Girls weekend

Ellie and I had a great girls weekend while Brian was away on business. We both missed him, of course, but we kept ourselves plenty busy and had some quality time. We baked apple muffins and made applesauce on Saturday, did some yoga, went for a run to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and had lots of playtime.
I love that Ellie shows recognition and excitement now when I go to pick her up or play with her. She has tons of fun if I put her in the crib, play one of her silly songs CDs and lean over her to sing. I'm sure I look like a nut, but I don't care because I'd do almost anything to make her smile and laugh.
Speaking of smiling, I took her in for her first professional photos on Saturday. We got a coupon from Sears to get 36 prints for only $4.99 and I couldn't pass it up. Then once I got to the portrait studio, the photographer started telling me about all these great packages I could order... but I decided to forgo (at least for now) the poster-sized print of Ellie. I did end up buying into the store's Super Smilers program. It will give us free photo sessions for the next year (no $14.99 session fees) and a free print with each sitting. Plus, it was only $5.
Saturday's photo shoot went OK. I wasn't sure how Ellie would do because the earliest I could get in was 11 a.m. She's happiest in the early morning hours, but the store isn't open then. The photographer was a saint, making crazy noises and faces to elicit some smiles from Ellie. But she spent most of the time looking at me and the photographer like we were crazy. We got one or two smiles, but I think she was getting sleepy and a little cranky. Here are my favorites of the shots they got of her. Even when Ellie isn't fully smiling, I love seeing the playfulness in her eyes like in the first shot. I ended up ordering copies of the second one, since it shows her whole cute outfit. But I still might add to our order to get some copies of the cute, naked baby seen in the third pose!

P.S. Brian pointed out that a lot of other naked babies laid on this pillow before Ellie... I guess that's a little gross. I spent the whole time during this shot hoping that Ellie wouldn't pee on "the set." She did great, but now I'm wondering how many babies didn't hold their bladders during the photo sessions and how often that pillow gets washed. Maybe we'll provide out own bedding for any future naked pictures. Or maybe we'll just keep her clothes on :)