BEST. RUN. EVER.

I love to run, but I HATE to start a run. I never feel good at first, and sometimes I have a hard time motivating myself to start, even though I know how good I will feel during and after! I was feeling very sluggish tonight, and didn't want to go, so I knew that it was exactly what I needed. We are supposed to run in the half in a few weeks and haven't had a lot of time to get ready this year. It won't be pretty, but we will get it done.

We told Ella the plan and she got very excited. She said "Can I run too? With my feet, not the stroller?" We have been trying to model excercise and activity for her, so we decided that she should run a bit if she wanted to.

Like I said before, she got VERY excited. She ran to her closet to pick out her "running outfit". Her first choice was a very frilly pretty dress. After Jimmie said "Does Mommy wear dresses when she runs?" and she had to say "no", she chose this: (complete with her "running ice cream cone" that we convinced her to leave at home)

We also convinced her to change into leggings instead of a skirt.

She was demonstrating her running in the living room for us.

When we got outside she took off down the sidewalk saying "Come on guys, RUN!" She would run and then all of a sudden say "STOP" followed by "look at the birds" or "you run fast!" It was pretty cool to see her so excited and into something that is so important to us. It makes me think that we must be doing something right in our quest to show her how to take care of herself. She made it three full blocks before we encouraged her to get in the stroller.

For me it was actually a kind of crappy run, I had calf cramps for most of the run (maybe from running on my toes for three blocks to stay with Ella) and had a hard time getting my muscles warmed up. It was sooo worth it though to see Ella having such a good time. I hope we can continue to run together!

Flower Princess

Our two very good friends, Matt and Melissa got married this weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and it was so nice to see our friends so happy! There was a bit of excitement with the blizzard and all, but it was very pretty and didn't really hinder anything. Mary, Melanie and I were very happy that we had shawls to wear over our dresses!

Ella was the Flower "Princess". She was supposed to walk down the aisle with Wes, the ring bearer, and throw flowers. Melanie was very kind to carry her down and Ella did throw the petals. She was very quiet except for when Melissa was walking down the aisle, when she said "We can talk now?"

Her absolute FAVORITE part was the dance floor at the reception! I know this is a big shocker, but she is a party animal! She twisted, twirled, and danced the night away (until Nonna took her home-after cake of course).

After the hard work of not walking down the aisle by yourself, you should get a snack right?

Lions and Mermaids and Fairies, OH MY!

What do you do when you are two on St Patricks Day? Drink green beer? Hope not!! No, you go to Disney on Ice! Brandy's babysitter was able to get us tickets and Nonna was in town so she got to come too! The girls had a great time. They were laughing, giggling, singing and even talking to the characters.

Ursula came out and Ella said "OH NO! Ariel, it's Ursula! Get away from her!!!" She was also distressed when Tinkerbell came out wearing a white dress. When she finally changed into a green dress Ella was very excited! She yelled "Tinkerbell, I knew you could be green!"

After fairy flower cotton candy and lots of excitement it was time to go home. All in all I would say the girls had a great night!

We ate at a tasty burger shop across the street. Ella was almost too excited to eat.

Ella LOVES her Nonna! Thanks for coming to play with us!

Ella-isms

Here's a few of our latest "Ella-isms":

"We eat fruit because it makes us poop. It has lots of fider in it!"

"The pattat (bathtub) is dripping. That's because I'm pooping and peeing."

She has been calling me Rachel instead of Mommy lately. The other night she comes in and says

"I think I will call you Ruby!"

Often I hear my own words come out of her mouth.

Mommy-"Will you please hand me my socks?"

Ella-"Those are very good words! Good job!"

"When I say sorry, that makes you so happy!"

"That's a good plan, right?"

She is very attuned to people's feelings.

While watching The Little Mermaid, "King Tritan is so mean. He makes Ariel sad and makes her fight."

If Jimmie and I start speaking to each other "heatedly" we often hear "Don't talk mean words to my Mommy" or "Don't be so mean to my Daddy."

