Oh Where, oh Where have we been?

busy?! Like everyone I suppose! I've got a few updates, but sadly, no fun pictures to share. Maybe tomorrow? Ella saw a dr. at Children's a few weeks ago (after the 15 mo. checkup) and he said it was "classic torticollis" Well, I'm SO glad our pediatrician waited until NOW to refer us to you. Oh well. So, we did a physical therapy session that same day, and then last week Wednesday. On Wednesday, the therapist was very impressed with Ella's neck movements and range/strength and thought we'd be done sooner rather than later with therapy. The original plan was to do bi-weekly therapy appointments until December, so that is encouraging news. We have stretches to work with Ella on at home, and mostly we have to encourage her to look to her left and then hold that pose. Somedays are easier than others to get Ella to sit for those! So, we head back to the therapist next week and we'll see what happens.

Ella's not walking on her own yet, but the toy baby stroller she has might start burning lines in the carpet! She's a maniac (maniac)....it's fun to watch. And I can tell that she's really proud of herself for accomplishing a walk behind the stroller from one side of the room to the other. :) So, it's probably only a matter of time. I keep trying to catch this on video, but it's always when I'm home by myself and usually Ella steers the stroller in a crazy direction - I just don't have enough arms!

She's got all kinds of fun new words in her vocabulary. Puppy and hot are the 2 latest additions. My favorite right now is "all gone" - she says it really cute, like a question.

Check back for pictures soon!

15 months!

Ella's 15 month well visit was this morning. She now weighs 24 pounds, 2 1/2 ounces (75th percentile) and is 32 1/2 inches tall (95th percentile). She had 2 shots, which went a LOT better than any of the previous trips, so that was good! The dr. is still concerned about Ella's neck - she thinks it is still torticollis and wants us to see another dr. to talk about other therapies we can do. Otherwise, the appointment went well. Happy Labor Day weekend! We're heading to the zoo. :)

Ella's Shenanigans

So, last night this is what occupied a good amount of Ella's time.


You'll see that there were toys all over that she could have played with, but I guess making the laps (a lot of laps) was more fun! She's so funny.

Five Years....

Well, I've got a bunch of pictures to share and a few stories too. Last week Friday Jay & I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary! Those years went crazy fast. We made our annual trip up to the North Shore (Tofte - Blue Fin Bay) without Ella (gasp!). It was a fun trip, I wish it had been longer, but at the same time it was cool to have something to look forward to on the trip back to the Cities (picking up Ella!). However, I think Jay & I were both a bit disappointed in Ella's reaction (or really lack there of) upon our arrival to pick her up. She seemed confused, not really caring that we hadn't seen her for two whole days. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe that's why she was so unconcerned about the whole thing, I mean, she saw us on Wednesday when we brought her to Grandmas and she saw us on Saturday when we went to pick her up. So, there wasn't any drama. It was nice to get home though. And Ella did well sleeping at night in the pack & play, so that was a relief for us (and Jolyn & Paul)!

Here are some pics from our trip:

First night in Tofte - the moon was so cool on Lake Superior! A bunch of guests were out just lounging and watching the moon. So relaxing!

It was a beautiful sunset that night as well!

A hike we did Thursday - Lake Agnes / White Sky Rock. The lake in the back is Caribou Lake, which is developed and lots of people live around it. The guy is blue is Andy, our hike guide (although we realized while on the hike that we've already done this one!) Andy, coincidently, is a friend from college of my cousin Lance - Go Tommies. We met Andy a few years ago while staying at Blue Fin Bay. What a small world.

This is Lake Agnes, which is not developed. Very cool to see & a great hike.

Friday, the big anniversary, we headed out early to Grand Marais to check out the World's Best Donut Shop. We'd passed by a few times on previous trips to Grand Marais, but we'd never stopped in for donuts, until now. Probably the best donut(s) I've ever eaten. Yes, sadly, we both ate more than one each. Oh well. It was our anniversary, so we felt the need to celebrate. :)

This was a shot from the harbor in Grand Marais on Friday morning.

My 5 year anniversary gift. Apparently this is the only bag we had that would fit the gift. Hilarious! We follow the traditional wedding gifts every year. This year was wood. It was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be! Jay gave me a new (wooden) jewerly box. Love it! Jay got a magazine subscription (paper comes from wood, and it's a woodworking-type magazine), a (wooden) picture frame to hold a picture of us from this trip and a really cool vase I found on Etsy that's wrapped in birch wood (perfect!) and was etched/carved with J + S in a heart (ahhh.....)

Happy Five Year Anniversary to Us!

MN Zoo 2010

We took our first trip to the MN Zoo yesterday. Here are a few pics...

Ella - "Bear?"

Yes, it's a bear! One of the grizzly bears was swimming laps and we watched him (or her?) through the viewing glass, but those pictures didn't really turn out. Bummer!

Ella's 2nd encounter with goats. This was a much better experience. Here she is talking to them....well, she's calling this goat a "bear" but whatever...she'll get it sooner or later.


Ella - waving at the tiger....

Ella & Jay taking a waving break.

The tiger Ella was waving at!

Jay and a random huge fish.

At the fair

We spent the afternoon at the Dakota County Fair. Ella's first trip to a fair. It went well, although she wasn't too keen on the animals. She glanced at the cows & pigs from the comfort of her stroller.....

Didn't think much of the horses or the pigs (although I thought these 2 pigs were cute, laying there holding hoofs...dotted with flies....

Or the ducks or chickens (look at these weird rocker looking chickens!)....

And when we made it to the sheep and goats...well, she wasn't comfortable in the stroller anymore. The baa baas and meh mehs were a little much for Ms. Ella.

So in the comfort of my arms, together, we talked & waved (after getting comfortable, Ella decided it was best to wave frantically at the animals - hilarious!)

(Jay took this picture, and he says "well, at least the sheep looked at the camera!")

I guess we'll see what she thinks about lions and zebras tomorrow at the zoo!

14 Months

Ella turned 14 months yesterday 8.2.10. Seriously, where does the time go? I can't believe it. So, I thought I should update the blog since it's been a while....

Ella is 14 months. She's not walking yet, but she loves to cruise the furniture. Her latest favorite thing to do: When I am going to go to pick her up or grab her to change a diaper, she takes off crawling like she's in a NASCAR race, then stops abruptly, turns around to look at me, and starts laughing. She thinks she's very clever. I do too. It still makes me laugh.

Her hair is growing more now, although it's still that blondish red color. She's looking more like myself in younger pictures of me, even with the hair color. At some point my hair color changed, but unknown when. I have newborn baby pictures showing me looking quite "mexican" as Jay would say (very dark skin color & dark hair). Then pictures skip to sometime as a toddler where my boyish-cut hair is much lighter - similar in color to Ella's. And then I'm in elementary school with dark hair. It's a mystery. Here's Ella yesterday. Pigtails for the first time, thanks Grandma Jolyn for being beautician!