That's What She Said.

19/366

2012-01-19T22:03:00.003-05:00

19/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Goggles.

18/366

2012-01-19T22:03:00.001-05:00

18/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

17/366

2012-01-19T22:02:00.001-05:00

17/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Folded.

15/366

2012-01-15T15:37:00.005-05:00

15/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

This is about as macro as I can get w/my kit lens.

Prompt: Photograph in detail

14/366

2012-01-15T15:37:00.003-05:00

14/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

She felt so crummy, she fell asleep right on the sofa -- that never happens.

13/366

2012-01-15T15:37:00.001-05:00

13/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Two silly pictures for Friday the 13th.

12/366

2012-01-12T21:43:00.001-05:00

12/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Wilbur the sad cat.

11/365

2012-01-11T22:05:00.001-05:00

11/365, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Uno Moo. A fun little game we've been playing since E got it for Xmas from Grandma and Pop.

10/366

2012-01-10T23:29:00.001-05:00

10/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Money in the jar.

9/366

2012-01-09T17:43:00.001-05:00

9/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

A little bit of color on an otherwise dreary winter day.

SOOC

8/366

2012-01-09T15:00:00.001-05:00

8/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

7/366

2012-01-08T10:28:00.001-05:00

7/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

New toy!

Only the 4, but still a huge upgrade over my busted old 3G.

6/366

2012-01-06T22:23:00.001-05:00

6/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

At her request, a picture of Toodie and her.

5/366

2012-01-05T20:17:00.001-05:00

5/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

Gussy.

4/366

2012-01-04T13:59:00.001-05:00

4/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

First visit to the dentist, and she did *awesome*. Picked out a jump rope and a parachute man from the prize box :)

Taken on my iPhone.

3/366

2012-01-04T10:44:00.001-05:00

3/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

prompt: 'a fresh perspective'

2/366

2012-01-02T21:39:00.001-05:00

2/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

sunset through the trees in our backyard.

1/366

2012-01-02T05:17:00.001-05:00

1/366, a photo by applegreensea on Flickr.

I'm trying again for a picture a day this year. Hopefully, I'll make it further than I did last year!

For Christmas, one of Ella's gifts was a responsibility chart. She gets smiley-face magnets for the things she does during the week, and then if she gets a certain number, we get her some kind of treat. She LOVES it.

One of the things on the chart currently is brushing her teeth, and she does it now without a gripe or a grumble.

Autumnal activities

2011-10-24T17:13:00.002-04:00

It's October, so that means it's time to go pay way too much money for a gourd to cut, gut, and have rot on your front porch. 'Tis the season, right?

The pumpkin patch we went to this year was more of a pumpkin field, with a pumpkin house, but they had some other fun stuff to do, and we got a Groupon for it, so what are you going to do? NOT go? I don't think so.

The big attraction for Ella was the cow train. Oh, mercy.

The cow train, for the uninitiated, is just what it sounds like. It's a bunch of cow cars hooked together and towed around by an ATV. Good family fun! In fact, so much fun that she insisted on riding it a second time. She's turning into quite the little daredevil when it comes to thrill-type rides, which is strange coming from a kid who screeches when we're in the car and she thinks we're going too fast.

There was also a corn maze, huge jumping pillow (which we avoided because the line was really long), gem mining, and of course, ye olde pumpkin patch.

I believe that the pumpkin we came home with is about the size of Gussy (and if you're familiar with Gussy, that's saying something). Carving has already taken place -- I went with something Ella-friendly this year, good ol' Mickey-the-Mouse. Pics of that to come.

Caniac Carnival

2011-09-26T15:47:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday was the Caniac Carnival in Raleigh, which is a big shindig that the Canes put on to officially kick off hockey season...it's a good time -- live music, lots of bouncy things for the kids to play on, and this year, they brought back the red/white scrimmage game.

We got there about an hour before the game started, so we grabbed a couple of hotdogs and drinks (which, at this event, are the cheapest you'll be able to get them all season), and Ella decided she wanted to try some of the bouncy things.

Jon and I were a little hesitant because we've seen the crazy violent throwing around of bodies that goes on in some of these bounce devices, and Ella is not an agressive kid when it comes to stuff like that. Plus she's tiny. Also, she tends to say she wants to do big, brave stuff, only to not be quite so big and brave when it comes down to it.

But anyway, we went ahead, although we started out pretty small, with a little mini-bounce house:

Clearly, that went over pretty well.

While we'd been waiting in line, Ella had spotted a big inflatable slide near where we were standing, and had declared that she wanted to do that next. This was one of those deals where you also had to climb up the inflatable ladder/staircase to get to the top. I must have asked her 3 or 4 times if she was sure she wanted to try that one, and every time, I was met with a resounding, "Yeah!"

I was pretty convinced that Jon would have to help her up the stair ladder. With her eye issues, she had depth perception issues, and even though they've gotten better since her surgery, she's still tentative on stairs.

So we waited in line again, and when it was her turn, she stormed up the stairs without even looking back at us, and slid on down like it was her job!

Up and down!

After that, she did a couple more bounce things, and then it was almost time for the red/white game. We headed in, stopping at the team store and dropping some money -- and Jon surprised Ella with her first hockey jersey! We were a little bit more excited about it that she was, though. I don't have a good picture of her with it on yet -- soon!

We only stayed for the first period of the game, but it was fun, and great to see live hockey again after having not been to a game in such a long while.

Goal!

The reason we only stayed one period is because earlier, Ella had spotted what she referred to as "the spin". And she would NOT let up about wanting to go ride it. Basically, it was this thing with 4 seats and handlebars out in front of each seat that the riders would pump to propel the ride (sometimes sickeningly fast) around in a circle.

We thought at first that there was a height restriction, but I checked with a volunteer, and she confirmed that there wasn't. So we waited, and tried to make sure that Ella really know what she was getting into.

The gals who were running the ride did a good job of pairing up people kind of in the same age group, so Ella was with 3 other younger girls...no chance of anyone getting slung off the ride.

Once she got on the ride, I think she was a little nervous -- no smiles or anything -- but when she got off, she said it was fun! She couldn't really reach the handle to help pump, but she tried. It was cute.

And so ended our day of fun -- we hit The Cheesecake Factory for lunch on the way back, and the poor kid was so worn out, she didn't eat anything, and fell asleep before we were on the highway. If that's not the sign of a good day, I don't know what is.

Back to school!

2011-09-10T16:13:00.000-04:00

So Ella started back to school this past Thursday -- can I get an amen? Don't get me wrong -- the kid is fabulous, but Mommy needs a little bit of ~~sanity~~ time to ~~sleep~~ get things done.

She was totally excited to go back, which was nice to see. Anytime we drive by her school (which is at the local Friends Meeting), she makes sure to broadcast loud and clear that that's her school over there. It's pretty cute.

Her teacher said she's matured a lot over the summer. She's much more willing now to ask for something she needs or wants. I was really happy to hear this, because to say she's not an assertive child is an understatement.

Anyway, here she is just before we left the house:

Yep, that's my nutty kid.

At the playground (y'know)

2011-08-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

Playing in the sprinkler.

2011-08-13T17:22:00.000-04:00

Mom and Dad got Ella a sprinkler to play in over at there house, so when we were over the other night, I took her swimsuit along so she could give it a try.

Since she was a little unsure at first, Pop took her through a few times.

Then she started getting a little braver.

And wetter.

After awhile, she didn't even want to go in, even though she was freezing (and had to pee!).

Fun times :)

Ella-isms

2011-08-01T22:51:00.002-04:00

This kid of ours come up with some doozies some times.

In Ella-speak, we have:

-buckleseat (seatbelt)
-shiny (bright, usually referring to the sun)
-crunchies (chips at a mexican restaurant)
-OJ Lance Rock (DJ Lance Rock, the human on Yo Gabba Gabba)

And sometimes, she provides us with words of wisdom.

Tonight, she advised that one should never, ever put the popcorn in your toes. Last week, she let me know that you should never, ever put the toothbrush in your nose.

Funny girl we've got here.

Three years!

2011-07-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

Can you believe that this itty-bitty...

...turned THREE this past Tuesday?

Yeah.

When did that happen again?

The official party isn't until this Saturday, so on Tuesday, we went to lunch at Jason's, then to the Greensboro Children's Museum (which was great, except for all the daycare/daycamp groups that were being allow to run amok with ZERO supervision).

She had a really fun time at the museum. She went shopping in the market:

Look, mom -- an artichoke!

played receptionist:

and read with Daddy (although that didn't last more than a couple of pages...way more exciting things to do).

After dinner at Elizabeth's (birthday girl's choice), we went over to Grandma and Pop's house for cake and the ever-important birthday song.

All in all, a happy day for a happy kid.

Flag cake!

2011-07-09T13:01:00.000-04:00

Hey, why don't you go check out my Fourth of July flag cake over on my baking blog?

Fourth of July balloon wreath

2011-07-01T16:46:00.000-04:00

So I saw this idea for a balloon wreath awhile back on Pinterest, and thought it was cute. Since July 4th was coming up, I decided to try it out with a red, white, and blue theme.

You need a straw wreath form (but don't unwrap it), greening pins, which are these things:

You can find these in the "Floral Accessories" section at Michael's.

and a crapload of balloons.

Bag o' balloons.

I bought 3 bags of 72 each, which was more than I needed, but since I needed one bag of each color, that was my best option.

Once you have all your stuff, take a balloon and a greening pin. Wrap the balloon around the middle of the pin, kind of like this:

Then stick the pin in the wreath.

Do this a lot, basically until your wreath is as full as you want it, or until you're out of balloons.

When you're done, you'll end up with something that looks like this:

See the reflection of our flag in the middle of the wreath? You like how I did that, don't you?

Pretty cute, huh? It was a little time consuming jamming all those balloons on there, but it was super-easy to do, and if your kids are a bit older than Ella, they can help out, too. (The pins are a little sharp, though.)

You can see the original birthday balloon wreath here.