We hear lots of funny things when she is procrastinating going to bed:

Ella-"I need a drink."

Mommy-"No, I'm sorry, You just had a drink."

Ella-"But my tummy is so thirsty!"

The sister of "my tummy is so thirsty" is "my tummy is so hungry!"

"Tell the boys (our dogs) to come kiss me. It makes me so happy when they kiss me."

She often talks about things happening during "the sunny day" (daytime) or "the dark day" (nighttime). It has been very confusing to her that the sun has not been shining lately. She keeps waking up saying "I think today is a sunny day, oh no, it is not. Where is the sun?"

When she doesn't know how to do something she says "I can't know how."

And finally, when we can't understand her or are taking too long to respond she says "Read my lips..."

Tornado

Well it is official. My house once again looks like a tornado blasted through and showed no mercy. However, this time it is because of my attempts at organization instead of my lack of organization.

It seems every room is in some sort of disarray. I have been sorting through all of my belongings deciding what needs to be sold, given away or thrown away. I have made great progress, but still have a long way to go.

Ella has been WONDERFUL these last several days. She has learned (finally) how to play by herself (usually right by my side) and has been fairly understanding of my need to get things accomplished. What a precious gift! I have been learning to ask for help when I need it (tough for me) and have been so appreciative of my friends, especially Sarah, Julie and Mary, who have really helped me out lately!

Jim and Brenda came up this weekend and were extremely helpful in finishing some projects around the house. They even stayed with Ella on Saturday when I had a surprise night off, so that Jimmie and I could go out.

It is nice to know what we will be doing soon, but also frightening in some ways to know how much needs to get done in a short amount of time. We now have a little over a month for Jimmie to finish and defend his dissertation. It is getting down to the wire. Very exciting and very scary at the same time!

Here are a few after shots of our work on Ella's room.

"C" is for...

Connecticut!

The next leg on this journey we call life is going to take us to New Haven, Connecticut. Jimmie has accepted a post-doc position at Yale. We are a bit surprised. We were planning on moving to Boston or San Francisco, but Jimmie's new boss is starting a new lab at Yale. This will be very good for Jimmie, because he will (hopefully) be setting up his own lab in a couple of years. It will be good for him to see the whole process, especially with someone that has already had a very established lab.

We will be living in a smaller city, but be very close to my two favorite cities, New York City and Boston! It looks like we will be able to have a backyard for the dogs and still be close enough to take a train into the city if we want to! 

I hear the fall in Connecticut is absolutely beautiful! I am really looking forward to the opportunities to practice taking landscape photography.

We still have quite a few details to work out, like selling our house and finding a new one half a country away. They will work out though and we are very excited!

Flaming Sushi and Cardigans...

Today was a nice day. I got to sleep in and I ate lunch with Jimmie and Ella. I have wonderful friends who watched Ella for me so that I could go run this afternoon. Then this evening Mary and I ate some very tasty sushi at Wa. My favorite is the Kansas Roll. It comes lit on fire. The Kansas Roll holds some very special memories for me. We usually eat one whenever we go to Wa. The first time that we had one we thought we would speed the flame dying process down a bit, so we poked the foil. Bad results. We ended up lighting the whole thing on fire! Good times! Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera out of my purse tonight, so we don't have any pictures of our flaming sushi.

After Wa we headed down to Sylas and Maddies. They make the very best homemade ice cream in town. They have very fun flavors like Rock Chocolate Jayhawk and Cookie Monster. Melissa met us. It was wonderful to catch up. We are looking forward to Girls Weekend on the Plaza next weekend!

After that we went home so that Ella could try on her flower girl dress for Melissa. She's going to be pretty darn cute. She had a nice time spinning in her skirt.

Mary and I finished off the evening at Target, one of our favorite places! My parents sent me some money and told me to spend it on myself...so I bought some new clothes and this fabulous pink hat. Mary thinks that the glasses are too big. I do enjoy my accessories, even though I often don't have time to remember to wear them!

Thanks ladies for a fun evening. Thanks Jimmie for watching Ella so that I could have a few minutes of girl time!