Umbrella Ella

Marissa rocks for introducing us to this song

Arundel Mills = Amusement Park

Sometimes the time between when Ella wakes from her nap and dinner/bedtime can be very hard to fill. I'm usually kinda tired by then and traffic is bad if we venture too far from home. Plus big kids are out of school and crowding the playgrounds by then and I've usually finished errands by then (why go when people with jobs are there when you can go when it's nice an empty in the middle of the day?). So, I often find myself trying to figure out what to do to entertain my child between 4 and 6pm. TV is the easy answer (not for the whole 2 hrs, don't worry) but I'm trying to steer away from that. She's in a stage where none of her toys are very interesting to her-at least not for more than 5 minutes. She'll play at other people's houses with their toys for hours but if we own it, it's boring. She used to be in love with the water table outside but that's gotten "old" too. So, on one particular day last week I did something I haven't done in months. I took her to the Mall. Ella and Malls were not a good mix last time we tried it. A few months ago we went with my friend Theresa and her (quiet and docile) 2 yr old. Ella had a fit. She hated being in the stroller and just wanted to run around and did the limp body whine/cry on the floor thing every time I tried to hold her hand. It was wretched so I've avoided malls every since. My mom had a positive mall experience with her a few weeks ago so I decided to try my luck. However, this time, it was not to shop for anything in particular but rather to make Arundel Mills seem like an amusement park and it worked!!! Not only was she amused and pretty well behaved but it was free and educational. First we spent about 30 minutes in Bass Pro Shop looking at the HUGE fish tank and the Mountain face complete with stuffed Mooses, bears, and a real flowing stream. She learned all the animals names, touched some of them and was completely mesmerized. Then we walked for a while (we had a talk all the way there about holding mommy's hand) and she did very well. Then we got to the "rides" and spent another 30 minutes going from ride to ride and pretending to "drive." She has no idea you can put money in and make the rides actually move and I have no intentions of telling her. She was more than happy to just climb in and out of them. We walked some more and then got 2 breadsticks at Sbarro and had a little snack in the food court. It was a lovely outing and only cost me $2 for the breadsticks. So, for all you moms reading, Arundel Mills can be a free amusement park for a 1 year old!

Maryland State Fair

We had a great time at the State Fair. I'd never been before but I definitely think we'll make it a family trip each year now that Ella is old enough to enjoy it-animals and rides and yummy food! What could be better?


Brand new baby chicks!



I really think this is the biggest cow I've ever seen

Daddy, Ella, and the sheep

On Strike

Ella is on a hunger strike. At least that's what I think it is. She's not acting sick and she's eaten the equivalent of 2 meals in the last 3 days. She ate a little at dinner tonight so I'm feeling encouraged. She's been drinking lots of milk and juice the whole time so she's getting something with food value but still, kind of scary to see her go DAYS with so little actual food intake. The first night she slept her normal 12 hrs but last night she woke up screaming every 1-2 hrs ALL NIGHT. It was wretched. How do people with new babies do it? How did I do it? So, I'm praying she'll sleep well tonight because the Lord knows we both need it. Hopefully the strike will end soon....

The Flower Family

On August 25th (Our 6 year anniversary), Ella got to be the flower girl in our friend Derek's wedding. It was a kind of crazy weekend (sleeping in a hotel room with a 20 month old is not recommended by us) but we had a great time reconnecting with our Va Tech friends. As for Ella as the flower girl, we ended up being the "flower family" and Chris held her hand while I dropped the flowers. The basket of flowers they wanted dropped was as big as Ella so there was no way she could walk by herself. It was pretty amusing and unexpected but went well.