Take me out to the ballgame

We took Ellie to an Astros game this weekend. Since she has long since outgrown her little Astros outfit, I tried to dress her in what I deemed was an appropriate baseball outfit...a little blue knit skirt and a white polo top. I forgot that the Astros colors are no longer blue and reddish/orange, but are actually black and reddish/orange. (Um, I also forgot that she wasn't going to play tennis.)Anyway, we were there for all of 30 seconds before a lady asked me how old my SON was. See? This is why I always dress her in pink! Never mind the fact that my son would not be wearing a skit, blue or not. (I actually don't care when people mistake her for a boy. It is an honest mistake because she totally has boy hair.) Anyway, we only lasted about 3 innings before we couldn't handle squirming Ellie any longer. So don't ask me who won.

The case of the missing toothpaste

Last night our toothpaste went missing. Tom came barging out of the bathroom asking me what I did with the toothpaste. I informed him it was on the bathroom sink, right where it always is. It wasn't there. We then proceeded to get in a little mini-argument about the toothpaste.

"You were the one that used it last!" - Tom was the one that had used it that morning. I brush my teeth at work after I eat my breakfast.
"Well, you were the one that was in the bathroom last!" - that was Tom's defense...pathetic.
"But you used it last!"
"I put it on the sink!"
"Well I didn't move it!"
"Holly, produce some toothpaste!"
"I can't crap toothpaste, Tom!" - yes, I know...I am so mature and ladylike.

We then realized how dumb we were acting. It would have been simple to just run to Walgreens around the corner and get another tube, but it was 11:00 at night and neither of us felt like it so we just took a swig of Listerine and went to bed. But where on earth did the toothpaste go?! Things just seem to disappear at our house and normally I can blame them on Ellie. Like when our remote control went missing? I found it under the seat of Ellie's Dora the Explorer riding toy. She is in that phase where she likes to take things and put them in other things. I would never admit this to Tom, but I very well might have lost the toothpaste. I have been known to put the milk in the cupboard and the Cheerios in the fridge. So I have a sneaking suspicion that I will find that tube of toothpaste when I am least expecting...like perhaps the next time I put on my tall black boots.

Read to me...NOW!

Bookworm

Ellie's two new i-teeth have been the cause of much distress as of late. For the past two nights, she has woken up crying and cannot be consoled until we give her a sippy cup of milk and a little cuddle. I thought these nightly feedings were long behind us. I freaking hate teeth.

Tonight is my late night at work so this morning Ellie and I just hung out at home. She kept bringing me one book after another to read to her. She does this monkey noise when she wants something, kinda like "eh, eh, eh, eh!" I realize how important reading to your child is, but I get bored reading the same three books over and over. She is very particular about which book I read to her. If it isn't one of her favorites, she pushes it away and goes to get another one. Finally, after reading her books to her for a good 30 minutes, she crawled off to her play area. I settled down on the couch with my own book to read. A few minutes later, I saw Ellie had settled on her own little couch with one her her little books and was proceeding to "read" to herself. It was so darn cute that I would have gotten up to take a picture, but I didn't want to risk disturbing her and losing my few precious minutes of me-time.

Don't be fooled

My, what a happy child you have, Holly!

Yeah, right.

Pictures!

Thanks to all of you who voted on a dress...you talked me into the white one and I am so glad you did!

I scanned that in so the quality isn't as good, but it was our favorite pose. We ordered it in all different sizes. We also ordered this one in 10x13 (so part of it was cut of during scanning):

Ellie decided that she was going to choose today to start sucking her thumb, fingers, etc. so it was a bit of a chore trying to get pictures of her without her hands in her mouth. I am proud of myself, though. They were running a special where if you get this HUGE package deal for $9.99, but it is only one pose. I told myself that I would not spend more than $30 today and I didn't!

Decisions, decisions

I am taking Ellie to Portrait Innovations tomorrow for her first professional pictures. I meant to do them at 6 months when she could sit up on her own, but I never got around to it. Anyway, I have decided to bring two outfits: her overalls and a dress. BUT...I can't decide which dress! I have it narrowed down to these:
Ack, I am so indecisive! Ellie, as you can see, picked the pink one on the bottom. But I don't really trust her judgement. So, people in the computer, which one should she wear?

