Christmas time and a New Year!

It's the end of 2009. How do we pronounce 2010? Twenty-ten? Two thousand and ten? I guess I'll get the hang of it.

Ellen has had a big year in 2009. Looking back at te photos of her from December 2008 to now... it's shocking how much she's growing and how quickly. Erika and I have taken to holding her upside down to try to slow her growth... don't think it's working, but I'll keep trying.

Just like Ellen keeps trying to push her limits. She's really staking a claim on, well... everything. We've been doing punishments (usually standing in the corner), which work, but it's a whole lot easier when she is strapped in her booster seat to get her to stay in the corner.

But, most of the time, she's really sweet. She LOVES to read, so we have a bunch of pictures of her reading to her baby doll and to herself. I hope she stays with this habit. We think (especially Erika) that it's a good one to have.

She's also getting into EVERYTHING. Here she is striking a pose while trying to use the computer (which she knows she's not supposed to touch).

Christmas snuck up on us this year, but luckily we had time over Thanksgiving break to do the decorating. Ellen helped with the lights (after she played doctor with baby and checked her temperature of course).

And, we even got to go to Grandma and Grandpa's to make cookies and celebrate Grandpa's birthday. The sprinkles were Ellen's job, and when mommy wasn't looking, Ellen was pretty liberal with the topping.

Then we got to celebrate an early Christmas with the other side of the family. Here are the three cousings trying to get a shot or two from the "paparazzi" of photographers.

Then, on Christmas eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to celebrate an early Christmas. We had fun and went to church at the end of the day. The three of us had a quiet Christmas day, which was really needed.

Happy New Years everyone!

Is October really over?

Halloween came and went so I guess that means it is officially November. October was a good month, hopefully November can match it... don't think it will.

Our Halloween was fun. We carved the pumpkin in the morning, but we never actually carved a face in it. All we wanted were the seeds and to give Ellen a chance to help clean it out. All she wanted to do was shove the spoon in there to try to clean it out. There was no convincing her that using her hands would work better. Then, all of the local family met and we marched through Multnomah Village to go trick or treating. It was extremely busy. It reminded me of being in line at an Amuesment part for the big ride, only stopping every two feet to grab some candy along the way.

Erika came up with a great idea of making a Christmas tree costume for Ellen, so that's what she was this year. Complete with lights and everything.

Amelia was a cute pumpkin. And Izabella wore a Halloween themed outfit. It was a lot of fun, and I think the little ones enjoyed it too. Ellen was on a sugar high after the three pieces of candy she ate. We'll definitely have to limit her intake in the future.

When the trick or treating was done, we made our way to Jenny and Josh's place to watch the big football game. That was fun, and Ellen managed to find a fun activity that Emily and her could do together.

New Cousin!

We got to meet our new niece/cousin Izabella. She's adorable and Ellen loved that there's another cousin! Ellen is already able to pronounce her name (Izzie) which is good considering that she calls herself "Eye-Nah." Next summer the whole family will get together again and there will be a total of 6 grandkids running around. 4 girls, 1 boy and 1 to be determined.

Ellen's always had issues sleeping, but lately nap time has become an issue. Previously she would play and then go to her "bed" when she couldn't keep her head up. Now she's so resistant to napping that she falls asleep at any random spot.

We went to the pumpkin patch the other day. Ellen found the smallest and saddest looking pumpkin possible and she wouldn't leave without it. She's such a care taker.

Repepepepetition.

Ellen is really into repeating things lately. Most of the time it gets annoying, but occasionally it is really cute. And, the times that it's cute, it pays off. This is from a couple days ago. She just suddenly started singing it. I wonder when we'll get sick of this song. For now, it's the cutest thing ever.

It's that time of year again.

Back to work. The everyday routine kicking back into full gear. Top it off with Ellen posing with a stuffed duck and football season starting up. Fall is here and life is back to normal.

Ellen at 0.

Ellen at 1.

Ellen at 2.

Erika and I were joking while taking this picture that she's really going to hate having to pose with this duck when she's 20. But, darn it, tradition must be maintained...

No!

Like baby, like baby

Ellen's been enjoying the last couple days of summer. She got a baby doll for her birthday and she's been having fun with that. She likes to change the diapers CONSTANTLY. She'll rip open the front of her clothes and try to pry the diaper off, and when that doesn't work she'll carry the baby by the half-ripped off diaper to us and ask for help. But, she's been pretty good with it otherwise...
baby sleeps next to her bed and, as you can see, they have pretty similar sleeping methods...
she also makes sure that baby is properly fed

and walked.

