The camera returns

The camera was in the diaper bag. Guess I should have really unpacked first. : ) Oh well, hope you all enjoyed the pictures yesterday anyway. Here are some shots from the trip:

While we were minding our own business, a bird flew in and stole a piece of David's bacon! Never seen anything like it! Notice he is running away as I approach to retrieve the bacon (threw it away, but hopefully mean old birdie learned that cheaters never win).

Ella enjoying her animals:

Did you know that Gramma is busy setting all of the psalms to music one by one? She is amazing! She's already more than halfway through and they are really good! I hope Ella was picking up some things from her in these:

Sighhhhh. Fun times.

In other news, I got a new haircut. Whaddya think? I like it, and when I came home from the salon, Paul called me a sexy beast, so I think it was a good move. : ) If you live in Durham and need a hairdresser, let me know. My girl is good.

Home again!

We made it home late last night, the second time in one week we did a 13.5 hour drive with a 5 month old in one day. We may be crazy, but we're getting good at it. ; ) And of course, this morning, the pile of things to do to recover from the trip is teetering sky high over me. But I did decide it was important to touch base with my bloggy friends again early. (It's before noon, ok?) And then I realized something problematic. My camera is still in Florida enjoying an extended vacay. Doh! So I figured in the meantime I would post some things to help you visualize our trip and imagine that it was way more faaaabulous than it may actually have been. However you will have to remind yourself that the sweet family time was way better than any of these imaginary pictures can convey.

This is basically what my parent's swimming pool looks like. Just imagine me and Gramma swan diving off the top ledge there, what we did pretty much all week. 

I realize this is a little lame, but I mde 2 separate trips to Ikea in the one week I was there. It's just so tempting when it's right in town. Our normal Ikea is 2 hours away! Meg and I went one day, and Paul and I went another day. Lots of inspiration was had.

I visited Meggie's cute little historic Fort Lauderdale house. Love it. See here for her whole post and more pictures.

Enjoyed the beautiful backyard that my Dad works so hard on, as well as a trip to Flamingo Gardens to celebrate his birthday.

Admired Uncle Joe's mohawk. Again, this picture is only to give you an idea, but I think this is the look he's going for.

Sorry there's no cute baby in any of these pictures, but hopefully my camera will arrive home soon, and we'll be back in business.

Hope you all had a great week!

Vacation

Hi everybody! We're on vacation in Florida this week so posting will be a little sporadic. We're having a great time with family and trying to avoid the internet! Hope you are all doing well and I'll be back with an update soon!

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

That title makes it sound like I am about to post something deep. Don't be fooled. Just more baby cuteness. : ) But I do think that little saying is pretty cool and it has to do with today's activity.

Not only is the chair a fun place to eat, it is also an excellent place to try, drumroll please . . . standing!

Here's a little video of the frenzied attempts. This can go on for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. (Don't worry, always supervised!)

Cucumbers--splash!

Is anybody else growing cucumbers this summer? Paul is and yum. Today at lunch, I had the privilege of walking out to the backyard, picking a good-looking cucumber off the vine, taking it inside and washing the dirt off and then slicing it up for a delicious sandwich. Lucky me! Eating a very fresh cucumber is to taste what jumping into perfectly cool and clear water is to touch. Every time I get that same ahhhhh refreshment. Grow cucumbers people, you won't regret it! (If you have a super-farmer spouse to grow them for you, all the better. : ) )

Rockin . . .

This morning when Ella woke up, I found her up on her hands and knees, rocking, and she has been doing it all day! I know I keep saying she is going to crawl any time now, but really, any minute!

She was practicing on the floor for a while today and I got some cute shots (the drool is cute, right?). About that floor. Going to have to vacuum more. She was only slightly less furry than Lucie when I picked her up.

This afternoon she was actually shaking her pack 'n'
play with her rocking. Little girl is getting ready to gooooo!

Hey Ellie! Over here!

She does love food, but not as much as she loves her doggie! This was my view throughout breakfast this morning. I kept having to call Lucie over to sit beside me so I could get access to her little mouth. : )

Ella loves food!

Umm, Ella loves food. Since the oats episode, we have tried peas and now squash with MUCH greater success. It is so funny. We were having a really terrible evening here, just praying for bedtime to come soon. But then I decided to let her try some of the delicata squash from our garden I was cooking. Sometimes she cheers up when you put her in her chair and let her eat. Tonight was no exception. She stopped fussing, and started smiling at me and almost laughing for no other reason that I could tell other than that delicious squash. I love it too, what can I say? : )

We were feeling much better and playing with a spoon by the time Daddy came in the door. So we (he) figured, why not offer her a pickle?

Please don't sic the parenting police on me--it was Paul's idea! And it was only a little lick. Ok a big lick. And as you can see she loved it. She actually cried a little when we finally put the pickles away. 

