Tutu at the Zoo

Ella has been loving going to the zoo lately!  And between her growls and high-pitched squeals, she fits right in with the zoo animals ;).  We lucked out with some more great weather and enjoyed an afternoon with the Magnusson and Ehrlichman clans checking out the animals.

After the zoo we had dinner at Zeeks Pizza.  Ella, Nate, and Sophie enjoyed some play time together after we ate and Sophie showed us her new crawling skills!  Love these three cuties!

8 Months Old

Our baby is already 8 months old!  We think she has grown a ton in the last month as all of a sudden none of her clothes fit her anymore.  She is at such a fun age to play with and interact with and we love seeing her sweet, silly personality coming out more and more.  We fall more in love with her every day and are so blessed to get to be her parents!  Some things I wanted to remember about this stage in Ella's life:

• She loves bath time.  I think she would stay in the bath all day if we let her.  She pounds with excitement on the side of the bath tub as the water is filling up and she loves splashing herself (and us!), playing with her bath toys, and sucking on a washcloth.
• While she's not crawling yet, she is close.  She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, can scoot backwards across the room, can turn 180 degrees, and can roll in all directions.  We need to baby proof our house very soon!
• She is sleeping 11-12 hours at night.  We are still so grateful that she is such a good sleeper/napper and don't take this for granted!
• She still hasn't cut her first tooth, but she is trying more solid foods and it's fun that she's now eating more "adult" food.  Along with her baby food, she now enjoys pieces of shredded chicken, cheerios, small pieces of fruit, toast, yogurt and (she loves) mum-mums.
• She can stand pretty stable while holding onto the couch/ottoman, etc.  She is fearless and has no problem letting go to test out her balancing skills :). 
• She is incredibly happy, all the time.  When we are at the grocery store, out to dinner, shopping, at play-dates, etc., people often comment on what a happy, smiley baby she is.  She loves finding a stranger to make eye contact with and smiling at them until they smile back.
• She is loud.  She is constantly squealing loudly in delight when something excites her, blabbing, giggling, growling, and talking to herself.
• She is a strong willed and determined little girl.  If there's something she wants, she makes it very clear.  She usually insists on going after the things she can't have (cell phones, tv remotes) and protests when they get taken away or moved out of reach.  When she gets a good grip on something she wants, it's tough to get it out of her hands.   
• She has been our little cuddle-bug lately.  While we were sleep training, we made it a point not to have her fall asleep on us because she had to learn to fall asleep on her own.  Now that she's gotten the sleep thing down, she will often take little cat naps on us or cuddle up and close her eyes for a few minutes before we put her down for a nap or to bed.   Love these special moments!

Love seeing this sweet face when she wakes up from a nap or in the morning...

A Wicked Weekend

About a year ago, Cody's parents surprised us and told us they had gotten us tickets to see Wicked in Spokane!  Anyone who knows me knows I love all things "musical" related and I had been wanting to see Wicked for the longest time.   It was so thoughtful of them and the show did not disappoint!  It was AH-MAZING and I loved the story line, sets, costumes, and of course the great music.  Cody's parents also got tickets for their friends Bob and Lori, and our friends Carly and Neal, so it was fun to get to spend the weekend in Spokane with friends and family. 

 At Wicked...

 We stayed with the Pickerings and Ella loved hanging out with their three boys.  All four kids did great with one baby-sitter while we were at the show.  Andrew really is so sweet with Ella giving her toys he knew she would like, kisses on the cheek, petting her head gently, and giving her hugs.  She was in awe of him :).

 

 After the play, Ella got to hang out with her grandparents as we enjoyed a delicious dinner with them, Bob, and Lori at one of our Spokane favorite restaurants, Twigs. 

 Before we headed home, we had breakfast at Chaps - a new favorite restaurant the Pickerings introduced us to.  We will be stopping there again next time we're in Spokane!

Zoo

We enjoyed a beautiful spring day at the Woodland Park Zoo with our friends Kate and Finn.  We spent the day checking out the animals who were playing in the warm sun, having a picnic lunch, and toting Finn and Ella around in their strollers.  We can't wait to return to the zoo with them again...and with a new addition (Kate is due mid-June with her second little munchkin - a little girl playmate for Ella)!

 Ella and Finn

 Checking out the giraffes

 

Finn enjoying a snack while visiting the elephants 

 Basking in the sunshine while eating lunch

 Finn modeling his mom's sunglasses ;)

Our Little Squealer

For those of you who have been around Ella recently, you know that her favorite noise to make is a "growl".  Maybe it feels good on her throat or maybe it's just a fun sound to make?  I guess we'll never know!  For the last few weeks she had been doing it all the time.  Within the last few days, her new favorite sound to make is a loud, shrill squeal.  Now that she has discovered she could make the noise, she does it constantly.  She screams when she's happy, when she's mad, when she wakes up and is playing in her crib, when she's playing peek-a-boo with us, when she gets excited...I think you get the picture.  She certainly is our loud child, but she makes us laugh and we are loving see her learn to communicate!  I caught one of her squealing sessions while she was eating dinner...

Mother's Day

Although this was my first Mother's Day as a mom, I have very fond memories of Mother's Day weekend last year when we found out that our baby was a girl.  Cody and Ella made Mother's Day very special for me this year and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  We ended up celebrating a week early as Mother's Day weekend was filled with our half marathon, the Pickerings staying with us, and spending time with family.

The Sunday that Cody deemed as "my day" was one of those beautiful, rare, warm spring days in Seattle where everyone wants to be outside.  I was spoiled with very thoughtful gifts - I warned Cody that he's now set pretty high standards for future Mother's Days :).  We started the day off by having brunch at the Salish Lodge overlooking Snoqualmie Falls.  It was a place that we've always talked about going to, but had never made it there, even though it's only about 15 minutes from our house.  Brunch was delicious and we had an amazing view of the waterfalls from the lodge where we ate.  Ella entertained us during brunch with her smiles, giggles, and flirting with the people next to us. 

After brunch, we went home so Ella could nap (and I even got to squeeze in a nap!), and then we headed to U-Village for some shopping and dinner.  I love going to U-Village when it's nice out and being able to walk around outside.  We ate dinner on the patio at Sonrisa and soaked up the last few rays of sunshine before the rain came back the next day.  Thank you Cody and Ella for making me feel so special and loved on Mother's Day!

On actual Mother's Day, we went to my parent's house for a delicious dinner prepared by the guys - my Grandpa, Dad, Tom, and Cody.  

Here are the ladies on our special day: my Grandma, me, Ella, my Mom, and my Aunt Gwen.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom - the most incredible and amazing mom.  I am so thankful for our relationship and hope to be as wonderful a mother to Ella as you are to me!

 

 My sweet girl

Ella and one of her favorite people to play with, Uncle Tom