Ella and Daddy. Home Alone 5!

I'm sure the minute Amanda left she thought, "what the heck am I thinking leaving her with him??".

But the truth of the matter is, we had fun. It was some great Ella/Daddy time. We really needed it. Not that I felt on the outside, but Amanda and Ella really have that great Mommy/Daughter bond, and it was time Daddy got his solidified.

Saturday morning we trekked off to Wonderscope. It's really a wonderful place that lets kids of all ages (under 10, I thnk) learn about the world. Check out the link for more. She had a good time, and we spent the majority of it in the "Small Wonders" room, which was just for 6 mos. to 2 year olds. There was a lot of ramps and other places for her to walk, run, play and just generally have a good time. It took Ella a bit of time to warm up, but once she did, she enjoyed walking all over the room and climbing on everything. She even had her first experience on a slide! Accidently. oh, and backwards. Thankfully it was just on her belly. There's plenty of stuff she just couldn't get enough off there. Of course, she enjoyed just being in open areas and being able to walk to her heart's content. She really does great walking, but even better if she has something to push. In this old gym, in the former school that Wonderscope is now, she had PLENTY of room to push this chair all around the gym.

She really enjoyed the whole experience overall, and Daddy was very happy to see that she took a great nap that afternoon. Which means Daddy did too. :)

Vegas Baby

Privacy please, I need to make a call
Originally uploaded by mbowling.

I'm off to Vegas Saturday morning, make that very early Saturday morning. We're aiming to be at the airport at 5:15, which means I'll be leaving my house around 4 am. I think I'll be sleeping on the plane! I'm actually traveling for fun this time and I'm getting quite excited. Two of my good college friends and I are headed there for a quick three-day weekend of fun, which includes a Go-Gos concert. Can't wait to relive the 80s! As Mike says, this is my time to just be Amanda, not wife, not mom -- just me. It will be fun rediscovering who that person is.

I know I'll have a great time while I'm there. Yet, I'm still be missing my beautiful child and wonderful husband. Mike is so great and so supportive of me taking this trip. Although I feel guilty because I'm leaving him for an entire weekend, I know Ella and Mike will get some precious bonding time.

Ella is doing much better. She started returning to normal around Sunday. We weren't seeing too many smiles or happy jabbering until then. She had a follow up appointment on Tuesday with her regular doctor, and she said the lungs were clear, but she still had some fluid in the ears. She's on the antibiotics for two more days.

I uploaded a few more pictures of Miss Ella. She loves to dig my cell phone out of my work bag and play with it, so we snapped a few shots of the modern baby using the cell phone. Mike teased that she was checking her Babies R Us stocks. Man, I love those baby blues.

Oh, the trials of an Ida Country Sheriff...

Posting this morning from Dakota City...

So, yesterday Amanda and I took a half day off to come up and see Amanda's brother Matt coach his varsity basketball team. We had to travel from KC to Holstein, Iowa. So we took a little detour from our usual route, which was a great change of pace. It was nice to see things like hills, 2 lane highways(which can get a little frustrating) and traveling through small towns which is great.

Made it up to Holstein just in time for tip off. Ella LOVED seeing all the people walking everywhere. Ella was more than happy to do her share of walking as well. In fact she kept wanting to walk out on to the court! So she kept Mommy and Daddy on their toes. Sadly, Kingsley-Pierson lost, but it was the best team in the conference, and Matt's team did some good things to help keep their opponents in check and not blowing K-P out.

So, on the way home after being in the car all afternoon and chasing Ella all evening in the game Mommy and Daddy were pretty wiped out, but still had a 40-mile drive back to Sioux City. 10-minutes into the drive, flashing red and blue lights appear out of nowhere behind the VUE. BUSTED. I pull over, and the very nice sheriff tells me we were doing 71 in a 55! Whoa!! I was so zoned out and the highway was empty and after being in the car all day, I wasn't even paying attention. So guilty as charged. The sheriff took our info and went back to the car to fill out the ticket. ZOOM, there goes Matt.....ZOOM.....there goes Pam and Brian past. Oh, they have to be laughing it up. I'm getting disapproving remarks from Amanda. Mikey's feeling pretty bad. The sheriff comes back after about 5 minutes in his squad car. Comes back with the ticket. (which is in triplicate form) Reads over all the pertinent info, he was nice enough to knock it down from at 71 to a 65 in a 55. Its an $81 ticket. Shows me the court date and time. He has me sign it. So there it is, what a bummer. The sheriff goes to rip off my piece of the ticket that I keep and *rriiiippp*. He accidently tore my part about halfway up the ticket! He stops, looks at it and goes, "shit." After taking a breath, he says, "Well, I guess you are free to go, the ticket is ruined. I'm really embarrassed, I've never had this happen before...just watch your speed." I can't believe it. That's only the 3rd time I've been pulled over, the last one being 5 years ago. So now I've gotten out of a ticket without even trying.

