Our first trick or treating experience went pretty darn well! We went over to a friend's house in the neighborhood and made it to about 6 houses or so. Ella actually wore her chicken outfit the whole time! Yippee! She was pretty tentative when it came to going up to the door and knocking, but was good at taking the candy! After we got back we sat on the floor and scoped the wares. All in all it was a pretty successful endeavor. Now we just have to deal with the request for "CANDY!" pretty much every morning as soon as we wake up and then again as soon as we walk back in the door from school. I think Mommy's helped eat much more than her share... (the video is before we actually left to go trick or treating, hence the no costume wearing)
Ok folks, it's the little things that make a Mama happy. I have no cute pictures to post (well, maybe that's a bit of a lie; I'll post something), but I do want to share that I decided to come home this evening and make baked salmon and sauteed spinach for dinner. Yup, I thought I'd just make something I was hungry for and just maybe Ella would be hungry enough to eat a couple of bites, maybe. Now mind you she has been offered both salmon and spinach prior to this evening and promptly turned her face away so quickly the word whiplash comes to mind, but a Mama can never give up hope on her kid, right? Well, miracle of all miracles SHE ATE EVERY BITE and then ASKED FOR "MORE, Mama"! Hallelujah! This child who is on the "roni" (mac n cheese) and "stawbawee" (strawberry) diet actually requested more salmon and spinach!! Alright, like I said, it's the little things... I just had to share. One point for Mama :)
Vanessa, Sloan, Ella and I took a short trip over to the neighborhood elementary school to check out their Halloween festival. Ella had a good time dancing to the music and then running around the gym with the other kiddos. It wasn't as toddler friendly as I'd hoped, but the girls had a good time anyway!
Her school had a fall festival Friday evening. I tried to dress her up in the chicken costume Auntie Sarah got for her before she was even out of the womb, but after about 30 minutes (which was better than I thought she'd do), she wanted out; not to mention it was still a little too hot to have a faux fur coat with hood on... but for the time being, she was super cute! She had a great time getting her face painted, decorating pumpkins and eating cupcakes during the cake walk :)
Just had to post a pic of her taking a bath with the kitty looking on! This has been his usual m.o. since we got him. Can't wait for the day she actually tries to pull him in with her...
Ella and I headed to San Antonio on Friday afternoon to celebrate Granny's birthday and hang out with family. Friday evening we went to dinner (Ella copperated and tried shrimp for the first time and loved it!) and then went back to the house for presents and cake, her favorite part. It was a late night, but worth it!
Saturday morning the whole family (sans Papa, who was working) made a trip to the San Antonio Zoo. What a great place! It was huge and there was so much to see! Ella had a grand time looking at all the animlas and spending time with the Fleming side of the family. She stayed Saturday night with Granny and Popo while I made a quick trip to Houston to attend the Houston Fire Department's awards ceremony where Papa received a Valor award for his contribution in a high rise fire a few months ago.
Ella and Sloan had a great time playing together for a couple of hours... however we have traversed into the "NO! MINE!" territory so notorious to 2 year olds. Super. It's awesome and will only get better from here!! Every time Sloan would even think about approaching one of Ella's toys her face would contort to the "concerned" look as she took off running to intercept and take the object she was not even remotely interested in. Hmmmm.... I guess I had naively hoped that my daughter would just skip over this stage. "Not so," say the Karma Police, "we're only preparing you for what's to come a little bit at a time".
Ella just loves to carry around the kitty. Not so sure the kitty likes it, but he's still little and doesn't do much to deter her at this point, so I guess we'll just keep floating along until he decides he really doesn't like it and we have a cat scratch situation on our hands!
Before leaving Housotn Sunday afternoon we had a fun visit with Aunt Jennifer, August and Ethan. What a cute trio... soon to be 4 when our cousins get a sister in February!
Ella and I made the trip to Houston yesterday so we could hang out with the fam and attend Auntie Deanna and Uncle Jason's post-hurricane Ike soiree. We had great time eating yummy food all evening and chillin' with our peeps! She had such a fun evening following Lauren around and making pillow towers with Gabe and Sam to jump over. She was SO tired by the time I laid her down around 9:30. Fortunately for Mommy the later bedtime meant an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning :)
This face, I predict, we will be seeing quite a bit of over the years... It's the "I'm looking at you from the top of my eyes with my chin down and thinking, whatever" face.
This one is just because she's so darn cute I couldn't help but post it!
And this is the new kitty, Kitty.
Today was an eventful day, not only did we meet Auntie Michelle for dinner at Phil's Icehouse and play on the playground for what seemed like an eternity, we also stopped on the way home and got a new kitten from some neighbors who had 3 to give away! Ella wanted to hold him all the way home in the car, yelling "kitty! wanna hold it!" over and over again. Yeah, so he wasn't too hip on her chasing him and screeching when we got home either and mostly just hid from her for a while. We've been trying to get her to come up with a name, but since we called him kitty that's pretty much all she's come up with...
Auntie Deanna came into town on Saturday so she and Julie could register in preparation for their upcoming showers, so Ella and I tagged along and helped them pick stuff out and, most importantly, eat. Here's a shot at Magnolia's for breakfast on Sunday after a very loooooong wait to be seated and lots of checkin' out the bike rack over and over and picking some flowers and stacking the jelly packets and waiting for food... Needless to say by the time we left there (3 hours after arriving) an exit was loooong overdue, as I'm sure the people seated around us agreed :)
Later on that afternoon we headed over to the Gecks to celebrate Sloan's 1st birthday. Ella wore the tiara for so long I thought we might have to take it home with us!
Yup, so the Bumbo that she hated way back when (except when she was being fed in it) is now a prized possesion. She dicovered it in a pile of returned things we loaned out and decided to carry it around, put baby dolls in it and even sit a spell and watch some boob tube in it. I can't even believe she can fit her bottom in it anymore! Well, it does stick sometimes when she's trying to get out....
Our first trick or treating experience went pretty darn well! We went over to a friend's house in the neighborhood and made it to about 6 houses or so. Ella actually wore her chicken outfit the whole time! Yippee! She was pretty tentative when it came to going up to the door and knocking, but was good at taking the candy! After we got back we sat on the floor and scoped the wares. All in all it was a pretty successful endeavor. Now we just have to deal with the request for "CANDY!" pretty much every morning as soon as we wake up and then again as soon as we walk back in the door from school. I think Mommy's helped eat much more than her share... (the video is before we actually left to go trick or treating, hence the no costume wearing)
