Recent Pictures

I know it's been a while since I've posted an update. You all know how busy this time of year is. Yesterday, Ellen and I got up EARLY and walked in the Jingle Bell Jog with a couple of the teachers that I work with. We were almost the last people to finish because Ellen wanted to walk by herself part of the way instead of riding in the stroller. Everyone thought she was very cute walking though--she had jingle bells on her shoes and liked hearing them ring when she walked.

Ellen loves pointing out new things that she notices on the Christmas tree. Her favorites are the banana, the highchair, the birdhouses, and the Canadian Mountie from Banff, Canada, which she calls scary (She got this from a Halloween movie she had that had a song in it called Spooky, Scary, Skeletons. She then decided that all scarecrows are scarys and the pilgrims are scarys and now the mountie is a scary--silly girl!)

Ellen knows she's not supposed to touch the ornaments on the tree, but it's much too tempting! She's already broken 4 or 5 of them. At least none of them were too important and actually a couple can be fixed.

Alexis, Ellen, Nikole
Ellen went to her friend Alexis Hermelo's 2nd birthday party last weekend.

Ellen thinks she's such a big girl! Look at her strutting right along with her friends.

Ellen got to jump in a bouncy house for the first time. She loved it! This is her with her daycare lady Carmen. (Alexis is Carmen's granddaughter).

Ellen was so helpful when I got the Christmas tree out! She decided to sit on the box and I had to pull the box through the house with her on top of it. She thought it was fun. She thought it was pretty funny that we put a tree in the house (even though it's a fake one).

Thanksgiving--the only part of Thanksgiving dinner that Ellen ate was the chocolate pie (and I think she wore more than she ate).

Patrick, Janet, Nikole, Michael, Ellen
Two of the teachers I work with came over for Thanksgiving dinner; Janet (the language arts teacher on my team) and her two sons, and Nikole (the math teacher on my team). Ellen had fun playing with the big boys and Janet brought her some new books to read so she was very happy.

Ellen got a kitchen to play with (she was supposed to get it for her birthday from the Haas' and Shaver's but I just got around to ordering it.) Ellen loves "cooking". She thinks the faucet on the sink is broken though because no water comes out.

Ellen loves to color. Her favorite thing is to have us draw E's so that she can color them. She also likes to color all over herself and her high chair and sometimes the floor. Good thing washable markers are actually very washable.

First Haircut

Korey and I took Ellen to get her first haircut last night. As you can see, it was getting quite scraggly and unruly.

She really was not happy about it. I don't think she really cared about sitting in the chair or the haircut, what she absolutely HATED was the smock they put on her. She cried hysterically about it.

She tried to be happy playing with the toys. I even offered her chocolate--but she didn't want it! She decided crackers were okay though.

Once they started playing Blues Clues on the TV, she calmed down.

All done!

Trick or Treat

Ellen loved her first real trick or treating experience. As you can see from the picture above, she took it very seriously. I wasn't sure if she would cooperate at all, but she got the hang of it quickly. I took Ellen to my friend Deborah's house where I convinced her to get her costume on so we could go outside for a walk. It was the most perfect weather we've ever had for Halloween here (about 68 degrees). She was very happy to get in her stroller and go for a walk. At the first house, she wasn't sure what to do. She thought she was just supposed to go in their house. They gave her a bag of M&M's (her favorite candy) and she was very happy.

The next house just had a bowl sitting out for the kids to take the candy. Ellen thought this was the greatest and just kept putting candy in her pumpkin. After this house, she wanted to be the one to pick out the candy and put it in her pumpkin herself. When people tried to put the candy in her bag for her, she gave them a strange look.

I think she would have stayed at this house all night just emptying out the bowl of candy.

The end!

Pumpkin Patch

I took Ellen to the "pumpkin patch" today to pick out a pumpkin. She had fun looking at all of the pumpkins and trying to pick up as many as she could. I'm sure she would have liked to play with the pumpkins all day but, I was sweating to death--it was 91 degrees out!

