Hide and Seek, Mama!

Ellie's newest game she LOVES to play is "Hide the Anything." You know, hide the jar of baby food in the pot, hide the wooden puzzle pieces in a book, hide my face under a blanket...
Well my all-time favorite was the other day when I was getting Elianna ready for her bath. I had given her a couple of objects to play with on the floor by the bath mat while I went back and forth to the bedroom getting her stuff ready for her bath. Suddenly (from the bedroom) I hear Ellie doing her notorious fake-sounding laugh, "Ha ha ha ha ha!" Curious, I go back to the bathroom and see Ellie quickly pull away from where she had been bent over by the bath mat. She looks up at me with a huge grin and goes, "Hahaha!" As I get down on her level to see what's so funny, she throws the bath mat back, and hiding underneath is my DEBIT CARD. (I hadn't realized she was playing with that.) Good thing she thought it was so hilarious or that would have been the second time I would have had to cancel the thing in a month! She's got this THING for that debit card. No other card has the same effect. I pull it out at the grocery store and immediately Ellie pulls herself straighter, opens her mouth wide and goes, "Ah! AH! AHHH!" If I give it to her to hold she fake laughs, "HAHAHA!" and tries to swipe it. Or holds it out to strangers. The cashiers love it. They also love it when I hand them a debit card dripping with saliva. Anyhow, like other fun toys (baby wipes, the phone, Rob's shoe) the novelty will probably eventually wear off. Hopefully sooner than later.

She's a talker!

As of this weekend Ellie has two more new words! "Ya ya", usually accompanied by a emphatic nod that emphasizes her double chin (when she wants something or is excited about it), and "Nana" (banana). She continues to think the apples, oranges and cantaloupes in the groceries store are 'baw's (balls). Now if only she'd learn to crawl...

Ellie Graduates

This week Elianna began riding in style...in her big girl car seat! Unfortunately it still needs to face the back, which drives Ellie a bit nuts...but not for too much longer.

Regan's First Birthday!

Elianna's cousin Regan had her first birthday party last Sunday. Boy, did she ever dig her first cupcake!

Regan with Auntie Dana trying out her new xylophone. She's a natural at wacking things!

Ellie was thrilled to get to play with some 'big' girls.

...and some 'big' boys too, I guess! (I think Rob liked the Littlest Pet Shop animals as much as Ellie did :)

The fam.

It's a little late, but here's a few photos of the Hildebrandt family Christmas Eve party here in Manitoba. We had a blast, and was it ever NOISY with two hyper babies stealing the show!

Christmas in Manitoba

Dad's new and old slippers. This was a badly needed gift!

My sisters Leila and Dana showin a little love!

Dana's man, John. She painted his face with a tiny paint set from one of the Christmas crackers to look sorta like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Rob and my sister, Karla, loving wearing those wonderful paper hats.

Ellie's first Christmas cracker experience.

Ellie and Regan enjoying Regan 's new piano

This ribbon entertained Ellie for a long, long time.

Ellie and Regan posing for all the family cameras.

Nana time.

"Ta?"

Ellie has this new thing going on where everything (food, socks, toys) must go in her hair or behind her head. "Ta?" she says, when you tell her it's a hat.

This is the first time Ellie tried to comb her hair.

I posted pictures of our little 'holiday' in Vernon, but they don't really tell the whole story. Here it is :) On Friday Dec.22, Rob's last day of work, the poor guy came home clutching his guts and groaning, 'I don't feel so good'. We were crossing our fingers that it was just a little food poisoning from his work potluck. hehe. No such thing. After Rob spent the next two days on the toilet with non-stop runs, he buckled and took an Immodium so that we could fly to Vernon on Christmas day without him missing the flight because of the numerous bathroom breaks required. Well, thank you Immodium...it definitely worked. But almost as soon as we took off in the air, Elianna got sick. She threw up twice on that first flight. Her and I were quite the odorous pair...we were covered. We stopped over in Calgary, where Rob and I bought Ellie a "Someone who loves me bought me this t-shirt in Calgary" shirt that was 5 sizes too big, and on the next flight to Kelowna she puked all over that, and her pants. By the time we landed all she was dressed in was in the huge pukey t-shirt and wrapped up in a West Jet blanket (thank you West Jet). So we were HOPING that Ellie was just, you know, a little AIR sick or something...but no such thing. She puked large quantities of puke at least twice a day for the first four days we were in Vernon, and then the diarrhea started. Poor little thing. She wasn't a very happy camper. You may notice bags under her eyes in the photos. But alas, after three days of a diet consisting of just rice cereal and diluted apple juice, Ellie is back to her normal self. Except now she's teething. Again.
Thank you, Baby Tylenol.
p.s. aside from the illness we had an awesome time with Rob's family and visiting friends we hadn't seen in ages. Although we don't want to fly again for a very, very long time, the trip was absolutely worth it! Happy New Year, Everyone!