Home, happy, and bushed.

Hey Everyone...Just a quick post to let y'all (as my dear friends in Texas would say. Cheryl...er, I mean 'my friend' also says 'peenk' instead of pink. But I divert.) know that we're still alive. Barely. :) We got back from a week long trip in Vernon on Friday night. I worked all day Saturday, Sunday was spent catching up with family, and because of some co-workers being out of town I'm working every day but Thursday this week and Rob's working every evening, SOOO....the word 'blog' only hazily drifts across some obscure part of my brain as I'm dozing off to sleep at night. Except for tonight. Because I'm procrastinating baking brownies for my dear hubby who does an incredible job of fathering Ellie all day long. Now that I admitted that I had better go do something about it. Anyone wanna come over for brownies?

Elianna's Take on Fashion.

The older Ellie gets, the more creative she becomes with her, uh, outfits. I mean, hey, why wear pajamas on both shoulders, when it's way more creative to have one shoulder exposed?

Now let's try showing a little leg...Yeah, there we go. Much better.

How about just a cowboy hat and a soother? (Ellie's really digging her reflection in the mirror with this one.)

Add a necklace and VOILA! Oufit complete!

Later, cowboy.

Booger sucker

There's nothing quite as satisfying as sitting in a cardboard box and clearing the sinuses.

The Wicked Giggle

You look at a photo of sweet little Elianna like this one, and you would never in a million years guess what she sounds like when she laughs. See, Ellie's never been a huge giggler. It takes something really big or really bizarre (like when she was 5 months old and couldn't stop laughing at a ping pong ball) to get a real genuine laugh out of this kid. Smiles and shrieks are without number, but gut-busting laughs are few and far in between. So Ellie's decided to over-compensate and has made up something that to her, sounds just like everyone else's laughter...what I like to call the wicked giggle. And it sounds exactly like that. Imagine say, a gobblin's giggle, or a wicked little mouses giggle...add a bunch of manufactured force and a growling effect and you have Ellie's laugh. Her face even turns red with exertion. And she does this all the time. In fact, she's doing it more and more each day, I think because of the reactions she gets from anyone who hears it. Anyhow. I'll have to try to tape it and get it online because words don't really do it justice. The wicked giggle. What next?? :)

Regan and Ellie Celebrate Summer

My sister and I took the girls to Nana's house the other day for a little pool party. We learned that Ellie enjoys lots of water with a little bit of grass (she ain't crazy about the stuff), whereas Regan likes the grass with small quantities of water (preferably ingested).

(Just had to throw in some photographic proof that the child is indeed walking :)

Just dryin' off.

It's official!

Yesterday, two days shy of turning sixteen months, we realized that it is finally really true: Elianna is walking. She still crawls, but boy, does she ever walk. Today at church she was running around with her little friend Chloe, who also just learned to walk. And the other day we were visiting briefly with our neighbour when we realized that Ellie had walked off to the other side of the parking lot! This is going to take a bit of adjustment! But it's very exciting. My wrist is particularly relieved as it will get a chance to rest up a bit before the next baby comes along (tendinitis). So wahoo! Next stage of parenthood, here we come!

Jews...Juice...All sounds the same to her!

The other day Ellie was on my lap and I was reading her a little bible story about Esther and the Jews. Ellie suddenly turns around and looks at me and asks 'Juice? Juice?'. Esther and the Juice! Sounds like a best-seller to me!

I wish MY bedhead would look this cute....

An afternoon at the park

Yesterday we discovered a perfect, Ellie-sized play structure at the park in Mitchell. She can climb through the whole thing herself, which makes her feel pleased (she's exhibited several monkey-like tendencies lately) and mom and dad feel rather rejuvenated. Anyhow, I love taking photos at the park. Here's a few:

This maneuver is accompanied by Ellie's over-emphasized grunting.Picking stones off the bridge. We pick up stones every. where. we. go.

Wahoo!

"Da? Da?" (translaton: "Again? Again?"

"Br br br" (translation: "Vroom vroom")Cool as a cucumber.

"Boo!" (no translation necessary)"It doesn't FIT!"
(I included this photo just for those who want to see me getting fat :)

No news is good news!

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and, well, there's absolutely nothing to report! Which is all right with me. He said that I am definitely measuring 20 weeks (yesss!!) and there are definitely NO twins in there (double YESSS!) and my bloodwork is perfect, my weight is great, and the baby's heartbeat is awesome. (Although...I'm definitely noticing that this baby's heartbeat is slower than Ellie's was. Like, distinctly slower. Hmmm....different gender? Maybe! Wouldn't that be something else?) Anyhow, just thought I'd give you all (*cough* Kristi) an update at my halfway mark to being a mama of 2.