Going Home

Ella's first sweet-tarts!!

The 25th annual Fall Festival took place this weekend in our hometown, not far from where we live now. I can't believe it's been 25 years. I remember marching as a youth league cheerleader in one of the very first festival parades. Now, all these years later, we're back and I had to go and take Miss Ella. Matt was surpisingly enthusiastic, given he'd never been to the parade or the festival.

Watching the parade go by

We arrived just in time to catch up with my friend, Krista and her son, Colin. They live within walking distance to the downtown area so (bonus!) we had an easy time finding parking (her driveway). We made our way to a shaded spot in front of the old middle school just in time for the parade. There were marching bands, dancers, old cars, fire engines and even a real live camel!! Ella especially liked the Scottish bag pipe band -- twisting her little fanny and sucking on a lolly pop. Miss thing ate about a pound of tootsie rolls and dum dums and even chugged a little of Daddy's diet coke, well at least it was diet. She's now been introduced to sugary madness and we should now be ready for Halloween.

Colin was smart -- he brought his halloween gear and loaded up on candy

The craft booths looked more than enticing to me but I knew Ella and Daddy had rather eat straight pins so we went to the town green and had some lunch. Ella ran all over the place burning off that sugar. Then we headed home -- where she took a nice nap.

It's a strange thing going home after many years, and particularly visiting an event or place that was once a big part of your life. Familiar faces all look older, the youngsters who have taken your place all look so much younger. No one knows your name any more, your time here has passed. But it's still home.

Our sweet girls...

Miss Pat, cousin Emma's grandmother, bought the girls matching dresses earlier this summer. We finally got around to taking a few snap shots of the girls wearing them this week. Here are some of my faves...of the cousins who are also bestest friends....

Moooove Over...

On a visit to cousin Trey earlier this week, we decided to meet Aunt Leshia at the Mayfield Milk Plant, which is really close to their house. You can tour the plant for free -- but we thought that might not hold the attention of a 21 month old and a soon-to-be three year old. However, the BIG cow was a huge hit. She sits out on the front lawn greeting everyone who stops by. They have a cute gift shop providing any and everything bovine your heart might ever desire. But THE BEST .... freshly made ice cream, $1.50 for a huge cone. You can't beat that!! The kids had a big time and we all ate until we were stuffed. Too many trips to that place and I'll be going up a pants size.

Ella goes rocky-rocky while waiting for her ice cream cone

Ella at the park...

Alex the Cheerleader...

Ella...the admirer.

Sporting her "Alex's #1 Fan" t-shirt we made for her, Ella played all over the bleachers Saturday as we watched Alex cheer on her team, the Wolves. Carrying her little green and gold pom pom, under Daddy or Babci's watchful eyes, she seemed to be taking it all in. She still calls football baseball but we're working on that. She shook her little booty to the chants and cheers, which makes me, a former pom-pommer myself, just tickled.

Alex did a great job! She's on a squad with 12 (?) other girls so the competition is thick. But she's a beautiful little lady and she's really loving it and having fun.

She's in the back row when cheering and the front row when it comes to stunts. That's usually where I ended up in the squad line-up. As a cheerleader I used to think maybe that was because I wasn't the BEST, but now from an Aunt/Fan perspective I see that the back row is the one most easily seen from the stands, and you're less likely to kick a girl in the face when you do a cartwheel. And the front row stunt girls looked less strained/scared than those actuall building the stunt.

Go Alex!!

Shopping!

I've now created a monster.

On the way to watch cousin Alex cheer on Saturday we passed by Kohl's. Ella screamed, "Shopping!"

Ooops...

The Elmo Shoes

So, after the failed attempt at school pictures I thought I'd introduce my emotionally overwhelmed daughter to the tradition with which most self-respecting women deal with such a stressful situation...shopping.

The truth is, Ella needed new shoes but after the incident at school I knew the perfect time for shoe-shopping had arrived. Her little toes popping out of her sandals, I loaded her in the buggy and we were off to the shoe aisle at Kohl's. I found some sneakers like cousin Emma's with the flashy lights on the souls. She liked them. But then I found an Elmo sneaker for girls on the display shelf. I looked for its match in the boxes below -- nothing. I made the mistake of asking Ella which one she liked, she promptly tossed the first pair and with a big grin, grabbed the Elmo shoe. By this time, I had "befriended" another Mommy who was trying to find shoes for her little girl, maybe 18 months. She had a pair of size 6 Elmo shoes she thought she'd be returning. Perfect, we both agreed. Ella needed a size 6. She wasn't sure what size her little girl needed so I, being helpful, pointed out the little shoe sizing mat around the corner. I helped her plop her little girl's foot into the different outlines and sure enough, she indeed needed a size 6. So much for her helpful return.

