oh, the drama!

One minute, everyone is swinging happily...

We pause to take a picture...


After patiently inquiring what the problem was...no, not because we stopped the swings...


...but because she wanted to be beside Aunt Heather! Whew! What an ordeal. She's still pouty in this picture, but recovering nicely:)

owies and ice cream

Playing ball with Daddy

So fast!

Easily distracted:)

Just before she fell:(



She loves being a big sister!

Little banged up faceIce cream makes it okay though
Commandeering everyone's ice cream!

Definition of "Daddy's girl"

"I lubboo Mommy"

The phrase Ella has heard the most since the day she was born is "I love you". We have often asked her, "Ella, do you love Mommy/Daddy/Harper?" to which she will obligingly reply, "I love you" (or "I lubboo").

A few weeks ago, I was getting ready for work when Ella ran in and yelled, "I lubboo, Mommy!"

Melt.

It doesn't seem like THAT big of a deal since we've been practically training her to say it for her whole 2.25 years of life, BUT this time she did it on her own. So special.

I guess we (me) made such a big deal about it, it has now become somewhat more routine. She'll tell Stephen and I that she loves us every so often without being prompted. Sometimes she'll go around the room, "I lubboo Mommy, I lubboo Daddy, I lubboo Harper".

A few days ago, Harper was in her room just waking up from her nap. Ella heard her first through the monitor (she always does), ran to pick it up, and yelled into the monitor, "I lubboo Ha-pah"

:)

GERMS and our trip to the ER (Boo!!!)

I can pretty much sum up the last few months in one word: germs! We have been so sick this year! Normally, my immune system is awesome, and I rarely (if ever!) catch anything. Not this year. It started with strep throat. I had a 103 degree fever and ended up on antibiotics for 10 days. About 10 days after finishing those, I had another high ever out of no where. Just lots of congestion/drainage, etc...so I let that virus run its course. Thankfully, up to this point, the girls had been completely healthy with not even the slightest runny nose.

Ella's ordeal started on a Saturday morning. It was nothing major, runny nose and a little cough. She was playing, eating, sleeping well. By 4 o'clock that afternoon, she had a fever of 102. About an hour later, she climbed up into my lab and got really lethargic. She wouldn't say much, but just had a pitiful whine/moan, and she felt unbelievably HOT. I checked her temperature several times over the next 15 minutes and it consistently read between 105-105.5! So scary! Immediately, I feared febrile seizure so I called the pediatricians on-call service. They instructed me to go on to Children's.

Ella did so great in the ER. They drew her blood, did a flu test, a breathing treatment, and an x-ray. She listened to us and them and followed instructions so well. (even though it was past her bedtime by this point and she was feeling lousy). They ruled out flu and pneumonia. Based on all the tests, they told us it was just a nasty virus. They got her fever down to 101-102 and sent us home with breathing treatments (due to some wheezing) to do for a few days. She recovered by mid-week with just a little lingering cough. We were so scared there for a little while. I mean, that is one HIGH fever!

(Doing a breathing treatment at home)

Since then, Stephen and I have both had some "crud" we can't seem to get completely rid of. It's very likely a mix of a cold plus the allergies that have started kicking in, especially for Stephen.

Throughout all this, little Harper has only had the slightest bit of a cough and runny nose. I will take the credit for that since I'm still breastfeeding! On the other hand, that's probably the reason I have caught EVERYTHING this season. It's killing my immune system this time around. I guess I'd still choose a healthy baby over a healthy Mommy though:) On a side note, Harper has been teething like crazy so we'll see how this goes!

Ella-isms

Seeing as how I am consistently about 2-3 months behind on my blogging, I thought I'd take a break from playing catch-up and record some things Ella's been saying lately. This is such a fun stage as she learns new words and phrases almost daily! It's almost sad when she learns to say a word correctly...her version of words is always sooooo cute!

A conversation we had about a month ago:

Me: Ella, look! The sun is shining! Did you know who made the sunshine?
Ella: GOD!?!
Me: yes, that's right! Who made the sky?
Ella: God did it! Animals and birds?
Me: yup, He did that too. Who made the trees and the leaves?
Ella: (long pause) Daddy did that.

We were driving through a really nice neighborhood one night with some very large houses. Ella was in the back looking at a book. We assumed she wasn't even paying attention when she exclaimed, "ooooh, look! BIG castle!" Love her:)

Last one...for now:)

We had a really bad thunderstorm about a week ago. Ella kept looking at the sky lights and saying "Rain! Loud!" Then she paused and pointed up at it, "Loud noise?"
Me: That's thunder, Ella
Ella: Turn it off
Me: I cant turn it off. I just comes sometimes with the rain
Ella: Rain? Blender?
Me: No, Ella. It's THUNDER. Sounds like BLENder, but it's THUNder
Ella: Blender OFF!
Me: Well, Ella, it's THUNder and Mommy can't turn it off. It will go away when the rain stops
Ella: Thunder?
Me: Yup
Ella: Blender?
Me: Nope, thunder
Ella: Rain, blender LOUD. Make a smoothie?
Me: ???

Gabriella turns 2: part 2!

Even though we have our big party early, we still get to celebrate Ella's actual day! These first three are of the EXACT moment she turned 2:)Birthday ice cream! When you're two, you get two cups, right?! (No, those weren't both for her!)

Gabriella turns 2!

Let me take a break from the Christmas posts and share some fun things from Ella's second birthday. Since her birthday falls just two days before Christmas, we have decided (for now), that we will try to celebrate each year on the first weekend in December.

This year, we invited family and friends to join us for food and cake and fun! I'm thankful birthday parties are still very low maintenance at this age! Food, cake, presents, balloons...done! I'm not quite ready for the real birthday parties with games, activities, party favors, etc... I'm just not that creative!

The decorations: ("The Very Hungry Caterpillar", one of our favorite Eric Carl books!)
Ready for cake!
Friends:)
Opening presents:
Harper getting passed around:)
A family picture that actually turned out!

These boots were made for walking

So, we got Ella some new boots...and she loves them! She asks me to put them on all the time, even when we're home. She just loves to stomp around in them:) Here's an attempt to get a picture, not that she would stand still!
Harper has boots, too:)

just like Daddy

This is one of Ella's new things lately. Stephen's been gone a lot more recently with his crazy holiday schedule, and I think she just misses him! Just about every day, she wonders into our closet and comes out with something of his, usually a hat. Sometimes, she even tries to walk around in his shoes;) What can i say? This girl LOVES her Daddy!