Remembering Nana

Ellie’s middle name is Edna. I do not particularly like the name Edna. Nor do I think it goes well with Elizabeth. However, I love that Edna is Ellie’s middle name because it is also the name of Tom’s grandmother.

I first met Tom’s grandmother, or Nana as we all called her, when I was 15 years old. She greeted me with a “Hiya Holly!” and proceeded to tell me all sorts of stories about Tom when he was a boy. My favorite story was about a time when Nana had gone for a walk with 3 year old Tom. They came across an ant pile and Nana pointed out the ants to Tom, thinking he would find them interesting. Tom started shouting, “Bad ants! Bad ants!” and then stomped on all the ants. That story would always crack me up every time Nana would tell it.

Whenever I would go over to Tom’s house, I would always stop by the small garage apartment to visit with Nana. She never liked to let me leave empty handed and would always look around her cluttered apartment for some trinket or stuffed animal to send me home with. Once she crocheted me a blanket. I took that blanket to college with me and would always spread it over my legs while I was watching TV.

Even when Tom and I broke up, I would still send Nana cards and letters. In one of my cards to her, I wrote that I considered her my adopted grandma. She responded, “It is an honor to be adopted at my age.”

Around the time Tom and I got engaged, Nana was diagnosed with lung cancer. She soon was wheelchair bound. One of her big concerns was being a burden at our wedding. She informed us that she didn’t want anyone to have to wheel her up the aisle, and that we could just park her in the back. We indignantly told her that we would never leave her in the back and that she would have the best seat in the house. Five years ago today, Nana passed away. Just one month shy of our wedding. On our wedding day there was an empty seat reserved especially for Nana, the best seat in the house.

Playing possum

Yesterday, Tom went out to feed the devil-dogs and a few seconds later I heard him yelling for me to come out there. I thought, "Great, what have the dogs destroyed now that I will get blamed for since I was the one that wanted dogs in the first place." I reluctantly walked outside and there on our patio was a baby possum (or is it opossum?). Now seeing a possum in our backyard isn't all that rare. We are the last row of houses in the neighborhood and have an empty field behind us. Possums like to climb our 6 foot fence and come scavenging in our backyard. Normally the dogs are in the house at night when the possums come to play so the carnage is kept at a minimum. But back to my story...this was a baby possum and it was so cute. I felt just awful that our dogs had killed it until I realized it was still alive. And then I felt even more awful. The dogs had obviously been playing with it because it's baby possum fur was all wet and rumpled. I have witnessed my dogs tear apart numerous stuffed animals in 20 seconds flat so I could only imagine the internal damage this poor thing was suffering. Neither Tom or I had the heart to put it out of its misery so Tom carefully scooped it up with the shovel and dropped it over the back fence. Once its feet hit the ground, the possum happily trotted off, not a care in the world. And 1 hour later? It was back in our yard again!

Speaking of Ellie (we weren't, but this blog is called All Ellie), the little oinker ate a whole bagel for lunch today. At first I just gave her the top half and had planned on eating the bottom half, but she kept signing "more" and making her screeching monkey noises so she got the bottom half, too. And it's not like she hadn't already had a whole banana and Cheerios for breakfast. OK, so that's not actually a bagel, but it was her dinner yesterday and you get the idea. Also? See what a scragglehead she is? I know I need to trim up some of those long pieces, but after an unfortunate incident involving me "trimming" my niece's hair, I have vowed never to touch scissors again.

Edit to add: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM AND JEN!

One year stats

I forgot to post Ellie's one year stats. Tom took her in for her one year checkup and shots on Friday while I was still in San Antonio. I always kind of hate when Tom takes her to the doctor's because I like to know EVERYTHING the doctor said and Tom never remembers. So frustrating. At least they wrote down her stats for him:

Weight: 20 lbs, 8 3/4 oz (50%)
Height:30 inches (75%)
Head circumference: 47.8 cm

She has grown about 10 inches and gained 10 pounds since her birth...that's almost a whole other baby (well, a short, fat baby)!