Ella's Eyes

2011-06-23T22:21:00.000-04:00

I'm sort of working backwards here on the things that have been going on lately, so if something seems out of order, it's just kind of because my brain is working out of order. Not that my brain IS out of order. Wait a minute...

Anyway.

Ella had surgery on her eyes last week to correct the exotropia (outward drifting) that we were seeing. The patching that we'd tried didn't work, and the drift had progressed to a point that her doctor wanted to go ahead and proceed with the surgery.

It was an outpatient procedure, and didn't take long at all -- less than an hour -- but it was still pretty nervewracking for me. I mean, it was surgery. She had general anesthesia, an IV, was intubated -- the whole nine.

Awesome surgery pajamas. The pants kept falling off her.

I have to tell you, though. This kid of ours is a trooper. A serious trooper.

We had to be there at the ass-crack of dawn (6am), and of course, Ella couldn't eat any breakfast -- she didn't gripe or whine, though.

She never cried through any of the pre-op stuff with a bunch of doctors and nurses she'd never met before. She even had to do a neublizer before getting the anesthesia, and she did great with it.

And she was pretty much back to her regular self that same evening.

If it had been me? I'd have needed a week off work -- at least -- to recover. (Yes, I'm a wimp. Shut up.)

The only real trouble we ran into was with the ointment that we had to put in her eyes twice a day for a week. That was not a hit. Eyelids, as I learned, can be very, very strong when they are squeezed closed. However, a little bribery from Grandma did the trick, and she was fairly cooperative after that. (Reward: her very own pink VTech computer. Woo!)

We went back for her post-op check today, and the doctor said she's healing well, that and everything looks good. She goes back in six weeks for another check.

Third time's a charm.

2011-06-21T20:01:00.001-04:00

It took me three separate trips to the library to get a card.

First time, their systems were down.

The next, I didn't have anything with our current address on it.

Today, I had my new driver's license and was NOT denied. Win.

And I fully admit that one of the books I checked out was a children's book by Michael Ian Black. I got it not so much because I wanted to read it to Ella, but because I wanted to read it myself. *labels self 'DORK'*

Aside from library hijinks, a lot has been happening since the last post I made about the Highland Games, and I've been catching a little flack from various people (cough*DAD*cough) about not updating. So I'll have a major epic post in the next day or so -- or maybe a couple of not-as-epic posts.

Triad Highland Games

2011-05-01T10:12:00.000-04:00

I got a deal on Groupon last week for 2-for-1 tickets to the Triad Highland Games. We'd never been, so we thought it might be a fun thing to check out.

There were loads of vendors, including one selling:

Yes, those are haggis-flavored chips. I tried them -- they weren't bad! I wasn't brave enough to try the real deal, though, which was being sold at another stand. No thanks. I'm only brave to a point.

I enjoyed watching the dancers -- Jon, not so much, but he put up with it for awhile.

We watched some really strong guys heave a 58-pound weight over a bar. Well, some of them heaved it over the bar. Some of them just heaved it.

Ella pumped up with an IRN-BRU:

And there were bagpipers and drummers there as well.

All in all, good family fun, even though I came home w/a somewhat nasty sunburn :( Boooo me.

Birthday Crazy.

2011-04-27T16:59:00.001-04:00

Ella is obsessed -- seriously obsessed -- with birthdays.

It's driving me to madness.

I think it started when we went to Griffin's party last November. Kim videoed some of the party and put the clips on YouTube, including when everyone sung "Happy Birthday" and Griffin blew out the candles on his cake. Those videos have been viewed by Ella more times than I can even think about (usually when she's over at Grandma and Pop's).

Since then, we celebrate *multiple* birthdays -- every.single.day. Sometimes it's her birthday. Sometimes it's MY birthday. Sometimes it's both of our birthdays together. Sometimes it's Curious George's birthday. And on...and on...ad infinitum.

It's really the "Happy Birthday" song itself that's doing me in, I think. Because it has to be sung every time, of course. (Sometimes I'm allowed to sing, but most of the time I'm told sternly, "Don't sing!") Usually, one birthday celebration requires more than one singing of the birthday song.

I really don't think she'll know what to do with herself once her birthday rolls around in July. Her head might explode or something.

Bunny Day

2011-04-23T09:38:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday was Bunny Day at the Natural Science Center, and despite the buckets of rain that started pouring down about 10 minutes before we left, we headed out anyway...we'd been telling Ella she had a surprise coming, and it would have been pretty crappy to let her down.

The rain probably kept some people away -- it wasn't crowded at all, which was nice.

We saw lots of bunnies...

...Ella got her face painted like a bunny...

...and she met the Easter Bunny (who, I should mention, I believe is the creepiest of all the costumed characters).

All in all, good family fun -- two bunny paws up.

Finally, a decision.

2011-04-17T12:46:00.000-04:00

Last week, Jon and I were in Salt Lake City. Jon's work sent us (and some other employees as well) out there to check out the city, see if we thought we could live there, etc.

It was a heckuva long flight out thre, and on the long leg from Atlanta to SLC, we were not able to sit together and both stuck in middle seats -- the WORST. Ugh.

We got in around 6:30pm local time, and found it was snowing. Wha? Neither of us really brought appropriate clothing, as the forecast hadn't mentioned snow. But snow it did -- all weekend.

It's hard to get a real feel for a city when you're stuck on a bus for most of the time you're there. Even harder when it's snowy and foggy the whole time. We didn't have a ton of time to explore on our own, either -- the weekend was crammed pretty full. We did go down to Temple Square one evening, and wandered around for about 10 minutes, before someone came up to us and told us they were ready to shut the gates for the night, and could we please leave? Ha.

The Temple was smaller than I expected.

Overall, we liked the city, and when we could actually *see* it, it was really pretty. There are mountains on two sides of the city, and those make for some stunning views. All the people we met there were really nice as well.

We could finally see the mountains -- from the plane on the way home.

Ultimately, though, we decided that even though we liked it out there, and we definitely want to go back for a *real* vacation, it wasn't the place for us right now, and we're going to stay in NC. There were lots of good reasons for us to move, but far more reasons for us to stay. So that's what we're doing, and frankly, I'm thrilled :)

More on Jon's job

2011-03-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

I think I mentioned a few posts back that Jon got a call from his boss when were in FL to tell him that the center he works at is closing. That wasn't anything that we were ever expecting, and sort of put us into a tailspin.

Turns out, though, that things aren't as *quite* as bad as we initially expected. Yay?

Really, though, the company is doing a *lot* for their employees, including super-generous severance packages, the opportunity to work virtually for some people, or the option to relocate to one of their other three centers in Phoenix, Ft Lauderdale, or Salt Lake City.

We did a good amount of research, went to relocation seminars at Jon's work, and after weighing everything out, it seems like Salt Lake City is going to be the best fit for us. Who would have thought it? We're actually pretty excited. Or as excited as you can be when your hand is forced like ours is being, I guess.

Jon's busy interviewing for various positions right now, and we don't have any sort of timeframe at this point -- it's sort of been just "hurry up and wait". It's a little frustrating for me, since I have zero control over the situation, and have very little information -- I tend to be kind of Type A about stuff like this.

But anyway, the company is sending us on a scouting trip of sorts next month -- flying us out, putting us up for a few nights, and letting us get a general feel for the city and the center Jon would be working in. Pretty nice. And we'll get to meet with our real estate person while we're out there and get an idea of some housing options, too.

So that's where we are with that. Not a ton of information, really, but I'll update more as we know more.

WDW Redux

2011-03-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

This is long overdue, I know, but better late than never?

Anyway.

The trip down there (which I should mention was Ella's first flight ever) was awful. Hellacious. We were meant to fly out of Greensboro around 11am. Our flight got pushed back once, and then again, because it couldn't leave Atlanta due to mechanical issues. At that point, we wound up taking a shuttle (paid for by Delta) to Raleigh to catch a non-stop flight from there to Orlando -- and THAT flight was delayed as well, as they had no crew for the plane.

We legitimately could have driven to Orlando in the time it took us to finally get to our hotel. It was about 12 hours.

And you know, I have to say, Ella probably did the best out of all of us with the whole ordeal. She was a real trooper. The rest of us were grousing and complaining, and she just took it in stride.

Outside of that (and the phone call Jon got the next day regarding the center closing), we had a really great time.

Ella *loved* meeting the characters. We were unsure how she would feel about this, since she'd only seen them on TV and in books and whatnot up to this point, but she didn't even hesitate. Everyone got big hugs, high fives, and kisses on the nose (or beak or whatever). She wasn't as into the face characters, but I suspect that's because she's just not as familiar with them as the animated ones. But overall, this was definitely the highlight of the trip for her, I think.

She went on a bunch of rides, too -- the teacups were a major hit. We must have ridden those five times. She also rode her first roller coaster -- Goofy's Barnstormer. That one was not quite as popular, but it was over before she had a chance to really get upset about it.

Overall, an awesome trip -- the food was excellent, the weather was great, the crowds were low, and our suite at the Animal Kingdom Villas was amazing. Can't ask for much more than that.

I'm *still* working on getting my pictures edited (I took over 600!). We did order the PhotoPass CD, and a bunch of those turned out really great. Once I get them uploaded onto this computer, I'll add a few.

The past month and a half.

2011-02-22T06:24:00.001-05:00

Well.

It's been a little nuts around here lately.

Here's what's been going on:

We took Ella on her first trip to Walt Disney World, which was fantastic. Mom and Dad went with us, too, and we had a great time. More on that later, plus pictures.
I completely fell off the "picture a day" bandwagon. Boo me.
We found out that the center where Jon works is closing by the end of the year. Oh, mercy -- serious panic mode, especially given that Jon got the call from his boss on the first day of our vacation.
Since then, though, we've found out that the company is being *extremely* generous with relocating employees to their three other centers (Phoenix, Ft Lauderdale, and Salt Lake City), and are offering home-based positions as well. We're still exploring the options -- no final decisions have been made yet, but right now, there's a pretty good chance we'll be Utah residents by the end of the year. More on this later as well, as we find out more information, and decisions are made.

