Laundry

This is Ellie's version of "helping" fold laundry... usually the pieces that end up on her head or strewn around the room come directly from the already-folded pile. I have to admit, her way is a lot more fun...

Pumpkin patch

A church right near our house sets up a pretty cool pumpkin patch every year and we wandered over to it last weekend. Ellie had run moving the baby pumpkins from one bin to another... while a very cute older kid who helps out at the patch monitored Ellie's activities to make sure she didn't mix up the sizes of pumpkins in each basket. This sweet girl also kept offering Ellie nice-shaped pumpkins, as we encouraged our toddler to pick one out to take home. But Ellie just kept picking them up and dumping them back down again. I finally got her to settle on one by whisking her over to the checkout as soon as she had one firmly in her grasp. We also bought a small green and gold gourd that Brian found... Go Packers!
And here's one of Ellie and mom exercising our cheesy smiles for the camera. Ellie's forced grin is too funny :)

Baking

Cooler temps and fall weather always makes me want to bake. After bringing home a haul of apples from our Michigan trip, I had no choice. In the past week I've made applesauce, apple muffins and apple pie... I thought all of them turned out great but Ellie did not. Our weirdo little girl doesn't like cooked apple chunks so she made gagging noises when trying each of my baked products. Gee, thanks. I guess I can't complain because Ellie will eat veggies and fruit in most forms... but I hope she comes around to mom's baked treats at some point!

Brian and I also got on a bread-making kick recently. We've turned out yummy loaves of honey wheat, rosemary and cinnamon raisin bread so far. I still can't believe how easy it is to do with my mom's old breadmaker machine. We literally just dump the ingredients in and then pull out a loaf a few hours later. Ellie likes the rosemary bread dipped in olive oil! That's her Italian blood, I suppose.
I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with new bread recipes, and we're looking forward to using the machine for pizza and other dough recipes. Such fun :)

Week 24: Corn

Baby is as long as an ear of corn now. Also, my uterus has grown to the size of a soccer ball and moved higher in my belly. I can believe that!
The race on Saturday really wiped me out and I was really hurting that night and much of Sunday. But after a long night of sleep I felt much better. I've been battling some severe headaches and had a rash suddenly appear on my legs late last week. From what I've read the rash is likely caused by pregnancy hormones and will go away after delivery (but maybe not before then)... I'm glad the summer shorts weather is behind us. I'm keeping an eye on the headaches since they could be a symptom of something worse, but so far I think they're under control.
Again this week I'm grateful for all of the kicks and dance moves I can feel from baby #2! Those jabs reassure me that things are OK inside, even if I'm starting to feel a bit yuckier out here. Enough complaining though... on to what the experts have to say this week:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Racing and grandma visit

Brian and I went down to Indianapolis on Friday night so we could run in a half marathon there early Saturday. His mom was nice enough to come up to Lafayette to watch Ellie while we were gone -- though I don't think she was too put out by the dedicated time with her granddaughter :)
We all had adventures, mostly good.
Brian and I got a great deal through Priceline and stayed at the Crown Plaza hotel in the historic train station in downtown Indy. When checking in we asked about getting a late check-out on Saturday, to ensure we'd have enough time for much-needed showers at the race. The lady said it would cost us $35 unless we signed up to become Priority members. When we found out that was free (well, except for signing over the right for endless emails from them) we went the "priority" route and then got out room upgraded for free, two drink tickets to the bar and access to a guest lounge with free snacks and drinks! Brian and I are pretty easily impressed, so we were ecstatic. Now that we're priority members we also like to think that we're kind of a big deal...

After a huge dinner out Friday night we ran a great race on Saturday morning. The weather was perfect (except for the wind heading in certain directions) and the course wound through Fort Harrison State Park where the fall colors were amazing. I went into the race with a goal of running under 2 hours and 15 minutes... but around mile 6 we realized we were on pace to break 2:10 if we stepped it up just a little. So we did and crossed the line just under 2:09. I was thrilled! (Though I apparently was also exhausted and emotional because I immediately burst into tears like I did after finishing my last pregnant race. I blame the hormones!)

(This photo was post-race, though I'm still smiling! Had to get a shot by the conductor statue because he was checking his watch... just like we did about a thousand times during the race.)

After the race I was hurting a bit more than I'd anticipated, so we canceled plans to stay in Indy the rest of the day and go to a dinner theater show that night. We'll reschedule! Instead we stopped at Trader Joes and then got home just after Ellie woke up from her nap. I was amazed at how much I missed our little girl even with being gone for just 24 hours.

On the Ellie/grandma end, the highlights of the weekend were time spent cuddling on the couch while watching Elmo, a trip out to the toy store and to get waffles at IHOP, bath time with extra splashing and TWO trips to the park. Brian's mom said Ellie did great in our absence, even though our gal got a little sad on Friday night when she realized mommy and daddy wouldn't be back before her bedtime. But I was so proud to hear that Ellie went down for nite-nite and Saturday's nap with very little struggle.
Everyone had a great weekend. Thanks again grandma Linda for the visit!

Messes and more

Poor Ellie spent a good portion of Thursday puking... which meant mom, dad and her teachers at daycare spent a good amount of time cleaning up the mess. She didn't have any other symptoms (like fever, etc), so even though it happened four times Thursday we didn't go to the doctor. When Brian and I started to feel sick, too, but thankfully without any actual vomiting, we got suspicious about food poisoning. I think that's our ultimate self-diagnosis... since the wave of sickness seems to be past us now in less than a 24-hour period. Ellie was doing a whole lot better by Thursday night. She kept all of her food down in the late afternoon and evening, and she only had one truly disgusting diaper. (Sorry for the details... but, hey, at least you're just reading about it and not changing it!)
Hopefully Ellie is completely better today and can enjoy a visit from grandma. Brian's mom is coming to stay with her tonight while we go down to Indianapolis for a half marathon we're running early Saturday. Pictures and stories from the weekend to come!

On a side note, now that the weather is turning cool again we can bring Ellie's new rain boots out again. We got them about a month ago but she's only worn them a couple times because of the temps. How adorable are they?!

Fairy princess

Ellie and I were playing dress-up one afternoon this week when she suddenly decided it was time to visit the park. I figured, what the heck? She looks cute, and Halloween is just around the corner... so I set off with a fairy princess to the park. She was initially wearing some very large, plastic heels that came with this fairy costume... but they weren't great for walking, so we switched to her sandals. Luckily they still matched her wings, headband and wand. A girl is nothing without her accessories, right?