Mini!

Ella loves Steve's Mini (and really, who wouldn't!). We even took a road trip to DC in it. When I was little, I would play in my Mom's two-door Corolla, spending hours in the garage getting in and out, pretending to drive, and if I was lucky and had the keys (rare), playing the radio. It was funny to see Ella doing that at two. At one point, she closed the door, looked up at Steve and me and said, "I'll be right back".

Ella and Grace in the Middle

Here's how this song goes,... Ella, Ella, Ella in the middle, let me see you jump, let me see you wiggle, turn around, and please sit down. Gracie, Gracie, Gracie in the middle.....

Ella Sitting in Grace's Lap

This is funny, especially for me because I often can not get Ella to sit in my lap...

Binky Twirl

"What in the world is a Binky Twirl?" you ask? Well, for those of you up for bar games, this may remind you of college and trying to tie a cherry stalk in your mouth...

We are Family!

Can you hear the song in your head? It is what I hear when I see Isabella, Grace, and Ella running around together. They are so sweet. Here they are running around on Dad and Nancy's tennis courts. Let me tell you- those are wonderful tennis courts. Sure a pick-up game here or there in your own yard is nice (understatement, I'm sure), but a fenced in area for the girls to run around in and I don't have to worry about Ella running away, .... PRICELESS! Can you tell I've been having trouble with Ella running away from me lately? Anyway, let me rewind to catch you up on our trip to Creek's Edge.

Our Easter plans started out with a visit to Grandpa at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Ella and I practiced her giving our name at the guard station all the way to DC. It was a fun little game and I thought she might actually do it. No such luck, but once we pulled away she started saying "Hey- Hey- my name is Ella Campbell!" Here she is with Grandpa at work:

We then met everyone at Baltimore Airport and from there headed for Creek's Edge. The girls loved running around in the tennis courts that afternoon- a great idea since they had all spent a lot of time traveling that day.

The Easter Bunny was very generous. Below are pictures of the morning. The second is of the girls dancing. Notice Ella's tights OVER her pajamas. F-a-s-h-i-o-n queen, baby!

Thank you Nancy for the cute cute Easter outfits. We all made it to church on time and the girls looked adorable. I remember Polly and I dressing alike when we were little and I couldn't wait to dress my own children alike. Thank goodness Polly has the girls so I feel like Ella gets to enjoy that. Maybe when she gets older she won't want to, but for now I get to have fun seeing them all dressed alike.

That afternoon they went on an Easter egg hunt and built a fort (translation: Nonna built a fort) and had a fun time playing in it...

Look closely at the next series of pictures, paying attention to where the egg is:

Yes- there is an egg on Hector, but Ella moves it so she can climb on Hector. When that doesn't work, she then goes for the egg. Chefs Bella and Nonna made our Easter Cake and it topped off a wonderful Easter Dinner.

Mark and I left Monday morning for work but Ella was lucky enough to stay and enjoy everyone. When I returned on Wednesday all was still intact. What a great week!

Girls Dancing

Abigail! The littles are dancing to Abigail in this video. Barry gave Ella Abigail and it has been a favorite of everyone who comes in contact with it, but especially the girls. ..

Wait!

Ella and I spent a lot of time apart today, measured in corners and a turn in the stairs. She kept saying to me, "Wait Mommy" which I didn't really understand at first. We were walking up the stairs and she held up her hand and said "Wait Mommy". Huh? I continued up the stairs only to be met with a bit of a tantrum. I then obeyed and eventually received the "Okay Mommy, it's your turn now". And the lightbulb went off for me. It's so sweet to see her interpretations of lessons she is learning. It is a good thing we occupied ourselves with this because it was raining pretty hard all day. Ella would run to the window to check and I'd be a little sad to hear, "Still raining".

We did make it out to have lunch with Steve and we were happy to see Ella likes Thai food. When we came home Ella took a long nap and woke up screaming. When I went in to get her Schroedinger ran out of her room and Ella was screaming (and I mean screaming), "NO NO SCHROJO, NOT NICE!!". Then she followed Schro and continued the reprimand. Schro looked nonplussed and ran at the first opportunity. Later we were reading books and Schro wandered over and head butted Ella and Ella loved it. Clearly no grudges here.

One last comment- you can't tell from these pictures, but those are legwarmers Ella has on. Uh huh- fashion always comes full circle!

Potty Time

I too cannot believe I am writing this. There are so many things you do when you have kids that stop you in your tracks and make you wonder if you are still a member of the human race. A few things that come to my mind are booger suckers, checking poop for color and clarity (seriously- can you even beleive I used those terms and I'm not talking about diamonds?), analyzing plastic types,... the list goes on. Today I add to this list taking a picture and writing about Ella using the potty. I'll spare everyone the details but we spent A LOT of time in Ella's bathroom. I say Ella's bathroom because I tried to move us into our bathroom (I could get a little work done in there on our cabinets) and that was a definite NO! So then I asked her if she wanted underwear and she did. Once on I asked her to let me know if she had to go to the potty. She said she would just go in her underwear. Hmmmm... what exactly is the correct response to that? Regardless, we made it back into diapers and moved on to nap time. Once she wakes up we'll either be back in the bathroom for a while or it will be like she never knew about anything called a potty.

A (Half) Day in the Life of Ella

Today I picked Ella up at school and she was playing outside with her friends. Weather wise it was a beautiful day. We went to the park and Ella counted daffodils. Daffodils in March- the beginning of March- could crash and burn but for today they were great! Heading home for dinner Ella decked herself out for the ride...

At dinner Ella shared her "surprised" and "sad" (maybe dubious is a better description) faces:

Can't you just hear her saying, "What you talking about Willis?" Moving on... bathtime had added excitement by Ella having a duck Lexy wanted:

Usually this wouldn't phase me, but I made the mistake of leaving Ella's duck in the tub when Ella and I were in her room getting ready for the bath. Can you see where I'm going with this? Lexy got in the tub, got the duck, and ended up on our bed with it. This was followed by Ella screaming "Naked Baby" and running after Lexy. She finally got her duck back (and then proceeded to taunt Lexy with it). This is my favorite time of any day- when Ella is shrieking with joy and chaos has broken loose.

After the bath it was time to practice golf. As if we didn't have enough golf going on in our house, we now have more. I sent Ella to our room to pick out books and she proceeded to pick out golf clubs. Sort of like when I send Wes to Whole Foods and he comes home with a new driver.

Okay, let's call it a night. This last picture is of Ella yelling goodnight to Lexy and Schro downstairs. Goodnight!

Matt is Home!

More pictures to come, but thanks to everyone for leaving messages asking if Matt made it home safe from Iraq. He brought this bear for Ella and she is, of course, smitten.