I think that brings us fairly up to speed, and now March is just around the corner. Sheesh.

018/365

2011-01-27T05:42:00.001-05:00

018/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Ella ready for her very first airplane ride (after a VERY long day of delays and alternate airports).

She did great, by the way. The return trip, on the other hand, was not so good.

015/365

2011-01-26T20:13:00.001-05:00

015/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Olivia and Gracie riding the parachute at Gracie's b-day party.

014/365

2011-01-14T22:23:00.001-05:00

014/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Wilbur, trying to have a nap, but busy being harassed by me taking his picture.

2.5 years!

2011-01-12T23:56:00.001-05:00

Ella is two and and half years old today, which really just blows my mind when I stop and think about it for a minute. Has it really been that long? Man.

I don't have any pictures to post today, as she and I have both been dealing w/a nasty little stomach bug for the past couple of days. Soon, though.

So what's Ella like these days?

Can recognize almost all of her letters. There are a few that still throw her off (C, h, r), but she really has them down pat for the most part.
Loves school. Loves it. She sings songs from school all the time, talks about her friends there, calls them on the phone, etc.
Knows all the basic colors now. Finally, everything has stopped being blue!
Will argue with you about anything. If I say the sky is blue, she'll say (ever so cutely), "No, it's not!" It can be annoying, and mostly, I've learned to just give up and say, "Okay, you're right." This strategy does not apply to things like nap time and baths, however.
Has developed an obsession with Toy Story recently, and must watch "Buzz and Woody" (either part 1 or 2) daily. This is particularly excited to Jon and me, since we're taking her on her first trip to Walt Disney World very soon...we can't wait to see her reaction when she's able to see them in person.
Some of her funny/cute expressions: "My goodness gracious!", "For heaven sakes", "I'm sorry 'bout dat."

012/365

2011-01-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

012/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Icicles. They were melting so fast today, it looked like someone was just pouring streams of water from our roof.

011/365

2011-01-12T22:22:00.001-05:00

011/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Under the weather today, as was Ella.

Would rather have spent the day here...

010/365

2011-01-10T22:38:00.001-05:00

010/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Second verse, same as the first.
A little bit colder and a little bit worse.

This is the 3rd bout of winter weather we've had already this season. I think Mother Nature didn't get the memo that we who live in the South don't tend to appreciate snow, ice, freezing rain, etc.

This was take from my front porch.

Sicky.

2011-01-09T22:14:00.001-05:00

Evidently, something Ella had last night at dinner didn't agree with her, and she woke up at 2:30 am, having thrown up all over herself. It was the first time we'd had this happen, and understandably, she was a little freaked out (as were we). I felt terrible for her, b/c she just didn't get what was going on and was so upset.

Jon and I made a good team -- he got her bed and room cleaned up, and I got her cleaned up. She didn't want to go back to sleep right away, so we sat up for about an hour until she felt comfortable enough to lay back down. She slept through the rest of the night with nary a peep, thankfully.

It seems like it was just a one-off thing...even though she clearly felt a little out of it earlier in the day, she kept everything down that she ate, and by the end of the day, she was pretty much back to 100%.

009/365

2011-01-09T21:54:00.001-05:00

009/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Spare change.

008/365

2011-01-08T21:54:00.001-05:00

008/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

The sun was shining through the bottle of olive oil that we keep on our stove, and it cast a neat yellow shadow.

006/365

2011-01-07T22:35:00.005-05:00

006/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Cosmo-dog.

He'll be 10 years old this year, and you can definitely see his age in the gray on his muzzle. He's still pretty spry, though -- having a pesty younger brother keeps him on his toes (claws)?

007/365

2011-01-07T22:35:00.004-05:00

007/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

The one snap I got this evening where she was sitting still, smiling reasonably, and not 2" away from the camera.

Ah, two-year-olds :)

Bath Time.

2011-01-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

005/365

2011-01-05T09:57:00.002-05:00

005/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Jon brought me home this rose almost a month ago, and somehow, it's still hanging on. In fact, until I started moving it around a bit today, it hadn't even lost any petals (two fell off).

004/365

2011-01-04T22:19:00.002-05:00

004/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Fingers crossed.

$353 million would be a pretty nice way to start out 2011, don't you think? :)

003/365

2011-01-03T20:08:00.002-05:00

003/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Snack Time -- animal crackers and milk make for a post-nap treat.

This is Ella's snack of choice these days. She goes through phases. I hope this one lasts awhile -- the animal crackers came from Costco, so we have a lot to plow through :)

002/365

2011-01-02T21:26:00.002-05:00

002/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Ella remembered me taking my picture yesterday of my drink, and was very insistent that I take a picture of her with her milk tonight.

Hence, what we have here.

White Christmas

2011-01-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

I didn't mention in my previous Xmas post, but we actually had a white Christmas this year! It was pretty magical -- it started snowing around 11am, and went for almost a full 24 hours. We wound up with around 6" or so, I guess.

It was the first white Christmas I'd seen, and I think they said on the news that it was actually the first one here since 1967 or something like that. Pretty cool.

These pictures were actually taken the day after Christmas, after everything had stopped falling from the sky.

001/365

2011-01-01T21:48:00.002-05:00

001/365
Originally uploaded by applegreensea

Since I want to learn how to better use my new camera, I joined a Project 365 on Flickr this year. Basically, it's a photo a day, every day, for the whole year.

I figured that along with posting on the Flickr group, I'd blog my photos as well.

I hope I can stick with it.

Anyway, this is today's photo.

Happy New Year.

Christmas Redux 2010

2010-12-28T12:07:00.000-05:00

Christmas has come and gone again -- all expect for the tree, which will be taken down after the new year.

This was the first year that Ella really "got it", I think, although the whole Santa thing was still a little fuzzy. Despite our efforts, we did not wind up taking her to see him. If we had, she might have connected the dots a bit more. She knows who he is though -- any time she would see him on the TV or where ever, she'd say "Dat's Santa!" So it wasn't completely lost on her.

She enjoyed her presents a lot this year -- the biggest hits were the play kitchen that Santa brought, and the bike (tricycle) that Grandma and Pop got her.

Opening presents with her was funny. When we would ask her what she got, the response was sometimes, "It's a box!" or "I got...this!" Even if she wasn't sure what she had, she was excited about it nonetheless, which was really cute.

Here are a few photos from Christmas Eve at my parents' house, and Christmas morning at home:

New bike!

New books!

Bakin' cookies.

Unwrapping.

Hope everyone else had a great Christmas as well!

My New Toy.

2010-12-21T11:53:00.004-05:00

With our pending trip to Walt Disney World with Ella and my parents (Ella's first trip, and the first time in about 20 years that my parents have been), Jon and I decided that it was time to upgrade our camera. Jon gave me the little Olympus point-and-shoot we'd been using about 2 or 3 years ago, and the quality of the pictures just wasn't where we wanted it to be...especially when trying to shoot a 2.5 year old who's constantly on the move.

So after much -- MUCH -- research, mostly on Jon's part, and visiting several local stores to try out the options in person, we finally decided on this bad boy:

The Sony Alpha 290a.

My very first DSLR -- be still, my itchy shutter finger.

I've only had it about a week, so clearly, I've got lots and lots and lots to learn. But boy, I like this camera. I like it a lot.

Here are a few shots I've taken in the past week.

She's not drugged, she just can't NOT blink.

Fevers and boo-boos.

2010-12-18T22:41:00.000-05:00

So Ella has spiked a fever the last two weekends in a row. Not fun, especially given that it's happening on when we could/should be out doing stuff, and really weird, since I can't figure out what's causing it. This weekend wasn't as bad (100.3 vs last weekend's high of 102.9), and it usually dissipates within 24 hours, with the help of some infant Tylenol. But it's still a bit disconcerting, and you can tell she just doesn't feel well on the whole.

She's also discovered the allure of Band-Aids this past week. She cut her finger at school on Wednesday -- her teacher wasn't sure exactly how it happened, and Ella wouldn't commit to anything more specific than it was a toy that did it. Since then, though, the injured finger has required a Band-Aid at all times, even though now, it's pretty much healed up. Boring Mommy doesn't have fun character Band-Aids like they have at school, but the plain ones will do in a pinch. (Blame Costco. We bought one of their ginormous packs of Band-Aids back before she was even born, and we still haven't used them up. I refuse to buy new ones until we're down to at least one box. That could take until she's in middle school.)

So between the fevers and the boo-boo, it's been sort of a rough week for the kid. She's a trooper, though.

School's out for Xmas break starting this coming Tuesday, and the last day of Little Gym until the New Year was today. I hope the weather improves over what we've been having so far this month so we're able to get out of the house and DO some stuff over the next couple of weeks.

Christmas Photos

2010-12-09T07:52:00.000-05:00

These scanned in kind of funky, but the prints look normal!

I was really happy with how these turned out. This is the first year I've had *actual* holiday pictures taken of her, and they did a great job. Ella was really cooperative, too.

We actually wound up with an extra pose, too. We'd only requested the 2nd and 3rd ones here, but when I was showing them to Mom and Dad later that evening, they noticed there was an extra one in there. Nice.

Now to get them into Christmas cards and in the mail!

Photos are copyright of Portrait Innovations.

Conversations.

2010-11-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Me: Where do you think Daddy works?
E: Um...um...Target.
Me: Daddy doesn't work at Target! Where does he work?
E: Shopping.
Me: That doesn't even make sense! You know where Daddy works.
E: (With conviction) Little Gym!

----------

E: (Urgently) Need to sing A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P. (She then proceeds to start singing, having gotten through the full title of the song appropriately.)

----------

Me: Careful, don't lay on Wilbur and squish him.
E: Squish him into food!
Me: That is not a great idea. We shouldn't eat the cat.
E: No....
Me: Probably a little stringy.
E: Yeah...

28 months!

