Dishwasher = bath?

Ellie decided her babies and her full sippy cup needed washing the other day, so she decided to load them into the dishwasher.
"What's the problem?"

Meeting Mary

This is from last weekend, but I had to share... On a lazy Sunday morning at our house (while we all battled various stages of the same cold), I introduced the Wallheimer household to Mary Poppins. I couldn't believe Brian had never seen it. Ellie at least had an excuse :) We all had a blast with the movie and Ellie even paid attention (and danced!) at times...

3 of 4

Forgot to post this pic that we also got while visiting St. Louis. It's a great one! Got three of four generations in the shot... #2 was taking the picture. Thanks, Linda!

Use your words?

Ellie has developed an unattractive habit of stretching her arms out and grunting/whining when she wants something. She does this often when she wants us to pick her up. She also points to blocks, her baby or other toys that often are pretty close-by to indicate she wants us to hand them to her. I try to avoid this "servant" role, choosing instead to ask her what she wants or to get it herself. But increasingly I'm getting nervous about the lack of new words in her vocabulary.
Ellie usually goes through development bursts... where nothing new will happen for weeks at a time and then she'll explode with new talents. I try not to get too hung up on this stuff, but it seems like we've been waiting for some time now for her to move beyond her current word set. Maybe I'm just having one of my regular mommy freak-out moments. She's probably got 10-20 words that she uses on a regular basis... and of course she's a master of the animal sounds... but I wonder if we should be pushing her to move faster on the language front? Any advice is welcome!

Nature center

The winter weather has forced Ellie and I to explore indoor activity options around the area, for our afternoon adventures. We recently checked out the Lilly Nature Center in West Lafayette, and I was beyond impressed! This place is a treasure trove of activities for kids, even for ones as young as Ellie. She was won over solely by the bin of crayons that's almost as big as she is...
But we also explored the animals scattered around the center and a puppet show area, complete with hand puppets!

My favorite part was this corner where you can watch for birds through these massive windows. There are tons of feeders set up to attract the birds, and they've even got a sound system wired so you can hear the birds! We were spying on a beautiful cardinal for some time... and when it flew away Ellie promptly asked: "where?" (did it go...)

We took her wonderful drawing with when we left. In addition to the indoor center, there are trails surrounding the facility. I see us becoming regular visitors to this facility even once the weather is nice again.

Lazy weekend mornings

I sure miss my weekend mornings at home with Ellie and Brian when Monday morning hits each week :(
Yes, it's true our weekend mornings often start earlier than Brian and I would like (read: before 7 a.m...) but Ellie's cuteness makes it all worthwhile. Here are a couple recent weekend pics. In the first, Ellie is sporting a new hat my friend Abby knitted for me. It looks super cute on Ellie, but to steal one of her new favorite phrases: "mine!"

And here Ellie is enjoying some pancakes. We taught her how to dip pieces of her pancake or waffle into syrup. She in turn taught herself how to dip her own fingers into the syrup and then lick them off or simply make the world a stickier place.

Back seat buddies

First off, Go Pack!!! So excited to see our team on their way to the Super Bowl!!

Second, here's a fun video of Ellie and Radar sharing the back seat with minimal issues on our most recent car trip. Several times when I looked back I'd find Ellie tugging mercilessly on Radar's ear... but then he'd take his turn having a taste of her hand or face, etc. See for yourself.