Capitol Steps

Thank you Steve for a great evening! We had, what felt to me, a real night out! We started with dinner:

And then on to The Paramount:

And finally, The Capitol Steps!

They didn't allow any pictures, so this is all I had, but what great seats! My face still hurt the next morning from laughing so hard.

Sleeping (Take Two)

For the last month, at least one of us has been sick at any given time. I had that virus that makes you feel like you have pneumonia but you don't so there is no remedy (except, thank God, cough medicine with codeine), Ella had pneumonia, and now Wes has I do not know what but he is miserable and I'm scared for us to get near him. On top of that Ella has started coming into our room at night and climbing into bed with us. Lately I haven't even noticed when she crawled into our bed.

So... with Wes sick we decided to put the blow-up mattress in our room so Ella and I wouldn't be near him last night should she wake up and come sleep with us (again- I do know I should bring her back to her room, but I'm so desperate for some sleep so I'm ignoring good discipline right now- check back in a couple weeks). This picture is what I found when I came out of the bathroom to go to sleep. I did put her back in her bed but sometime in the middle of the night she was back.

Carter's Mountain

Fall in Virginia

Yes, it is that time of year again ... pumpkins and hayrides! We went to Greenfield Farms and saw farm animals, hayrides, hay mazes and corn mazes. Not so many pumpkins though. Ella liked running on the hay maze the best but also ran around in the corn maze. She liked getting off the path and Wes and Steve liked (?) chasing her down. I was too busy trying to find my way out.

Night Out

Wes and I went out tonight to a Casino Night at Wes' work. I had never been to one of these so it was all new to me. Wes gambled and I hung out with my friends. Not so much a "date night" but at least we got out, right? The event was held on The Lawn at UVa so we got to see college life in full swing on a Friday night. I forgot what that was like and I have to say all those kids look much younger than I did (or maybe I'm just that much older now). Steve came over to stay with Ella (thank you GPS!) and was dancing when we left. Steve has Bear Bear and Ella has Baby Baby. That's right- we are oh so creative in naming around here.

Everyday Life

Here are some pictures from this week. The one above is this morning. Wes and I are so amazed at how big Ella looks to us sometimes. This morning was one of those times. On top of her looking big, she acts big with her "I can do it" attitude and her desire to go to Preschool. This morning I was tickling and kissing her and she straightened herself up and said, "Stop Mamma, I am going to school now." She then walked outside and tried to open the car door. I just watched her and wanted to say, "No, don't go!" and thought maybe if I pleaded hard enough with time, I could stop it. Who doesn't want that, right?

Earlier we were outside to see a home-made bottle scooter (something to do with a science experiment that probably involved baking soda) scoot down the road. It was a success. The girls squealed and Benton ran after the scooter. I don't know how Amy and Benton put that thing together, but it was really cool.

Ella and Caroline got some scooter time in too:

Dr. Mayo

We love Dr. Mayo. Actually, the entire practice, but Dr. Mayo is who we see most often and we saw her today. Ella is usually not so great in the doctor's office but today she was stellar, even asking for a repeat performance of her exam. So this is Dr. Mayo right before we got the news that Ella has pneumonia. It's the watered-down "Walking Pneumonia" type but her first antibiotic none-the-less.