Cookies and milk with Papa

After dinner today, Ella and Papa enjoyed some oatmeal raisin cookies and milk.

Play kitchen

Ella received some gift cards for her birthday and we put them towards the purchase of a play kitchen. Often times when we pick Ella up from school we find her in the kitchen area playing, so we figured it was a good time to get one for the house. We picked it up today as a family and put it together while Ella was napping. When she woke up, Mama took her to see it and play with it and the pretend food (Papa was out playing basketball at the time).

Inch worm

We have been putting a lot of focus on finding things for Ella to play with indoors and different activities we can do during the winter without having the TV on.

Here are a few pictures of Ella from this weekend. She played on her inch worm that she received from her great aunts and great uncles last Christmas.

Here is a picture of Ella and Mama when we went to Chuck E Cheese this weekend to play.

Big girl cup

Just when we think our little girl is going to stay little forever, she does something else to prove us wrong. When Ella turned 2, she moved into a new classroom for young 2 year olds. The teacher felt it was time for her to move on since this would really help her develop sentences and learn to use words at more appropriate times (frustrating times for her essentially). With the new room comes no more sippy cups and drinking out of a big girl cup instead. They started working on it with her just two weeks ago and so we started giving her a little bit of practice at home also. Last week they stopped giving her all sippy cups and now she only drinks from the big girl cups at school. We have enforced the rule at home during meal time as well (though she gets the occasional sippy when we are on the road or are at a restaurant).

Here is a picture and a video. Sometimes she gets a little too eager and will tip the cup too much before it hits her mouth. She immediately will tell us "Uh-oh. I pilled." It's cute because she still says "puck" instead of "cup", but I have a feeling that it isn't going to last much longer.

Enjoy.

Movie Day

Sunday morning we all went to breakfast and then headed to watch a movie at the Theater. We had attempted to see "Wall-E" at the theater a few months ago, and we managed to make it through about half of the show before having to leave with an impatient toddler.

Today we saw "Madagascar 2" and had better hopes that Ella would like this movie because it had animals, music and dancing. At the end of every preview, Ella would clap and cheer and say "More more please".

We managed to make it through the entire movie. It did take some popcorn and a little bit of her standing to watch the movie, but she did really good and it was a nice treat.

Papa took these pictures of us after the show with the poster in the background so that we can remember her first full film at the theater.

Pee pee on the potty progress

That title sure has a lot of P's! On Wednesday when picking Ella up from school, the teacher told Papa that Ella had pee-pee'd on the potty for the first time at school. We were so proud of her and apparently when she did it, she was really proud of herself too. Thursday she went on the potty again and on Friday she went twice while at school. We are happy that she is making so much progress with her potty training and hope to put a strong focus on it after the holidays and throw out all the diapers (or save them for the next baby). She goes pee pee on the potty every morning at home and every night before bed. She dances each time she goes and says in a random Southern accent "I pee-pee'd".

Ultimately we hope to have her potty trained by the time new baby arrives, but we still aren't being too pushy about it because we really want her to keep being so proud of herself.

Ella loves us

Here is a video where Ella tells us all the things that she loves in our house.

Singing video and I love you

Here is a video of Ella singing Dora and Elmo. She is always singing lately and these are the two songs that she likes to break into on her own.

A second peak at baby #2

Well, we broke done and went to an outside ultrasound company for a gender determination ultrasound. It didn't take long to get the money shot and show that we have another little girl on the way.

We are excited and have started to try and tell Ella that she is going to have a baby sister.

Once we get our computer situation in place, I will scan some pictures and share on the blog.

Trick or treating 2008

Ella had a great time trick or treating last night. Unfortunately Papa had to work on Halloween night, so Mama took Ella to Oma and Opa's for trick or treating. Meena surprised us by showing up there just in time to go house to house. Ella did really well ringing the doorbells and saying "trick or treat" and "Thank you" at all the houses. At first, she said "trick or treat" loudly, but as the night went on she got quieter and quieter. At quite a few houses, she would take a piece of candy and when we would turn to leave, she would look at the person giving out candy and say "More, more please."

The weather was perfect for our little black kitty cat and we were able to be out for about an hour. She got a full bucket of candy and had a really great time.

Here are Ella and Mama at the beginning of the night. She was eating cookies throughout the night because she

did not want to eat dinner until after trick or treating.

Here is Ella holding Opa's hand while walking to a different house:

Here are Ella, Meena and Opa stopping for a picture in between houses:

Ella would say "trick or treat" and take candy from the bowl and put it in her halloween bucket (all while wearing her pink Dora wristband that she must have on at all times):