TLA or bust

This entry will have absolutely nothing to do with Ellie and everything to do with the TLA conference so feel free to skip this one.

Sheryl and Stephanie (aka my work BFFs) picked me up at 5:45am Thursday morning. We were hoping to make it to San Antonio in time for the opening session with Isabel Allende. We missed most of it, but what we did catch was really interesting. She is so funny and looks fabulous for 65. We spent a few minutes speculating on what type of work she has had done before splitting up to go to whatever other sessions we had picked to attend that day. The one thing I was looking forward to the most was hearing Stephenie Meyer speak. I went to her book signing afterwards and it was INSANE. Huge lines, no pictures or dedications allowed. Sheryl and I arranged to surreptitiously sneak some pics. Here is Stephenie signing my copy of Twilight.
I really wanted to say something great, something amazing. You know, so she would realize the deep connection we had and that we should be best friends forever. This is what I came up with:
Me: I went to BYU, too!
Stephenie: When did you go?
Me: What?
Stephenie: When did you go?
Me: Um, around 1998 or 1999
Stephenie: Oh, that was way after me
Agh! That was it. All I could think of to say and I couldn't even answer it properly because, hello!, I had attended BYU two different times and it is a bit difficult to remember dates when it was just one of 5 colleges I attended. Still...love her!

Another great thing about going to TLA was the fancy schmancy hotel my library put us up in. The furniture was a bit odd, but Sheryl and Stephanie found uses for it.

I also met John Green and fell in love with him. He is so young. And cute. And funny. And he totally put his arm around me when we were posing for a picture. I would put it on here, but it was a terrible picture of me so here he is with Sheryl instead.
This pic totally does not do him justice. Anyway, later that afternoon he was speaking on a panel with a few other TAYSHA award winners and he was the most interesting one. His comments were simultaneously funny yet really intelligent. Love him!

Ok, I also heard Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justine Larbalestier speak. I really enjoyed Scott Westerfeld's series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials) so I was totally looking forward to that session. His wife is from Australia and they were so cute together and had such a great connection. I haven't read any of her books yet, but I am definitely going to check them out. However, she made a HUGE faux pas during their session. She was talking about Australia and how they have these words that are like short cuts for longer words because Australians are lazy (her words, not mine). Then she said something like, "Scott likes to tell me that Australia is the Mexico of the southern hemisphere. He is all like you guys are so lazy and don't like to work." I actually gasped out loud when she said this because hello! we are in Texas, San Antonio to be specific, majority Hispanic. And, of course, Mexicans are really hard workers, but it was such a terrible stereotype to make. I know she didn't mean anything by it, but Scott suddenly got silent and it was a bit uncomfortable while she backpedaled and mentioned how they had been to Mexico and loved it. All the sessions are recorded for people to purchase so I don't imagine they are happy about having that on record. They mentioned their blogs a few times and that we should all be reading them. They were really interesting and fun despite the one crazy slip up so I plan on adding their blogs to my daily reading!
I had such a great time at TLA. Authors are like superstars to librarians and it was really interesting to listen to them speak. Of course, I didn't just go to author sessions all day long, I also went to some more academic/training type sessions, but they aren't as interesting to write about as John Green putting his arm around me (he smelled nice).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLIE!

Dear Ellie-Bellie,

Today you are one year old. I was so worried that I wouldn't be back from my conference in time to see you on your birthday, but I made it and was even able to spend one whole hour with you before I put you down for bed. I held you on my lap and read you Little Green for the millionth time. This is your favorite book in the world and the only one that you will sit patiently though without trying to grab the pages. I have long since memorized it and I will sometimes quote it to you when we are riding in the car.This past year has flown by so quickly. It seems like only yesterday that I was bringing you home from the hospital. I was so tired, hormonal, stressed, and anxious, but the one thing I knew was how desperately I loved you. I relish my new role as a mother and not a single day goes by that you don't amaze me.

