New Hope

Today we journeyed to New Hope again for their annual arts and crafts fair. It was a beautiful fall day and 15-20 degrees cooler than our last trip so we enjoyed it much more! The fair was filled with amazing handmade art (paintings, pottery, jewelry, etc), but was a bit out of our price range. We still have a great time looking at everything. We also stopped by the train station again to watch the "choo choo" leave and watched any duck that we could find anywhere in New Hope! It was a long day and Ellie was such a trooper for still not feeling 100%.

Our first duck spotting of the day!

This video is of Ellie after we watched the ducks above for a while. The jumping and skipping is her attempt to copy them running and jumping into the water when we got near. At the end you'll see her rubbing her face on her arm, which is her attempt to copy their preening. it was adorable!


Ellie and her mommy by the Delaware River

We've spotted more ducks!

"I just love them so much!"

Still fascinated by the ducks

Ellie and her mama at the train station

As the train left the station....

Ellie and Mama waved at every passenger! Ellie was afraid at first because the train was so loud, but she got braver the further away it got.

After lunch, a very tired Ellie sleeps the entire way home.

Summer's End

(By JPC)

The weather today was beautiful with a summer temperature but an autumn crispness. To celebrate one of our last warm weekends, we spent a long afternoon at the park. Ellie has had a cold this week so she was thrilled about the chance to run around!

The queen of the playground surveys her territory

When we were swinging, the mom next to us asked her daughter if she would like to blow some bubbles in attempt to bribe her out of the swings. Well, it didn't work with her daughter, but it did with ours! Ellie started saying, "bubbles, bubbles!" and the very nice woman gave us a bottle for Ellie to play with. We were amazed because Ellie can now blow them herself, albeit with quite a lot of effort!

In addition to blowing the bubbles, Ellie also insisted on holding the bottle of liquid. As you can somewhat see here, most of it ended up on Ellie's pants!

After a fun afternoon, we had to convince Ellie that it was time to go. To delay our departure she played on the fence and watched the other kids on the playground. We couldn't resist snapping lots of pictures - she looked so beautiful with the setting sun.

We have so enjoyed the summer with our amazing girl and now look forward to sharing this Fall with her. Pumpkin picking and hay rides next weekend and then Halloween, Thanksgiving, birthdays, and lots of other activities - what fun!

Bitter Sweet

(By LPC)

I just returned from California on a Bitter-Sweet trip. It was unfortunate that the reason for my trip was because my wonderful step-mother, Donna, passed away. I learned even more about her through all the stories that were told at her Memorial gathering and long talks with my dad. She will be missed by so many people. My dad will have a huge hole in his heart, but he will take what he learned from Donna and live life to it's fullest while savoring the many wonderful memories.

It was good to see my sister Barbara. She is my best friend. It was good to spend time with Kyleigh and Lee on the soccer Field!

I almost made it up in Mike's airplane with him and David, only to be rescued by the approaching thunder storm! Yayayaya! I didn't really want to fly, I just wanted to spend some quality time with the boys. What could be more special than spending time suspended above the earth in a small plane? (okay, spending it sitting in a car safely parked in the rain, right guys?)

I loved spending time at Mike and Madeline's house with EVERYONE present. It was the brady-bunch with a huge twist, but we were all there despite ourselves.

There was also a spirit of forgiveness in the air between my older sister and I. A commitment was made to put things behind us and to agree to disagree on matters that cannot, and will not, ever be understood by the other. To stay out of murky waters and to enjoy the things we have in common.

So although my visit was bitter-sweet, I came back with a deeper love and appreciation for everyone in my family.

I came back home to a loving partner and a child who has forever changed my life.

I love you all. Keep in touch!

The little things...

Obviously everyone knows that their baby is going to grow up and become a toddler, a kid, a teenager (gasp!), and someday a full-fledged adult (double gasp!). It's when you see, or in my case hear, it happening that it becomes real. One of Ellie's first words was "la la" which meant Elmo. If you watch Elmo, you know that's because Elmo's opening song on Sesame Street is "la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World". About a month ago, though Ellie switched to calling him "Elmo", which sounds a lot like oatmeal. It happened so suddenly that I don't remember the first time that she did it, but it signalled an end of something.

