Priceless

First time giving Elizabeth a yogurt pop . . . she LOVED it. Check out more pictures in my gallery - in Ellie @ 15 months!

"Oh Wow!"

That is Ellie's favorite phrase right now. When she gets excited she says it and it's so absolutely adorable.

Ellie LOVES to give kisses - to everyone she sees. When she hurts herself she also comes to me or Chris for kisses . . . so SWEET!

When we ask Ellie to turn around she turns around, and around and around until she gets dizzy and falls down!

And how cute is it when we ask, "where's Elizabeth?" and she covers her face! Today I asked her, as we were walking home, "Where's Elizabeth's house?" and she covered her face . . .

cravings

I just finished my absolute best treat (at least for right now).

Granny Smith Apple (cut into 8ths)
crunchy peanut butter
nutella

Put all on plate together and dip apples into both peanut butter and nutella.

AMAZING.

Now I'm going to bed.

my stroller

Did I mention that I got a double stroller? We bought it on ebay back in December. Found a GREAT deal on an Inglesina. It's an older model but it good condition and maneuvers great w/ one or two children in it. When I went to the Santa Barbara zoo w/ a group of mommies a friend and I used it for her son and Ellie. It moves w/ such ease and doesn't seem as cumbersome as some of the other double strollers out there!

Take a look!

eating

Ellie LOVES to eat frozen whole-wheat mini bagels from Trader Joes. They are GREAT for older babies/toddlers when they are teething.

She also absolutely LOVES hummus . . . loves to dip pita bread into it, loves to eat it w/ her fingers!

Baby's growing!

Last night I was SO hungry . . . I felt like I just needed to keep munching and then the growing pains hit. This little baby must be having a growth spurt! I felt like I couldn't get comfortable all evening long and was feeling a shortness of breath even though I wasn't exerting myself at all!

We are talking to Ellie about the baby more. She can do the sign for baby and she responds very well when she is around and sees little babies. I know it will be quite an adjustment for her, but I feel like she is in a good place to be a big sister. A big sister @ 17 months! I was 7 years before I became a big sister!

Here I go again . . .

Ellie's finally turned the corner in her teething and is doing much better! We had a CRAZY night with her on Thursday night. Shortly after I wrote my last post she began crying and I went in to see how she was doing. We had given her tylenol @ 8pm and it was 8:40. She was bothered by her teeth and so I held her for a bit before she climbed down off my lap and went for the bedroom door. I was curious to see what she would do . . . she walked to the open sliding glass door and walked outside all the way around to our bedroom. She was happy to see her daddy and for the next 15 minutes just wanted to play. Finally we put on a VeggieTale video and she watch 2 of them before getting Motrin @ 10 and going back to bed. At midnight she woke up crying in pain and there was nothing I could do to calm her down. Chris tried giving her a bath - she didn't like that and then they watched an Einstein Video. Finally at almost 1am she crashed and I heard her once more @ 4 and then again @ 5. I was wiped when she woke up @ 8:30 ready to go for the day! But like I said, she's doing much better and the other 2 molars are almost all the way in!

On another note - I LOVE cloth diapering for a variety of reasons and was excited to see an article put out by Time about them. It's a fairly balanced report - feel free to check it out HERE.

Finally, Chris and I spent the evening together. We went out to dinner and then to Barnes & Noble. It was so nice to just hang out w/o the little one running around. We ran into an old friend and caught up w/ him. Then we just sat upstairs and looked at some books. I have decided that I am going to purchase "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld (recommended by my good friend Amber on her blog Babywearing Buzz). I looked at that cookbook & the two "Sneaky Chef" books and decided I liked the ease and look of Seinfelds book much better. I'll be ordering it online so I'm SUPER excited to get it and start the recipes. If you want to check out some of the recipes for yourself CLICK HERE to go to Oprah's website!

teeth & sleep

Ellie got her 1st two molars . . . I got no sleep last night because of them! She has a temperature today and was not as chipper as normal - but she's made it through and I'll be glad when all the teeth are in!

Last night at 4am I was up rocking Elizabeth and the little one inside was kicking against her . . . I couldn't help but laugh. They are already vying for my attention!

I'm just expecting not much sleep again tonight. . . ah, the life of a mom!

Back to normal . . . sort of

Chris came home last night and the household is beginning to feel like normal again. Ellie enjoyed playing w/ her daddy all morning. They play hide 'n seek on the bed in the mornings - it's cute to watch.

I was able to actually get some projects done while Chris was gone after all. Not as much as I would have anticipated - but that's okay! I'm thankful that I was able to do as much as I could. I'm excited to be sewing again! I'm in the process of making a couple of little girl dresses, a skirt for me, a couple of play toys and hemp/fleece cloth diapers for the new baby.

The dizzy spells that would come and go when I was pregnant w/ Ellie began to emerge again today. I'm getting ready to lay down in a few minutes again. I'm thankful that Chris was home b/c he was able to help w/ the laundry and get us lunch so I could just sit. I had to eat TWO breakfasts this morning. The first one for the baby - the second for me!

High hopes

My husband is gone for a few days in Arizona taking care of some business out there. I was planning on using that time wisely to get some sewing and other projects around the house done. Only problem with that - I became a single parent when he walked out of the door AND oh yeah, I'm pregnant.

Needless to say, I was exhausted last night after Ellie went to bed and after doing the usual clean up of the house I just plopped down on the couch to relax - so much for doing any extra sewing! And tonight doesn't look like it'll be much different. I'll report in in a few days and let ya know whether or not I actually get some of my extra-curricular stuff done!

On another note I did get two of my prizes yesterday from Born Green! I received the mother's milkmate storage system and Charlies soap - which interestingly wasn't even on the list of stuff I won.

All About Ellie

Ellie likes to eat. She is a somewhat picky eater though. And by picky I mean that she likes "good" food. I tried to give her canned veggies the other day and she would have NONE of them. She tried a few and promptly spit them out.

She's picky about her meats too . . . not a huge fan of chicken or beef so I have to shred it into something in order to get her to eat it. I need to try different forms of protein. I think we'll try some tofu - I'll let you know how she likes that!

We went to the zoo today. I took my new double stroller (minus the extra seat) to try it out. It is GREAT! It's not too long, maneuvers wonderfully & has plenty of storage space below. She does try to get out of it when she gets bored - so I've got to keep her moving! We got an Inglesina, used on ebay. It's about 5 years old and shows some wear and tear but for the price we paid I'm happy!

Another thing Miss Elizabeth likes to do is to hide behind the curtains. She will sit (or stand) so still enjoying her "quiet time" until we play along with her. Sometimes she'll be there for 5 - 10 minutes as happy as a lark with her little feet sticking out underneath the curtain.