24 months.

Our Eleanor turned 25-months old today, so I told myself it really was time to sit down and write this post.  I took the pictures right on her second birthday, I've just been ruminating over this particular entry: what to write about, how to describe our girl, etc.  I think this will be the last one of my monthly progress posts, so I wanted it to be a good one.

At her 24-month appointment, Ellie weighed 27.6 lbs (62%) and was 34 1/4" tall (75%).  Long and lean like her Daddy.

Her favorite things are as follows (but can change as quickly as Kentucky weather):
-color: Daddy orange and purple
-foods: kiwi, yogurt, pasta, avocado, strawberries, olives, raisins, cheese, and pretzels
-books: Arlo Needs Glasses, Dear Zoo, But Not the Hippopotamus, My Very Own Name
-songs: Where is Thumbkin?, Baby Bumblebee, If all the Raindrops, I'm a Little Teapot, Rock-a-Bye-(insert Coon, Cici, or Ellie here)
 -activities: playing at the park with friends (especially on the red slides), wagon rides, having a tea party, and baking cookies in her kitchen

Our big girl has had several cute songs/recitations caught on video in her 23rd and 24th months.  She loves to sing and dance and count and tell all about what she sees in her environment, right until she sees the video camera or phone.  These are from before her second birthday, but Pete got some really great ones this evening that I'm sure I will be sharing soon.

Sorting and naming her colors.

Ellie is full of spunk and loves to be active all day.  Her knees are usually scraped and her calves are covered in bruises.  It is amazing to watch her grow and change even though I get sad that my baby is fading.  I love it when her daddy makes her giggle and nothing beats the look on her face when I pick her up from day care.  Ellie-Mousser, you are my very best girl!!  I love you so much.

Mother's Day 2013

Almost two weeks late, here are some snapshots from Mother's Day this year.  It was pretty low key, we went to church and it was nice and sunny afterwards, so before putting Ellie down for her nap, we tried to get a few family shots with the ole tripod. 

After nap, Pete took us to Ashland for a picnic!  (It had turned much cooler by then.)

Drinking Mommy's fizzy water - she calls it juice.

We ran into J&J who were kind enough to take our picture by the peonies.

Seems so different from my first Mother's Day in 2011:

not even two weeks old!

Hope my fellow mommies out there had a good day as well!!

It's Finished!

Our basement under-the-stairs remodel is completed at last!!  Our good friend David came this morning bright and early to put in the finishing touches.

Ta-da!!  I just LOVE the contrast of the dark stairs with the white cabinets underneath.

 I forgot to take a real before image, but here is a before-the-cabinets, but after-the-demolition picture:

 

So for a real before image I dug around and found some pictures from a few years ago when Matt and Mike helped Pete bring his new pinball machine downstairs.  Note the old-school phone shelf and, my favorite, wood paneling, in the background. 

Back to the pretty pretty pictures.  I started moving all my desk/office things down to the shelves and cabinets this weekend.  But I'm sorting and throwing out/recycling anything I can as I go along, so I'm not quite finished.  I painted a stripe on the back wall before the cabinets went in.  They're pretty scary looking close-up, my frog tape didn't work so well on the bumpy basement walls.  So Pete and I are deciding if we want to fix the stripes or just paint the walls the paler color.

 

Surprise!  It's not cabinets - it's a giant bookcase!!

The rest are pull-out drawers.

Ellie likes this bottom drawer for herself, she put her pouf in it.

Lateral files in the desk area.

Here's one last look at the finished space.  I'll post it again once I've got all my pictures in the space, and can do a panoramic shot to show how it all fits in with Ellie's play area. 

Thank you, Mitchell Construction Management for a job well done!

A Little Photo Shoot

I sat down tonight to write Ellie's 24 month blog, but as I was editing pictures, I decided these images from an afternoon in the backyard deserved a blog of their own (in other words, I couldn't narrow them down to just one.)

Ellie and I were out in the backyard the day after her birthday, and it was a cool afternoon so she had on her jacket and Ugg boots.  I swear, every time I think we're done with boots for the season, she and I have to dig ours out again.  Anyway, Ellie was super-smiley as she was going down the slide and climbing back up again, and the light seemed really good, so I grabbed my camera.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.  What really excites me about these is that I took them while Pete was out of town so they'll be a surprise to him as well :-)

 

 

Saddle Up Your Horses for Ellie's 2nd Birthday

Last Sunday was a rainy day much like today, but we had 12 toddlers and their parents coming over to celebrate our favorite toddler.  Luckily, the showers were scattered so about ten minutes before everyone was to arrive, I ran outside and frantically began twisting streamers along the fence and Pete began staking balloons up the driveway.  Alas, we took no photos of this, but I was pleased with how it looked given that we kept changing our minds on whether the party was going to be indoors or out.

Ellie and Owen decorate their stick horses.

It was pretty funny to watch them all stick a tail on the middle of the horse.

I had all kinds of activities planned - horse coloring pages, make your own stick horse, pin-the-tail on the horse, dress up like a jockey and have your picture taken, etc.  But who was I kidding?!?!  All these kids cared about was the SLIDE!

Alexis getting up on.her.own.!!

David and Annie were the only guests to use our little photo op station.

Toward the end of the party Owen tried,

with the over-enthusiastic help of Ellie, of course.

Then it was time for cake and everyone settled down to eat.

So glad Ellie has so many little friends to make her day special!!  We're pretty sure she had a great time.