Laundry

Hello all!  

Ellie slept a little late one day so I enjoyed watching her sleep for a few minutes.  Since it was time to get up and get to church, I decided to take a picture and...

...yes, the paparazzi woke her up!

A lazy summer morning lounging around the house - Ellie is so happy to be up there with them!

And here she is on the other couch pitching in doing some chores!  Fold Ellie, fold!

"Like this, Mommy?"

"You've got it, girl!"  She's happy to help :).  (extra large photo to emphasize sweet smile)

Couch time

Hello friends!

Ellie has been seeing us watch golf on t.v. from the couch long enough - she's decided she wants a comfy seat up there too!  She pulls up on the couch and beats her hands against it while fussing until you put her up there with you!  Here are some cute pictures of how happy she is to finally see what all the big folks are doing!

She actually does hike her leg and try to get up all by herself!  All steps toward getting stronger and hopefully one day soon - walking! 

"Don't even think of getting me down, people."

We made a change in the food she's getting - something with more fiber and closer to nature.  There's some other stuff out there that we want to pursue too, so we'll see how she handles this and go from there.  She is getting better at licking stuff off your finger and a spoon so she's doing well with that but it's not enough to help her healthy and growing. That will come in time too though!  One day I'll be posting a picture of Ellie walking, WHILE eating - how's that sound?!

Smiles

A week of smiles here at our house - Ellie is scooting and crawling and smiling....that is the latest!

My view during her favorite ride bouncing on my legs:

All dressed up for church.

Working on some insurance details for some strength building work-out sessions this summer at a therapy place.  More to come on that.  Have a great week everyone!!!

More standing

Another week of standing-related shenanigans :).

"Nothing to see here people...I am NOT planning on climbing up on that shelf behind me."

 "OK, yes I am...gotta be quick, before they see me!!"

An ice cream social with our local Down syndrome support group.

Ellie is more excited than she looks.

 Back at home, the boys do some sports analyzing on live television while Ellie jumps into the set.

"I think California Chrome is gonna do it!!!"

"Let me play you a little song titled - Have a Great Week and We'll See You Next Time!"

Look what I can do!

This week, I was a photographer on a wild safari hunt...in our house.  I was trying to capture the rare breed of the "climbing/standing Ellie".  Here as you can see, I managed to catch a few shots of her in her natural habitat.

First, we have some kind of yoga pose she's been developing.  In this comparison, you can see she's really working on her form.

Then we have the "knock over the plastic kitchen, pull up to standing position and climb on top of it" move.  This one surprised me, I have to say.  I didn't even know she could do this!!!

As the sun rises, she gets her energy for her next feat...

which is, "climbing on closed toy bin".

"Ta Da!!!"

Now back to a toy being used for it's purpose - a happy Ellie is starting to pull up and build those leg muscles!

Picnic

Happy May everyone!

I told the kids to keep Ellie happy for a minute while I cleaned up breakfast and this is what they came up with in their room :).

Kind of reminds me of this:

Then we had a fun church picnic where Ellie happily hung out on a blanket and tasted ice cream!

Then to end the weekend, we participated in a race.  Ellie and I ran to the finish line to see the boys cross and she had quite a bumpy wagon ride!  She thought it was so funny and even instinctively held on to the sides!

Hats!

Hi there!

Ellie wore a few different hats this week (besides the hat she always wears of being the cute little sister of three loving siblings!).

We have the backwards baseball cap look:

 We have the "sittin' on a blanket in the sun watchin' my brother play soccer" look:

 And the "I just got home from church and look so spiffy and cute" look:

And finally - Ellie got a swing for the swing set for her birthday!  This is our fourth one of these - the straps never make it more than a couple years due to weather so we just kept getting new ones!  Jacob loved his and said he felt like he was an astronaut in space!  Now here is Ellie - how lucky she is to have three people wanting to push her!  We made some adjustments and figured out how to get her safely locked in there and now as long as the kids are out back - Ellie is outback and always moving!!!  Here she is laughing the first time we put her in.