Growing Up

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but we are no longer "Mama" and "Dada" to Ellie. We are now "my Mommy" and "my Daddy." Yesterday Ellie even spent the entire afternoon calling me just "Mom." Time goes by, doesn't it?

I'll get Ellie's 20/21 month update done this weekend, but I'm sure I won't remember everything that has changed. Like the fact that she now uses 4-5 word sentences. And plurals. And possessives. And the past tense when she talks.

As a walk down memory lane, here is Ellie last Halloween. This year she is going to be a clown (the same costume that my mom made for me 27 years ago). I'll get this year's pics up this weekend also.

Will Get Caught Up... Someday

Well, we are all sickos around here. Ellie and I are battling our second colds of the season. (Aside: Does it really count as my second cold if I never fully got rid of the first one???)

Tim is down with some kind of food poisoning. Or at least I hope it is food poisoning. The thoughts of the baby or the mama going through what he is dealing with is quite frightening to me... so we'll just keep hoping it is nothing contagious.

Those are the reasons that the blog is just not that spiffy right now. We are not feeling so spiffy ourselves. Once things get back on an even keel I will post Ellie's 20 month update. It might end up being a combined 20/21 months update depending on how long it takes me...

"Photo Shoot"

I needed a few publicity photos for a local shop that is selling my Lovieroos, so we had a "photo shoot." I put it in quotes because neither Tim nor I have enough photography skills to pull off a real photo shoot; but, between the two of us, I think we did pretty well. I composed the shots and Tim operated the camera. Not too bad, if you ask me!

(You'd never know we were in the middle of a subdivision, thanks to our neighbors insanely tall native grass plants.)





This is the shot I went with for the shop. Ellie is holding her Lovieroo just right, waving to the camera, and I am actually smiling my natural, un-posed smile (tongue between the teeth and all...).

Check It Out

My friend, Liz, is hosting an awesome give-away on her blog, The Tip Spot. She has three great prizes, including a custom-made Lovieroo of your very own! Be sure to stop by and enter the contest!

Liz and her sister, Christy, run The Tip Spot and it is an amazing source of money-saving, kid-raising, Eco-friendly ideas.

Trip Pictures - Finally!

Okay, so I am more than a little bit slow... It seems like all of my free time (ha! what free time?) has been spent working on my Lovieroo business stuff. Anyway, here are the pictures from our trip a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Ellie feeding the geese at a park near Grandma and Grandpa W's house.

Petting the horse near their house.

On a walk.

Came across this tarantula on the way back down the hill.

Ellie, Daddy and Grandpa P (with his awesome house in the background).

Grandpa Bob and Grandma Cheryl with Ellie.

Grandpa Bob's pond entertained Ellie for hours!

Kissing the rabbit statue.

We rented this yellow house to stay in for three nights. It was fantastic!

On a hike.

Back in the town, Ellie found a cat to terrorize.

Our last day was rainy, but it made for an amazing double rainbow!

Trying to Get Caught Up

We are back from vacation! It was awesome, but now I feel like I'm running a bit behind on everything.... I'll get pictures posted in the next day or two.

An exciting (and unexpected) thing came out of our trip: One of the shops in the little mountain/ski town where we stayed is going to start carrying my Lovieroo blankets! I was so excited. The owner placed an initial order of eight blankets, so I have been rushing to get them finished so they can be delivered by the end of this week. Once that order is out I will have a better sense of how long it takes from beginning to shipping, as I get ready to market Lovieroos across the state! Yay!

Nineteen Months Old

Another month has gone by already. This month has absolutely flown by! We began it by visiting family in Idaho (just Ellie and I) and we are ending it by taking off on our first family vacation since Ellie was born! We are heading out in the morning to drive to see Tim's folks for a few days, and then we are off to a little resort town to spend a few nights, just the three of us. We are very excited!

How Ellie has changed in the past month:

• Ellie is back to sleeping well, after a looong rough patch when we got back from Idaho. She isn't napping great, but I'll take the nighttime sleep over a nap any day!
• Ellie feeds herself now. She will no longer let us spoon anything into her mouth. This is very messy, but also frees up Mommy and Daddy to feed themselves at meals!
• Ellie has added cereal to the list of foods she requests at breakfast. She became really interested in Daddy's cereal and now she gets a little bowl to eat all for herself!
• Ellie talks in two and three word phrases now, including the occasional sentence. Her favorite things to say are: "I jump," "I walk," "I want Daddy," and "I go outside."
• She said her first complete sentence the day after she turned 18 months old. Tim says her actual first sentence doesn't need to be recorded for posterity (let's just say it had to do with her diaper), and so we'll go with her second: At the airport flying home from Idaho she told a little baby, "Baby don't cry." It was very cute.

Events of the past month:

• Idaho trip
• Visit to the fair.
• Visit to a carnival.
• Lots and lots of playing with friends, especially Jamison.