Ellie's party

More to come... but here are a few great videos from Ellie's birthday party this weekend. Thanks to all who traveled a long (or short) way to help celebrate Ellie's first year!

(oh, and sorry this first video is quite long... Still can't believe Ellie wasn't more excited about eating cake. Seriously considering a DNA test!)

Mean face

One of the tricks Brian taught Ellie is definitely a crowd-pleaser. I hear from ladies at her day care center all the time about asking Ellie to do "mean baby."
Here's a pretty good shot it, which basically involves her scrunching up her nose and making some fierce breathing noises... OK, it's hard to explain. But very cute. Hopefully it will serve her well as she transitions to the 1-2 year old room at school.Ellie has had a rough week at day care as they've worked on getting her used to the new room. She's been spending a couple hours each day in the Blue Room, where she's the smallest and least mobile. I think of her as a pretty friendly and outgoing baby, but she's been pretty intimidated by the kids in this new room (who apparently swarm her whenever the teacher sets her down because she's something new and interesting...)
There are a lot of changes as she moves to the next room. The schedule for meals is strict, with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., lunch at 11:30 and then an afternoon snack around 2. She will have to adjust to nap time right after lunch, when the room goes dark and all the kids are expected to line up on cots (about 2 inches off the floor). I saw her sleeping on when the other day and couldn't believe what a big girl she looked like!
So many new things are getting thrown her way, and she's not happy about most of it. But I keep telling myself — and the teachers keep telling us — that she'll get through it.Oh yeah, and if any of those kids give her too hard of a time... I've got her back.

She sleeps

Ellie recently abandoned her "normal" sleep schedule. For months she's been on a great routine of bedtime around 7 p.m. and waking up between 6-7 a.m. But the past two weeks have been a roller-coaster. Some nights she's ready for bed around 7:30 or 8 p.m.... others she's wide awake, or at least fighting sleep, until 10 p.m. When her bedtime first started creeping later, I was thrilled to have some extra evening hours with Ellie. But the 10 p.m. nights are not fun because she spends most of the time past-8 p.m. rubbing her face and even laying her head down on the floor... but still screams if we try to put her in the crib!
The majority of the advice we've gotten from other parents is that Ellie is testing her limits. And, unfortunately, it seems like the more leeway we give her on bedtime, the more likely she is to fight a routine. Two nights ago she went to bed just before 8 p.m. and we didn't hear any more from her until the next morning. Last night, however, she went to bed exhausted around 7:30... and then woke up close to 9 p.m. I let her cry for a few minutes and then went to investigate. She wasn't wet, so I hugged her and put her back to bed. After hearing her scream for 10-15 minutes after that, I finally went upstairs with a small drink. I offered it to her and she had a few sips, but that clearly wasn't the issue either. After loving on her for another couple minutes, I put her back in bed. She protested briefly, but then went back to sleep.
I guess this is just another round of training for both baby and parents. While I hate, hate, hate hearing Ellie screaming from her room... I don't want her to think that we'll let her get up and play any time she cries. Plus, she has a lot more fun during the daytime hours when she gets enough rest overnight.

The winner...

Well, since I'm always eager to share the weight-loss challenge results here when I'm the winner... I suppose I should do the same for Brian. We wrapped up Month 3 this past weekend and Brian squeaked by me at the end and won his first month. He lost about 4 lbs and I lost 1.5 lbs over the past month, so we're both happy... Of course I'd be happier if I had a three month lead on him instead of just two wins to his one ;) The challenge continues!

And while we're on the subject of being healthy.... Brian and I ordered what we expect to be an awesome cake for Ellie's one year birthday party this weekend. Normally we wouldn't be so extravagant, but our baby only turns one once — and we had a coupon! We ordered a specialty cake from a downtown shop called The Yellow Bowl Bakery. Although they had about 70 cake flavors to choose from, we decided to stay fairly traditional and ordered chocolate. The best part is that they will do any design we want on the cake. So the plan is to recreate some version of this painting we have hanging above Ellie's bed:
It's such a great picture. And it was painted by Jen's grandfather (initially for Ellie's cousin, Mason's, room). Dan and Jen passed it on to us, for now, and we have it hanging above Ellie's crib. I hope the cake turns out amazing — and that Brian decides to have an extra big piece!

A few tricks

While we anxiously await Ellie's launch into walking, we're filling our days teaching her other important motor skills... i.e. tricks. Check it out:

Antennae

These pictures don't quite do it justice... but Ellie can now sport a second hairstyle. It's pig-tails, but looks a bit more like bug antennae on top of her head! Super cute, either way!

Wedding/hiking weekend

Last weekend we attended the wedding of my best friend from high school (and before and beyond!), Meghan. She and Dan have been dating for about 10 years now and we were all so excited to see them finally say "I do." And we had a blast at Starved Rock, a state park in Illinois where the festivities were held. We staying in the lodge on site, hiked on Saturday morning, hit a couple wineries and then had a ton of fun at the wedding and reception. A full weekend, but very cool. We're already making plans to return to Starved Rock during the fall or winter months, when I'm sure the scenery is amazing.
Here's a picture of Meghan and I with the belle of the rehearsal dinner, Ellie :)

And Ellie hamming it up at the reception Saturday. She was a bit fussy during the ceremony, requiring Brian and I to spend most of our time out of the seats and carrying her around. But Ellie had fun and ate quite a bit at the reception. She then went off to bed and my mom stayed with her while Brian and I got to dance and enjoy the rest of the party. Thanks, mom!
While I helped Meghan get ready on Saturday, Brian took Ellie for a dip in the hotel pool. He did the trick where you blow on her face to make her hold her breath and then dunked her in the water a few times. I'm not sure if she loved it, but Brian said she never fussed — well, except for when he finally decided pool time was over and got her out. I think we've got a little fish on our hands!


Since Ellie woke us all up early on Saturday morning, we took advantage and hit the hiking trails near the lodge before it got to hot. The trails were awesome and we explored a couple miles, but we could have spent hours out there.We took turns carrying Ellie in the baby bjorn, since the trails and stairs wouldn't have allowed for the stroller. It worked really well, but my back was sore later on from hauling around our big baby girl!
Ellie snoozed part of the way home from the hike, which was very cute. I guess the fresh air and early rising caught up with her.

Oh, and here's another cute one from the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. Ellie sitting with Meghan's mom, Penny (left), and friend Betsy, learning how to play the spoons at a young age. If we keep hanging out with Meghan's family and crew, I'm sure Ellie will learn to be quite musical. What a fun weekend and crowd!