Thomas Tidbits...: On The Move!

Just when we thought Active Ellie couldn't get any more active... Our daughter is constantly on the go and into EVERYTHING.

Justin took Thursday and Friday off work. Since I don't work on Fridays, we spent the day together - a walk, lunch out, a busy day of chasing Ellie around the house, and then a quiet night in.

Saturday Ellie showed off her skills at swim class. She now goes under water, completely submerged for 1 whole second. Even though most of the other kiddos in the class can go 2 seconds, our teacher wants Ellie to stick with the 1 second for 1 more week since she's the smallest in the class. The pushy parent in me wants to nudge Ellie to do 2 seconds and prove to the teacher that being small doesn't limit us (ahem, I mean her).

Sunday we had brunch out with Andy & Essie and the Hacks. Ellie reveled in the action and being passed around like a hot potato. We're so thankful that most restaurants in Austin are kid friendly;) Later that afternoon, Justin and Ellie vistited The Johnsons out in Cedar Park. Per usual, Ellie was enamored with Cameron and Lana. the "big kids." She literally went from total meltdown mode on the ride out there to sheer joy being with the Johnson girls. It sounds like they enjoyed the visit just as much since they were fighting over who got to hold Ellie.

We thought daylight savings time would take some adjustment with an infant, but we all survived with no problems. Since Ellie goes to bed at the ripe hour of 6:30 p.m., it's really nice that it's already almost dark out by then. Plus, getting up early and having the sun up is a double bonus in my book.

New happenings this week:

: Her newest shenanigans is that she won't sit still long enough for a bottle. She'll only drink about an ounce at a time. You can imagine our patience level with that (if any parents have advice on that front, I'm all ears).

: The Johnsons gave us a ton of hand-me-down toys that Ellie just loves. You'll see them in the videos below. Part of the bucket 'o goodies were 3 Baby Einstein DVDs. Ellie is all about it. She stands at our ottoman, and goes glassy eyed instantly.

: Ellie takes big girl baths now! Ellie will get the full body wash, play for a bit, and then she stands up and tries to hoist herself out of the tub when she's had enough. Pretty funny...

: We discovered a super cool park not far from our house. There's a great playscape there and bucket swings for Ellie. I thought Ellie would love the swings, but she mostly just pans the playground for big kids to watch and obsess over.

: We think Ellie is teething again. She's had a little fever, and will go from playing happily to suddenly losing it and chewing on everything in sight.

: Ellie now feeds herself (and loves it). She'll eat small bits of soft food (steamed carrots, bananas, puffs). I see a trend of her preferring this over pureed, spoon fed grub. Works for me as it keeps her finger busy and not constantly in her mouth while we try to distract her to shove food in her mouth.

We head to Chicago next week for a few days, and we can hardly wait. To prepare for the cold weather destination, we stocked up on warm gear for Ellie. It'll be interesting to see how Ellie reacts to the chilly weather...

We like to bring Ellie into bed with us for a bit after she wakes up in the morning. Saturday morning, it was Justin catching up on news, while I tried to keep Ellie from jumping off the bed.