Monday, January 30, 2012

Bubble Bath

 Ella loved her first bubble bath!  She was so sad when it was time to get out that she stood next to the tub crying and waving bye-bye to the bubbles. 






The last picture makes us laugh - this is her absolute favorite thing to do in the bath these days, bubbles or not.  She loves just laying down in the water and relaxing!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Snowed In...

All week, the snow and icy rain kept coming and I ended up having the entire week off school - fun now, but not so fun when we have to make up all the days in June.  Between power outages in the area due to falling trees from the weight of the snow/ice (our lights flickered a ton, but thankfully we never lost power), a water conservation warning (apparently the sewage and water tanks in our area were running on a backup generator), the icy roads, and snow continually falling, it was quite the storm for us Seattleites who aren't prepared for so much snow.  Cody drove to the airport Wednesday morning and flew to San Diego for work in the midst of the worst part of the snow storm, so Ella and I spent the last week being snowed in at home.  Cabin fever was definitely running high after the first day at home.  The snow turned to icy rain, which wasn't ideal to take Ella out to play, and the roads were too snowy/icy to drive anywhere, so we tried to make the best of it by staying busy inside at home. But, how do you keep a one year old entertained without any change of scenery after multiple days in a row with no release for mom?!  No, it wasn't really all that bad :).  The truth is, I have loved and cherished this last week spent with just Ella.  We got to do things we normally don't have time to do like making  homemade play-dough, reading lots of books, making sugar cookies, doing multiple craft projects, and making pancakes in the mornings.  I even had an excuse to not run errands, and not do laundry and run the dishwasher too often with the water warning.  Ella and I spent most of the days in sweats and jammies and she was super snuggly with me this week (a rarity these days when she's always on the go) and I have LOVED it.  Every morning, I've gone in and gotten her from her crib when she wakes up and brought her back to bed with me.  After getting over her sadness that dada wasn't there, she would lay next to me cuddling for up to an hour.  Seriously my heaven and a perfect treat to get to sleep in a little longer than usual on my unexpected days off work.  We certainly missed Cody though and to make things worse, his flight home from San Diego got cancelled, and there were no more flights into Seattle for the next two days.  He ended up flying into Portland, and then taking another flight into Seattle the following day after he was scheduled to get in.  What a week it's been for all of us!!
Checking out the "noooo" out the window
 Drinking her "hot cocoa"
 Valentine's crafts (thank you Pinterest!)



 She loved helping me make cookies but did more taste testing than helping ;)






 Snowman pancakes

 Play-dough




Friday, January 20, 2012

Snow Days

We got our first snowfall of the year this week!   It started off earlier in the week with the snow falling on and off throughout the day so we ventured out to see how Ella would react to being out in the snow.  It was one of those things we knew she would either love or hate - and she seemed to love it!  We took her out a few times the first day we got snow and enjoyed walking around in our neighborhood.  She loved saying "brrrr" at the mention of anything cold or when we would bundle her up, and saying "noooo" for snow.  I consider this to be Ella's first "real" experience with snow, even though we took her out for a few pictures in the snow last year when she was about 4 months old :).  Yes, we took lots of pictures, but who can resist a cute bundled up toddler waddling through the snow?!




 Not too happy about the snowball daddy tossed at her...




 Watching the big kids sledding...



The next morning we met up with Ella's neighbor-friend Finn and went for a walk in the snow...

 Holding the snowball Finn made for her :)...

 Laughing at the kids sledding down the hill! I think she wanted to join them!


Trying out her new sled
So serious about her sledding

Most of these pictures were taken at the beginning of the week when the snow was still "fun".  Here we are almost a week later and the snow and ice are finally starting to thaw out leaving a slushy, icy mess.  More to come in my next post on how Ella and I entertained ourselves stuck inside all week!