2010-11-12T16:30:00.001-05:00

I stopped doing Ella's monthly update posts once she turned two, but I figured maybe a quarterly check-in might not be a bad thing. She's changing *so* much these days, it's just crazy.

She can sing her ABCs (as evidenced by the video I posted awhile back -- she's much clearer and faster now), and LOVES to do so. Many times a day. She's starting to recognize some of the letters as well.
In addition to the ABCs, she's a big fan of singing in general. Other popular songs: "Wheels on the Bus", "If You're Happy and You Know It", "Old MacDonald", and "Rock A Bye Baby", and several different ones that they sing at school. She's also been known to make up her own tunes from time to time.
She can count to 12, and sometimes will try and throw some random "-teens" in afterward, including the newly discovered "forty-teen". She doesn't quite get the actual concept of counting THINGS yet, though. I'll ask her to count a group of whatever, and she'll just start reeling off the whole list.
Within the past week or so, she's just barely become tall enough to hit most of the light switches in our house, if she REALLY reaches. Since she's found out she can do this, turning the lights on (and sometimes off) has become her life's work. Seriously, the child cannot pass a light switch without trying to flip it, and if she can't reach, I have to heft her up. I shudder to think of our future light bills.
She has an independent streak a mile wide. (I simply can't imagine where she gets that.) She does not want your help, so don't bother asking, or heaven forbid, TRYING to help. That only gets you a looped chorus of "No-no-no-no-no-no-no." As a result, everything takes forEVER to accomplish, and it sometimes, as I told Jon the other night, feels like you are trying to nail Jell-O to a tree.
School continues to be a big hit. She talks about going all the time, and she knows the days of the weeks that she goes on now as well. She also loves to go to Little Gym, and is starting to get braver and try more things there.
Potty-training was surprisingly easily, and aside from the random accident, she's pretty much 100% daytime trained now. She's even using the BIG potty these days. I have yet to tackle night-time training, and quite frankly, am not even sure how to go about it. For now, I'm quite content having her in a diaper overnight and during nap time.

So that's pretty much where we are these days! ~~I'll try to add a couple-three photos later on~~.

Here are a couple-three photos:

Happy Halloween (a few days late).

2010-11-10T15:40:00.002-05:00

This was the first year that Ella actually got into Halloween. She was definitely excited to dress up ("Need dress up like Awice!"), and the idea of candy in a bucket -- well, that was just about the best thing anyone could have suggested to her.

Jon and I decided she's still a little young for actual trick-or-treating, but she did have a couple of parties -- we went to one the Thursday before Halloween at the Natural Science Center, and on Friday, her preschool had a party as well. It didn't take her long at all to

catch on to the idea of playing games and getting candy.

She went as Alice in Wonderland, and I was happy with her costume. We'd tried to find one that was a slightly different style when we were in FL, but it wasn't available in a XXS. As it was, her costume kept wanting to slip off her shoulders, so I'm glad we didn't buy the other one in a bigger size. She'll be able to wear it when we take her to WDW in January as well, so that's a nice bonus.

WDW Trip Report Day 2 - Epcot

2010-11-09T22:15:00.005-05:00

On Wednesday, Jon and I headed over (not too early in the morning, though) to Epcot. We had major plans for the Food and Wine festival, which unfortunately, didn't really come to fruition -- more on that later.

We started out going on the "new" Nemo ride at The Seas -- new to us, I should say. We've visited several times since the ride was added, but had just never made it over there before. It was pretty impressive. The technology used apparently took a really long time to develop, and having seen it, I can understand why. Very cool stuff. The ride drops you off in the aquarium portion that was there before the ride existed, and we spent some time looking at the manatees and sharks and whatnot.

Since we got to the park sort of late-morning, and had to wait a while to exchange our vouchers for our annual passes, we were coming up on our lunch reservation. We decided to head back to the World Showcase and start the trek to Italy, stopping in a couple of shops along the way in Canada and the UK.

Lunch was at Via Napoli in the Italy pavilion, which had just opened a couple of months or so ahead of our visit. The restaurant was lovely on the inside -- a nice big open space, gorgeous wooden beamed ceilings, and three fantastic wood-burning ovens. We were seated on the back wall, so we had a good view of everything.

The dining plan worked a little differently here, so we wound up each getting an appetizer (calamari for Jon and the arancini for me), and then we shared our two entrees -- the shrimp Caesar salad and the quattro formaggi pizza.

Jon and I both were pretty excited about eating here, and I think we both were pretty underwhelmed. The food was good -- don't get me wrong. But it wasn't great, and if we hadn't been on the dining plan, I think we would have felt really ripped off. Jon did really enjoy his dessert, though, which was the gelato frizzante (and Italian ice cream soda). And I will say, the service was outstanding. We were taken care of by about three different people, and our main waiter, Andrea, clearly knew how to earn a good tip with the ladies -- he was chatty and flirty, and very easy on the eyes. (Sorry, Jon.)

After lunch, we wandered through the rest of the World Showcase. Jon grumbled about Disney's newest moneymaker, Duffy the Bear, whenever he saw any of his merchandise. My threat to make him have his picture taken with Duffy and wear the "I Hugged Duffy" sticker, sadly, did not come to fruition. We also made our one and only Food and Wine stop at the Poland kiosk. We were just too stuffed from lunch to do much damage otherwise. We shared (although Jon drank most of it) a Belvedere Strawberry Balsamic Chiller, which was as odd as it sounds.

After a ride (at my request) through Spaceship Earth (which for some odd reason was the ride I had been thinking about the most before our trip), we headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit. I should mention here that it was HOT while we were down there -- we had planned for a bit cooler weather than we actually had. So we wound up going back to the hotel and taking showers each day before dinner.

Full moon over the Boardwalk

We headed back to the Boardwalk and hung out there a little while before heading to dinner on the other side of the lake at the Yachtsman Steakhouse. We'd eaten there once before, were very impressed, and were looking forward to our return visit.

We were seated in a small alcove off the main dining room with only three other tables, which was nice and cozy. Only one other table in our room even had kids, and they were very well-behaved!

On a quest to be somewhat adventurous with my food on this trip, I decided to branch out and try the escargot to start. I'd only ever ordered escargot once before, and when it arrived to the table, I was unable to eat it. However, that was a number of years ago, and I've branched out a lot since then, culinarily speaking, so I was excited to give it another shot. I have to admit, they were not what I was expecting at all, but the flavor grew on me, and they were pretty dang tasty! (I expect that the very liberal dousing they got in the garlic-herb butter helped out with that.) Jon started out with the charcuterie board, and I can't find a listing for the components online, but I recall some sort of venison sausage, maybe? From the looks of my picture, there was also some proscuitto and a cheese with some manner of jam. He seemed happy with the whole spread. And yes, it really was brought out on a board -- good thing, as we both would have been disappointed otherwise :)

For entrees, we had -- you guessed it -- steak. Jon went with the New York strip, and I chose the filet mignon. Both good, but not the sort of knock-your-socks-off steaks that we remembered having the first time we were there.

When dessert came around, we ordered the same thing again (two times in two meals!), which was the trio of Valrhona chocolate. We were both tempted by the description of "salted caramel". Yum.

All in all, lovely, if very hot day. For Day 3, we planned to head over to the park we visit the least: Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 1

2010-10-29T07:40:00.001-04:00

For our 5th anniversary, Jon and I decided to splurge a bit and take a few days for ourselves at Walt Disney World. It only made sense -- we were engaged there, and spent part of our honeymoon there.

So last Tuesday, 10/19, having deposited Ella at Grandma and Pop's, and the dogs at the vet's for boarding, we headed to Raleigh to catch our 1:00pm (direct!) flight to Orlando. Our flight was somewhat late in leaving -- never a fun way to start off a trip. But I guess the pilot was able to make up some time in the air, as we arrived only about 20 minutes later that originally planned.

When we arrived, we collected our luggage and made the long trek from Terminal A to B, so that we could catch our ride on Disney's Magical Express. This was our first time using this service, and as it was free, I really have no complaints about it at all. (I should mention that normally, when using the DME, you don't even have to worry about collecting your own luggage. It's done for you and brought right to your room. However, we waited 'til the 11th hour to sign up for it, as we were hoping to get a cheap rental car, and because we waited, we didn't get the special DME luggage tags in time.) The bus was there waiting for us, so we were able to get right on (and in typical Disney fashion, the process was super-efficient and organized), and the ride went by quickly -- they showed a cute video with the characters all about the check-in process and whatnot, followed by an old Donald Duck cartoon.

Our home base for the next few days would be the All-Star Sports Resort -- crossing another resort off our list in our quest to eventually stay at all of them. (So far, we are at 9.) I had used the online check-in service, another first for this trip, which was wonderfully convenient. There was no line at the check-in desk, so we had all of our documents and information in no time at all. We had booked a standard room, but were upgraded to a preferred room, which turned out to be in the building right next to the main building -- a nice treat, and not expected at all.

Since we arrived so late in the afternoon, we opted not to hit a park that day, and instead killed a little time at Downtown Disney before heading over to the Boardwalk. We had dinner booked that night at the Flying Fish Cafe, and I have to admit, I was leery. I'd gotten *really* sick after eating here a few years ago, and was definitely nervous about going again. However, Jon is a big fan of the place, and he finally talked me into it.

I wasn't disappointed. In fact, it was one of the best meals I've had in a long time.

The "cafe" wouldn't light up for me at the right time. Hmph.

I started out with the Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala, "Ugli Ripe" Beefsteak and Tiny Florida Grape Tomatoes -- your basic caprese salad, more or less, which is always hard for me to resist when I see it on the menu. Deeeelicious. Jon had the Signature Flying Fish Cafe "Crispy Maine Coast Jonah Crab Cake" - Savory Vegetable Slaw, Roasted Red Pepper Coulis, and Ancho Chile Rémoulade" to start, and said it was quite good as well.

For entrees, we did something we hardly EVER do -- we ordered the same thing: Oak-grilled Maine Diver Scallops - Pumpkin, Sage, Pecorino Romano and Mascarpone-laced Risotto di Carnarolli, with Proscuitto di Parma Cracklin'. (When we were planning our meals, this was actually the dish on the menu that convinced me to give them another try.)

