Dancing bird

I heard about a dancing cockatoo visiting Lafayette one night last week and decided to drag Ellie and Brian downtown to catch the free show. Ellie was very excited all day and kept saying "Dance?... bird?" and she did a little shimmy.
Here we are hiding in the shade while we waited for the diva bird to prepare for his performance. It was HOT that night.

And here's daddy and Ellie with rapt attention.

And a faraway shot of the bird, Snowball, and his keeper. There are better pictures taken by one of the newspaper photographers here at this link.

And I caught a short video of some of Snowball's moves... and Ellie's reaction. The bird's favorite artist is the Backstreet Boys, but he also got down to some Lady Gaga and then a nice Sousa march.


If anyone wants to catch more of Snowball's act, there are tons of YouTube videos of him. Here's one video tribute he does to Michael Jackson's music... I showed Ellie one of the videos last night and now she's back to asking for "Dance? bird?" a half dozen times a day. She's Snowball's biggest fan.

Two-year photo shoot

I took Ellie in for her 2-year photo shoot on Sunday and she did great!
I'm really impressed that you can't tell in these photos that Ellie was a fraction of a second from jumping out of the frame all together. Even though I'm still Ellie's paparazzi, I've had a tough time in recent months getting great shots of her because she's always on the move. Thank goodness for some professional help in capturing her toothy grin and mischievous smile :)

It's not in these photos, but my favorite part of the shoot was when Ellie stole the hippo hand puppet from the photographer and started chasing people around the studio trying to "get" them. She also was adorned in a fuzzy pink boa she found in the studio, but sadly that was after the photo session was over. Next time I need to remember my own camera for some the-making-of-Ellie's-photo-shoot pictures!

If anyone wants to order copies of the pictures, let me know (rugbydot@hotmail.com) and I'll email you the link.

Early birthday

Next week Ellie will turn 2... but she got some early presents from my family members when we visited Rockford this past weekend to also celebrate my sister Maggie's wedding shower. Ellie got quite a haul of toy food for her kitchenette, the Tag Jr. reading system from Leapfrog and clothes. Thanks everyone!
Cousin Mason was happy to help open the presents...
And dad was willing to model the cutie-pie chef's hat Ellie got from Aunt Maggie. It has a matching apron and pot holders, too!

Ellie doing ... well ... something

Brian here.

Here's a video of Ellie having some sort so spasm. Not sure what it is, but she thinks it's quite funny.

Once, she said Muzzy does this, so my mother is convinced this is an impression of Muzzy stretching on the floor. If so, she's great at impressions.

Week 12: Lime*

Baby #2 is the size of a lime this week! I've been feeling better every day, in terms of less nausea and more energy. It's such a welcome relief. Less welcome is that most of my pants don't fit anymore, but with as hot as it's been I'm mostly wearing comfy dresses these days anyway.
Other news on the baby this week:

Your baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, his toes will curl, his eye muscles will clench, and his mouth will make sucking movements. In fact, if you prod your abdomen, your baby will squirm in response, although you won't be able to feel it. ... His face looks unquestionably human: His eyes have moved from the sides to the front of his head, and his ears are right where they should be. From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.

Definitely glad to hear the eyes and ears are where they're supposed to be now!

*The website where I get the baby updates generically switches back and forth between "he" and "she" ... so the references made above don't mean we're having a boy. Sorry for any confusion ;)

Braving the heat

It's been unbearably hot this week. But one night Ellie talked us into a few minutes outdoors after dinner. She kept asking for an "ooonge," which is her name for a popsicle ever since she had an orange one. They're all "ooonge." Even this purple one which she was wearing half of by the time she finished. In her defense, the popsicle started melting as soon as it heard we were going outdoors.
Since she was already messy, we figured why not add some soapy bubble mixture to the fray. She loves to blow bubbles and has even gotten pretty good at producing some through the wand. She does put the stick right up to her mouth, however, so she winds up eating a healthy amount as well. Brian said she even blew one with just her mouth one time as she said the word "Muzzy!"

On the lake

We were lucky enough this past weekend to get to visit our friend Rob and Mary's vacation house right on Lake Michigan. They've got a beautiful place and it's literally just a couple minute walk out onto the beach. Ellie was fearless in the waves and loved playing in the sand. I didn't take nearly enough pictures because I was hesitant to take the camera near the water or into the sand... but I got a few shots when we trekked out onto the boardwalk.
Here's Ellie carrying Rob and Nutter's daughter, Rosalie. She and Ellie are about 5 months apart in age and had some good fun playing together!

Here I am with Rosalie... I invited Ellie in, too, but she was being a pill.

Ellie and daddy looking out over the water...

And the walk back... when Ellie was refusing to hold mom's hand... Did I mention Ellie's being a pill recently? :)