I can't believe it.

We thanked our lucky stars and headed home.

Just because I kinda feel bad for the guy, here's his pict:




Thanks!

Attemping to make a post

Amanda says I need to post more, so here's another attempt. Thanks in advance for your patience.

First off, here's to Tricia and her long road back to be coming an adult.

Just kidding.

Secondly, Ella tonight seems to be feeling a touch better. When Daddy got home she decided that it was time to shape up. We decided to smile a little more and maybe even let somebody other than Mommy hold her. She ate better, which was great. We were worried that parents association was going to come after us for having a malnourished kiddo. Thankfully she was looking out for us and decided to eat some more. So call off your dogs!

Next, I found out a bit of interesting news today. The house the Scott and I grew up in (for a little while anyway) is up on the market. It sounds like its not in very good shape on the inside. Don't quite know the whole story, but it sounds like it was a "lets get the hell out of dodge" type move out of the house situation. As you see the house is being sold "AS IS".

While its sad to see a piece of your history up on the market, there's always that little bit in the back of your mind that goes "boy, it would be neat to bring your own child up in the house where you grew up in." But, then you get serious about it and think, "meh, I don't think so." Especially in this situation. Either way, I think Mom and Dad are going to try to see if a realtor friend of the family could give us a tour of the joint. It would be neat to see. Bring back a little nostalgia and a few stories. I mean, I was Ella's age when we lived there. Crazy.

There are a lot of topics that I want to hit on--so here's a quick rundown:

The iPhone: Want it, badly. But don't NEED it. Quite yet.

Chiefs: Seriously? That was a a PLAYOFF team? Uh, no. Not really.

Royals: I will expand on this a little more, but it must be my age, but I'm getting more and more into baseball than I am football. Now, don't get me wrong, I still love football, but with the addition of Dayton Moore, I really actually have some long term hope for this team to finally get headed in the right direction! The Gil Meche signing still blows me away, its either an incredible signing, or its a total waste of a contract. Its the exact same contract that "Sween-dog" has and we all know how well THAT is turning out, don't we?

Its bedtime folks. Now going to bed.

Just Miserable

My poor baby, she has a double ear infection, tonsillitis and was wheezing enough that she needed a breathing treatment at the doctor's office. She was hysterical during those 10 minutes. Thank goodness Mike was there, as there was no way I alone could have contained her and kept the mask on her face. I feel like a bad mom for not realizing how sick she was.

I appreciate the doctor being so thorough in her assessment of Ella, what I certianly didn't appreciate was her commentary on that daycare is bad for her health. I get it that kids in day care settings do get sick more often, it's a given. What irks me is judgemental people, who only believe they way they live is the right way. I love being a mom -- best thing I've ever done. I enjoy my job. I choose how to live my life so it works for Mike, Ella and I -- no one else. Right now, it's working as Ella is a very happy and thriving child who is more than meeting all of her developmental milestones. If the situation changes, then I'm more than happy to reassess and make any necessary changes.

Ugh, I needed to get that off my chest. I just have heard a lot of silly comments in the past week about how hard it must be to be a working parent. It's like they feel sorry for me and especially for Ella. All I can say to that is we're a very happy family, so please be happy for us. I wish we all would stop thinking that we know how others could live their lives better, rather focus your energy on living a better life for yourself.

That's my rant for the day, didn't mean to hijack the post of Ella's illness, but back to her. She's sitting in my lap, half-asleep, just miserable. Hopefully plenty of cuddle time with mom will speed the recovery process.

