Happy Halloween!

I found this faerie flitting around on my lawn this morning...


She flitted to and fro on the frosty lawn.


She watched o'er the shrubs and rocks.

And she, this little faerie, stole the hearts of all who gazed upon her. For she was the cutest faerie that ever lived.

Ellie's little pony tail

I pulled Ellie's hair up into a pony tail this afternoon. I wanted to see if her hair was actually long enough for it. Of course, she had to have her own comb to play with since I was using one, but it kept her occupied long enough for me to get this:


Her hair stays in a rubber band surprisingly well, so I think we'll add this little 'do to the repertoire (which also includes two pigtails - aka "the Shrek look" and the single side barrette). We're getting fancy now, with hairstyles to choose from.

Car Accident...

the Prius with the icy bridge in the background

For those who haven't already heard, I was in a car accident this weekend. Wenda and I were on our way to a craft show in Townsend, about an hour away. About 8 miles from the show, we came around a blind corner on a bridge and saw about 4 cars stopped on the bridge. I slowed down and tried to stop, but the bridge was icy and after sliding around a bit we hit the back of a stopped Tahoe. I'm guessing we were traveling about 55 mph when we hit.

One of the bystanders was shooing everyone OFF the road/bridge in case another car came around the corner. Then he pushed my car down the bridge and off the road to safety.

The car we hit had virtually no damage. A little smudge of paint on the back bumper and one side of the bumper is now slightly lower than the other side. That's pretty much it. I couldn't believe the disparity between the two cars. The front of my car was crushed. We're desperately praying the car isn't totaled.

the damage to the Prius

the damage to the Tahoe

After an hour or so of police talking to various drivers and bystanders, the reconstruction goes something like this:

An older couple in a black car were driving in the northbound lane when the hit the icy bridge, spun out of control and hit the guard rail, resting diagonally across the northbound lane. A gray truck in the southbound lane stopped to help them, parking across the lane, completely blocking the road. One by one, cars came around the corner, onto the bridge, and managed to stop. 3 cars piled up behind the black car while the drivers of the truck and black car stood in the middle of the road talking. That's sort of where things were when we came around the corner, with not enough time or traction to stop once we saw the cars.

Then the guys in the gray truck left before the police arrived.

Thankfully, there were no injuries. I am SO GLAD I didn't have Ellie with me, and I am so thankful for airbags. And I didn't get a ticket since the officer said with the blind corner, icy roads and extenuating circumstances with the other accident it wasn't my fault. I'm thankful for that, too. And after the whole thing, I still feel like the Prius is a very safe vehicle.

This is what I get...

... for telling my mom the other day that I am thankful I don't have a climber. The next morning Ellie got up and climbed on her musical table to (successfully) turn off the light by herself.

This time last year...

This is what Ellie looked like. A lot has changed in a year!

First Shiner

Yesterday Ellie managed to whack her teeth on a window sill. It didn't really slow her down and she didn't show any damage. The window sill, however, does have two neat teeth marks.

Today, she hit the same window sill with her eye. At least now she has something to show for it.


The following is redundant with Elizabeth's post. Whoops. The child goes to bed and we go to blogging.

Today was also Ellie's first flu shot. Leif's employer was giving them away like Halloween candy. In fact, they were giving away candy, too. We made sure to get in line early to avoid the after school rush. A bunch of other parents with children under 3 years had the same idea. The family in front of us had a bunch of cry babies. Ellie was way tougher than that; she hardly hollered at all and stopped once we went outside to look at the trees.

Afterward, Elizabeth took Ellie to her 15-month checkup, which allowed for yet another first: today was the first time that Ellie received 5 shot in one day.

15 Month Checkup

It's hard to believe that Eliana is 15 months old already. But she is. Today she had her 15 month checkup with Dr. Benda and everything looks good! Here are the stats:

height: 31 inches (75th percentile)
weight: 23 lbs 7 oz (55th percentile)
head circumference: 18 inches (50th percentile)

She has surpassed all of her milestones and is especially advanced on the language front, which is always nice to hear. The visit took longer than I expected (mostly just waiting in the room for the Dr. to come in) and I wasn't really prepared. I didn't bring in the diaper bag this time which meant that I didn't have toys, snacks, and juice to keep her occupied. Oops. All in all, though, it was fine. I was especially proud of how well she handled herself though FIVE shots today. A flu shot before the Dr. appointment, then four shots at the Dr. office. She cried through the shots (they hurt! I got one today, too) but was fine after that and even let me go to 3 places afterwards without causing a scene. I fully intended to give her Tylenol to help with the pain before we went to the appointment, but I forgot. And I forgot to give it to her when we got back to the car, too. I didn't remember until much later, and by that time she didn't seem to be bothered by her needle-poked legs, so I didn't give her any. She really is a good about shots, but that doesn't make them any more fun.

All in all our little girl is a healthy, happy 15 month old and we're happy to keep her that way! Though (and I forgot to mention)... she did get her first really noticeable toddler injury right before we left to go to the Dr. this afternoon. She was on the bed and lunged to get away from me and hit her face on the window sill behind the bed. So far we'd managed to keep her relatively bruise free, but this resulted in a scrape on her cheek and a black eye. Of course, right before we go see the Dr. But she was fine and after the initial crying was up and running around like nothing had happened.