Besides that, Ellen has been getting sooooo much bigger. She climbed up on the couch the other day and was soooo proud of herself for making a seat of pillows to sit on.

And, she's really started to drool a lot while sleeping... she's a little like daddy afterall!

And, we finally took another trip to the zoo recently. She was very excited to leave the house. She even sat still long enough for me to style her hair (which took longer than you might think).

I think she started to fall asleep in the car on the way to the zoo, so when we got there she didn't seem as excited as she was when we left the house.

But, she eventually woke up. She got really excited to see the hippos (which she knew by name... I was worried she'd think they had to look like her purple clippo hippo toy). And, she LOVED the zebra as well. She wanted to stay there for over 10 minutes watching it eat hay.

Then we got around to the giraffe, which was neat because it was in it's pen, and it walked over to the window that we were looking through and started licking it. Ellen had fun getting kisses from a giraffe.

She started yawning, so we headed home. It was a fun trip!

Eve of the 2nd birthday

Tomorrow is Ellen's second birthday... and all of the local family came down to celebrate it today. She is currently obsessed with Elmo. I don't know what the deal is, but she loves this furry red monster who talks in the the third person. So, we decided to go with it for her birthday theme. Erika spent all day in the kitchen yesterday making a cupcake cake to look like Elmo, and when Ellen saw it this morning she couldn't wait to bite into it.
Then I drove out and picked up the balloons that we had ordered. 12 primary-colored balloons and a mylar Sesame Street School bus. Ellen got even more excited when she saw all of those come through the front door.

Family members showed up and it was time for cake. We sang happy birthday and she had Mom's help blowing out the candles.

And then it was FINALLY time to bite into the cupcake. Ohhhhh... she loved it.

Then we moved the party inside and Ellen got to dig into her gifts (with Mommy's help of course). She was really spoiled.

Oma got her a baby doll. An item that she has been coveting for almost 3 months was finally hers. Oh the hours of dress up time that will be had. She even got a crib (edit: cradle) for the baby which we put next to her bed so that they can go "night-night" together.

Eventually the family had to leave, but before they left we managed to sneak in a cute photo of the three girls sitting together on the couch.

Thank you all for making it out, we had a blast!

Our Little Monster

Ellen is close to her second birthday, but I feel like she's been a 2-year old for a while now. She runs around claiming everything is "mine." Makes it fun when it's something that she shouldn't even have. She's figured out which drawers are the fun ones to get into (even child-proofing doesn't work because she'll stick her fingers in a pull out what she can grab--- I don't think we have a complete set of measuring spoons right now). But, she keeps us on our toes, and the good FAR out weighs the bad.

Summer has flown by. School starts at the end of the month and so I thought I'd update with the big things that we've been doing. Ellen took swim lessons, which were fun. She grew to love them and we've been back once since then, but I plan on going back a couple more times during the summer. It's hard because she naps during the open swim time at the community pool, so we go on the days that she takes a short/early nap.

Here she is when we got her swim suit and new flip flops. Ellen is really into dress up and loves new things, so she couldn't wait to try them on. Hence, the clothes underneath the suit.

Ellen hated two things during swim lessons. 1. Laying on her back. She HATED every trick I tried, so we went through those positions quickly. 2. Sticking anything above her chin into the water. She stuck her nose in once, but she just never warmed up to that.

Besides the house projects I've been working on, we did take that trip to the beach. Here's a couple pics from this trip that I forgot to show earlier. This is from her second outting on the beach. The one below is a bad picture that we tried to take of our footprints in the sand. Ellen's foot didn't show up too well and photographing small pits in the sand didn't show up too well... but you can somewhat see what we were going for.

The last thing that we've been doing this summer is art projects. Ellen really loves making messes and so I really have to keep a close eye on her (because it ends up on tables or in her mouth) but she loves it. We've really been playing with a lot of playdoh and markers. The smell of playdoh brings me back to my childhood too, so it's hard not to show off and show Ellen how to properly play with the stuff. Here she is trying to make a ball like Daddy just did.

And, I think the thing that I've spent most of my time with this summer is cleaning Ellen (and her eatting space) after she eats. I didn't know a dab of ketchup could spread this far... she coats herself in it and then rubs food against her cheeks to get some of it onto her food. Sometimes I'll be putting her down to bed and discover food from breakfast. I'm getting better at finding it, but sometimes some stuff sneaks by.