Happy Birthday Ellen!!

For breakfast Ellie had some chcolate cake (her first taste of chocolate!). She went to daycare and shared some cupcakes with her classmates and teachers at lunch. She came home and after dinner got to open some presents!

Happy Birthday Ellen! 
We love you!!

A full decade...Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! It occurred to us this week, that this Valentine's Day will mark the 10th one Nick and I have spent together! Who knew that when we celebrated Valentine's Day in 2000 by walking up to the Dairy Queen in Urbana, Illinois for blizzards, that it would be the beginning of many celebrations together. So far, Nick and I have spent over 1/3 of our lives together; we have travelled the world, been to the World Series, graduated college, moved to Boston, bought and sold and bought a house, and become parents.

Without further ado, I present 10 years of photos (I think they are pretty much in chronological order).

Ellie on the Move

She's not quite ready to walk on her own, but put a laundry basket (or one of her toy baskets) in front of her.. and she's off to the races -- until she runs into a door or a wall, of course.

What Ellie learns...

In he past few days Ellie has really picked up some new abilities and gained some real-life knowledge including:

How to put on socks...


The mystery of magnets...


How to hear the beat in your head...


And stairs are for climbing...

11 Months Old!!

The New House.. in Photos

At long last, as with our last post, we have finally gotten around to taking a few snapshots of our new house. So, at the request of family, here they are:

(( First Floor ))

Living Room:

Dining Room (looking toward living room):

Kitchen (Ellie is in the dining room, with the fireplace to her left):

(( Second Floor ))

Landing / Library:

(( note: I stood on the spiral staircase, a couple steps down, to take this picture ))

More Landing / Library (Ellie is in front of the bathroom door):

(( note: I stood in the doorway to the Master Bedroom to get this shot ))

Bathroom (I guess you'd call it the Master Bath -- though it's across the hall from our room):

Master Bedroom:

View of Warren Prescott Elementary School (which would be Ellie's first school) from the Master Bedroom:

(( Third Floor ))

Ellie's Room:

(( note: there is a very small landing on the third floor between the office and Ellie's room, but it's too hard to photograph and there really isn't anything to see ))

Office / Guest Room:

Catching Up

So a lot happened in December...so much that it kept us so busy we weren't able to spend even a few minutes in front of a computer and write a blog post. Well, it seems that life is back to a predictible, regular, although a bit chaotic, routine. Below is a brief summary of the month of December:

• We sold the condo! We closed on the condo at the very beginning of December. We were so overjoyed to 1) have an offer on it before we moved to the new house and 2) close in about a month. It was a stressful period for us, and we are very happy that it is done.


• We got a tooth! Well, technically Ellie got a tooth. Finally a bottom tooth started to peek out. I'm having trouble getting a photo of it (baby teeth are quite small).
  
• Ellie got tubes. After continual ear infections for a few months we opted to put tubes in Ellie's ears. The ear infections didn't seem to really bother her, but we were going to the doctor weekly, constantly giving her medicine, and fighting low fevers. So, Ellie underwent general anesthesia (for about 5 minutes) at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and had tubes placed in her ears. I was in the operating room until she was asleep and with her when she woke up in the recovery room. The whole surgery and ordeal was much worse on us than it was on her. The next day she as back to normal (without antibiotics, a doctor's appointment, or taking Tylenol for a fever!)
  
  
  



• Holiday Party! We hosted a holiday party at the new house. We had a great turn out of friends (from work and beyond) and it was a very enjoyble evening!

• Christmas #1: On the evening of the day Ellie got her tubes put in, we celebrated Christmas in Boston at our place with Aunt Susie. We opened some presents, had a nice dinner, and relaxed a little bit.
  



• Christmas #2 - The evening after Christmas #1, the family jetted off to Chicago to spend a long weekend with Nick's side of the family. That Saturday Nick's parents hosted a holiday gathering for extended family. It was great to see family and meet Ellie's new cousin William (born to Nick's cousin on Halloween!). Ellie and I had a blast and even made time to visit with good friends. Nick, however, got sick with a stomach virus and was down for the count most of the weekend.

• Christmas #3 - Tuesday of the week of Christmas, we packed up and escaped freezing rain in Chicago to head to Santa Barbara. We did Christmas the VB way this year. My grandparents and aunt and uncle hadn't seen Ellie since August so it was fun for them to see a babbling, crawling, pulling up on anything Ellie. Again, we had great time. Ellie proved once again that she is an expert traveller and was awesome on all three flights (and the tubes apparently did their job).
  
  
  
• We started cruising! Little Ellie has started to cruise around furniture and even very carefully move from one piece of furniture to another (or to one of us). However, to switch pieces, she needs to have a hand on each piece at the same time. But we now make our way around all the kitchen cabinets, down the length of a bookcase to pull down more books, and circling around the coffee table is a great pasttime now!


• Dancing...Head banging...bouncing...Ellie loves music and loves to groove to the beat or clap along (slightly off rhythm, but we can work on that later).