Flattering? Um, No.

Alfred Hitchcock:

Ellie throwing her Alfred Hitchcock:

Family Picture

I think this is my favorite family picture from the other day.

Naughtiness, Silliness, and Hat Love

Ah... Blissful silence. That's what I thought to myself the other day. Until, that is, I realized that Ellie was not down for a nap and that blissful silence probably meant she was getting into trouble. Sure enough, I found her in my bedroom, sitting in the window sill, digging through my purse and playing with my credit cards. And this is the look of Ellie caught being naughty:


So we had a little conversation and it went something like this:

Mommy: "Ellie, are you doing something you're not supposed to?"
Ellie: "Yep."
Mommy: "Did Mommy catch you playing in her purse?"
Ellie: "Yep."
Mommy: "Should you put that back in Mommy's purse?"
Ellie: "Yep."
Mommy: "Can I have a kiss?"
Ellie: "No."
... and off she ran.

This, however, is a completely different sort of look for Ellie, but one she's been sporting lately. Mommy and Daddy's clothes on her head. Almost always from the dirty laundry, too. *sigh*



But when I ask her to put Daddy's shorts back in the laundry she says, "No." and runs out of the room giggling, trailing the shorts behind her.


The toy of choice yesterday, though, was this hat. Once she learned that she could see out the mesh top, there was no end to the fun.


She even abandoned the pair of shorts she had been playing with. Notice, though, that they aren't back in the laundry basket where they should be... Apparently the floor is a better place for clothes.


Seriously though... the headless hatter cracks me up. She ran around like this for a good half hour, giggling like crazy.


Oh look! There IS a head under there! Good... I was beginning to wonder...

So there you have it. The silliness that is my daughter.

More Fall Pictures

Yesterday on Leif's lunch break we went over to Bogert Park to shoot some more pictures in hope of a good family shot. In the name of preparedness, we brought things for Ellie to play with and snack on to keep her occupied. What we did not account for was that it would be hard to pry the goldfish cracker filled jack-o-lantern out of her little hands once we were ready to take the pictures. So quite a few of them have either a jack-o-lantern or Ellie's cracker-filled chipmunk cheek face in them. Oops. But we did get a couple that were good, and we did get some more cute candids of Ellie. And really... who can complain about that?

Fall Pictures

These are some pictures from the other night's photo shoot. I think we're going to try again today for a good family picture. In the meantime, these were some of my favorites.

The Playpen.

I have never been one to put Ellie in a playpen very much. In fact, I don't think I've put her in one since she's been able to crawl. But the pack-n-play is set up so one of Ellie's friends could nap upstairs the other day, so we put her in it just to see what she would do. She loves it! She runs around it (which means very small circles, since it's smaller than her bed) and she peeks through the sides and she stomps her feet and lays down and rolls and giggles and giggles and giggles. Three days now she's had a blast in this little cage she can't get out of. I don't quite understand it... She's got a whole house to run around in and yet she prefers a box with mesh walls. Crazy girl.

Mistress Mary, quite contrary....

.... how does your garden grow?


The other day when Ellie and I were outside she ran over to the garden hose and "watered" my dead plants. It was just too cute not to get a picture of.

Playing in the Leaves

Last night we headed out to the Gallatin river to get some fall family pictures. During the down times while Leif was setting up the camera, Ellie played in the leaves. She picked them up and studied them, or held them in the air and twirled. It was adorable! She has always loved trees, and apparently she loves the fallen leaves, too.

Cheesy Grin

Ellie's love of cottage cheese has definitely returned.

Here's a close up just in case you'd like to count the curds.

Like a kid in a candy shoppe....

It's an older picture, but one that I really like. I came across it yesterday and thought I'd share.

Peas...

See these peas? They were part of Ellie's dinner, mixed in with her macaroni and cheese. I thought that by hiding them in one of her favorite foods, she would eat them. But not so. Instead, (while I was happily rejoicing in the fact that she was actually eating vegetables at dinner tonight!) she would spoon the mac and cheese / pea dish into her mouth, then suck all the cheese off the peas and, when she thought I wasn't looking, take them out of her mouth and throw them under the table. I watched her do it twice, then got up to reprimand her and pick those two little peas off the floor, when I saw that she'd already done it a dozen or more times without my notice!

On the plus side, she can eat foods with a spoon now, like macaroni and cheese, or cottage cheese. In fact, she ate a whole bowl of cottage cheese with a spoon by herself this morning. She can also say cottage cheese, though it comes out more like "cot' cheese". But still, no veggies. Doesn't like veggies.

Bathtime Breakthrough

Ellie is finally old enough to enjoy playing in the tub by herself without me hovering over her every second. That, coupled with the fact that she peed on the bathroom floor right before I put her into the tub last time, brought me to the realization that... I can clean the front bathroom while she takes a bath! I got the whole bathroom clean while she happily splashed away. Talk about a wonderful breakthrough!