This looks like a good pumpkin.

I think I can pick this one up!

I found one just my size!

In Memory of Bueller

Bueller

August 12, 1999-October 15, 2008

Planting Flowers, etc.

This weekend, Ellen helped me plant flowers. She had fun digging in the dirt, playing in the water and stacking the containers from the flowers. She loves to say, "flower" and she likes to smell the flowers. She is really talking like crazy now. She is like a little tape recorder and can say pretty much anything we say. She is also saying a lot of short sentence. She says, "No touch it" when she's not supposed to touch something, "I find it", "I fix it", "I see you", "I did it" and my favorite, "I love you!"

Ellen used her watering can to water everything but the flowers.

After planting flowers, Ellen went swimming in her little pool and then we pulled weeds in the yard while daddy mowed the lawn.

Some friends of ours brought over their baby, Victoria. She is 6 weeks old. Ellen wasn't quite sure about the baby, especially when mommy and daddy held her. She kept calling her, "Baby Eddie," because that's the baby's name at daycare.

Just being cute!

Ellen loves Bueller. She especially likes giving him treats and is not afraid to have him eat out of her hand.

I found a coconut! Ellen loves collecting the little coconuts that fall off the tree.

Early Trick or Treat

I know I haven't been very good about updating lately. Things are always busy with a toddler and working full time. Ellen was sick this week with a throat infection so I had to take 2 days off work to comfort her. She's doing much better now. Back to her happy little self.
Last week I got her this pumpkin trick or treat bag and she thought it was the best purse ever! She immediately put it on her arm, said, "Bye, bye," and headed off to the neighbor's house.

IKEA

We went to IKEA today and got Ellen a bigger bookshelf for her bedroom. You always have to have enough room for books, and Ellen loves to read! Her favorite thing at IKEA was sitting on all the little chairs though. I guess she'll need a little table and chairs soon. I just don't know where to put them in our little house.

Playing in Airplanes

Ellen's favorite story right now is her Plane book. She knows where Daddy is on every page! She also notices every airplane in the sky and says, "Airplane! Bye-bye!" So, Daddy took Ellen to the airport by our house so she could play in the airplanes. As you can see, she had a lot of fun.

Mowing the Driveway

A Few of My Favorite Things

Ellen loves to put her purse on her arm to go bye bye. Sometimes she won't leave the house without it.

She loves to play the piano. She will go over to it and try to open it and say, "Panno." Then she moves the bench out so that she can sit on it. I can't wait until she's old enough for me to teach her how to play.

Last weekend we took Ellen to a Children's Museum called Young at Art. She had so much fun playing with the toys, exploring everything, going down the slide, climbing, driving, etc.

We went to Outdoor World today and she got to pet Bambi. She liked poking him in the eye and saying, "Eye." She almost knocked him over she was poking him so hard.

She loved looking at the fishies at Outdoor World.

Daddy and Ellen pretended to drive the boat together.

Oh no! Jaws ate Korey and Ellen! They sure do look happy about it!

Playing Outside

Ellen just loves playing outside. She acquired this love while we were in Montana. The Florida heat doesn't seem to bother her. Korey put a swing in the tree this weekend and she calls it "Whee!" I also got her a little pool to play in the screened porch. She loves to play in it whether there's water in it or not. I also got her a little pink lawnmower to push around. I have a slide on order for her and can't wait until it arrives. I know she's going to have a blast with it! She also loves it when I blow bubbles for her. When she wants me to blow bubbles for her, she blows out of her mouth like I do when I blow the bubbles. She is very good at communicating. I wrote down a list of words that she can say and I was amazed at the number. I knew that she could say a lot but when I added them up (46 words) I was shocked!

Daddy's Really BIG Truck!

How big is Daddy's truck? It's soooooo BIG!

See, I'm so little next to it!

I can even walk under it!

Hmmm.... what does this do?

Wow! That's a big tire! It's taller than me!

Cheese! My big sister has a picture kind of like this one when she was little like me.