Illegal Toy Comes to the Balfour Home...Saves Lives

Thanks to a friend of my sister's, we now have one of those old-school SWEET illegal walkers for Ellie to use. (You know, the ones that you can't buy anymore because they have wheels and the kid might fall down the stairs.) All I can say is YA HOO. Assuming the toy goes over well with Miss Ellie, we will suddenly find ourselves with a bit more time on our hands (not having to walk Ellie around 24/7). Here's some photos of her initial reaction to this wonderful new addition to our family.

It even comes with a car phone. Ellie says,"Ha" (Hi).

"Br br br br brrrr." (Vroom vroom)

After exploring all the toys on the tray Ellie accidentally made the walker move, got startled and promptly burst into tears. We've replayed that scene several times but she's getting braver every time. Oh, and today Ellie had a little bout of the flu or something and puked all over the tray and wrecked the musical buttons, but, well, hopefully it wasn't an indication of her opinion of the thing. I'm determined to make this work. :)

Someone misses her grandparents...

I was actually just taking a photo of Ellie trying to put her shoe on, but apparently she got distracted by fond memories of Papa and Grandma's last visit. :)

This One's for you, Grandma and Papa Balfour!

Sorry about the poor quality...I'll try to fix that for next time! :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km63fQhK0JY

Curiosity

"Watcha got there, Mama?"

Sous chef in training

Yesterday was one of those Sundays...restful, relaxing, and in Ellie's opinion: BORING.

So Rob decided to give her a little lesson in waffle making, since we missed our traditional waffle breakfast on Saturday morning. As you can see, she was entranced.

"I think you missed a step, Dada."

"That's the strangest ball I've ever seen!"

"I thought spatulas were for CHEWING on."

The waffles were delicious, as always. Good job, team!

First Time Parent Syndrome and a Million Different "B" Words

Ellie in the 'ba' with a 'duh'.

So today, on the eve of Elianna becoming an 11 month old, I wrote down her 20th word in the journal I keep for her. Then I reviewed the list. And I had to sigh. First time parent syndrome (I'm-so-proud-of-my-kid, look-what-she-can-do! syndrome) is a disease I am definitely afflicted with.
Sure, to ME this kid has 20 words. But to anyone besides her dad and I, she has more like 10. EIGHT of Ellie's words sound so similar, they may as well be one. Let me show you:

1. Baow (ball)...the most recognizable and frequently used word in Ellie's vocab.

2. Ba-oh (bottle)...sounds like ball, only different. Used when the bottle comes out.

3. Ba (bath)...repeated while running to the washroom.

4. Buh (up)...um, yeah, she's got that one a bit mixed up. I think I may have mentioned this on a previous post. If Ellie is on the floor and whining, you ask her, "What would you like?" "BUH!" Ellie says, and you say, "You want UP?" and she says, "DAH!" (which means "Yeah!") Never fails. All she wants is 'buh'. So 'buh' means 'up' but....

5. "Buh" means BUM....sounds exactly like up, but she says it at a different time. Give Ellie a diaper and ask her where it goes, she says "Buh" and puts it by her bum.

6."Buh buh" (bye bye)...exactly like 'bum' and 'up', only she says it while waving goodbye to Daddy in the morning.

7. "Buh buh buh buh buh" (bounce bounce bounce)....just like "bye bye" only more 'buh's'...Ellie says this while I assist her in jumping on our bed.

and last but not least....

8. "Bva bva bva bva" (accompanied by lots of spit flying)...this is the sound a tractor makes, of course.

So there you have it. Ellie's 'b' words.
I can hardly wait till she can annunciate more than 5 consonants.

Ellie vs. Blue

What are YOU looking at??

Valentine's gift

Thanks for the beautiful pink hat, Papa and Grandma Balfour...

But it sure is hard work being a princess!

Wooops!

The other day I sat Elianna down beside a pile of clean laundry while
I switched another load over in the laundry room.
This is the scene I came back to. :)
(Gotta love that pout, hey?)

Update on Ellie

Elianna is almost 11 months old now and louder than ever. Favorite words this week are 'Bah' which, for some reason, means 'up' (we make Ellie say 'up' if she wants us to pick her up instead of encouraging her insistent whining. Man, can this girl whine. It's a gift.) and 'ffffffffffffffffff owr!' for flowers. I got some Gerber daisies from a friend and Ellie's quite happy about them. Sure ways to get a smile out of Ellie these days are to 1. show her a ball (or a balloon, or a round light fixture...anything round is 'baow'!) 2. give her crayons and some paper 3. show her another baby. She can't get enough of them. Yesterday we had our neighbour's baby, Hayden over, and Ellie was actually trying to jump she was so excited (this is the kid who hated her jolly jumper because she couldn't bend her knees). Sure ways to make her scream in fierce anger are to 1. wipe her face 2. wipe her nose 3. clean her ears and 4. leave her hat on in the carseat so it ends up covering her eyes.

Here's Ellie playing peekaboo while doing her favorite past time - walking. We've resorted to wrapping a folded blanket around her torso save our backs. I know I'm not the only mom to testify that this "I want to be moving but can't do it yet so I want your help all the time, please" season seems like it takes an eternity. The nice thing is that anyone with two fingers for Ellie to hang on to is a dear friend of hers, so we can pass the joyous duty off to anyone who's willing.
In other news, I've found a part-time job for when my maternity leave is up...and it's a total answer to prayer. I'll be doing after school care for a 12 year old girl with Cerebral Palsy, as well as occasional Saturday afternoons. This is super exciting for me, as I was starting to feel the 'special needs' void in my heart, and as I am allowed to bring Elianna along, if I like (although I have a friend who's offered to babysit for free!) This girl is a real sweetie, as well as quite mischievous, so I'm probably in for a bit of an adventure!