You are on the cusp of walking. You will take three steps and then lunge forward to whomever you are trying to reach. You prefer to walk holding onto just one finger and when someone tries to take your other hand, you jerk it away. You are quite the jabber box and your "talking" is full of inflection and exclamation. I am sure you feel you are telling us all sorts of wonderful things. The words you do know are: hi, dog, duck, quack-quack, daddy, mama (said very rarely), shoes, stinky, milk, and thank you (said when receiving and when giving).
We have recently switched you over to whole milk and started giving it to you in a sippy cup. You have been drinking water in a sippy cup since you were 6 months old so you didn't have any problems switching your milk over. I am so grateful for that, but I do miss cuddling you in my arms and giving you your bottle. You no longer let me rock and sing you to sleep anymore. You just squirm until I go lay you down in your crib. Luckily, you still love to give hugs and kisses so I will treasure those until the day you decide that you are too cool for that as well.

This is going to be my last monthly letter to you now that you are the big one, but it doesn't mean I am going to stop documenting your every move, illness, and bowel movement. You are my baby, my greatest pride and joy, and I don't know how your daddy and I ever managed without you. Happy birthday, Elizabeth.Love you forever,
Mama

Three little steps

Ellie is now taking up to three steps at a time. She'll probably start really walking while I am out of town and I will miss it completely. :(

Bows, bows, bows

We are amassing quite the assortment of pint sized furniture these days. Here is Ellie on her new couch that she got from Grandma Judy for her birthday. It folds out into a bed and Ellie thinks it is pretty neat.OK, on to more important matters...how on earth do y'all keep those bows in your kid's hair? Don't be fooled by the few pictures I have of Ellie with a bow in her hair because two seconds later that bow is yanked out. See?

Bow in:
Bow out:
Bow in:
Bow out: Fascinating stuff, I know. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I am heading out with two of my favorite coworkers for our little vacation conference in San Antonio. I am sure to return a better librarian (but unfortunately not a better mother).

Birthday party wrap up

Ellie's birthday party on Friday went really well. The weather was all sunny and warm...perfect for the Easter egg hunt that started the party off. Mark and Rosie were so awesome to host the party at their house since their backyard isn't covered in dog poo like mine is (I would hate for one of the kids to mistake an old piece of poo for an Easter egg). Mark grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while the kiddos hunted for eggs. (We'll excuse Mark for wearing socks with flip flops since I had stolen his shoes to wear outside.) We put Ellie down on the grass to get an egg, but since she hates crawling on grass, she wasn't too excited.After we ate lunch, Ellie opened her presents. Our newly appointed playroom is now packed full of toys. It was fun to watch Ellie get excited over her presents since she wasn't really old enough to enjoy them at Christmas. The best part of the day was the cake. I stripped her down to her pearls, bib, and diaper and let her have at it. She was so excited. After getting a few fingerfuls of the white bunny cake, my dad handed her a big ol' piece of chocolate cake. Ellie grabbed the whole thing and started stuffing it in her face. In between bites she would actually laugh out loud. She was that thrilled with all the sugar. Then she saw her cousins eating with silverware and kept trying to grab their forks so we gave her a spoon to eat with. She kept dipping her spoon in the cake and licking it off...such a little lady! I did end up taking the cake away from her because she had been sick at 1:30 that morning and I didn't want to overtax her little tummy. Overall, I would say her party was quite a success. I am actually going to be out of town on her real birthday (this Friday). My work is sending me to San Antonio for a library conference and it will be my first night away from Ellie since she was born. I am so going to party it up ;)

Happy Easter, Chubby Bunny!

Today has not been the best of days for me. I started getting really nauseated on the way to church this morning and have continued to feel awful all day. I couldn't even enjoy the delightful Easter dinner my family prepared. I have spent most of the afternoon and evening hunched over the toilet...so not fun. We seem to be having such bad luck with the stomach flu this year. Not only did Ellie have it the morning of her birthday party, but so did her cousin Kolby so he was unable to attend. And then Aidyn and Rosie got it that night. We just like to share these sort of things. But, this day wasn't a total wash. Ellie looked so pretty in her new Easter dress that her Grandma Judy bought her.
Last year on Easter Sunday, we brought Ellie home from the hospital. It was the best Easter ever and she was given the nickname Chubby Bunny. Strange to think that today was Ellie's first second holiday.