At this point I went to the front counter and asked if an associate could be paged to shoes. A nervous looking man showed up, all shaky. I asked if he could check the back for a size 6 Elmo shoe. The other mom then asked, since he was already checking, could he see if there was a boy Sesame street shoe in size 8.

A few minutes later he returned and said, "you're both in luck, the last ones in each size! Would you buy me a lottery ticket?" We all laughed that stupid polite laugh, but something tells me he was serious.

Anyway, I was so excited I showed them to Ella. She was delighted. We made our way around to toddler clothing just to browse. I stopped along the way to look at their seasonal decor and then realized, I didn't need anything. We picked up a few new pairs of pants and shirts and went to check out.

As I loaded our purchases onto the counter I noticed something was missing -- one of the shoes. Of course! After I showed them to her I chucked the box into the back of the buggy, failing to notice she was still admiring one of them. Jimminy crickets. She must have tossed it somewhere in the store. The lady clerk was nice and said she'd watch Ella while I retraced my steps.

I got back to shoes and asked another man to check in the back just to make sure. Nothing, "you got the last pair, lady." I came around again to the front of the store where Ella was now crying, "Elmo shoes!" This time I took her around with me, the clerk had moved to another register, leaving my transaction open, clearly surmising I might be a while in my shoe search. At this point, we were quickly approaching nap time and Ella was verrry grumpy. So I started to pray. I carefully made may way through the shoe section, then around the corner to the porcelain pumpkins, nothing, then through the bath department, then back to toddler clothing, and there, behind a stack of neatly folded shirts, was the matching shoe. Someone had picked it up and put it out of harms way.

I said a quick thank you to the Man upstairs and got the heck out of Dodge.

School Picture Day

Tuesday was picture day at Ella's school. I was really excited about it. A girlfriend, Davis's mom, told me pictures at his school were super cute -- the kids sat in a whole in a big fake apple. The set-up at Ella's school was in keeping with that theme. The kids sat on top of a big number/letter block with apples scattered all around. I didn't work Tuesday but we told the teachers we'd be in for pictures anyway.

So I got Ella all dressed up in her pretty pink polka-dotted dress with matching hair clip. She decided to wear the bracelet Grams gave her all on her own. We talked about pictures all the way to school and when we arrived she walked right into the room and started socializing with the other kids who were waiting in line. I began talking with one of Ella's teachers and we were enjoying a nice chat when suddenly my ears tweaked and my stomach tensed as I heard the distinct sound of Ella's screaming cry. I turned quickly to props and backdrop to find another desperate looking teacher holding my red-faced, tear-stained child. This happened in a matter of seconds.

The photographer, already at his wits end and it was only a little after 9 a.m., suggested we let her go back to her classroom and calm down and play a bit. We tried that approach. A teacher then took her back about ten minutes later. Again, the wailing could be heard for miles. We tried everything and finally I decided it wasn't worth it. So we left. Back in the car Ella kept saying, "no take a picture", like a broken record. What kind of psychological scar do you think that left?

So we went to Kohl's and bought her a new pair of shoes.

A chill in the air

We've been enjoying quite the cool down here in Atlanta. Of course we're supposed to get back into the upper 80's sometime this week but for the last week or so we've had the windows open in the house and we've been spending more time outside, since we're not sweating bullets the minute the door shuts behind us.

But chilly weather means chilly feet. Thank goodness for our Mom and Tot socks. They were a gift last Christmas, I think they came from Ginny. Anywy, they're so cozy and sweet, we just love them. I can't find them on-line but I think they were sold at Talbots last year.

Grams's Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated Grams's birthday. I won't dare tell you her age because that's rude, but she's really young for a Grams. Anyway, she came over early and spent some time with us before the rest of the family came over. She gave Ella a little bracelet she wore when she was a little girl, and Ella, my 'i'd rather be covered in dirt and climbing on something dangerous' child loved it. She wore the little thing all day without any complaints.


Aunt Leshia made and decorated a beautiful carrot cake which came complete with sparklers for the singing of "Happy Birthday"!

Trey and Ella had a big time playing together, as usual and all in all I think it was a success. And thus continues the upcoming "birthday season" in our family...

Trey - October 19th

Matt- October 26th

Emma- November 4th

Uncle Richard - December 3rd

God-brother Thomas- December 4th

Uncle David- December 14th

Miss Nassim/Grandma - December 16th

Ella- December 20th

Aunt Durene- December 30th...

That pretty much takes up all of our remaining weekends until the new year...did I forget anyone?

