All Quiet Again

A couple days of catching up and then we're off to Montana!
Here's Ella and her boyfriend Paul, both crying during tummy time. She had her 6-month appointment today and it's confirmed--she's a little shrimp! However, nobody seems too concerned so we'll just keep on keeping on!

All dressed up

Don and Ella!

While Laura and I made dinner, Mike played 3 hours of Monopoly upstairs with the boys and Don and Ella chilled on the couch. She was very content with him!

Aunt Laura and Ella!

Aunt Laura has been awesome, holding and cuddling Ella as well as helping me cook for all our guests. We've had manicotti, pork roast, potatoes, apple pancakes, whoopie pies--it's been an eating fest here! We also went ice skating, did Star Wars trivia, watched the Ten Commandments, and they're going mini-golfing and swimming today. Uncle Don has shoveled snow for us and gone on grocery runs. It's been pretty fun!

Jake and Ella

Jake, 6 years old, is very popular with Ella. She loves to grab his face and fingers and just stare at him! The boys are so good about holding her and talking to her. She loves all the attention!

Max and Ella!

Cousin Max, 11 years old, is a pro at baby-holding. The family is in town for their "Spring Break". Haha, spring break--and it snowed for the last three days. Go figure, it hasn't snowed here in months!

Visitor #1!

Linda Ludwig is here in Minneapolis, taking a solo road trip to shop and hang out. We went to Town Talk Diner, our favorite neighborhood spot where they actually know who we are, and ate cheese curds, milkshakes and french fries while Ella slept in her seat. What a good baby. Tomorrow Laura and family are coming to visit so we're going to be Grand Central Station for a while here!

More sleep

But she's starting to have problems falling asleep at night. Maybe it's too light in the evenings now. We'll have to look into better shades in her room! Today it was warm enough for a walk outside. We're getting ready for a big weekend of friends and family visiting (and hopefully some free babysitting so we can go see our first movie in... forever!)

More hats

Love this picture!

Uncle Craig!

We had a big day yesterday. Uncle Craig came down to visit. We bragged to him about how Ella is done spitting up... she proceeded to yak for the next 30 minutes. Guess she's still spitting up. Later one of Mike's students came over to visit, and we went out with Brian and Kim to a pub (it was packed!) and Nye's Polonaise Room, the kookiest bar in Minneapolis. Even though we were back home by 10 it was great to get out!

Mmmm...toes...

Ella's getting a little more mobile in spite of plateauing at about 14 lbs for 2 months! She waves her hands around and bonks herself in the head frequently, but takes it all in stride.

Riding high

Up on Daddy's shoulders--yes, I know I cut her head off but they were dancing. She loves watching us be silly and got a real kick out of watching me do a workout video this morning. I would laugh at me too!

Story time

Eating books is the first step towards reading them... right?

And the secret to our success is...

Sleeping baby=happy mommy=happy family!

Pretty happy!

We've been extremely lucky to have such a happy kid. I'd love to know what goes through her mind when she's in her crib singing to herself in the mornings. We'll probably start solids in the next week or so and see how that goes, but to be honest, I don't want to change anything since she seems so content the way life is now!

Almost sitting!

She's so close to sitting up on her own. Anything near her mouth gets gnawed on--hard!

Endless winter

A shot of the reindeer that are still perched on our neighbors' roof. Maybe if it was warmer than 10 degrees they would be inspired to remove it!

Just ducky

Bath time-- and a shot of our little thumb-sucker.