Making sense of Daddyisms...

While in the car the other day, Daddy in the driver's seat, Mommy sitting shotgun, Ella in the five harness in the back, we were maneuvering traffic. Ella tried to pop off a few of Daddy's usual phrases when finally we broke free from the congestion. Daddy put his hand in the back seat for a high five and Ella exclaimed, "Five on time!" Which should have been "Right on Time!"

Then she said, "Now you're greasin', Daddy!" Which was meant to be..."Now you're cookin' with grease!"

We laughed...and now we use her interpretations of the oft-used "Daddyisms"

Princess Pouts Alot

A few days ago she got all dolled up in this get-up and then didn't want her picture taken.

The matching pink sunglasses were an interesting accessory choice!!

Today...she put on the same ensemble and declared, "Princesses don't get spankings!" Hmh...we'll see about that.

Valentine's Cookies

With her great-great Grandmother's apron wrapped around her little waste and Grams at her side, Ella made some yummy Valentine's cookies on V-Day eve.

Then on Valentine's Day Ella spent about an hour with her "boyfriend" Cory while Matt and I went for our preparatory tour of the hospital where we'll deliver "A.J."

Later that evening, Ella went to a party at the YMCA where she played, ate pizza, and watched movies while we went downtown for some great Italian food. Well...it wasn't that great. We were just happy to get a reservation...THE DAY OF!!

Hope everyone had lots of love and treats!!

Grandmom's Dress

Each year we take a picture of Ella wearing the dress Grandmom Majoli wore to our wedding. The idea is to watch her grow into it over the years. It's a tradition my friend Gerin started with her daughter and I love it.

Here are our favorite photos from this year!

And the great news is...Babci has a dress her mother wore to her wedding...and it will be set aside in order to carry on this tradition with baby "A.J."

My Sister's Place

The other day Ella insisted on getting in the baby's bassinet. Matt obliged, even though I thought she might weigh too much.

He even turned on the music and left her in there with "A.J's" new blankies. She got very perturbed when I went in to take the picture. I also reminded her it was the baby's bed, an idea she didn't like either. Could that regression thing be starting already? Fun!!

Godson #3

We went back to North Carolina recently after our great friends, Rosemary and Jay asked me to be the Godmother of one of their twin boys, Bert.


Ella was great and on pretty good behavior most of the time. It was great seeing our friends, being back in NC and meeting those precious little boys.
It was nice to see Ella around babies too...since she's soon to be a big sis. She was very gentle, sweet, interested and attentive when they cried. Let's just hope she's that way when it's a blood relation!!

Georgia Aquarium

This was, pardon the pat on my own back, one of my better ideas. Turner offers discount tickets to employees and fortunately as a freelancer I get to enjoy those perks as well. So in an effort to spice up what can be a long and boring month...I skipped down to the little ticket office and bought some tickets for the Georgia Aquarium. Matt had worked a Monday holiday so he took the following Friday off and away we went.

Since the work Aquarium is a bit of a challenging word for a three year...we simply told her we were going downtown where Mommy works to see the fish behind the glass.

It was an amazing hit. Except for the Wiggles (totally so over...moving onto princesses) concert a couple of years ago...I have never seen her so excited and enthralled. What did she most want to see? Pink starfish. To myself I thought, fat chance, but I told her we'd look for them. Sure enough...they were there.

We also saw cool jellyfish, sharks, stingrays and sea urchins. Speaking of sea urchins...we also saw "Nemo" and "Dorie".

If you live in Atlanta and have never gone to the "fish behind glass"...or you're coming to town for a visit...I highly recommend it. We had a blast!!

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!!