Cousin Alex Turns Double Digits!!

Alexandria turned 10 in January. It was a doggy themed party...just the family and her BFF Sarah and her little sis Sophie. I can't believe she's 10. I remember when she was born.

First Pedicure...Bad Idea

I wanted to take Ella up to my little nail place to share a man-pedi with her as part of her birthday fun. We waited until the madness died down a bit and in early January...off we went.

I've often seen other moms bring in their daughters, aged 3 on up, into the shop for fun, sparkly paint jobs. Of course Miss Ella...as usual...was a bit of a challenge. Once the water was filled in my tub and the nice lady was at work on my feet...Ella decided she had to sit in my lap. So for the full hour or so...she sat in my crowded lap while the lady tried patiently to paint all 20 of our toes.

The nail technician wisely suggested I come back soon for a more relaxing visit. I agreed and said I'd be giving Ella her pedicures at home...at least until early puberty!!

Catching Up...The Holidays

So...since it was my New Year's Resolution to Blog more often...I thought I'd better get to it.

Let's begin with Thanksgiving. I worked on Thanksgiving Day and the day after. We headed down to Florida the weekend following the National Feast and enjoyed turkey with Grandad and Babci a few days late. It was cold and windy but we enjoyed at least one morning of play in the indoor pool and lots of relaxing fun.

Christmas was a bit of a whirlwind. I worked a lot and Matt traveled quite a bit...slowing down just before Ella's third birthday and Christmas.

We decided to cut down a tree this year rather than going to a side-street tree lot. That turned out to be great fun. We headed up to the mountains with Grams, Aunt Leshia and Trey. We went to a farm located on several sloping mountainsides. We selected our trees and the farmers cut them down, bundled them and helped us load them onto of our cars.

Afterward...we happened upon a little man-made snow hill. Trey and Ella were too small to go tubing down it but we had fun sledding nearby.

Grandad and Babci were kind enough to take care of Ella for a long weekend so Matt and I could fly back to California for his company's Holiday party in Sacramento. We took advantage of our location and drove to our beloved San Francisco the day after the party. We visited Union Square for the Macy's windows and ice skating. Then we went down to Fisherman's Wharf for some fresh sourdough bread, of which we brought back several loaves. Then we took the cable car back up to our Hotel...just in case they really do away with those wonderful old pieces of machinery.

Ella's birthday was a lot of fun. We had a mid-morning Little Mermaid party with family and a couple of Ella's friends from the neighborhood.

Christmas week we did a lot of baking and spending time together, at least when I wasn't working. We also enjoyed watching Baby "A.J." grow along with my belly.


Christmas was nice...filled with family gatherings and lots of good food.

Santa brought Ella a kitchen and a trampoline...among other little things.

New Year's was uneventful. We attended a small party at a neighbor's house...but I of course turned in early...being pregnant/sober/tired...etc.

Fall Fun

After what has been a couple of weeks of absolutely spectacular fall foliage...the leaves are starting to drop from the trees. But that has created quite the fun for Miss Ella.

Hope everyone is having a peaceful and enjoyable fall.

Big Announcement!

For those who have wondered why I've been so absent from the blog, here's the official excuse:

BABY #2 IS ON THE WAY

We're about 15 weeks and couldn't be more thrilled. Some of you may know we tried for quite a while after having some initial "issues". It was disheartening because Ella happened so easily.

But the bottom line is everything looks good so far. I was sick as a dog for about 13 and a half weeks. Now I'm just tired...most of the time.

Sorry...no complaining or whining. We've been given a wonderful blessing and I believe it was sent from a very special angel.

Our due date, and you know how those go, is May 4th. I'll try to do a better job of keeping you updated as I'm feeling better.

Ella by the way, since this is her blog...at least for now, is very sweet about the whole thing. She kisses my tummy and says she loves her "sister". We don't know what we're having yet but we hope to find out sometime around Thanksgiving.

Until then...YAY!!!

Trick or Treating

No family theme this year...but at least we all had fun. Ella, for the second year in a row, went as a bug...a lady bug. She was too cute.

Daddy, if you couldn't guess, was the King himself, Elvis. And Mommy was something creepy, not quite a ghost, not quite a witch. The entire motif could not be pulled off because part of the costume would not fit. Mommy's packed on a few #s.

Ella tried to keep up with the neighbor kids but took too long inspecting her loot after each house so she fell behind. Then she literally fell and had a major meltdown at the bottom of the hill cul-de-sac. Mommy managed to calm her down and wipe the snot enough for her to go to a few more houses. Then, she was pooped and Mommy had to carry Ella and her big, full bag of candy up the long hill. Mommy is thinking Daddy will take her next year and she'll stay behind and hand out candy.

School Parade

It was appropriately cold as a witches t*t on the day of Ella's school parade. But we made the most of it.

Her class shivered out in front of the school and mad a sad attempt at singing a song then returned to their warm classroom. Babci and Granddad joined Mommy for the parade and party. Daddy was out of town. Mommy was a little bit more than perturbed that she was the only parent to bring supplies for a party. At least they had Halloween cups and plates and napkins on which to eat their "usual lunch".

