What does a bear say?

Happy Halloween from our bear, Ellie!

Trick-or-treating only lasted 3 houses and then Ellie said we had to turn in... oh well :)

Bundled up

I put Ellie's hat on for our trip to the park yesterday mostly because it was super windy. I'll admit, I was also hoping to cover up a huge bruise on her forehead that she got at day care Wednesday. Apparently she fell into the corner of a bookcase in the room. We're hoping the purple goes away before all the wedding pictures this weekend!
The boo-boo didn't slow her down, though. She was thrilled to shake this park toy and then take off down the sidewalk on her own.

Wish us luck and safe travels tonight as we take Ellie on her first plane ride. We're going to Minneapolis for the weekend to celebrate Ben and Candice's wedding. It's going to be so much fun, but maybe not the actual flying part. Here's hoping Ellie sleeps instead of screaming and our neighbors on the plane don't hate us!

Plays well with others

I hope that's what can be said of Ellie when she's at day care and in other social settings. It was interesting watching her with Jacob this past weekend. They did pretty well playing alongside each other and "shared" a few toys — although we had to break up a few skirmishes. Jacob is 7 months older than Ellie, so he understands the sharing concept a little better... which meant he often had to forfeit the toy in his hands when Ellie started pitching a fit.
They are super cute together and we're all excited to watch them grow up as friends.

Much to Kris' chagrin, Jacob has a little too much fun playing with Ellie's princess cart and my high heels. (I'm just kidding, by the way... Kris was fine. But Brian was more than happy to snap some pictures of it all.)Ellie and Jacob made up their own version of the corn hole game.

And we set up the backyard/beach tent that Brian's dad sent to Ellie for her birthday. We tried setting it up at the beach in August, but the winds carried it off. We were able to get the stakes into the ground with it on Saturday so it didn't blow away to a different neighborhood!

*** Speaking of playing well with others... Brian and I have been in competitive-mode the past couple days. Our weight loss challenge is getting down to the wire, with only one of the seven months remaining. In advance of the weigh-in this morning, Brian spent some time Monday dehydrating and eating very little. I've been trying very hard all month, but when I realized I couldn't beat him this month... I decided to "play the game," too. I did the opposite of Brian and had a big glass of water before hitting the scale this morning. So when the dust settled, Brian was down 7.7 lbs this month and I was down 2.4 lbs.
I'm pretty psyched that we've each lost about 17 lbs over the past 6 months! Since we've each won 3 months in the challenge so far, the winner of Month 7 will take all. Should be an interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks...

Fall fun

Despite a cold and low-grade fever for much of the weekend, Ellie very much enjoyed a visit from her friend Jacob -- and his parents, Kris and Melissa. Brian and I loved having them here, too!
The six of us traveled two whole blocks away and hit a small pumpkin patch held in the parking lot of a nearby church.

It was a lot of fun... and an excuse to take too many pictures :) Ellie's not smiling much, but we know she had a good time. And she picked out the perfect, Ellie-sized pumpkin to take home.

At the park

The beautiful fall day warranted another trip to the park. Here's Ellie having fun on the swing and walking around.

Girls night

Brian was in Indianapolis for work tonight, so Ellie and I were flying solo. We got some errands done this afternoon and then played around the house. I made homemade mac-n-cheese for dinner, a Cooking Light recipe that even has bacon in it! There were peas mixed into the pasta, too... and of course Ellie being the weird baby she is only ate a couple noodles, picked out all of the peas and then started throwing pasta on the floor. (sigh)


She made up for it later, though. I'm not sure if she felt bad because of her dinner antics, or because I had to give up a free ticket to see Snoop Dogg play in town tonight (!!)... but when I sang songs to her while getting her dressed for bed, she applauded after each one. (happy sigh) Sometimes when I start to feel so much like "a mom," I'm reminded of how great it is to be a mom :)

Heavy thoughts

Attending a funeral and spending hours in the car this past weekend gave me some time for serious thought.
Life has been a little — or, a lot — frantic and stressful in recent weeks. I haven't been getting enough sleep, keeping up with chores around the house, eating as well as I should or treating people around me as nice as I should.
The eulogy at this past weekend's funeral celebrated a man who most will remember for his niceness, his loving and religious nature. It's hard to listen to praises like those, combine it with thoughts about the eventual end of life and not wonder what you're setting yourself up to be remembered for in life. Especially living in a place where I don't have a lot of close friends, I wonder what impression I leave on people. At work I am efficient with my time, almost to a fault... so I'm not likely to be walking around the room joking with co-workers at their desks. Does this make me seem unfriendly? And at home I worry that too much of the time I'm only giving half-attention to Ellie or Brian as I make mental lists of all the other things I need to get done for work and home. I definitely multitask too much... but it seems like the to-do list in my life is always getting longer, and not the other way around.
I'm not an outwardly religious person. I believe in God and heaven, attend church and pray for family and friends. But when I sit back and take stock of the way I'm living, it's easy to see that I need to put more of the concepts of my faith into practice. I need to try to quell more mean thoughts. I need to be less selfish with my time and resources. Above all, I need to have more faith and worry less. That's what it really comes down to if I want to be a good mom, wife, daughter, sister, etc.
I find myself often straddling two extreme outlooks on life. On one hand, I want to hold on to everything I love too tightly because I've never gotten over having my dad ripped out of my life. (Is it even possible?) On the other hand, knowing that life can be too short makes me want to live every moment to the fullest and throw caution to the wind.
I'm sure neither of those is the "right" way to live... but I have trouble finding middle ground. I guess the best I can do it start fresh each day with good intentions and try to stick with them. Hopefully that will mean less senseless bickering between me and Brian and more tender moments with everyone I love.