So 2 parts flour in this bowl

So 2 parts flour in this bowl
Originally uploaded by mbowling.

Ella's sensory play time this weekend was playing with flour. I figured that I needed to clean the floor anyway that I might as well let her make a mess before I scrubbed it. She enjoyed feeling the flour between her fingers. She even tasted a few sprinkles, but it didn't impress her. It certainly didn't qualify as Good Eats. Maybe our next lesson can actually include mixing two ingredients.

Daddy's stuck at work.

This is not fun. I hate this.

What happens when you have tried everything you can think of? Usually the simplest thing remains.

This HAS to change.

Cabin Fever

I haven't left the house for three complete days. It's a pretty impressive feat for me. I actually haven't minded it until today. I had today off and I had such high hopes for a special day for Ella and I -- it was suppose to include a trip to Wonderscope and a play date with Jen and the boys -- but the weather didn't cooperate and Ella is yet again fighting another nasty cold. We've gotten nothing but ice, sleet, freezing rain and snow for the last three days, so Mike took the Vue and both of us thought it best that Ella and I not venture out unless necessary. I know I can't complain. We have power and being forced to stay home isn't a bad thing. It actually was good for us to slow down and just enjoy the mundane moments of life. I do appreciate that so much as Ella is so close to becoming an official toddler. If I'm to be honest with myself, she hasn't been a baby for awhile. I do miss her as a baby, but I love that she's defining her independence lately. Why is it once you have one stage almost figured out, your child decides to move into a new stage? I have no clue how to parent a toddler. Mike reassures me that we had no clue how to parent a baby and we've managed to survive so far.

I promise to post a few pictures of our recent adventures at home. Ella had her first baking lesson. It was quite the experience and quite the mess, but I do love exposing her to new things. I love encouraging her to explore her world.

Bath time with clothes on

Bath time with clothes on
Originally uploaded by mbowling.

Ella learned a valuable lesson tonight: it's hard to achieve the objective of a bath when you climb in with your clothes on. I'm so out of the running for parent of the year! Seriously, how does this happen, especially when I am in the bathroom kneeling next to Ella, running the water and arranging the bath toys. Some how she manages to climb into the tub without me noticing. I only turned away from her for a brief second. Luckily, no headers involved with this adventure. I found myself shocked and mortified that she managed to accomplish this so quickly, and then I couldn't stop laughing. When this girl wants something, there is no stopping her.

Someone should check this diaper

Someone should check this diaper
Originally uploaded by mbowling.

I had to post this for Tricia. Poor Brodie just doesn't know what to think of Ella sometimes. She sure wants to be his friend.

Not inspired

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I just haven't been inspired to write anything. We've been coming out of the holiday fog and getting back into our normal routine. We've actually had a few quiet nights at home this week, which were greatly needed. The holidays were so wonderful and enjoyable. Mike did forget to mention one big thing: WE HAVE A WALKER! Ella took her first official steps the Friday before Xmas. We were luckily enough to actually get them on tape as well. We decided to let Ella open our gifts to her rather than transport them to Sioux City. Mike set up the video camera to capture the moment. Before we opened any gifts, Mike held out a book to her and asked to step away from the couch. She turned around, reached her little hands, took two slow steps and six quick quick steps before collapsing on her knees. It was so adorable. Naturally, we both freaked. She's continuing to make great strides. Her walk still mimics Frankenstein's but each day it seems she takes one more step in the series before falling to her knees. I must admit when she stops crawling and favors walking that I will miss her little crawl -- the way her little hips and bottom sway back and forth. It's so precious.

The other big news is she is a forward-facing car-ridding kid. Don't fret. I realize she's not one, but we got permission from the doctor's office. She was so miserable all cramped up with the seat facing backward and would cry the instant she was placed in her seat. We tried many adjustments to no avail. The doctor said considering her height, weight and her excellent head and neck control that we had her blessing. So, this morning's commute to day care was our first adventure facing forward and she completely digged it. She sat in amazement at all the lights and occasionally would kick her legs with excitement. It truly has changed her world.

One final milestone to mention: Ella had her first kiss with a boy and she was the pursuer. I can't imagine it any other way. I guess she crawled over to Tylan and just planted one on him. I can completely see it in my head and it just cracks me up. All I can say, is that's my girl!