The night before Ella's second birthday Chris, Ella and I were all looking at pictures from the year before. We talked about how Chris and I couldn't believe how much she had changed in a year, and how a year ago she gave up drinking baby formula from bottles and that since she's a big girl she likes to drink chocolate milk from sippy cups or cups and she likes to eat M&M's. We asked if Baby would be able to drink chocolate milk from sippy cups and eat M&M's when s/he arrives, to which Ella replied, "No, baby." Somehow the conversation moved onto binkies and Ella decided that since she was a big girl and was going to be two the next day, that she could give her binkies to "Baby Bow-Wow." She went around the house hunting for all of her binkies and taking them into her room and lining them up in the crib to give to Baby Bow-Wow. When she couldn't find any more binkies to give to Baby Bow-Wow at our house, we went over to Gra Dondee's and PopPop's to see if we could find any old binkies there. She found one and placed it in their crib to leave for Baby Bow-Wow.
We weren't sure how well this was going to work out as she was pretty attached to her binkies. That night when I tucked her into bed she mentioned her binky on her checklist of things she likes to have at bedtime. I asked her what she had done with her binkies, and she replied "Baby Bow-Wow!" I asked her if she still needed her binky, and she replied "No, big girl." She seemed happy with her decision, so I kissed her goodnight and went and sat on the couch outside her room figuring that she would be in tears within 5 minutes. I was wrong! She actually fell asleep without her binky. I sat there for a while waiting, thinking there was no way it could be that easy for her to give up her beloved binkies, but she stayed asleep. I asked her about it the next morning, and she was so proud to tell me again that she'd given her binkies to Baby Bow-Wow!
The birthday girl with her tutu on!
Ella and I had lunch downtown with Gra Dondee, Papa and Uncle Eric. After lunch Eric and Ella played a few duets.
Ella and Grandma Donnie wrote on one of the Book Marks.
On the way home we made a stop at the mall for a ride on the round and round.
Later we went swimming at City Park Pool.
Ella played on the slide in the park.
We had dinner at Texas Road House.
Then went home to open packages...
and have birthday cake.
I don't know why Grandma Dondee, Ella and PopPop are blue.
On Saturday Ella helped make the cake for her birthday party
and went on the merry-go-round with Grandma Mary.
This was my first project in digital scrapbooking. Chris has been very patient helping me learn how to use photoshop. I used Scrap Orchard's Mr. Kite Mini Kit to create this invite.
The weather on Sunday was awfully hot. I thought I would save some time and finish decorating the cake when we got to the park, this was a mistake. As you can see the green on the bottom started melting off as soon as I put it on, so I stopped decorating there and called it good enough. Ella's favorite part about this cake: "Round-and-round!" My favorite part of this cake: I could place the candles in the center of the cake, where the horses block little hands from grabbing them. No repeats of last year!
Jana & Aaron
Grandma Dondee & PopPop
Ed & Kathy
Aunt Hallie & Uncle Eric
Grandma Mary & Grandpa Mike
Jen, Clark & Colbin
Ella opened her presents, then we walked over for a ride on the round-and-round.
The birthday girl with Daddy.
The birthday girl with Mommy.
The a/c in the car didn't even come close to helping us cool down, so Ella, Gra Dondee, Pop Pop, Chris and I decided to go to City Park Pool for a swim. This is one of the pools that Eric and I used to work at. This was Ella's second time visiting this pool, she was 8 weeks old the last time we took her here. She enjoyed it much more this time around!
I have a fun pregnancy related story from this week to share, but go ahead and skip ahead if you are eating while reading this update, it's not really a pretty one, but we've been laughing about it all week. Mom, Ella and I went to Noodles for lunch for the first (and possibly last) time on Monday. I ordered the macaroni and cheese to share with Ella. Ella and I really enjoyed it. Baby, not so much. I made it to the back of the restaurant where the bathrooms were, and even into the bathroom and into a stall, but unfortunately, not over the toilet before it all came back up. If loosing your lunch was an Olympic event, I would have easily taken the gold that day, with extra bonus points for coverage. There was vomit EVERYWHERE! Not much in the toilet itself, but on the toilet, the floor, my shoes and three out of four of the walls of the stall. I was quite thankful that nobody else happened to be in the bathroom at the time and quickly cleaned it up as best I could with toilet paper and paper towels while I prayed that Mom and Ella were making a mad dash for the getaway vehicle so we could escape quickly without notice. I was so embarrassed when I had to go tell the hostess that they really needed to spray down the women's bathroom with bleach water. We were out of there in a flash. Somehow I'd managed to keep my clothes and hair clean, but we had to stop by my house to pick up some clean sandals and then stopped for gas before we headed up to Cedar Rapids. As I'm walking out of the gas station, I hear someone say, "hey, weren't you just at Noodles?" Seriously?!? Some guy in a truck had been at the same restaurant that I'd just vomited all over and then driven to the same gas station in the next town and recognized me from across the parking lot? That's really quite fantastic and not embarrassing at all! It will be a while before I feel I can show my face at either the restaurant or the gas station again.
Ella's last dance class of the summer was this week. She was late because I couldn't get her out of the swimming pool! As soon as we got to dance, she and Gra Dondee ran ahead of me into the studio. By the time I got across the parking lot Ella was already in her class, with the door closed, no tears! Woohoo! :)
After watching her really enjoying the last two classes, and showing off her skills at home, we've decided to sign her up for more classes this fall. I'm glad to have found something that she can do without me, and with other kids her own age!
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