Today's change though I did notice and will remember. Ellie asked for milk and I offered her water. Normally her response would be "yes, wa wa" and I would then prompt her to say please. Instead, today she looked at me and with great focus it seemed said, "yes, waaaaa-teerrrr". What?!? Water?!? I was so startled that I didn't even ask for the please before handing her the cup. Later this evening she asked for wa wa as usual, which was reassuring to me in some way. But I know that it's only a matter of time until the remnants of her little-baby speak are gone. I look forward to all the funny toddler things that she'll have to say, but tonight I'm missing the days of "la la".

VIDEO FOR MOMMY

Here's a video for you, Mommy......

A busy morning for Ellie

It's only 2 pm and we've already had quite an exciting and busy day! After a very good night of sleep (despite Ellie sharing a room with me last night), Ellie woke up early and ready to go. First we went to an amazing county park near Mimi and Boppa's house. It has several age-specific playgrounds, a carousel, a zoo, and a train! Ellie had such a good time and was thrilled to see monkeys for the first time. Afterwards we had lunch at Chili's. They have separate menus for food allergies, which I greatly appreciate. Now it's raining and Ellie is taking her nap with Boppa.

Ellie and Mama ready to ride the rails!

All aboard!

Ellie taking in the sights from the train

Ellie's first trip to the zoo!

She was very excited about the monkeys, who were unfortunately still sleeping.

Checking out all the animals with Mimi and Boppa

A condor showing off his huge wingspan

Ready to ride the carousel

Ellie riding a rooster and Mimi riding a horse, with Mama standing in the middle to make sure that neither fell off!

Ellie had lots of fun at the playground. Here she's crawling through a tunnel, but most of her time was spent on the slide and the swing.


Sucking on a lemon at lunch - she loves it!

We had a great morning, but we wish Mommy was there to enjoy all of this with us!

Red wagon

We're at Mimi and Boppa's house for the weekend. Ellie is having so much fun! This evening she went for a walk with them to see the "choo-choo train".

Sentences

About six months ago, we were worried that Ellie was a bit behind in her verbal skills. Although she was able to say several words (probably more than 50), she wasn't putting any of them together into two-word phrases, like "want milk". We were quickly reassured by our pediatrician that we had nothing to be concerned about since she clearly understood what we were saying and would respond by acting on it. That and she was only 18 months old (parenting books and magazines can be very useful but can be a bad thing for a paranoid mother!). The pediatrician said that she would talk in her own time.

Well, it appears that her time has come! Within the last two months, Ellie's talking has increased by leaps and bounds. Her first command was "up babies" to her dolls one morning, which recently progressed to "up my babies" last week. She also now says your name or her own name when addressing you so instead of "no", it's "no, mommy!" or "Ellie do" instead of "me" when she wants to do something.

My favorite occurred this morning. When we were leaving the house today for work/school, I could smell that a skunk had been in our neighborhood earlier this morning. Ellie took one step out the door, turned to me with a wrinkled nose, and said, "Peeeyew, it's stinky!". I laughed out loud and wished that her mommy had been there to hear that one!

Counting

At her mommy's request, I will try to post videos or pictures of Ellie every day this week! Today I captured Ellie counting her dishes on the couch. As you'll see in the video, she loves to count, but she's missing a few numbers. We've also figured out that when Ellie says "two", she just means "more than one"!

Flat Kyleigh

(By JPC)

We have a visitor. Flat Kyleigh arrived yesterday from California. She's an ideal guest - very quiet, neat, and requires little entertainment. We took her out today to enjoy the beautiful Fall weather.

Flat Kyleigh enjoyed our community's cultural fair this afternoon with Ellie and Aunt Lori

Ellie and Flat Kyleigh

Flat Kyleigh then joined us for a walk around the duck pond

Ellie and Flat Kyleigh enjoying lunch

Ellie giving her flat cousin a kiss :-)


Our only complaint is that we wish it was the real Kyleigh visiting us!

**For those of you confused by this posting, please google "The Flat Stanley Project" for an explanation.

Sierra Leone, Africa - outfit #2

(By JPC)


We previously posted pictures of Ellie in an outfit that a friend brought back from Sierra Leone (see here). We attended that friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago, which was the perfect opportunity for Ellie to wear the other outfit! She had so much fun with her newly made friends and despite the long, fitted skirt, she had a blast running around and playing ball. While she did this, Lori and I enjoyed the amazing food!

Ellie dancing to the music.

Playing with a balloon from one of the shower games

In mid-kick....