Ella update

The last post was almost all Maisie, so I figured I'd share some Ella pics, too!

I love this one - I think she looks a LOT like her cousin Nika.

Aaron took this one a day or two ago, as she was getting ready to go to school.

Ella really loves school, and she's doing really well. We didn't have conferences this quarter, thanks to all the days cancelled for cold weather - the school district decided to hold classes those days instead - but her teacher sent us a really sweet email. She said that Ella's "just been a rockstar" in their classroom, and her love for learning and for life bring smiles to all her teachers. It was a lovely note, and made us very happy.

Grandma Liisa taught her to eat Oreos this way

She did say that Ella tends to get chatty during lessons and will forget to raise her hand before speaking, which wasn't a surprise to us. Ella is very, very verbal - she talks a LOT! She also seems to process things through talking about them. She's talked through movies, plays, and orchestra performances, narrating the whole experience to whoever is sitting next to her. It's exceptionally cute, and a fun little window into how she's experiencing what she's watching.

She does have her stubborn moments... Ella is frankly one of the most stubborn people I've met. (Some apples don't fall far from the tree, I guess!) When she digs her heels in about something, woe unto you if you're trying to get her to budge. Aaron and I have to pick our battles pretty carefully, because when she's made up her mind, trying to get her to go against her decision is not a fun experience!

Truer words were never worn on a shirt

But even with the stubborn moments and tantrums, Ella brings us joy every day. She's smart, funny, and generally a wonderful person to have around. We're so lucky to have her in our lives!

Playing Barbies

First, I said that the picture-a-day was an aspirational goal, right? I will keep trying...

Second, the girls got a lot of Barbie's for Christmas from Grandma Jo, and a Barbie dollhouse from Santa. They spend a lot of time playing Barbies these days. The dolls' conversation when I took this picture really made me laugh...

"should we all get married to each other? Girls can only marry girls, not boys. Let's go to Texas and get married!"

I think Texas is about the last place for two girls who want to get married are going to go... I wanted to tell them they could just go to Iowa instead!

An Ella Day

Since the last time we posted there have been some really big changes with our family! The biggest, I think, is that Aaron's gone back to work. So instead of being a single-income family, we now have two incomes (and YAY for that!), but our lives have somehow become 150% more hectic! I'll choose to blame the long posting hiatus on that, instead of my own laziness and the fact that I somehow lost the charger for the camera battery.

ANYWAY, Aaron had to work this morning and Maisie was off to the Flint Hills Children's Festival with Grandma Liisa and Dylan, so that left me and Ella to our own devices!

First we checked how our strawberry patch is doing this year...



They look good, for a few plants we planted on the salty, sandy boulevard! They were planted last year in an attempt to get a ground cover we won't have to mow, and they're really taking off.



We might even get a berry or two, if the bunnies and squirrels don't eat them all!

Ella really needed sandals, so then we were off to the Mall of America. To increase the adventure quotient (and because I didn't feel like driving), we took the BUS!

The bus stop is next to a really fun hill, that kept waiting for the bus from being boring.




Ella fell asleep on the bus, so I guess it wasn't that exciting after all.

Once we got to the mall, she was all business: we were there for shoes! We hit a department store with a great kids' shoe selection, and she made her choice.

I thought maybe she'd want to check out a few other options, but no. It turns out that Ella is a decisive shopper. The lovely and helpful employee who was helping us brought out some other choices, but Ella said "NO!" to all of them. So we bought the sandals she chose, and we were off.


We got lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.


We then decided to check out the aquarium formerly known as Underwater World, f/k/a Underwater Adventures, n/k/a Sea Life Aquarium. For those who've been there before, it's been completely redone and is WAY better than it used to be. Ella was most impressed by the jellyfish, the turtles, and the "scawwy shawks!" She was not super impressed by the photographer who took our picture, however.

(sorry about the lousy camera-phone-picture of a picture!)

After all that, it was time for another bus ride home...

Funny story: one of our neighbors was on the bus, too. When we got off he said to me, "I didn't know if that was you for sure, until I heard her say 'NO!'" Yeah, that's our (almost) two year old! She busted out a four word sentence tonight: "I do it 'self!" Just like her big sister, Ella is turning out to be very independent!

So anyway, when we got home, Ella briefly had a fit about the fact that there were no graham crackers in the house. Shortly thereafter, this happened:

And then I took a nap, too.

The end! (until tomorrow!)

First day of school!

Today was Maisie's first day of her 2nd year at her Montessori preschool.

For comparison - look how much bigger she is than last year!

I can't believe how much she's grown!

Speaking of growing up... Ella is now 14 months old, and becoming a fully formed person. She walks, climbs, and runs, has fantastic receptive language skills, and can communicate! She is very clear about her likes (milk, being read to, balls, Gramma Liisa, the cats, Maisie) and dislikes (diaper changes, bedtime).

She loves to go to the children's museum, and play with water...

and to play in the outdoor sandbox!

As you can see, she has beautiful curly hair, big blue eyes, and an infectious grin.

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful, beautiful girls!

A little talking and a little walking

Ella has steadily been growing more verbal. Instead of some explosion of ability, I think she's slowly been sneaking up on talking without any of us being much the wiser. She's uttered sounds that are similar to words before, but always preceded or followed by baby talk, so that we were unsure it was what it kind-of-sort-of sounded like. But lately she's started to dial back on the baby talk portion, until today I swear she said "hi" and waved to one of the cats when she saw him. If she had a first word, I have no idea what it was. She's also taken to standing up, looking around, taking a step, and then sitting down. Sneaky, right? Apparently she's not going to really start walking until she can chase down Maisie and pounce on her.

I'll leave you with a few of Maisie's computer drawings.

Ella learns to talk