Oh my, oh my! This was so, SO good. The scallops were cooked perfectly -- they just seemed to melt in your mouth. The risotto was amazing, and complemented the scallops perfectly. And the cracklins! Here's a bit of advice for you, my friends: if you ever have the chance to order a dish with ANY kind of "cracklin" listed as an ingredient -- DO IT. If you don't, I might just hunt you down and smack you, because really, you've just done yourself a major disservice.

L-R: Mozzarella Salad, Crab Cake, Scallops, Banana Napoleon

My dessert was the "Signature Flying Fish Café Caramelized Banana Napoleon - phyllo, banana mousse, creme caramel, exotic fruit coulis and bitter chocolate". Very yummy, although I found it a little difficult to eat -- all the stuff in the phyllo keps squishing out, so it became kind of messy and hard to get a nice bite with everything on it. I can't remember for the life of me what Jon had for his dessert -- I'll have to consult with him and get back with that one.

We received personalized "Happy Anniversary" menus, which we got to keep, and a complimentary glass of champagne each -- both very nice touches that made the evening a little more special.

After a relaxing evening, and a delicious meal, we headed back to our resort. The day of travelling had worn us down, and a good night's sleep was in order before we hit the parks the next day.

Girls' weekend

2010-10-15T15:39:00.000-04:00

After several month of planning, this past weekend some of my oldest friends and I had a UNC mini-reunion! My junior year roommate from Granville, Laura, was gracious enough to volunteer the use of her family's amazing beach house near Beaufort. She, Sara, Erika, Shelly and I met up in Goldsboro and caravanned down for a long-overdue weekend of relaxation.

I think the dolphins we saw in the sound right after we arrived were a good omen for a wonderful weekend. The weather was lovely, and the company could not have been better. We all had such a great time -- reminiscing, laughing, and catching up.

The plan is for us to hopefully do this again semi-annually, if not annually. Certainly not once a decade! That's just far too long between visits, and as Laura said, we'd all be in menopause the next time we got together!

A visit to the farm.

2010-10-04T15:10:00.001-04:00

This past Sunday, the Goat Lady Dairy had their fall open farm day, so we headed out to see where some of our very favorite cheese comes from! We buy their stuff at the farmer's market all the time, and it's all so very good. If you're in the Greensboro area and have never tried it, you're missing out.

The dairy was about a 40 minute drive, and Ella, who had not had a nap, fell asleep about halfway there. Needless to say, she was a tad on the crabby side when we arrived and had to wake her up. Poor planning on our part, I guess.

Anyway, it wasn't too crowded at all when we got there. I don't know if maybe the semi-overcast weather kept people away or what. There were several other local farms there selling various meats, cheeses, breads (all of which were gone by the time we arrived...boo), etc. We picked up some kielbasa and a gorgeous flank steak...and of course some goat cheese! This time, we got Sunny Paris, which is full of happy, bright flavors.

Here are a few more pictures from the afternoon:

Ella knows her letters!

2010-10-01T21:30:00.004-04:00

A couple of Little things.

2010-09-08T11:31:00.003-04:00

After a full year of Kindermusik with Ella, Jon and I decided we'd have her do something completely different this fall -- The Little Gym. Our friends Sara and Randy have had Gracie in Little Gym for a couple of semesters now, and from what Sara's told me, they really like it. So off we went last Saturday to an intro class!

Ready for a forward roll!

Ella seemed to enjoy herself. As is standard for her when she's in a new situation, she tends to be more of an observer and more reserved, but she surprised both Jon and I when she ran up and gave Miss Brittany (the instructor) a high-five during the hello song time! I was fully expecting her not to do it, but she saw the other kids go first, and I think that helped her.

She turned out to be a fan of the balance beam (the low one -- not quite brave enough to go on the tall one, and I can't say that I blame her!), and after some initial hesitation, forward rolls became a big hit as well. We've been practicing those at home throughout the week here at home, too.

So I think we'll be signing her up for that. Jon thinks it will help with her future hockey career :) I think it's a good chance for her to try something different.

The other big thing going on is that Ella started Little Friends today! In fact, as I'm typing this, she's actually there now. She didn't cry when I left (and *I* didn't cry when I left, more to the point) -- just gave me a hug and said "Bye!". So fingers crossed that all is going well. I go to pick her up in about 30 minutes, and we're going to meet Daddy for a special "first day of school" lunch.

Here's the big girl as we left the house this morning:

Post-preschool update: Ella had a great day, up until about the last 15 minutes, when she apparently decided she'd had enough :) Her teacher said she did periodically get a little teary through the morning, but she was able to distract her and get her mind on other activities. She even learned a couple of her classmates' names today. She says she wants to go back next week -- yay!

First Haircut

2010-08-31T15:40:00.000-04:00

My original plan had been to wait and get Ella's hair cut for the first time when we go to Disney World in January, but I reached a breaking point a week or so ago. Her hair was just a MESS -- constantly in her face (she hates having it pulled back), she would get food in it, and she'd developed the oh-so-lovely habit of putting it in her mouth. I was done.

The problem, though, turned out to be finding somewhere to take her. I thought surely there would be some kind of kid-friendly hair-cuttery around here, but I was wrong. I don't have a salon or hairdresser that I go to on a regular basis at all, and I wasn't willing to risk a SuperCuts or Great Clips disaster. So we wound up driving to Durham -- yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds that we drove an hour each way to get the kid's hair cut. (We did have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory -- where we saw 'Canes announcer John Forslund! -- so we had that little bonus as well.)

She got really upset in the car when we were about 15 minutes away -- no idea why. She's usually a great traveler, so I don't know if she was just tired of riding or what. But that didn't bode well for her being thrown into a new situation with strange people, which is a tenuous scenario in the best of times.

We tried sitting her in one of the little kiddie chairs they had when we first got there, but she didn't like that idea too much. I wound up holding her, and she did pretty well after that. By the end of the whole thing, she was even smiling. The people at the salon were super-nice, even when she was
wailing away.

I wound up just having them trim it up and make it tidier -- I think she took off around an inch, maybe. She also got a few little layers put in to bring out her curls in the back a bit more.

And because I'm a sucker, I wound up getting their "First Haircut" package -- it came with before and after pictures, a lock of her hair, and a little certificate. Too much.

Here's the finished product (complete with her lollipop reward):

Ella's Eyes

2010-08-28T11:57:00.000-04:00

This past Tuesday, we had a visit with the pediatric ophthalmologist regarding Ella's drifting eye. It's been going on for awhile now, and after speaking with her regular doctor about it a couple of times, and seeing no improvement, he referred us for a consultation.

I tried to prep her in advance and let her know that the doctor just wanted to look at her eyes and wasn't going to hurt her, but of course, that was all in vain. As I expected, she freaked out. I have no idea how he managed to examine her, with all the screaming and crying -- I had to physically restrain the child (I felt AWFUL) -- but he did, and diagnosed her with moderate exotropia, which means that her eyes -- with her, mainly the right one -- turn outward. Aside from that, though, he said her eyes looked good and healthy, which was great to hear.

So we're trying patch therapy. She has to wear a sticky eye patch for a couple of hours a day on her good eye (and yes, we do call her "Patchy" and talk to her in pirate-speak -- I'm sure that will be brought up in therapy) to see if that will help strengthen the weaker one. It wouldn't be a cure, but it can help to correct it. We'll do this for about 3 months, and then she'll have another exam to see if there's been any improvement.

She actually doesn't seem to mind the patches too much, which I'm really impressed with. She fussed at me a bit the first day I put one on her, but since then, she's been good about it. That definitely makes it easier.

Keep your fingers crossed that the patching is effective. We really hope that it works and we can avoid anything more invasive (read: surgery).

A few recent photos.

2010-08-23T15:04:00.001-04:00

A visit to preschool and other things.

2010-08-20T16:47:00.001-04:00

(Author's note: I realize that I have been terribly deficient at updating as of late. I will endeavor not to fall so far behind in the future...mostly to keep Jon and my mother off my back.)

After some debate, Jon and I decided it would be a good idea for Ella to tackle preschool in the fall. It seems sort of early, but she doesn't get much interaction with other kids her age, bless her heart, and she tends to hang a bit tightly to the apron strings sometimes.

So we (well, I) researched a few local programs. We just wanted something a couple of mornings a week, nothing crazy...and nothing ridiculously expensive, either. The combination proved a little harder to find than I expected. Finally, I hit on one that sounded like a winner -- the Little Friends program up at the local Friends Meeting. It's two days a week, from 9-12, and as an added bonus for Jon and me, the Quakers are SUPER-liberal. Woohoo! It's a co-op as well, so a parent assists each day (you wind up going in about once a month), and I think that's a pretty neat aspect as well.

I got a call from the teacher, and she invited Ella and me to come visit the classroom during their summer camp. We were there for about an hour, and I really liked what I saw, and what Stuart (the teacher) told me as well. Ella wasn't opposed either -- she colored some, had a cupcake, and read some books with the teacher on the sofa. So I think it's going to be a really good fit for her (and for us!).

--------------

The tree is finally down in the backyard, and not of its own volition! A few days after my last update, the tree people (via Duke Power) came out very early in the morning (well, it was like 8:15am...early for us, not for humanity), and they took it down.

It was quite a process to watch. They had all kinds of ropes tied to it and looped over other trees and whatnot. One guy wound up scaling a VERY skinny tree near the falling one, and was using a chainsaw -- ONE-HANDED -- to cut the dead tree into logs that they went crashing down to the ground.

Once they had it cut down to a reasonable height, another fellow cut the dead tree down at the base, and the guys manning the ropes swung it up and over the fence, and then lowered it to the ground on the other side. The whole process took about an hour, and I still am amazed today that we never lost power, the fence didn't get torn down, and the shed is still standing.