Davis Update

Last weekend we went to visit out friends Heidi and Paul and their nine month old son, Davis. You might recall we first introduced Davis to Ella's World on March 17th of this year. Well since that first meeing Davis has really grown up. He's looking more like both his Daddy and Mommy, he's eating baby food, he's crawling and he's just as sweet as can be. Ella, however seemed more interested in Davis's "big sister", Annie, the dog. That is until Matt held Davis. Her face tells the whole story, "hey, this is my Daddy!"

And as usual, in my perceived attempt to have Ella take a bath with all the little boys she knows, they shared a bath. Ella's not one of those kids who can go a day without a bath, she gets dirty. Thus, if we're at someone's house and it's bathtime, I throw her in too. Plus, it will make for interesting speech fodder at future wedding rehearsal dinners, etc.

Tracks in the dew...

A true sign...Fall is on the way. Little Ella made tracks in the dew this morning. We sat outside and felt the cool breeze blow through our hair while Daddy and I sipped on coffee and Ella sipped on Soy milk. Ahhh...perhaps the blazing heat has left us.

At the Park with Cousins

We recently discovered a great park near our house! Actually we went searching for it last weekend when cousin Emma spent the weekend with us so her Uncle Rob and Aunt Stephanie could enjoy a nice getaway.

The playground goes on forever and has lots of climbing things, swings and slides for all ages. There's even a big covered sand pit and a wading "river" the kids can walk through.

We had such a good time there with Emma we decided to take cousin Trey this week when he and Grams came over for a play-date. I've posted some of my favorite pictures from both visits. Parks, every parents answer to a long day with highly energetic kids. And it's free!! Love it!!

Perhaps, the last of the pool...

...At least for this summer.

Matt and I returned to coastal N.C. over Labor Day weekend to spend a few days with some good friends.

When we came back home, we felt we had to take advantage of the neighborhood pool one last time before it closed for the season. As it turns out, the water was already quite cold and only the bigger kids could stay in for more than a few minutes. But there were lots of other kids there whose parents clearly had the same idea. This is Ella and her freind Ava who lives across the street. Ava's about 2 1/2 and now that Ella's talking more they are becoming fast friends. Ava has an older brother, Evan and and older sister, Anna.

This is the only swimsuit that still fits her. I guess it's a good thing things are turning cooler.

"Picking" a good spot to jump in

Glockies

Ella's word for glasses. She loves taking off our prescription glasses and trying them on. Of course we discourage this because I'm convinced it's going to ruin her vision or at the least make her cross eyed. So, as a trade-off we've started collecting baby sunglasses for her. It's very Elton John-esque as you can see in this picture where she's waking up Daddy while sporting some funky glasses Grams brought back from Panama City, FL.

Family of the Month

God help me, I don't know how or why, but Ella's Primrose School just named us family of the month. There's a little write-up in the monthly flyer and they put up a big spread about us on the bulletin board at school.

Boobies?

At nearly 21 months Ella is starting to pick up on little things about the human anatomy. For instance, she's quite interested in my boobies. I try not to be awkward about her touching them, pointing at them, hitting them. And when I point out she also has boobies -- one thing is quite clear about what her little brain is processing, Ella's boobies don't yet look like my boobies. Twice we've found her trying to rememdy this. Once, Matt caught her trying to put tennis balls in her shirt, sticking out her tummy in an attempt to keep them in place. Another time, I rounded the corner while doing laundry and found her wadding up fabric sheets and putting them in the top of her shirt. She seemed quite proud of her little lop-sided humps.

Yes...we are in trouble.

War Eagle!

She has no idea what she's saying it for, and it usually comes out more like "woa eee guh" but Daddy's making great strides in teaching Ella to say "War Eagle!" Despite the fact they're probably going to suck this year, it's cute to see her making Daddy proud.

Teachers at school say she talks all the time, one even says she's a "beautiful talker". Ooops, there goes that swelling with pride thing again.

Fee Hug

It's a lot harder than I thought....this working part-time and keeping up with the blog. I think it was easier in L.A. because she was still crawling and taking two naps a day. Now she's into everything and running hard and fast until she scrapes a knee.

Anyway -- there are those priceless payoffs with parenting and I do enjoy sharing them with all of you, so what if they come in spurts of blogging amidst long dry spells.

One of the latest and greatest things Miss Ella is doing -- fee hug.
What's that you say? Well it's actually our love bug trying to say "family hug". Whenever Matt and I are hugging one another and Ella gets that interested, curious and left-out look on her face we pull her up to us and create a type of cirlce of arms which we started calling "family hug". Ella's little face lights up. Lately, she's been walking up to us and requesting a "fee hug" all on her own. It's the sweetest thing for a few moments, and then she inevitably pushes one of us away, wanting only Mommy or only Daddy.