Where's Ella?!?

Thursday Ella and I went out for lunch, she was very entertaining.


Chris and I have been very bad at remembering to take belly pictures during this pregnancy. We finally remembered to take one this week at 37 weeks and 6 days.

Ella wanted to be in the pictures too.

When Ella stands right up against my legs she fits right under the baby bump.

Daddy's Eye View:

Mommy's Eye View...where's Ella?!?

It has been a while since I've been able to see my feet while standing up, but I didn't know that my belly was big enough to hide my 2 year old! Haha, yikes! :)

Chris found this lovely praying mantis on our back screen door. Ella spent most of the day avoiding the living room even after the bug was long gone. "Oh no, mantis!"

Ella helped Chris water the flowers in our garden and was concerned when she saw her wet footprint on the patio, "Ella foot!"

Chris furminated Ruby and gave her a bath this week. The amount of fur that has come off and continues to come off in clumps amazes me, how is she not totally bald? Does locks of love have a dog program? I'm sure we have enough spare fur here to completely cover another dog! 

Saturday Chris, Ella, Mom, Dad, Eric, Hallie and I went to the North Liberty Fire Department's Salute to Summer. It was probably the last time that we will all be able to pile into Mom and Dad's minivan and travel together. As soon as Baby arrives we will be one seat short. Ella got to go for her first solo ride on a real live pony. She loved it! She even had her picture taken by the local paper. Our local paper is kind of like this blog, it's only updated on Wednesdays, and with Labor Day coming up it won't be out until Thursday, September 8, but if her picture is in the paper, I'll be sure to include a link on my update for that week. 

Ella and Snickers

Ella and Sweet Pea

While we were there we ran into Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike. We all took a picture in front of a fire truck.

Ella and Grandma Mary

Sunday afternoon we took Ella to the mall to get a present for her to give Baby Bow-Wow. We went to Build-A-Bear and Ella picked out a puppy, which we thought was a very appropriate selection for Baby Bow-Wow. 

She put some serious thought into which sound she selected for the puppy to make, in the end she chose barking over roaring. 

She helped stuff the puppy, gave it a bath, and then helped fill out its birth certificate. 

When we got home she colored a picture of sunshines, motorcycles, "vroom-vroom" (cars) and balloons inside a card for Baby Bow-Wow and then helped me wrap up the puppy.

This is the package we wrapped her binkies in a few weeks ago when she kept sneaking into her room to use the binkies she'd given up. If you ask Ella who the packages are for she will tell you, "Baby Bow-Wow, a-pull," meaning she is going to give them to Baby Bow-Wow at the hospital. Her word for hospital and her word for apple sound exactly alike. 

Ella and Daddy. I look forward to the day that I can lie down like this again!

Back to School

Last Wednesday morning, I'd heard kids walking to school outside my bedroom window which made me wake up in a panic. Why hadn't my alarm gone off?!? I was mad that I was late for work on the first day of school! I quickly grabbed my phone to see why the alarm hadn't gone off when I discovered that it said it was Wednesday morning. I quickly remembered that I don't live in the same school district that I work in and I knew I didn't start until Thursday. I was relieved that I had one more day of summer vacation, but it was 7:30 and I was wide awake. So much for sleeping in for one last day! Thursday morning my alarm went off without a problem and I arrived at work on time to help the kids cross the street on the first day of school.

Saturday Chris and Ella went to the state fair with Grandma Mary, Grandpa Mike and Aunt Tamra.

 Hard Boiled Eggs on a stick

 Chocolate Ice Cream

 More cow statues

 More fried cheese curds

I stayed in town for Katrina(a high school friend of mine)'s bachelorette party. I know there were pictures taken, but I have not seen them yet.

