Easter

We had a great Easter up in MN this year. The weather was actually great this year, warm even! Ella and I went home early, on Tuesday and spent some quality time with family. Marc drove up on Friday and then we all drove home together on Monday. Of course our time there was extremely busy, got to pack everyone in! I was able to visit my friend April and her new baby, Isabella (just 5 days old). It was great to see them, it's been a long time since I have seen April, so this visit was extra special. Ella and I both managed to get a haircut while home, and did some shopping at the outlet mall for a day. Then of course we had all the Easter fun as well. Our family does a huge seafood dinner on Easter eve, which I prepared with my sisters. Then on Easter we went to church, brunch, had an Easter egg hunt, and a big dinner at home. It was a great day.

Walking to our flight

Ella and Kaia after their haircuts

All the cousins (except Kaia) in the bath

Dyeing Easter eggs

Matching Easter dresses

This is our attempt to get all the kids in one picture.
There are about 6 or 7 pictures, all about this good!

Hunting Easter eggs

Ella and Harley got the front yard and the big kids got the back yard.

Our try at a family picture

We had such a good time in MN, as usual. While up there we also got to go see the progress on the lake house my parents are building at Lake Pipen. It is going to be a beautiful house and a great place for our family to gather. Lots of outdoor space to use and a great beach right down the street.

Ballet

Today I took Ella to her first Pre-Ballet/Creative Movement class at the park district. I was very cute. They can wear leotards and tutus and ballet slippers. Ella was all decked out. Here she is as we are getting ready to leave the house.

The class is for 18-36 months, so they are all pretty little still. The class is just about moving and trying to follow directions. The parents also have to participate in the whole class, so it's fun for all :) I hope that Ella enjoys the class and wants to keep dancing, follow in her mommy's footprints. Here are some more pictures from class today.


Here is a video of her practicing her dancing last night. She was so funny and came up with this little move all on her own. She kept showing it to me and told me it was her "pretty dance". She had just had her bath so her hair was wet and she put on her dress up clothes to perform.

We're Back!

I have my computer back and ready to start blogging again!! Well like every one else, we have been enjoying this warmer weather the last few days. Ella played outside both days this weekend and we went to the park today! It was great to be outside again and feel the warmth of the sun. Ella had a great time at the park today and was running around like a crazy kid. It was so fun to see her do things that she wasn't able to do last year. I love watching her and seeing her play and try to connect with the other kids. She is very social and not shy at all. She was walking right up to kids today and asking what their name was and she was playing pretend with a girl she had just met. I'm glad that she interacts well, I was so shy as a kid and I'm glad she isn't like that.

We also were in Ohio a week ago to visit Marc's sister, her new baby and his Grandma. His sister and brother-in-law live in Toledo and just had a baby, Gabriel, in December. This was the first time we got to see him, he is adorable. It was fun to be around a little baby again.

Gabe, Almost 3 months old

Gabe was one reason we headed out there and the other was to go and visit Marc's Grandma Brash in Cincinnati. She is in nursing home there and it's only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Toledo. So, we drove in on Friday and stayed with Rachael and Craig, then headed down to Cincinnati on Saturday to visit Grandma Brash. His Grandma is not in very good health and doesn't usually know we are even there. She was having a good day the day we went there and she was glad we were there. It's really hard to understand anything she is saying, but we know that she was happy to see us and to meet Gabe for the first time.

Grandma Brash meeting Gabe

Marc, Ella, Grandma, Rachael and Gabe

I was very proud of Ella the day we went to see Grandma Brash. I was worried how she was going to react to seeing her. It's not easy for a two year old to understand why she looks different, why she can't walk, and why her head is always hanging to one side. But, Ella was so good!!!! She said hi and tried to talk to Grandma a couple of times. Then she colored her a picture and even gave her a hug (the best she could) before we left. Plus, she was just overall good. Marc's aunt and uncle live close to the nursing home, so we went to their house afterwards and had dinner and hung out. It was nice to visit with them. Ella loved Uncle Steve's model train down in the basement. She could barely eat anything because she wanted to go and blow the whistle some more.

It was funny to see how Ella interacted, or ignored, the baby. She really didn't have much interest in him, but she thought she would like to try and hold him once (Gabe didn't really like that). All in all it was a good weekend, busy and lots of driving, but good. I'm glad that we got to finally meet Gabe and that we got to see Grandma Brash.

Giving Gabe a kiss

One more thing: Ella loves books, always has. Lately she is into "reading" them by herself. I'm usually impressed by how many words she actually remembers in the books. Well, we checked out Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? from the library a few weeks ago and once we read it, she had to read it at least 3 times a day. Then one night she told us she was going to read it herself and she did. She had memorized almost all the words and we were able to catch it on video.

