Blankets and stickers

Cold mornings have us all seeking blankets for reading and watching television.

Ellie always likes a good cuddle with one of her many soft blankies.

Handing Ellie a sheet of stickers resulted in her actually getting them all over her!  She did a few rolling moves and they peeled off and stuck to her abdomen!  I asked all three kids who did that and thought they were joking when they denied it!

Eating and then something else

Ellie all set to eat!  Doesn't she seem happy to be in her new chair at the table with her single Cheerio? :)  She gums it but it just won't go down!  I do have to say there has been some small improvement in the gag area.  She's getting more used to the food I guess but it still does not go into her stomach!

Speaking of food going into the stomach - would you like to hear a story about food going out of her stomach????!!!!  Great, then read on.

There is a part of her feeding tube that has a clamp that is to prevent leaks.  Welllllll...apparantly if you roll around enough on tile floor you can hit the clamp at the right angle - maybe the grout line even provided the right leverage - and voila.  The tube opens up and out comes hours of milk and well, just lots of other great wonderful stuff from the insides of our sweet angel.

So here is Ellie having rolled in it and played in it.  Luckily I caught it in time before she began to travel.

Now I must head to make lunch for the other kids.  I think I'll pass on that can of clam chowder.

18-month-olds and floors

A marker or pencil left on the floor is guaranteed to be discovered by Ellie.

You roll on and be curious and draw all over yourself girl!  I'm just glad you can do it and that it makes you happy!  Tonight will be bath night for sure!  I'm not the only one that bathes their 4th child every 3rd day right????? :)

Golfer

We start 'em young around here.

School table

Ellie has upgraded to actually sitting ON the school table now for lessons.

"What we gonna learn today?"

Year of Faith

The Year of Faith is almost over.  Boy is that an understatement.

An Italian woman and her son run in a 100-meter relay race on the main road leading to St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 20. The Year of Faith event drew several hundred people, including Olympians, Paralympians, families and children. (CNS/Paul Haring)

We'll see what the Pope declares this next year to be.

Monday

Hi everyone!

Ellie is all smiles and doing great!

 "Look, this is me pretending to hold a baby soda can and watch tv from my chair."

"10 more days til Halloween and lots of candy!  I think Mommy will do her best to get me to eat some!  I'm so lucky!"

Fan

Ellie the ever baby model got a fan effect for a photo shoot yesterday.

She's ready for her close up.  :)

Big Seat!

I finally was able to get to a new therapist in town - basically they are incredibly booked and I am limited to late times in the day or holidays.  So this past Monday they had an opening!

She had some feeding time - it's still so far from ideal what she's doing with food.  Not much is natural about what she does when it gets in her mouth!  But she tolerated it and it all went fine. 

Then we moved on to some physical play.  They have a big room of toys and equipment (their policy states other kids can't come to the appointment for that very reason!) and one of the things they like to use there is this little seat.  We have one at home but another therapist stated they didn't like these things.  Don't you love when things aren't black and white in parenting?!

So we got it out and Ellie got her own little work station and just loved it!

  

 "Who's a big girl?!"

 Happy girls working away.

Weekend

Ellie would like to show you how old she is!

 "See my one?"

She made her way to a new corner of the playroom this week.  She happily stayed there while we did our school.  I guess she had learned enough for the week.

 She sang us all a few songs on her microphone.

Then the phone rang and she wondered "could this be my agent with yet another concert tour?"

 Early celebration of Halloween with matching outfits for the girls.  My two little kittens :).

 We spent the morning on the golf course.

 Ellie did some steering and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

 Getting a little tired she did some snuggling with her Grandma.

Busy student

 Little Ellie listening in on school. 

 Studying the dynamics of a Hello Kitty flashlight. 

Busy investigating the US map. 

She prefers the full immersion method. 

Photo credit: Jacob

Happy Sunday!

Ellie's doing great - a happy baby!  And everyone knows the expression is really "when baby ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"...so we're all happy over here!

 Ellie did a little more stretching in her cute sock shoes - this time she used a party ribbon for some tension.  She has quite the home gym here.

 The girls ready for church all polka-dotted out!

Have a wonderful Sunday!!

Twins!

As the day goes on, outfits are usually changed by at least a few of us around here. So by lunchtime after a few spills and spit ups - Ellie and I ended up looking like this...totally unintentional!!! 

A little Halloween package arrived that included the cutest little socks ever!

 

I do not own a pair of socks that look like these myself, so the dress-alike ended there.

One of the many advantages of Ellie being Ellie is that we still get to dress her like a little-bitty baby including little socks that look like shoes!  No need for real shoes quite yet for our little lady and it's kind of good to just enjoy that!

A little stretching and some posing in her little slippers.

 

Ellie recently pulled a hamstring in a run so she's really trying to stretch more.