--------------

BODILY FUNCTION TALK AHEAD. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Ella's potty-training is going REALLY well, and Jon and I are both really pleased and proud of her progress. We've been working at it full-throttle for about a week now, and are having great success with regular pees, with very few accidents so far. I've mostly just been letting her run around pants-less, and she seems to be getting a good handle on when she has to go, and self-regulating.

Up until last night, we'd only had pee, but she absolutely floored both of us by sitting down and pooping in the potty -- completely unprompted! We hadn't been really focusing on that at all -- just asking her occasionally if she needed to do it, which was always met with a "no". Last night, though, she just sat down and went! I think it freaked her out a bit -- she got kind of upset about the whole thing, but it wasn't anything some stickers and a few M&Ms couldn't sort out.

I would LOVE to have her fully daytime trained by the time we go to FL in January, so keep your fingers crossed that everything continues to go smoothly.

Weekend Update

2010-08-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Ella spent the night over at Grandma and Pop's this past Friday night, so Jon and I took decided to do something we haven't done in about 3 years...we went to the movies. First off, HOLY COW. I know people bitch and moan about how expensive the movies are, especially the concessions, but it's seriously ridiculous. We went to a matinee, shared a popcorn and had two medium drinks (which were about a 1/2 gallon each), and it was over thirty dollars. Are you kidding me? Guess it's a good thing we don't go any more often than we do.

Luckily for us, though, we picked a really good movie -- Inception. I'm glad we saw it in the theater, because I think it would have been a different experience altogether watching it on TV. If you haven't seen it, I'd highly recommend it. It's thought-provoking, and very well done.

-----

The tree in the backyard has now moved from leaning over the shed to actually being in full contact with the shed, and laying on the power line. It's been like this for a number of days now. Since it's been on the power line, we've had four different people affiliated with Duke Power come out. Nothing has been done. The most recent time we talked to them, they said they were going to contact our property management company, since they can't be responsible for the shed or the fence if they should be damaged while they're trying to remove the tree. If they're not able to remove it themselves, they will have to cut power to the house, a private company will have to come out and remove the tree, and then they will restore power.

So we remain in "wait and see" mode. Hopefully, the tree is not putting so much stress on the line that it will cause the power pole to break, because that would lead to even more problems.

This has been going on the better part of a month now, I believe. So take that for what you will.

-----

Erika was in town last week, and she was sweet enough to take time out of visiting her family to shoot Ella's 2-year portraits out at the Bicentennial Gardens and Bog Garden! Let me tell you, I think we picked the absolute hottest day of the year to do it on, but Ella was a trooper! She did tons of walking -- we were out there for about two hours, I think -- and didn't whine at all until we were almost done.

Our time in the heat was well worth it, though. Erika did a great job with the photos, and I'm beyond happy with them. If you want to see a few, you can check out her photography blog.

TreeGate 2010 - The Saga Continues

2010-07-20T14:33:00.003-04:00

This is the situation in our backyard right now. In case you can't really tell, that's a very dead tree. and it's leaning quite precariously, positioned to fall at any given moment, directly into the power line, the shed, and the fence.

(I should mention here that we have not been negligent in trying to get our property management people to take care of this. In fact, we let them know about it the week we moved in, which was almost FOUR YEARS ago. So, yeah.)

Here's another picture...you can see sort of see where it's actually cracked down towards the base.

This is the second tree that will have fallen in the past month or so, although to be fair, the first one was not IN our yard -- just right BEHIND it. (For the record, it wound up that the first tree was not on the power lines, as we initially thought. It was on the phone/cable lines....and it's still there. Not sure what the city is waiting on with that one.)

Needless to say, it's a tad on the disconcerting side to essentially be just sitting and waiting for this tree to come crashing down.

As soon as we noticed how much it was leaning, we put in a call to our property management people to let them know of the pending situation. As of today, it's still there, although I have been advised that the tree people ARE going to come out. Fingers crossed that it gets taken down before it comes down of its own accord!

Hey, you.

2010-07-14T13:31:00.000-04:00

Why don't you check out my new baking blog, That's What She Bakes? It's full of yummy things...or it will be soon, anyway.

Ella's 2-year stats

2010-07-13T22:51:00.000-04:00

Height: 34.25" (~60th percentile)
Weight: 28 lb 5.5oz (~70th percentile)
Head circumference: 20" (95+ percentile...as usual)

There was slightly less screaming than normal at today's appointment, so I consider that a small victory of sorts. She did have to get one shot and a finger stick (which was the worst bit...the nurse had a hard time getting enough blood).

We've had an ongoing issue with one of her eyes drifting and not staying completely focused. I tend to notice it more when she's tired, but we do occasionally see it other times as well. We had it checked a couple of months ago by her pediatrician, and he said to watch it, and we'd follow up at her appointment that we had today. There hasn't been any real change in it one way or the other since then, but to make sure that the vision is developing properly in both eyes, we're going to make an appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist. It's not a major concern at this point, but better safe than sorry, especially considering the crummy vision both of her parents have.

Other than than, a clean bill of health, and hopefully, no more visits until she's 3!

2 years old!

2010-07-12T23:25:00.000-04:00

Ella turned two today, and we celebrated yesterday with a party at the Natural Science Center! I wasn't sure what to expect having a party in a location, but it went really well, and I think everyone (even the grown-ups!) had a good time.

We started out with pizza from Elizabeth's, presents, and cake from Delicious, who helped me out on short notice when the oven died -- they've made customers for life! Ella got lots of awesome new books and toys from everyone, and seemed to get into opening her presents for the first time.

After that, we moved to another room for an animal workshop, which was lots of fun. We got to meet and pet Charlie Brown the rabbit, Moe the Guinea pig, and Cyril the tortoise. The kids really enjoyed seeing the animals up close and getting to touch them.

Pictures from the day:

CAKE!

Daddy and Ella at the animal workshop

Charlie Brown the rabbit

Moe the Guinea pig

Cyril the tortoise

Birthday hugs!

House a-fire! Well, almost.

2010-07-05T00:16:00.001-04:00

I was going to bake some cookies today, and as standard when baking, I turned on the oven to preheat to 375.

I was getting the dough all mixed up and had just put it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes. I was putting things away, wiping up around the stove, when the oven beeped at me. I glanced up, and it had turned itself off. I thought maybe I had accidentally bumped the buttons when I was wiping, so I turned it back on -- same thing happened again.

I opened the oven -- it was SO FREAKIN HOT. Had to be at least 500+ degrees. The element was glowing super-bright orange, and it was smoking. It was almost like it was on the auto-clean mode.

At this point, I was in a bit of a panic, and I went and retrieved Jon to come have a look. He was as baffled as I was, and despite the fact that the oven was OFF, it really seemed like it was getting hotter and hotter. It certainly wasn't cooling down any at this point.

We weren't sure how we were going to manage this, and I finally remembered -- the breaker! So Jon went out and flipped the breaker to cut the power to the oven, and it finally went off. It took a really long time to cool down and stop smoking, though.

Needless to say, I'm a little freaked out about using the oven now. We're going to get someone out to look at it, but I've got no idea when that might be, and I've got to bake for Ella's b-day party next weekend...UGH.

Really, Britax?

2010-07-03T22:27:00.000-04:00

You recommend NOT machine washing your car-seat covers?

'Cause, honestly, I don't think dabbing at barf w/a paper towel is gonna cut it.

Luckily, I didn't actually have the barf situation happen -- just some spilled milk. But I still would prefer that the car and car seat don't smell like sour milk.

Jon got the seat out and all disassembled only to find that they "don't recommend" machine washing the thing! Well, too late -- it's washing.

We will air-dry it, of course, so it doesn't shrink, but it just seems ridiculous to me that ANY product manufactured for the wee ones wouldn't automatically be machine washable by default.

TreeGate 2010

2010-06-27T21:59:00.003-04:00

Our lot backs up to another big wooded lot, and on Thursday, a tree I'd been keeping an eye on for a few days finally fell over. It fell right onto the power lines that run down the side of our lot/house.

As soon as I noticed it, I called the power company and reported it.

Someone did come along and cut off the part of the tree that was actually overhanging the street, but the tree itself is still there. It actually looks like it's been cut back two different times now.

There were some firemen pulled over and checking it out yesterday, but I can't see that they did anything to it, really.

Am I way off in thinking that this is an unsafe situation? How long should it be before something like this is corrected?

I should mention that we haven't lost power at all, which is really fortunate, especially given that it's been in the mid-high 90s the past few days. Not having AC is not an option right now.

sand table/water table

2010-06-20T06:19:00.000-04:00

Ella's big birthday gift from Grandma and Pop was a water and sand table! They brought it over last night, even though her birthday isn't for a few weeks. No need to waste part of the summer when there's playing to be done :)

The rule of thumb is: if it says "Some assembly required", rest assured that it's more assembly than you probably want to do.

And it doesn't help when your electric screwdriver gives out halfway through the job. Nevertheless, the men got it assembled and set up.

Once it was filled up, Ella jumped right in.

The water side definitely held her interest more than the sand side. No surprise, since the kid loves taking a bath. She was very particular about the toys actually being in the water, though. All the little boats were in dry-dock.

But Mommy, this cup has HOLES in it.

We'll definitely be investing in a swimsuit or two, as she was pretty much soaked head to toe after just a few minutes of splashing around. Great for a hot day -- not so great for right before bedtime :)

23 months!

2010-06-15T16:18:00.000-04:00

Ella took her first real road trip this past weekend -- she, Mom, and I headed down to Georgia to visit family. It was E's first time staying in a hotel (or sleeping in the same room with other people since she was about 5 months old), and she acted like she'd been doing it all her life -- an old pro. She met a lot of new people this weekend, too -- not one of her favorite things, but she was a trooper. Like me, she just tends to stay away from the people she doesn't like ;)

She's still picking up new words all the time, which is both good and bad (the bad, in case you're wondering, would be when she chose to scream out "SHIT!" in the middle of the Mexican restaurant). She's working on her numbers and alphabet, and shocked me to death the other day when I asked her to spell her name for me to write, and she actually DID it. Amazing. She picks out things on the TV or in the store that Jon and I don't even notice, and names them correctly.

