Milwaukee Zoo with Ellie

Our friends in Wisconsin (Lori, Matt and Ellie) were nice enough to invite us for the weekend to visit their beautiful new home and so that Ella and Ellie could get a chance to play together. Ella enjoyed visiting with Carla and Lola also who spent the weekend with us as well.

Saturday morning the skies looked a little gloomy, but we decided to risk a trip to the Milwaukee Zoo anyways. We got there just in time for a 3 minute rain shower and the rest of the morning was turned out to be perfect.

And a picture of the girls in the wagon:

Here's a picture on the foot massage animals:

Quiet activity

After dinner, we decided that Ella could use a little quiet activity time. We got out her new Lego Duplos and she started playing immediately. These are legos that are bigger than standard ones, but not quiet as big as the mega blocks. Perfect for her size! She caught me with the camera afterwards and gave her standard "Cheese".

Children's Museum

Ella and Mama headed out to Naperville on Friday for a morning of fun at the Dupage County Children's Museum. My friend from work Nicole, brought her 2 year old son Aaron to join in the fun. Ella and Aaron had different agendas and wanted to play with different things at first, but they enjoyed the water table together. And after lunch they had a good time running around and pretending to fall down. It was very cute and we had a great time!

Shedd Aquarium

On Saturday morning Ella and Mama headed to the Shedd Aquarium. We got there at 10 am, which was great because there were no crowds yet. We walked around and Ella enjoyed looking at all the fish, though she calls them "Foos". We picked out different color fish and got to see the diver go in the tank and feed them. Meena met us at the aquarium a little later in the morning and she was a good girl and walked while holding her hand. We headed down to look at the penquins, which held Ella's attention. She called them "ducks" and liked watching them jump in and out of the water.


We couldn't leave without first visiting the gift shop! Ella got a Dora doll that is a mermaid and a purple t-shirt with dolphins on it.


Ella had a good time for a 22 month old. It is definitely something that she will enjoy more in a few years. We left at 12:30 in the afternoon and it took all of two minutes for her to fall asleep in the car. Evidently all the fish and walking around were tiring!

Animal sounds at 22 months

Hard to believe that Ella is already 22 months old today. In just two short months we will have a 2 year old and will no longer have to count her age in months. Some things that she has recently learned is clearly calling us "Mama" and "Papa". She also has been very good at keeping her glasses on at all time. She even leaves them on now she she is drinking out of her cup. We had our first dentist visit and cleaning last week. It was not an easy appointment (as she does not like laying on her back), but her teeth look great and she was cavity free. Throughout the exam and cleaning, Ella kept telling me "All Done". The dental assistant handed her a Dora sticker afterwards and everything was perfect again.

Ella also really enjoys making animal sounds when she is asked or when she sees an animal she knows. We thought we would share a video taken after dinner today.