Birthday collage

Ellie's early birthday party went really well despite her having woken up at 1:30 that morning throwing up all over her crib (what's a blog entry without a little vomit?). I will write all about the party later (not that it is that interesting, but this is my baby book/journal y'know). For now, I leave you with a birthday party collage:

Birthdays! (but not Ellie's)

My dad took us all out to dinner tonight to celebrate Mom, Jen, and KayLeAna's birthdays. Of course, everyone is ignoring the annoying girl with the camera.

The birthday girls:
And my little Ellie who has traded out my old calculator for a more expensive one. She says it tastes better.

Splish splash

I am so excited! Ellie’s birthday party is this Friday! Plus, not only are my parents in town, but Jen (my older sister) and KayLeAna (my niece) are flying in today from Arizona and will be at Ellie’s party, too. Good times. I was hoping Ellie would start walking before her party so she would participate in the Easter egg hunt (she refuses to crawl on grass – hates it). But, alas, she will only take one step and then just plop down. Ah well, maybe by her real birthday.

Last night, Ellie and I were hanging out at my parents’ house and it was getting late so I threw Ellie in the bath with Kolby. Previously, Ellie would never splash in the bath tub. She would just sit and play happily with her rubber duckies. But last night, Kolby taught her the art of splashing and Ellie just went to town. She was splashing water all over the place, including Kolby’s eyes which he was so not happy about. Another thing Ellie learned yesterday was how to crawl down the stairs backwards. Before, she would attempt (unsuccessfully) to go down head first. I am so glad we don’t have stairs at my house because all Ellie wants to do is go up and down those suckers. And I am just too lazy for that nonsense.

Ok, last random thing, Ellie got her first birthday present in the mail. It was an adorable "pearl" necklace from her Aunt Di. Ellie's cousin Kinleigh almost always wears her pearls and gets so many compliments. I can't wait to put Ellie in hers. Expect pictures soon, but in the meantime, here is a pic of Kinleigh wearing her pearls. Such a cutie!

Ellie's new playroom

Our dining room is connected to our living room. When we bought our house a little over a year ago, we didn't have a dining room table so the room has basically just been wasted space. We threw a big, ugly flowered chair in there and would use the ottoman to change Ellie's diaper. Other than that, the room was bare. So, I decided to turn the dining room into Ellie's playroom.
I still need to replace the chandelier that I keep knocking myself out on and I want to put up some cute drapes, but overall I am much happier with my dining room these days. And then there is my child...in a room full of toys she manages to find a cord to wrap around her neck.

Early birthday presents

For Ellie's birthday, we got her a little table set and a matching toy box. I assembled them while she was taking her nap yesterday and she was so exited to see them when she woke up. Especially her table. She kept wanting to climb up on the chair, bang on her table, and then climb back off. The first couple of times, she tipped the chair over climbing up on it, but she soon figured out how to put her weight on the table while climbing on the chair. The only problem is that she also keeps climbing on top of the table.

Investment toys

Ellie has been wearing me a bit thin lately. Not only is she teething, but she also is incredibly congested. I always said that I wasn't going to have a snot-nosed kid and I was going to make sure my child's nose was always wiped. Um, not so easy when the nose is ALWAYS running! But, one toy that has helped me keep my sanity is this ball thingy:
We pull it in front of a Baby Einstein video and let Ellie play in there while watching Baby Shakespeare (her favorite). The video alone isn't enough to distract her, but combine it with her favorite activity toy...mommy gold!

Another awesome investment is this zebra toy. Back when I was e-stalking Whitney during her Cherry Sass days, I saw that she had purchased it for Evie and that Evie loved it. So, of course I had to copy and Ellie got the zebra toy for Christmas. And she loves it. Now that she is old enough to get on and off of it by herself it makes it even more fun for her...almost 15 whole minutes of nonfussy time!
Now that Ellie's first birthday is coming around, I have been trying to decide what to get her. We have way too many big, noisy toys in our house right now. And the color schemes? Horrendous. It is downright embarrassing when our single, childless friends come over. But, there is always more room for cute, tiny little shoes!

Edit: For those of you that were wondering, the "ball thingy" is the Fisher Price Crawl n Cruise Playgound. I got mine off craigslist for $8!