Weekend scenes

 Ok, so I kept forgetting my camera this weekend and we had to use Paul's phone instead. But here are some scenes from the weekend:

Yummy cupcake from Daisycakes, the cupcake truck that parks near the farmer's market on Saturday mornings.

Ella sleeping sweetly on my shoulder at the Partners Against Crime meeting I went to as a representative of our neighborhood. It was so interesting! Also really nice to meet some of our cool and hardworking city policemen, waste management folks, and other concerned neighbors. Not that anything criminal has been happening lately on our street that I know of, this was just one way our neighborhood president said I could help out the street. What model citizens Ella and I (and cameraman Paul) are! I wish I could have taken a picture of this, but the other cool thing about this meeting was that a random silver balloon floated over to me and Ella from who knows where and kept her entertained and distracted when she was starting to get vocal. It seemed poetic and magical in a way . . . thank you God!

Feeding Ella on the trail at Eno River State park. I love this carrier! And I love this pretty place. The river was clear and beautiful, and the shade was delightful. Ella got to dip her toes in a river for the first time too!

We had a nice weekend. Hope you did as well!

Know any wedge-shaped elves?

Because I have just the door for them!

This is not an illusion, it's a real door in an otherwise normal strip mall near our house, which is home to Local Yogurt. We love that place! And we also love this funny little door. What could it possibly be for?

Oatmeal

Rice cereal, as you will recall, was a huge hit. Oat cereal, not so much.

I wish there wasn't so much blur, but I think I captured the Ew! face pretty well. She was a good sport though, opening her mouth for each bite, even though as soon as she started mashing it around she reacted the same way every time. Guess she's not an oats girl. What should we try next?

More favorites

Thanks Annie Harrison!

Ok, just got my disc of photos from Annie Harrison. Love them! There are so many lovelies. Here are my favorites so far. I will probably (definitely) continue to add more in future posts. But just wanted to show you a taste of what a great job she did!

Washed by the Water

Sorry for all the randomness today, but I saw this over at Inspired to Action and really liked it. The song is still in my head. Hope you enjoy.

Move to Durham!

We've been really busy and thinking about some exciting things this past weekend. I'll let ya know soon, but just wanted to check in with a little, hello!, we're still here, Ella's still cute, etc. : )

Also want to hear something cool? I love to read Lucky magazine. The very best fashion mag in print as far as I'm concerned. It has this little "beauty closet" section where one of the beauty editors writes about products she likes in a really animated, funny and personal way. Apparently she has stopped through our humble town to visit the Burt's Bees factory and this is what she said about our home sweet home,"If you want to live an earnestly, totally eco life, I suggest moving to Durham, North Carolina, stat."Well, cool! And how do you visit the Burt's Bees factory? I knew they were here and even looked into that before but thought they didn't give tours. MAybe you have to be a bigwig Lucky editor. If not, you will soon hear our report from the factory tour. 

And let me echo that editor's suggestion: move to Durham stat everybody!

Simple pleasures

I love my little Ella. So many fun little surprises to life with her. Like today, I got my L.L. Bean signature catalogue in the mail and was flipping through. I found a couple of things I liked and wanted to tear out the pictures to remind me what to look for at Goodwill. Ella was sitting up against me while I was doing this, and after a few rips, I heard a little chuckle. More ripping, more chortling. So hilariously precious! I ran to grab my camera. Sorry for the quality, but the giggles are worth it. Here ya go . . .

After this was captured, we continued to have a delightful time tearing the rest of that catalogue to bits!

It's hot!

Baby in a zebra print diaper? 'Bout the cutest thing I've ever seen. And feels so right on a day hot enough to be the definition of August weather.

Just add Lucie for even more fun and cuteness. (Dog days of summer? Sorry.)

Food!

We went there. We gave Ella her first taste of food last night--the exotic and flavorful rice cereal. And she lovvvved it! The baby books said she would probably only take a tablespoon or so, but she at her whole bowl! (To be fair, 3 tablespoons.) It was amazing to watch her taking her food from a spoon. She just looked so incredibly grown up. It felt like a preview of her college graduation. That's my baaaayby!

The whole process got progressively more gleeful and progessively more messy. Here's waiting for Daddy to mix it up:

First few bites . . .

Hey, this stuff is delicious!!!!

I am messy, hear me roar:

It is more and more fun by the minute around here!

Lucie coaches crawling practice

More crawling practice this afternoon. She is sooooo close! This time Lucie helped out. Ella loves her doggie so much. She was a flurry of excitement trying to get to her. And then anytime Lucie would move, stand up, sit down, scratch, Ella would explode in giggles. The cuteness was unbelievable. We three had a fantastic time, but I was just dying for someone to be there who could talk!

Look at that concentration!