Quick Update...that turned into a not-so-quick update.

Well, I am finally getting around to posting those Easter pictures I promised. We did have a wonderful weekend going to church just the three of us and spending the afternoon in a famous city park....I just didn't get the pictures up to remember it with until now! It's funny, the cuter we think little Ellie gets, the less time we have to put up her pictures! We spent the weekend enjoying each other around the house here, in fact, only got out for a quick Mexican dinner last night and the rest of the weekend was spent rearranging and cleaning out the basement, including a trip to Goodwill (I guess you can count that as "getting out"...), cleaning the house (my dear husband did it all himself since he's leaving town and wanted to leave it nice for me this week, watching tivo-ed versions of The Office and wrestling with Ellie. As you can see from pictures, she's still VERY not interested in walking. She would much prefer to climb around, over, inside, above...anything but to actually stand on her own. Oh well, much more cuddle time for us this way.

I love her little arms.

I love her little smile. Correction. I love her BIG smile.

"Num-nums" in the park- Ellie's word for, "Yes, thank you for offering. I am hungry and would love something to snack on."
Daddy daughter date type picture...makes me think of pictures to come...first dates, homecomings, proms, corsages, sigh...

Ellie's sweet tinkerbell rattle from fashionista cousin, Manda, in NYC...but not there for long!!

Cute story of the weekend tells the story of Ellie's newest word, "Night-night". It actually sounds more like "nigh-nigh" with perhaps a shade of "nah-nah"...ahh...all the things mommys get to notice with their first baby. Anyway, she woke up very early Saturday morning so nap time started arriving a little earlier than normal, but I was enjoying my coffee still and wasn't quite ready to take her up yet. Little Ellie was ready though, mid play, she suddenly looked at me, crawled all the way up to sit on my lap, lay her head on my chest for a minute and then popped her little head back up at me and said, "Nigh-nigh". Okay precious one. Sweet baby, she was ready to rest up for the next round of playing hard!

She also seems to be popping another tooth somewhere, the drool started up again and the finger is back to hanging out of the mouth every moment of the day. Update will be coming as to what tooth this might be. She has twelve surfaced already!

Oh sweet girl of mine.
It's a bird...it's a plane...It's ELLIE!

Other family updates:

Pippy is still great, starting to adjust and cuddle up to more of Ellie's socks these days. Not going to lie, she still thinks she was meant to be an only child. They don't interact too terribly much, but we have high hopes for them. Spring is always hard on her as the rain doesn't make her morning bathroom breaks quite as enjoyable or her fluffy legs quite as lovely. Note to self, need Pippy picture updates.

Chris is well, busy at work, getting to enjoy traveling to Florida for some new clients, and, surprisingly, between house projects! He overseeded our front lawn last week and laid fresh sod over the garden we tore out last summer (growing a child is enough of a challenge for me right now, let alone growing anything green...) last weekend and after cleaning out the basement for a Craig's List purchase of a weight bench this weekend, he was full of promises of remodeling of the basement and gave me the play by play of all the great things he has planned for each square inch of the emptiness downstairs, but I've got some other things in mind before we tackle that one....new design for Ellie's room? Remodeling our bathroom? New staircase railing?

For me, I'm trying not to start the countdown yet until school's out (But it is 25 days with students and 27 days reporting for duty in case you're wondering) but am very much looking forward to luxurious peaceful mornings, long evening walks, and sunny Saturdays at the pool all with my sweet family. I do love my job though and have learned so much this year professionally. In fact, I recently took some pictures of my classroom and might post them this week. I was a part of a few book clubs this year at work trying some new strategies in Language Arts and am really excited about the progress I've made as a teacher this year. I love the challenge, the dynamic nature of everyday, the creativity teaching requires and the constant ability to tweak and grow in what I know I was meant to do.

We live a blessed life.