Independence is definitely starting to be asserted. She has no problem saying "No!" -- often and loudly. Usually, though, she's just testing, and will wind up being cooperative. We've had very few full-blown tantrums as of yet (knock on wood).

We did have this little exchange the other day, as she was playing with her pots and pans.

Mommy: Whatcha cookin', Ella?

Ella: Food.

*face-palm* Yep, I've got a smartypants in the making. She gets it natural, anyway.

Why, no, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth...

2010-06-06T23:35:00.001-04:00

...thank you for asking.

What's that? You didn't ask? Well, no matter! I'm still here, nevertheless.

Update coming soon...

She made her daddy proud :)

2010-05-16T01:19:00.001-04:00

22 months!

2010-05-13T17:20:00.000-04:00

Her latest funny phrase is, "Oh, gosh!" She tends to use it in moments that would actually merit some exasperation, and that cracks me up.

All of a sudden, it seems like she has sprouted a mouthful of teeth. After not having any (or very few) for so long, she's got 14 now! Six on the top and eight on the bottom. Teething has been a surprisingly smooth process so far.

I taught her how to throw the ball for Lukin a couple of weeks ago (read: how to go over to the edge of the deck and drop it through so he can run around and get it), so now, he thinks she's the bee's knees. Well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but he does tolerate her.

I think I've decided on a theme for her 2nd birthday party, but that, of course, is subject to change.

Mother's Day came early around here!

2010-05-09T00:36:00.000-04:00

Here's my new toy that Ella and Jon got me for Mother's Day:

The Magic Mouse! (Yes, I am the kind of dork who gets a new mouse for Mother's Day and thinks it's awesome.) It's taken me a little getting used to, but it's really neat. I'm planning to upgrade my OS to Snow Leopard here in the next day or two as well, and then I'll be able to download the BetterTouchTool add-on, which apparently really kicks up the capabilities.

As additional Mother's Day treats, I got to sleep in this morning, which was lovely, and Jon made breakfast for me, too. It was meant to be breakfast in bed, but I woke up before he finished cooking :) Then we went out to dinner with my folks tonight.

All in all, a lovely day.

On a completely unrelated note, I am beyond excited that Friday Night Lights is back on TV! Oh, my...this is such a good show. If you're not watching, you're really missing out. I don't even like football, and I can't get enough of this show. The acting, the writing, the soundtrack, the cinematography...it's all just amazing.

Well, I did need to reorganize the pantry.

2010-05-06T22:51:00.000-04:00

I especially like the idea of keeping the idea of keeping the canned goods on top of the trash can :)

Also, that same night, we had a unexpected guest in our salad:

It was alive -- although, I'm not sure if that's better or worse.

Plant progress.

2010-05-01T22:44:00.000-04:00

Along with our attempt at healthier eating, I decided I was going to try my hand at growing some produce this year. Nothing major, just tomatoes and strawberries. I'm about 2 weeks in, and everything's still alive -- trust me when I say this is quite the victory for me. A gardener by nature I am not.

Here's one of my tomato plants after I first planted it:

And here's the same plant as of yesterday:

It's coming right along! I'm trying my best not to be a plant murderer.

One of my strawberry plants is starting to get a few berries on it as well. Exciting! I don't know how many berries I should expect to get, but I hope enough to put up a little jam...or at least have some strawberry shortcake.

And just 'cause I can....

My sweetie-pie :)

First Battle Scars.

2010-04-26T23:05:00.001-04:00

Does it make me a Bad Mommy if I stopped to take a picture before cleaning up my kid's first skinned knee?

'Cause...well, I did.

To be fair, we were not at home when she did it -- we were out spying on a house, and she fell on the front walkway. So it was awhile between when it happened and when I actually had the opportunity to clean it anyway.

Also, to be fair, she didn't cry at ALL when it happened. What a trooper! It was only after she got in the car and she could actually see her knee that she got a little upset. And even then, it was more whining than full-on crying.

When we put her PJ pants on later in the evening, she said "Bye-bye, booboo!" Hehe.

Pink Shoes

2010-04-24T22:00:00.001-04:00

Inspired by Erika's Red Shoes post over on her blog, I snapped a picture of Ella in her pink Chucks when we were out at the Farmers' Market today.

Jenny actually gave these to us at our baby shower, and she's just been able to wear them in the past few months. They kill me with their cuteness. I expect that there will be many more pairs of Converse in her future :)

On a completely unrelated note, I've been listening to We Were Promised Jetpacks (yes, that's actually the name of the band) a lot lately -- good stuff. I recommend you check them out, posthaste. Particularly if you have a thing for Scottish accents. Not that I do or anything.

21 months!

2010-04-15T23:27:00.001-04:00

It's amazing how much Ella's changing and learning these days. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds...she's definitely in the midst of a language explosion. The other day, Jon and I tried to count up how many words she can say with recognition -- we stopped when we got to around 50.

She's definitely becoming much more independent too. She wants to do everything herself, or at least try it. She's usually pretty good about asking for help if she's having trouble with something.

Bedtime has started to become a bit of a drama lately. Once she's actually IN bed and the door is shut, everything's fine, but getting there is a chore, and much screaming and crying ensues on a nightly basis.

Unrelated to her now being 21 months, but something I wanted to share anyway, are these precious rain boots that I got for her the other day. I'd been looking for some for awhile, but wasn't crazy about anything I'd run across. They're a little big for her yet (she's got TEENSY feet), but they're cute enough that I'll actually be excited for the next rainy day :)

She liked them so much, that she didn't want to take them off when we came back inside...and this is a kid who, once we come in the house, sits down just on the other side of the threshold to take off her shoes. That is, if they didn't get taken off in the car. She's like her mama that way -- she'd rather be barefoot.

Cooking 101

2010-04-10T00:24:00.000-04:00

So, it's been a little over a week since my grand cooking-at-home experiment started.

I haven't given anyone food poisoning yet, so I'd say it's going well. We're not going hungry, anyway.

Aside from over-cooking some steak, and having some chicken come out a bit on the dry side, my stuff has turned out pretty reasonable.

What have I been cooking, you ask? Well, to name a few...

-tomato chicken parmesan
-lemon pepper cod
-the aforementioned (overdone) steaks
-baked chicken with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes
-spicy lime grilled shrimp
-homemade pizza (I even made the dough!)

I'm finding I actually look forward to cooking dinner -- how strange! A foreign concept to be sure, but one I'm learning to enjoy.

I also feel good about the fact that I'm actually cooking from scratch, and making things that are relatively healthy for us. I can't remember if I'd blogged about it, but I'm making a big effort to stop buying foods with high fructose corn syrup -- and believe me, that's harder than it sounds. That junk is in EVERYTHING. Cutting out HFCS cuts out a lot of super-processed foods, which in the long run, is better for us anyway.

We are cheating a bit tomorrow night, though. Ella will be spending the night with Grandma and Pop, and Jon and I will be enjoying dinner at 1618 West. Yum.

It's time for the Easter BUN-ny!

2010-04-04T14:17:00.001-04:00

Happy Spring.

2010-04-02T16:12:00.002-04:00

DC Trip Report - part III

2010-04-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

Friday and Saturday were both crap in terms of weather, so our outings were not all we had planned, unfortunately. The weather, did not, however, stop us from eating more fabulous food.

Lunch on Friday was at Good Stuff Eatery, which is owned by Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef fame. You remember him -- he was the one with all the fedoras. And he did not disappoint when we were there, as it was a brown hat day.

We got there right before the lunch rush, but the tables were already full up -- I had to stalk for one while Jon waited for the food.

The stalking was worth it.

I had the Coletti's Smokehouse: "Applewood Bacon, Sharp Vermont Cheddar, Fried Vidalia Onion Rings with Chipotle BBQ Sauce". (Oddly, the burger Jon had, which was called something to do with Obama, is no longer listed on their online menu, so I can't tell you exactly what was on that.) We split an order of Sunny's Handcut Fries, and we each had a toasted marshmallow milkshake.

Oh, boy.

In part II of this little trip report, you might remember me singing the praises of Central's burger.

After I tried today's burger, the thought in my head was, "Central who?"

It was really hard to compare the burgers at Central and Good Stuff, actually. They both were really amazing in their own right. However, in terms of an overall meal experience, Good Stuff got the blue ribbon hands down. And it was all because of that toasted marshmallow milkshake. Seriously, it was like a religious experience in a glass -- it was that good. If you go to DC and don't treat yourself to one of these shakes, you're doing yourself a serious disservice.

No pictures of the food... I was too busy enjoying it.

After lunch, we headed over to the Library of Congress, which neither of us had ever been to.

We wandered around there for awhile -- pretty interesting stuff, and a gorgeous building on the inside.

After that, we took the underground tunnel across the street and looked around in the new Visitor's Center for a bit. We didn't plan to have a tour or anything, so there wasn't a whole lot there we could do.

The rain had gotten pretty heavy by then, and it was cold, so we made our way back to the hotel, beating rush hour again. We'd left our dinner plans open, and since our trip to Hank's the previous day got screwed up, we decided to go there. We figured this was also a good option, as they don't take reservations, but you can call 20 minutes ahead, and they'll put your name down. So that's what we did.

I took this when we thought we were having lunch there.

We slogged back out into the nasty weather, and still had a bit of a wait once we made the walk, but it was well worth it.

To start, we were brought a small bowl of Goldfish crackers to munch on, which I thought was a cute touch. Jon ordered some of the day's oysters (I don't touch those things when they're raw -- BLECH), and for our entrees, we decided to get the lobster roll and fried oyster dinner, and share. This was my first lobster roll ever, and it was delicious. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The fried oysters were great too, but they can't hold a candle to the lobster roll. Num, num. Once our meal was done, our waiter brought out another little bowl, this time with chopped semi-sweet chocolate. He said that's what they do, since they don't serve dessert.

