Recent Ellie-isms

A few as of late:

(As I'm standing doing dishes, and she's playing tea party with Brad) "Mama, pees join us!"

(To Brad while he's in the shower) "Do you want some toys, dada?"

(At the dinner table for no apparent reason) "What in the WORLD is dada doing?!"

Throws puzzle on floor, pieces boom, and she looks at the doll in her hand and says, "That freaked me out!"

Whenever Brad and I hug and she's around she'll look for a minute and then say "FAMILYYY!" as if to ask for a family hug. Pretty darn sweet.

From last night's family hug.

Mom's Vacation Day

When you're a mom, you don't really get vacation days. But it's been a long couple of months, and I really needed a day to just...BE. So Brad held down the fort on Saturday, and I took a day off. We did start the day with a family walk and some park time, but I then headed out for the gym, followed by some time by the pool. From there, I made my way to a 90 minute massage, followed by lunch with a glass of wine. I then took myself for a sort of not-like-me splurge - I got eyelash extensions (and so far, I'm loving them!), came home, got ready and had a girls dinner and night out. A huge thank you to B for letting me do all that, plus sleep in both mornings this past weekend. I feel refreshed and am one lucky lady!

National Dog Day

Lucky to have a great one in our lives. We love the Moosh!
And how perfect that it was on this "holiday" that Ellie asked me to "take her peecture" with "seester".
Side note: I really wish this kid would develop some personality - HA!

Boxes part 2 - the video.

Somehow in the last few days, counting backwards sunk in. Who is this child?! 

Also, her imagination is KILLING me! I absolutely LOVE it. 

Boxes make the best toys!

We had a big box from Amazon and so of course we had to make it a toy! Boxes are the BEST! She sat in that thing and colored, called it a spaceship, and was all around pretty entertained for the better part of the evening. Plus it's just pretty damn adorable to see a toddler in a box :)

So much love for Daniel Tiger

Proof she's not a trained monkey.

The cake pop series

We capped off "Bigger Day" with a treat at Starbucks where Ellie enjoyed her first cake pop. I also got her a coconut milk since she still won't drink milk and I thought this might be a sweeter and more delicious option. The pic speaks for itself.
Also, my girl is also FULL of opinions and preferences (her hairstyle, choosing her jammies, which paci to have a bedtime, which story to read and which song to sing at bedtime, etc). So it was funny, but of no surprise to me when she INSISTED on wearing her 1st birthday hat as a "headband" for our afternoon outing. I will say, the comments and looks she got totally made it worth it.
And the first picture below is officially my new favorite pic of her. It's one of her new and amazingly awesome expressions - the VERY excited face which comes complete with hands that tense up so much they shake.

The smoothie series

Also from Tuesday aka Bigger Day:

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Plus, she totally owns the gym these days :)

Just...bigger.

We woke up on Tuesday, and my girl just looked BIGGER. I don't know why or how, but she just seemed so big, and SO MANY new words and big sentences and thoughts and feelings are coming out of her mouth every single day. Maybe it's all the back to school posts that people have been doing that's giving me this time-is-passing feeling, who knows. What I do know is that I had to document the heck out of her today, because something about her was just too much for my mama heart to handle. So here she is from Tuesday morning, in all her big girl glory.

My heart.

I snuck this picture through the window while I was cooking dinner on Monday evening. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, makes my heart feel the way it does when I see these two together. I can't even describe it. The only thing I can think that might compare is Ellie playing with a sibling someday. But for now, this is where we are and it's pretty damn wonderful.
It's so easy to let the less than ideal feelings take over when life becomes, well, life, but I am working hard to focus my energy on being GRATEFUL.

Weekend fun

What a fantastic weekend full of relaxing, friends, major house cleaning and organizing, and no real agenda. Mama and E got a girls day on Saturday while B was golfing, so we did what any girl would do - shopped and lunched complete with fro-yo.

