Queen of the Jungle

Today we took Elliana to the zoo again. For the most part she loved it and had a great time. She was truly queen of the jungle...her shirt says so (thanks grandma for the cute outfit).
The elephants were a different story though. The elephants were getting their bath and decided to make some noise...which caused Ellie to make some noise. Needless to say we didn't stay and see much of those noisy elephants.
While we were at the zoo mommy and daddy couldn't resist getting a UDF soft serve cone. Ellie was looking up at mommy's ice cream with longing eyes. So, mommy decided to give Ellie a taste (or two). She seemed to like it and had ice cream face to prove it!
On our way to the zoo we decided to stop by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and drop off another donation of milk to the Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio. This time we dropped of 368 ounces for a new total of 2,503 ounces! They sure do love seeing mommy and Ellie drive up with coolers full!
Only 12 more days until grandma and grandpa get home!

Swimming (kinda)...

Elliana loves bath time so much we thought we would try swimming...kinda. It's been too cold to actually go swimming so mommy thought it would be a good idea to fill up the big jacuzzi tub and try swimming. So we put on our bathing suits (and mommy got Ellie some of the swim diapers) and we went swimming. Ellie loved it!
Now we just have to wait until it is a little bit warmer so we can get a little pool for the back yard.
Other updates - yesterday Ellie had another visit with the early interventionist from Help Me Grow. They did her formal evaluation. She did great! Her language skills were 7-9 months; her self-help skills were 8-10 months; fine motor was 9-11 months; the only area lacking was gross motor which was 6-8 months only because she isn't crawling quite yet. Overall they were very happy with her progress. The torticollis they originally were seeing her for has resolved itself with the physical therapy mommy did with her! Go Elliana!
Finally, T-14 days until grandma and grandpa get home. Ellie loves you and misses you both!

Jumperoooo

Elliana had so much fun playing in her jumperoo today. She loves to bounce, jump, and turn herself around. In fact, she played 2 different times, each for over 30 minutes. Here is a mid-air action shot of our little bouncy girl.
And some video of the bouncing fun...


Elliana's other highlight of the day was her trip to Target. While that in itself isn't that exciting, it was her first time riding in a shopping cart (up in the seat like a big girl, not in her car seat stuck in the cart). And of course, mommy forgot the camera. I do suppose this is one more sign our little girl is growing up into a big girl. It all makes mommy and daddy sad!
Finally, the count: T-16 days until grandma and grandpa get home!

Birthday Dinner

Today we celebrated Pete's birthday with his dad and brother. We had a great 4 course dinner. 1. Bread with various dipping oils. 2. Arugula salads. 3. BBQ chicken (my mother-in-law's recipe), mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus. 4. Cake and ice cream. Pete had a great day spending time with Elliana.
Ellie even "helped" daddy blow out his candles on his cake (of course made by mommy).
Ellie didn't get to eat any cake though! We are saving that for her birthday.
The highlight of the day for Elliana was playing with Uncle Tony's new iPad. The piano app is very amusing...to an 8 month old! She played on the "piano" for close to 30 minutes. Here is a little clip of our virtuoso (she is playing Concerto in E Major).

I think Pete really enjoyed his day and spending time with family.
P.S. Grandma and Grandpa, Ellie misses you already!

Picture of the Day

I don't know how this happened, but green beans were everywhere!

Trying to crawl!

Ellie is trying to crawl. She pulled herself over from sitting...
Then all the way over to her knees...
She didn't make it any further than this, but it's the best she has done so far! I am so proud of my little girl. She is going to be crawling before we know it...and sooner than we would probably like!

The sweetest things...

Before I left for work Saturday, Elliana turned around to look at me and said, "mama". The sweetest thing ever!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Elliana wished her daddy a happy birthday today! We hope you had a great day Pete!

Updates!

So it's been 2 weeks since the last update...and for good reason. When I came downstairs 2 weeks ago I had the "blue screen of death" on my computer. My hard drive was dead! After a trip to the clean room in Texas and $979, they were able to recover all my pictures off the drive...whew!
Since then...Elliana's first Easter.
She looked so beautiful in her dress!
She had really improved on her sitting and rolling skills. She has figured out how to "barrel roll" and can pretty much get anywhere she wants to go. She is on the move! She is trying really hard to crawl...those legs just don't want to get under her all the way. Last Friday (April 9th) she said..."mama"!! I don't think she was really saying it referring to me, but she said it so mama is happy!
Ellie turned 8 months old this week. That is hard to believe. Where did my little baby go? She is turning into a big girl way too fast.
Ellie has been a ham for the camera for a while now, but it is getting crazy. I swear, she sees a camera and has to smile!

Her new favorite toy this week (besides the laundry basket, thanks grandma) is her purse from Uncle Geoff. She even has a bracelet, lipstick, a mirror, keys, and a dollar bill inside!
That's about it for now! More updates as they come.

Zoo Baby!

Technically Cincinnati Zoo has their Zoo Babies starting in May, but today I had my very own zoo baby! Elliana had her first trip to the zoo and she loved it!
So maybe she didn't like it as much as I thought (hint: look at her hand)! She did love looking at the gorillas. The mommy gorilla and her baby (maybe more like a toddler) were playing, and Ellie was staring the whole time!
The highlight was the ride on the carousel. She LOVED it! Mommy and daddy each got a turn holding her while she rode. She smiled in awe and amazement the whole time. That smile was priceless!
Ellie had a great time and we can't wait to take her back!

Ellie Playing

Ellie has become very skilled at getting her rings off the stack...And she sure does love to give her baby kisses. Wonder where she learned that?