Everyone is busy...come on people!!

Anyway, they all looked adorable and seemed to enjoy looking at each other all dressed up.

Carving Pumpkins

It's a labor of love, the ooey, gooey mess and joy that goes with carving pumpkins. This year Ella really got into. We made her the keeper and sorted for the pumpkin seeds. It was a job she took quite seriously. As Daddy and Mommy scooped out the guts and helped sort out the seeds Ella collected them into pile after pile. Once the mouths were carved she decided the seeds needed to go back in the pumpkins. We somehow spared enough to roast after Ella had gone to bed. Daddy burnt most of them so it was an effort in futility.

This is hard work, if you do it the old fashioned way, and trust me we were working at scraping them as thin as possible. Mommy got a pumpkin that looked like it had warts all over it. Turns out it was a gourd and could not be carved. It looked creepy anyway.

Daddy's Birthday

We won't dare say his age...because he's suddenly decided he looks and feels old; officially. But Daddy had a pretty good birthday.

He woke to presents and birthday cookies. He was feeling a little sick from having too much adult beverage with Uncle Rob the night before but that's another story.

After Ella's nap we went over to Babci and Granddad's for a costume party complete with jump houses. Then we had a yummy dinner and cake! Chocolate on chocolate from Publix, just like Daddy requested.

Black Icing

I don't even want to begin to know how the bakery concocted black icing, but Aunt Stephanie brought some Halloween cupcakes over for an after dinner treat one night. As usual Emma ate very daintily and well...Ella did not.

Disney on Ice

What a spectacular show!!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post any pictures. It's been a busy, busy month.

We took MARTA (Atlanta's mass transit rail system) downtown to Phillips Arena where we watched Disney on Ice. Ella was completely enthralled for the first hour...the last thirty minutes produced a bit more fussiness but she was really good and seemed to love it.

She also loved the "choo choo" train ride. On a quick train change she got to speak with a nice lady conductor who tooted the horn for her!!

After the show we went next door to Mommy's work and said hello to friends and colleagues.

It was a really nice family day!!

Little Poser

Trey is 4!

Sunday we celebrated cousin Trey's fourth birthday. It's hard to believe he's already four. I remember flying home from California to greet him when he was just a few days old.

His party was at a nice park near a lake with lots of room to run and play. The kids painted pumpkins and enjoyed all kinds of fun treats.

As usual, he got way too many presents but at least he got a few educational items and some fun board games too.

He seemed to have a fun time...and that's what really counts. Happy Birthday punkin!

Pumpkin Patch

We actually went to the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago but I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.

As usual we left nice and early so as to arrive before the huge weekend crowds. It was a warm day...we were all hoping for more autumnal weather. Oh well. We were one of the first in line for the hay ride which Ella thoroughly enjoyed...she squeeled with delight when the tractor started pulling us along the long dirt road through the forest and out into the pumpkin patch.

We all picked out pumpkins, loaded up the car and headed back to our house for homemade chili and beer.

Too bad some of the little decorative pumpkins are already rotting. I'm thinking of cutting a hole in them and putting a votive inside...that would make one really scary and stinky jack-o-lantern!

Alex Cheerleading

We finally made it to one of cousin Alex's football games to watch her cheer. Ella and Emma did a great job cheering the cheerleaders. We all ate concession stand food and watched the poor Buford Wolves lose miserably. But the cheerleaders sure were cute!!

Regression...an ugly word

Ella had successfully been potty trained about a week and a half ago. She'd been going #1 and #2 with little assistance and very few accidents. Then...she moved up to the next classroom at school and suddenly...crappy pants again.

It's called regression. When a child is potty trained and then suddenly "forgets" how to do it. It usually happens when there's a new sibling, a move, something. But I think it's something else. Apparently several kids in her new class are not potty trained and the teacher is not very tough on them when they have...well when they poo and pee in their pants. This is far from an accident, which happen occasionally -- not every single time. I'm furious. Not only because I did the training to begin with but now I'm having to re-train. Some say it will be a phase that lasts a couple of weeks. Until then we've taken away all television and videos, and she sits in timeout after each poop in her pants.

If anyone has gone through this and has some advice I'd gladly take it. This is worse than sore boobs in early breastfeeding. I'm at my breaking point.

Cousin Zach's Baseball Game!

We arrived just in time to watch him score a triple!! Way to go Zach.

Ella wore her "Go Zach Go" t-shirt and carried bitty baby around, dropping her to the dirt so often she now looks like a bad spray on tan at the Oscars.

Aunt Durene and Alex showed up after we got their, Alex had cheerleading practice. Alex and her mini-me had fun running around. We had to leave before it was all said and done but it's my understanding it was a real nail biter, down to the wire. But in the end, the Red Sox won!!

Yay, Zach!!

Saturday, we watch Miss Alex cheer.