Wordless Wednesday

K.I.M.

A few weeks ago we went to the Maritime Aquarium (or the "K.I.M" as Ella calls it) with Andrea, Steve, Arlo, and Violet. The kids had a great time looking at the fish, turtles, otters, and everything else aquatic. I was most excited about the stingray pool where we got to dip our hands in and touch their slimy backs. Ella kept putting her hands in and saying "touch them, touch them," but as soon as they'd swim over, she would get scared and pull her hands away.

For some reason there was also meerkat exhibit at the aquarium so we got to chill with some cute rodents, too. They had one of those plastic domes underneath the exhibit that we got to sit inside and watch the meerkats from.

We finished with a trip to the gift shop to pick up some pirate tattoos and called it a day. We left at 12:30 and Ella was asleep in her carseat by 12:45. All in all, a pretty successful first trip to the aquarium (I mean, K.I.M). The best part is that now when she swims in the bathtub she likes to say she "swims really fast like an otter." Of course, this has trickled into other parts of her life so that she now does everything "really fast like an otter" such as coloring or mixing eggs for an omelet. As far as she's concerned, otters are the fastest things ever. So, there's that.

Not so wordless Wednesday

This Week in Cuteness

The other day someone asked us which age has been the best so far for raising a munchkin. Mike and I didn't even need to make eye contact before saying, "This one." Some people are baby people. I assume those people don't care about sleep, or have bad hearing, or maybe they are composed of mostly robot parts. Most likely, they had even-tempered babies and, therefore, a very different experience than I had. You all know the stories, so I won't bore you with them again. The point is that Mike and I have finally gotten to that place where we think to ourselves and out loud, "God damn Ella B, you are so freaking cute. Just stay like this forever." Toddlerhood is where it's at as far as we're concerned and it just keeps getting more hilarious every day. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share this week's cuteness update with you.

1. The Hokey Pokey- The other day she started doing it in the driveway, singing along and putting her two little pointer fingers in the air as she twirled around.
2. The picture- She has started drawing people and, specifically, her family on a regular basis. It might not look like much to you, but I actually saw her draw Mike's head and then say, "Daddy's beard" as she scribbled on the bottom of his face. She drew herself much smaller because, "Daddy big. Ella little." Obviously.
3. Family- This is her new favorite word and now we have to do lots of things as a "family." Wednesday night we all had to blow on her dinner to cool it down as a family and then we had to have a big family "Rawr!" session in which we all pretend to be dinosaurs. Before bed we have to have a "family hug."
4. Yesterday morning when she woke up at 5:30 she looked at me from her crib and said, "party time."
5. Potty- she has become increasingly interested in the potty and actually peed in it two nights ago. When she sits on it she pushes as hard as she possibly can to make something come out. She was very proud of herself when it actually worked.

That's about it for the weekly update. Hope your life is filled with as much cuteness as mine is!

Wordless Wednesday: My Family

A post my husband will love

There is nothing my husband loves more than to prove me wrong (and to keep reminding me about it). So, here you go Michael. You were right. Bringing Beezer to the Poconos was not a total disaster. And yes, I did have a lot of fun. Okay? Enough.

Rewind to about a month ago when Alex and Larry asked us if we wanted to spend the weekend in the Poconos with them and a few of their friends. Of course, Alex and Michael were in cahoots from the very beginning trying to figure out how to convince me to go. Truth be told, I didn't want to go. Well, I didn't want to go with Beezer. I wasn't looking forward to a three-hour road trip with a toddler, or figuring out how to get her to sleep in a strange place, or how to keep everyone quiet after seven without being a total jerk, or how to stay up late and still get up early and not be a crab the next day.

Clearly, I was not too keen on the idea, but my eternally non-nonchalant husband finally wore me down and I agreed to go. I was most worried about the drive down, but thank God for portable DVD players and big bags of Goldfish. I sat in the back so I could entertain her and keep her company. I asked her about her day, sang songs, and danced to the radio until she looked at me, pointed at the front seat and said, "Mommy- up there." From that point on she was in Kai-Lan/Diego/Dora/Blue's Clues lala land. Feel free to judge. I don't care.

Once we got there it was straight to bed. The next morning was a little rough as we'd stayed up until 1:30 and then Beezley decided to get up at 5:15. That hurt. But once everyone else woke up and Ella got used to all the people, she become her little hammy self and captured everyone's attention. She especially loved the boys and always wanted to be in "Larry's room." She insisted on eating Alex's ice cubes and touching Kofi's puffy slippers.

The best part of all came when Genny, Jake, their baby Penny, and their dog Grizzly showed up. Ella fell in love with Grizzly and wouldn't leave him alone. The rest of us fell in love with four month old Penny and wouldn't leave her alone. She never knew who would be holding her next. I was pretty impressed with Ella for letting me hold Penny for quite a while. A good sign for the future, I hope. It was also nice to have other parents there who understood the importance of little person sleep. Also, I'm pretty much in love with my new friend Genny.

So, overall it was a successful trip. The weekend was filled with tiny giggles, awesome food, silly games, too little sleep, and a lot of really great people, and we would have really missed out on a good time if we'd stayed home. Thank you Michael for making me go.