Ellie was a total gem, cracking us up with some new phrases ("oh holy crap!" - not our finest moment but hilarious, "goodness gracious!", "you're so silly dada"), and showing lots of new found opinions and independence (always wanting to put her shoes on before we get to help her, wanting to brush her own hair and teeth before we get to help, and tonight choosing her hairstyle for dinner - "pony with headband mama!" - and actually sticking with it all night).

Feeling so lucky tonight to live the life we lead. 

Pictured: Ellie "pigging out" at Saturday breakfast; mama and E reppin' the weekend (she got "tough girl" face down pretty quickly ha!); lunching (give this girl a bowl of fruit and some fresh air and she can conquer the world!); fro-yo success, one of my fave E quirks: holding a hand gives her all she needs to continue to happily and quietly keep doing her thing; and family love. 

Mama's Friday night

Sometimes by the time Ellie's bedtime rolls around on a Friday, the long weeks hits me. Sometimes Friday starts off with a migraine making the last day until daddy is home for the weekend feel even longer. 100% of the time it's amazing to have a husband who says, "yes, GO!" when you say that sitting at a bar, alone, ordering to-go food and drinking a glass of wine sounds like a thin slice of heaven (even though you're wearing ath-leisure with zero make up on and your hair needs to be washed). This was how I Friday-ed, with big thanks to one Brad Kiesling.

How to fix a broken dishwasher

(Thankfully, said "someone else" was able to get it fixed with minimal issue!)

2 minutes in the life of Eleanor

Future musician

Fishy

Even after we swim, she has to sit and longingly watch the other kids. Girlfriend loves to swim!

SERIOUS case of the giggles

Table for 2, please.

We'll take your house nuggets, with a side of rice and pear.

Because sometimes you just need a hand to hold while you shove food in your face

Sometimes, you also need to jam:

Happy birthday, Dada!

Brad celebrated his 38th birthday on Monday, August 15, but with a birthday on a Monday, we had to celebrate all weekend long!
Friday night family dinner, where Ellie enjoyed house-made ranch with french fries for the first time, friends over for a casual dinner and games on Saturday night, and a super fun happy hour/early dinner with a bunch of wonderful friends on Sunday.
It was particularly heartwarming for me to see how happy it made Brad that so many people came out to celebrate with him on Sunday - I know it just makes him feel so loved. Plus, it was the first time we've been able to get all of my friends together in one place! It's tough moving somewhere new, and I'm proud to call all three of them friends.
We spent his actual birthday by busting him out of work for lunch, and then enjoying a glass of wine at a local spot.
Your girls adore you, B, and we are so, so lucky you are in our lives. Thank you for all you do for us!

What birthday morning isn't complete with some coloring? In your shades, no less!

Friends reunited: part 2

We were finally able to get together with our friends Lauren (Lolo, as E calls her) and Zach! I honestly don't think I've ever seen Ellie get as excited as she did when she saw them across the room. Squealing, HUGE smile, hands in fists shaking with joy. It was pretty hilarious and adorable. We missed our friends and are so happy to be back for playdates!

The potty. Dun, dun, DUN!

A couple of months ago, Ellie started telling me she wanted to "poop on potty". She'd get pretty serious about it, so I started plopping her up on the toilet. She was totally amused, and has been consistently asking for this since. I asked her dr. at her 18 month check up about it, and he said with as much as she seems to understand, we should try to nurture it while she's so interested. And so, we purchased a small seat to fit on our existing toilet, and Ellie will hang there from time to time. 

Interestingly, the peeing on the potty seems more of a difficult concept for her, but what I'm realizing is that when she feels her tummy do anything (grumble, churn, gas, etc), she thinks it's time to "poop on potty". Thus, we have yet to actually experience any pooping on the potty. 

I'm certainly not going to push it - she's not even 2 - but it's been pretty entertaining, and I'm hoping maybe this means it won't be as tough as it could be? Maybe? We'll see.
She sure does love her some potty time, though. And it still seems so crazy to me that my baby is capable of sitting on the potty! Getting big, this one.