Sunday afternoon we took Ella to the hospital for a quick tour. Uncle Jerry had taken us on a tour of the hospital that he works at this past winter and Ella spent most of the tour concerned that she was going to get shots, so I wanted to take Ella to see the hospital where she'll soon meet her little sibling, so she knows there is nothing to worry about. She got to see a baby being wheeled in it's crib from the nursery to it's mother's room, and she immediately pointed out "baby sleeping!" Then we met Nurse Elle who showed us around the floor, and even showed Ella where she could find some ice cream! Thanks Nurse Elle for helping Ella feel at home at the hospital, I'm sure she will be fine now when it's finally time to meet Baby Bow-Wow! 

Tuesday we had yet another appointment with Dr. Minyon. Baby is still doing well and not putting much thought into joining us before the due date. I have now pre-registered at the hospital and washed the car seat cover! Two things down, many yet to do. After my appointment we stopped for donuts at a new donut shop in Iowa City, Daylight Donuts.  The maple bacon donuts are fantastic!

Happy Birthday Butter Cow!

Last Friday Ella, Mom and I went to the Iowa State Fair. This was Ella's 3rd year at the fair, look how much she has grown!

August 2009 (4 weeks old)

August 2010  (1 year old)

August 2011 (2 years old)

Ella and Gra Dondie eating kettle corn and a pork chop on a stick, yum!

Ella enjoyed PB&J on a stick.

Ella found some Legos to play with.

 Ella in the mouth of a Lego Lion

 Gra Dondee and Ella inside a Lego Shark.

 This year's fair celebrated the Butter Cow's 100th birthday, so there were little cow statues scattered all over the fairgrounds, Ella had her picture taken with all the ones we saw along our way through the fair. 

We attempted to take a picture of ourselves enjoying a caramel apple.

 Ella and I had our picture taken with the President and First Lady.

 Ella took a nap in the varied industries building.

This is what the first butter cow looked like.

And here we are with the butter cow. Aren't we cute!?!

We also enjoyed fried cheese curds, warm chocolate chip cookies with ice cold milk, lots of lemonade, and some birthday cake for the butter cow. I do not know what happened to the photographic evidence of these events, but they were all delicious. We did not try the fried butter on a stick.

Saturday was Kids Day at Kinnick. Chris, Ella and I enjoyed a beautiful day at Kinnick Stadium watching the Hawkeyes scrimmage. Lately whenever we pull up to our house, Mom and Dad's house, or Eric and Hallie's house, Ella will start listing off who lives there. For example, when we pull up to our house she will say "Mommy house, Daddy house, Ella house, Ruby house, Me (Millie) house, Baby Bow-Wow house." As we were walking through the parking lot on our way into Kinnick Stadium on Saturday Ella points to the stadium and exclaims, "Herky house!" We are so proud of her! :)

Also on Saturday we headed downtown to check out the sand sculptures at Sand in the City. Ella wiped out right in front of the first aid booth and really milked the workers for all the sympathy she could get. They sprayed her knee to clean it off, put a band-aid on it and gave her a balloon.

She was still pretty crabby and wouldn't pose for any pictures with the sand sculptures. But here are a few of our favorites from this year.

Charlotte's Web

 Alice in Wonderland

 The Lorax

 Rainbow Fish

 Humpty Dumpty

 The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 The Little Engine That Could

 The Giving Tree

 The Three Little Pigs

The "highlight" of my week was probably on Monday when I had to take Millie in for her check-up and shots. After spending all morning chasing her around the house I finally trapped her behind the toilet and managed to get her into the crate. It is no easy task to remove a pissed off cat from behind a toilet when you are 8 1/2 months pregnant. Millie and Ella then meowed at each other in the back seat of the car all the way to the vet. Good news, Ella (24lbs)  now weighs twice as much as Millie (12lbs) does!

We made our first attempt at potty training this week. I think Ella has been ready to start, but I didn't really want to start until after the baby came. I'm not sure why I suddenly felt like maybe it wouldn't be that bad. It must have been just the idea of a few slow days with nothing big on the calendar, but whatever it was, I really should have ignored it. Ella might be ready, but I do not have the energy. Going back to plan a and waiting until after Baby's arrival, or maybe Christmas.