The Bald and the Beautiful

I love my bald baby!
Here's Ella showing off how well she eats finger food, sits up, and reads.
She can turn the page on command! It's so cool to realize that she understands what we're saying now.
We have just two weeks till we go to Michigan, and then we can all slow down a bit and enjoy camp.

New hats

Mike took Ella to Orange City for the Tulip Festival for the day yesterday, so I stuck this little Dutch baby hat on her. Now I'm in love with these hats and found another at a garage sale. Looked all day for a Burley bike trailer, but I think you have to get up pretty early in the morning to snag one of those. Besides, we still have to wait till she's a year old. Might not quite make it that long.... we miss biking together! Here's some pictures of her in the hat and in Orange City sporting her sunglasses for the first time.

The Falls

What a busy day. For my first Mother's Day, we had Paul and Chandra over for brunch. Ella played with Paul Eli, and we took a walk while the babies slept in the stroller. Tonight Brian and Kim came by for a BBQ and we took pictures at the Minnehaha Falls, finally completing the series of pre- and post-baby pics I have in a frame. She's having trouble sleeping tonight after all the catnaps!

Graduation!

We had a busy weekend with my parents in town. I offically graduated, got the doctoral hood, the whole spiel. A full-time job would be a great ending to this story but it's still being written, I suppose. Meanwhile we got lots of good family time and visited some interesting places together--the Weisman art museum, the construction of the new 35W bridge, etc.

Mummu visits

An impromptu BBQ with the family. It's finally spring!

Hanging out

Cabbage Patch Comeback

Ella's starting to like her stuffed animals a lot more--even my old Cabbage Patch Kid.