Slacking

I know I've been slacking lately on writing my blog. I don't really know why, just haven't been that motivated to update it. Plus, we had to send our computer in for repairs, so I don't have any of my pictures on a computer right now. There hasn't been much going on. Ella and I are trying to start getting out more. We visited the Lincoln Park zoo last week (when it was warm out), we also went to the Nature Museum last week and the Garfield Park Conservatory yesterday. She really likes to get out and see things, and it's nice to change up the routine every once in awhile.
Besides that, we had a good Valentine's Day weekend. Marc and I were able to get out by ourselves for awhile on Saturday. Marc's brother, Adam, came over and babysat for us for the afternoon and we went to an early movie and early dinner. We had a really good time and it was nice to be out by ourselves. Ella was a very good girl for Uncle Adam, took a nap and everything! But then Monday morning Marc woke up not feeling well. I thought I felt fine until I was out at the conservatory with Ella. While we were out I started to not feel well at all. So, Marc spent the whole day in bed and I managed through the day with Ella. I got a little bit of sleep while she was napping, but it was a rough day. We are both feeling better today. I'm not sure what we have or if we even have the same thing?!? As long as we feel better instead of worse. That's all I have for now, hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon.

Bye bye to diapers!!!!!

Yes it's true, we are saying bye bye to diapers (at least during the day). We started potty training with Ella this past weekend and she took to it very well. I put panties on her Friday after her nap and we haven't gone back to diapers since. She is only wearing diapers for naptime and over night. She only had five accidents all weekend!!! She still won't tell us that she has to go, but if we ask she will. I even ventured out with her today, I was very nervous about having accidents. She did pretty well. We went to the gym and she went to the daycare for about an hour. She had a poopy accident in her pants, but that was it, not too bad. She is all about her underwear now, we got her some Dora, Elmo and Minnie mouse ones.

Friday when I first put her panties on

Playing dress up

Using her potty with her bib on

So, I guess so far so good with the potty training. I'm sure it will just get better. I'm sure with time she'll be telling us when she needs to go. As of now I'm fine with just asking her when she needs to go.

Here are just a couple of other cute pictures from the last couple of weeks. Even though she has been a brat the last couple of weeks she is still very snugly and likes to give mommy hugs and kisses.

Ella and Mona chasing a laser light

Mr. Potato Head

A big girl ponytail

Here she is singing some of her songs!!!

A very hard week

So this week has really been testing my patience as a mom. Ella has been throwing bad tantrums and yelling and screaming at her free will. Anytime I say no or she isn't getting what she wants she starts to scream. So, if she doesn't stop I've been giving her a time out which sets her off all over again! Needless to say it's not fun and doesn't bring out the best in either of us. It's hard to rationalize with a two year old and they just don't understand things yet. Although I do usually get an "I'm sorry mommy" from her sometime during the timeout. I do make sure that I ask her what she is sorry for and usually she does know what she should be apologizing for, which is good. I have just been feeling like a bad mom though. It's hard not to lose my patience with her, which I have a few times. I know that yelling back at her isn't going to make things better, but sometimes I just do before I can even think about it. Keeping my cool is not easy. I guess all I can hope for is this latest phase of tantrums doesn't last too long!!

On another note, we are going to try and do potty training this weekend! Wish us luck. I'll post something on Monday and let you know how it's going.

Christmas in MO

From MN, Ella and I heading down to my grandparents house in MO with my family. Marc had a concert to go to on Sunday so he headed home instead of coming to MO. We didn't want to have to drive back to back days to make it home in time for his concert so we thought it would be best if he just came home and Ella and I flew home on Monday.
See, normally we would be at my grandparents for Christmas and do Santa and all the presents there, but this year my dad put his foot down. He was tired of driving all the presents to MO to open them there, so that's why we spent actual Christmas at their house. We still had a great time in MO with the rest of the family. My grandparents house is small and we shove as many people as possible in it. The kids were getting restless and wanted to play outside, but it was a mud swamp out! We had to wait until the temp dropped on Sat afternoon and everything froze then we took them outside. They all got to take a turn "driving" the tractor.

Putting bread bags on Ella's feet, there was a lot of mud!

Happy to be outside

Sara and her kidsAlicia and Kaia

Ella driving the tractor with Papa

I always enjoy spending time at my grandparents house, we don't get to see them that often. Although it's difficult to get the kids to sleep at their house. See, we all sleep upstairs which is just one big room with four beds. So, I'd usually put Ella to bed first and get her to sleep, then Sara would bring up her kids one by one to go to sleep. Then finally we would try and get Kaia to sleep and then bring her up. Needless to say we had very tired kids for the trip, but they had fun. Here is a picture of some of them napping, or should I say passed out!
Before we left we got a picture of four generations. My grandparent, my mom, my sisters and I and our kids.

Then a picture of just our family

I feel blessed to have such a great family and for everyone to be healthy. I loved every minute of spending time with everyone, but I am glad to be home and getting back to normal.