More Smiles...

We've been a busy family these days! The pictures of Chris are him digging a fifty foot trench from our house to the street to drain the excess water away from our foundation, and as soon as he finished that, he spent all weekend furiously building away with his dad on a fence to give us a little privacy and little Pippy some room to roam. She can't wait. He's been quite the hunk with all his hard work lately!

It's hard to believe my maternity leave is just about up! Next week is my last full week at home! I will go back and teach for two full weeks, then about a day and a half before the summer break...Ah...summer! I'm a little nervous to head back to school with having to pick up where the sub left off, keeping a close eye on the pre-middle school excitement, and, of couse, juggling the newness of how to get Ellie ready for the day and then wind her down at night. But, all in good time! I have some fabulous sitters (My mom and mother-in-law) for the two weeks, and I'm so blessed to then have the summer off with my little girl! I really am pretty excited though to see my students and send them off with hugs into the middle school years!

In Ellie news, she's been smiling up a storm! The last few days were a bit wierd and she got a bit off her routine that we've worked into, but I think today we're back to normal! Most days she sleeps until 6:30 or 7 and gets up in time to spend a little time with Daddy, eat and then go to Jazzercise with me. Afterward, she comes home to sleep for a good three hours, wakes a little for an hour or so, then sleeps again for another long nap. Most nights she's been sleeping almost all the way through, if she wakes up, it's almost always at about 2:00 or 2:30. Funny girl! We also had one of our first play dates this week with a little boy named James (7months) and a little girl named EllieAna (4 weeks). I didn't get any pictures as that was one of her funkiest days with a long 5 hour nap right smack dab in the middle of the day, but we'll do it again soon and I'll work on snapping some shots. Today she and I spent some time together enjoying her newfound smiles as you will see in the video! It might just be me, but I think they're contagious!