One thing I will say is that the tables at Hank's were PACKED in. I don't think I've ever been in such a tight space in a restaurant before. That was really my only complaint about the whole meal, and even that wasn't a huge deal...even though the old guy behind me did have his elbow jammed into my back for several minutes after we sat down. Hmph.

Here are two things that are true.

2010-03-22T23:01:00.001-04:00

1) We eat out WAY too much.

and

2) I am not a good cook.

However, I'm going to make a serious effort to work on both of those problems.

Jon and I have decided that during the month of April, we're not going to eat out at all, with the exceptions of going out for our 7-year dating anniversary (which is April 10), and Jon getting food at work (although calling what they serve there "food" can be a bit of a stretch).

In addition to not being a good cook, I'm also a poor planner, and dinner usually comes about by me staring into the pantry and/or fridge, and hoping that something jumps out at me. So to that end, I'm going to be trying out some new recipes, so that I can actually HAVE stuff to cook next month.

Updates to follow!

The Polite Police.

2010-03-21T12:34:00.000-04:00

Ella has started doing this funny little thing where, whenever someone coughs, clears their throat, burps, or anything like that, she pats her chest and says (or sometimes screams) "Meeee!" The best thing we can come up with is that she's trying to say "Excuse me!" and if you say that, it seems to satisfy her, and she'll say, "Yeah!" and go back to whatever she was doing.

I have no idea where she picked this up. It's pretty cute the first few times she does it, but after awhile, I'd just like to be able to cough without being reprimanded each time, especially since I'm sick right now.

DC trip report - part II

2010-03-18T23:40:00.002-04:00

Thursday actually turned out to be the best day for us weather-wise, and if we'd known it at the time, I suspect we would have taken a bit more advantage of it.

Anyway, we slept super-late, which was lovely, and woke up with lunch in mind. We headed over to Hank's Oyster Bar, but somehow, both of us had neglected to notice on their website that they aren't open for lunch. So that left us a bit stumped, and wandering around for awhile. This only led to us getting hungrier and grumpier, and every time I found a Wi-Fi network with my iPod touch, it wouldn't connect, and that made it really hard to know where we were and/or where we were going.

Finally, like a beacon in the night, we spotted the Washington Monument in the distance, and that gave us some idea of our bearings. We headed that way, and figured if nothing else, we'd grab something at the National Museum of the American Indian, which was supposed to have a good food station area (not a buffet, exactly...one of those places where they cook the food for you at different stations...you know?).

Soon enough, we ran into the White House. I suppose I shouldn't have found the shooters on the roof alarming, but I did.

We'd been to DC a couple of times since 9/11, but I'd never noticed the sharp-shooters before. At least I assume they were sharp-shooters. I don't think they were up there doing shingle work.

And of course, the nuclear protester were there. They always are.

By this time, we were starving. We knew there we a restaurant we wanted to eat at on Pennsylvania Ave SE (we were on NW), so we took off -- in the wrong direction. But all was well soon enough, as we stumbled upon Central, where we actually had dinner reservations a couple of nights later. So I called an audible, and decided that we were going to eat lunch there.

We sat at the bar -- we figured we might be a little under-dressed, even for lunch, but the bar is always a safe bet in a situation like that. Jon, having done all his restaurant homework, knew that Central was meant to have excellent burgers, and that's what we both went with. Jon got his with just cheese, and I had cheese and bacon.

Oh heavens.

What they brought out was perhaps the most delicious hunk of cow muscle between two buns that I'd ever had. EVER.

The burger also had potato tuiles, which were like super-super-thin, crispy potato cakes. I wasn't sure how they would work, since I don't usually eat potatoes ON my burger, but they were quite good. The burger came with fries, which were good -- not great -- and I had a house-made grapefruit soda to drink, which was delicious.

Go ahead and drool. It's okay.

We decided then that we probably weren't going to come back for dinner, since it would be really hard to top the meal that we were having then, and we didn't just want to have the same thing again. To that end, to get the full Central experience, we ordered dessert -- Michel's Chocolate Bar (formerly known as the Kit-Kat Bar, until the Kit-Kat people had something to say about it). I think it probably ruined Kit-Kats for me for the rest of my life :)

After lunch, we soldiered on to the Mall, and wandered around there for a bit. We saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

We beat the Metro after-work rush back to the hotel, and were able to relax a little before dinner, which was at Obelisk, just around the corner from the hotel. (I'd put a link in, but there's not one for me to put.) Walking into the restaurant felt like walking into someone's home, since there wasn't a sign outside, and really, the dining room wasn't much bigger than the average living room. There were about 12 tables in all, down both sides of the room, with a large table in the middle where the waitresses prepared a number of the dishes.

All in all, we had 6 courses, if I remember correctly. We started with an amazing burrata cheese, which is a fresh cow's milk cheese that tastes like mozzarella, but has more the consistency of cottage cheese, although not quite. This was followed by several more antipasti, including polenta fritters, pork belly tureen (which confirmed by dislike of the tureen), chicory with a creamy anchovy dressing (sort of like a Caesar salad), and Tuscan-style meatballs. After all that, we finally got to the first course. Jon had a lobster bean soup, while I had eggplant ravioli, which were so fresh and delicious. For our entree (we had 3 to pick from), we shared a veal chop that came with perfect roasted potatoes and some kind of mishmash of olives and peppers that I avoided.

Are you feeling full? 'Cause we aren't done yet.

The 5th course was cheeses, served with a fig jam. One was a goat's milk, one was a sheep and cow's milk, and one a sheep's milk (I can't remember the names -- I know that two were from Piedmont, though). The cheeses were all excellent, although let's be honest -- I rarely have met a cheese that I didn't like. The fig jam didn't do much for me though. Too raisin-y.

Finally, dessert! The cocoa nib panna cotta I had was a great finish to my meal. Jon had some sort of pineapple thing, I think -- I didn't try it, as I don't like pineapple.

On the whole, a most excellent meal. I thought all the surrounding courses were actually better than the main (that may partially be because veal's not really my thing), and it wasn't hard to see why Obelisk consistently receives rave reviews. The service was also outstanding.

Thus concluded our second day in the District -- not a bad way to end!

20 months!

2010-03-16T23:05:00.003-04:00

Ella turned 20 months while Jon and I were in DC, so I'm still a little late this month with photos...but at least it's not April yet.

We've finally hit on a solution that works to keep her hair out of her face -- a headband! I picked this one up on a whim from the Target Dollar Spot last week, and she actually keeps it in her hair (well, most of the time). Hopefully, I can find some more thin ones like this in different colors.

She looks so grown-up in this picture, I think.

She's finally (FINALLY) getting some more teeth in, too! She'd had some molars (I think the 12-months ones) cut awhile back, and now she's getting in the two just to the right of the bottom middle teeth.

You can kind of see 'em in there.

So, what else? She can say "please" now ("peeese!"), which is now her way of asking to be picked up and put on the sofa. I found out yesterday she can unzip her jacket, as well as take it off and give it to me to put away. She knows animal noises for: horse, cow, sheep, goat, pig, dog, cat, duck, rooster and owl (which, not coincidentally, are all the animals in The Very Busy Spider).

She has also discovered, much to my chagrin, the word "No," and what it actually means. And she uses it -- a little too much for my tastes, but we're working on that.

Tonight, she had a fall-down-on-the-floor fit because I asked her if she was done with her milk. It didn't last long, but still -- I thought I had a few more months of happy baby before the tantrums kicked in. Hopefully, it was just a one-off thing -- she really is in a good mood most of the time.

Washington, DC trip report - part I

2010-03-15T15:27:00.001-04:00

Jon and I had a rare long weekend away this past week as part of Christmas to us from my parents. They kept Ella for us, and we took off up to Washington DC.

After dropping off Ella and taking the dogs to puppy camp, we hit the road late Wednesday morning. We had our usual road-trip stop at Cracker Barrel, and picked up an audio book on Billy the Kid, which turned out to be a dud. The rest of the drive up was uneventful, aside from going around in a few circles once we got into DC proper, which is pretty much standard operating procedure. Our home base for the next few nights was to be The Fairfax at Embassy Row -- we used our Starwood Points to book it, and on the whole, it was super-nice. (We did have some ongoing hot water issues, which were kind of a pain, but no major complaints other than that.)

After we got checked in and dumped our stuff in the room, the first stop for us was a Washington Capitals game, and they just happened to be playing the Hurricanes that night (yes, we planned the trip around the game). We had originally planned to grab dinner before the game, but we ran short on time, and wound up going straight to the Verizon Center. We knew which stop we needed off the Metro, but weren't sure where to go after that -- luckily, there were plenty of Caps fans heading the same way we were, so we just followed them.

Our seats were AMAZING -- 3rd row, right behind the goal where the Caps were shooting twice.

The game was tons of fun, despite being two of the very, very few 'Canes fans in the building (which was sold out -- the Jumbotron told us it was their 48th sell-out in a row!). No one harassed us for wearing our enemy jerseys -- except for Slapshot, the Caps mascot. He came all the way down to where we were sitting, pointed at our jerseys, then at his, then shook his head at us. Ha!

Much to the surprise of both Jon and myself, the Canes gave Washington a run for their money. Given the season that both teams are having (them: fantastic; us: not so much), we really hadn't expected a whole lot, but the game actually wound up going to overtime, which was completely nerve-wracking. The Caps won in the end, though.

After the game, we headed over to Matchbox, where we had originally planned to go before the game. We had some delicious mini-burgers (part of our whirlwind cheeseburger tour of DC...more on that later), and split one of their wood-fired pizzas. Yuuuuuum.

On the way back to the hotel, while we were waiting for the Metro, Jon poked me, nodded towards a group of very well-dressed gentlemen, and said, "Don't look now, but I think that's Ron Paul over there." I took a glance, but wasn't really able to tell. Once the train arrived, the man in question wound up on the same car with us, and sure enough -- it was Ron Paul! He was chatting with another passenger about the hockey game. Kind of neat.

A great start to our trip!