in between jobs, we decided to take a winter weekend getaway. I had found a charming cottage in Prescott through Groupon Getaways, and so last Friday, we loaded up and headed out. HOWEVER, when we arrived, charming went out the window and was quickly replaced with DISGUSTING. It was a "renovated" roadside motel (at best) and after about 15 minutes in our "cottage" we decided we had to bail, even if we weren't going to get our money back. (To be clear, I found ants crawling on Ellie after she'd been on the floor for a few minutes, the appliances were circa 1967, and there were some shady people hanging on their back "porches". Yikes.)
Because we had Penny with us, our options were fairly limited. We considered finding a pet-friendly hotel in the heart of Prescott, but it felt dumb to spend upwards of $130 a night when we were only an hour from home. Then Brad remembered that his friend, Patrick Paul, had mentioned that if we were ever interested, we could use his "cabin" in Flagstaff. Since we were already halfway to Flagstaff, Brad decided to text him and see if it was available. Thanks be to the Pauls - he simply wrote back "YES!" and the address. Saved.
When we arrived in Flagstaff, we were a little shocked to find not a "cabin", but rather a 2500 square foot, finished and perfected to the gills, snow-covered trees view for days, HOUSE. It was all we could have asked for and more. We spent the remainder of the weekend with a roaring fire, watching elk walk by out back, enjoying downtown Flagstaff, and just loving our getaway time together. What a perfect weekend.

SNOW!!!

Dada's a sucker. Saw this monkey in a store, handed it to E, and then asked her if she liked it. She nodded, and he said, Okay, let's get it! Hilarious. 

Little lion ROARS

Sweet daddy/daughter moment

B & E

Being a stay at home mom is pretty special. But often I wonder if E is getting enough quality time with her daddy. I wish I wasn't innundated with Gala during his time off, but because of that, he has had awesome solo time with his daughter. 

For Reason #174 why his time off has been so special, please see photos below. This is a glimpse of about an hours worth of time they spent in the backyard today reading, blowing bubbles, talking, laughing, and dancing, all set up and orchestrated by daddy. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there's just something special about daddies and daughters. 

Day date!

Perks of B having 3 weeks off is day dates! Last week's was thanks to a friend who had Waste Management Open skybox tickets on the coveted 16th hole. 

Three cheers for babysitters!

Mommy/daughter moments

Last weekend, Brad spent most of the day Sunday golfing, so E and I had a girls day. It was one of those picture perfect, all-is-right-with-the-world kind of days, that leaves your heart and soul feeling happy and fulfilled. We spent about three hours at Scottsdale Quarter lunching, shopping, and getting out to play and "walk" near the splash pad. Not a care in the world for either of us - absolutely sublime. We ended the afternoon with E having her first taste of fro-yo - chocolate/vanilla swirl. YUM!

Parents gone wild!

A few of Brad's co-workers wanted to give him a proper send-off, so last Saturday we had a real old school night out: pizza place for dinner, followed by dive bar karaoke. Amazing. And even more amazing when your best buds get a babysitter, too! We're wild and crazy!!

Buckles

E is very into buckles these days. She tries to say it ("buh-ah") and will happily sit an extra 10 minutes after meals are over trying to re-fasten her highchair buckle. Trying so hard to figure out how things work ...love it.