Watermelon

I got a seedless watermelon at Trader Joe's today. It wasn't quite ripe enough for my taste, but I decided to see what Ellasen thought of it! She had never had watermelon before, and as you can see from the pictures she enjoyed it! She had two whole pieces with dinner.

Anniversary

Tim and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary last week! He brought me the most beautiful flowers - white lilies because they are my favorite and they smell amazing and 3 red roses: one for each year we have been married. We enjoyed a nice dinner and a bottle of wine at home, and I must say that even though I was a little disappointed that we weren't going out to celebrate it might have been the best anniversary we have ever had! It was very relaxing! We still had good food and good wine without any hassle! That is not to say that we will be staying home to celebrate future milestones, but this was a nice change of pace!

A Good 18 Month Photo???

18 Months!

Well it is official! Our little girl is a year and a half old! She is still the happiest, silliest, cutest kid I know! She is so much fun to be around. She is starting to become more and more toddler like though. Her answer to many many questions is "No", and even though she knows the rules around our house she will make sure to test the consequences several times a day. One thing we are struggling with right now is walking on the couch. She can crawl up on the furniture by herself now, and of course she thinks it is great fun to run on and  jump on the couch. She knows she is supposed to sit on her bottom when she is on the furniture, and she will regularly say "Bottom?" to me while she is standing on the couch. We also have a rule that she is supposed to sit on her stool in the bathroom to brush her teeth (so she doesn't run around the house with a toothbrush). She will often stand up next to her stool with her toothbrush. Then we take the toothbrush away (which she loves - it has Pooh on it!) and she is very sad. We know that all of our friends who have older toddlers are laughing reading this because they know how much worse it will get in the months to come. We will just continue to take it day by day. Right now we consider ourselves lucky because the hardest part about this stage is not laughing at her when she is doing something she isn't supposed to do, but that thing is particularly funny....like running out of the locker room at the gym naked after finishing swimming. The fact that I had to run out there after her in a soaking wet bathing suit made it  a little easier to stifle the laugh, but there is still something hilarious about a laughing, running naked toddler!

At 18 Months Ellasen:
*Wears size 3 diapers
*Wears anywhere from 9 month to 18 month clothes depending on the brand
*Has 2 new car seats (one in each car), but is still rear facing
*Still LOVES books
*Can say many two word sentences: "Right there" and Read it" are two we hear often
*Loves blueberries, anything with a marinara sauce and applesauce
*Won't really watch television yet
*Usually goes to bed around 7 during the week and 8:30 on the weekends
*Loves to find her "button" (belly button) and everyone else's
*Says "Okay" and "Awesome"
*Loves to Skype with anyone, but she especially loves to see Nana, Papa and Reilly (my parents)

Stuck!

She did this all by herself, but she couldn't figure out how to get out! She just kept saying "Mommy! Stuck!" while I of course got the camera out!

Best Friends

My friend Catherine, her daughter Kinsley, Ellasen and I (and sometimes a few others) all go swimming on Thursday mornings. After swimming last Thursday Kinsley and Ellasen both wanted to ride in Kinsley's stroller so we put them both in! They liked it okay...for a minute or two anyway!

Tricycle!

I found a pink and purple Radio Flyer tricycle at a garage sale the other day. It is super cute, and Ellasen loves it. She can't really reach the pedals yet, but she likes to be pushed on it and to push it around herself. So fun! Maybe by the end of the summer she will be able to actually ride it by herself! We also got her a water table and a clubhouse with a slide from a neighbor. We are looking forward to a fun summer!

Rosies

Ellasen has been doing "Ring Around the Rosies" with the girls I nanny, and at a toddler class we have been taking at the gym. She is kind of obsessed with it right now, and after about an hour of Tim and I taking turns doing "Rosies" with her last night she decided to do them herself. She is saying "Rosies....Ashes...DOWN!" So cute!

Where is Your Button!

Sorry this video is sideways! I have to remember to take videos the other way!

Papa and Uncle Craig

My dad and uncle took a road trip together to come to Rochester to visit us this past weekend. We had a great time! We played in the the pool at their hotel, we went to the Mall of America, we took a private guided tour of Mayo (with Tim as our guide), had brunch at the Honker and had a delicious Mother's Day dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.