24 Weeks

About a week ago something happened to my belly... it exploded! I'm not sure what happened, but I guess that whole wives tale (or whatever) about getting bigger the second time around actually came true. Plus, I haven't been able to run in about 3 weeks, so eating caught up with me too. Hah. But I still feel great, just getting tired in the afternoon/evenings from chasing around Ellie. Newbie Raz is now 24 weeks old and doing great!

Cornhole and Running!

Now, Ellie was a fairly late walker (walking at 14 months). NOT that it bothered me any... less trouble for her to get into. And at this point, I'm pretty sure she is a fairly late runner. Once again, not that I care. Total body coordination has not been mastered near as fast as individual areas of the body (for example, she can hold a pen like an adult and has been able to since she was 18 months old). SO... the running thing is new for us around here. I haven't captured it on video yet, but I took some pictures while Dan and Erik (pronounced "Urk" by Ellie) broke out the cornhole boards for the first time that they made together.

What is Cornhole, you say? Cornhole is a backyard Kentucky game of sorts. It's a lot like horseshoes in the fact that you're aiming at a target about 25 feet away. Only you throw bags of corn at boards with holes. These boards (with holes) appeared to be easy as pie to complete, which is why Dan, Opa, and Erik decided to undertake the task. Easy but time-consuming (as my sewing friend Julie likes to say).

Early Gardening

I ordered some seeds from Burpee and since our outdoor faucets are now working (ask Dan about leaving the water hose attached all winter... thanks for your help Opa!) I decided to enlist my little helper in planting. Given how Ellie does not like to dirty her hands, feet, or any part of her body, my gardening plan wasn't such a great idea. On Ellie's second scoop of dirt she got some on her hand and asked me to clean it off. Then on the third scoop, she spilled some on her shoes. Well, that was pretty much the end of Ellie's "help." She sat down, took her shoes off, had Dad help her brush off the dirt, then decided to take off her shoes and socks like Mom, but decided to put them on again when she realized the garage floor was full of sawdust (from the cornhole board building), then brought me inside so I could get her something to play with, then played with her rice pouring for a few minutes, and continued to distract Dan until I could get my seeds planted! Whew! That was that!

Enjoy the Spring!
Love,
The Raz's

Rub a dub dub blub...

Due to the wonderful summer-ish weather we've been having, Ellie has now discovered the water hose! She has long loved water play and until now it has been restricted (and very controlled) in the bathroom sink and tub. But not anymore people! Watch out for your water hose, it's likely to be confused as a toy by Ellie. The first pictures are of Ellie playing in the water hose after "planting" seeds with me on Saturday.

On Sunday, after watering the seedlings, Ellie filled up her blue bucket and began getting in and out of it (fully clothed). Eventually she sat in the water (also fully clothed) so we had to get rid of the clothes! It was probably as much fun to watch as it was to discover how entertaining it can be to bathe in a bucket in the back yard.

Now, whenever I need to water my plants, it has turned into a time of great fun for Ellie (and not-so-great-fun for me who has to convince her to leave her clothes on and that we don't play in every water hose or bucket we see).

Enjoy today and go play in some water!

Love,
The Raz's

E 23 Mo

Exactly a year ago...

These are of Ellie in April of last year. She was busy riding her hippo around the kitchen at the time. And if memory serves me correctly (which isn't usually the case), she wanted to be pushed around rather than scoot with her own legs. She also thoroughly enjoyed her very first flour playing. Mostly slinging the flour around instead of spooning it into the containers like I had blissfully imagined she would. She's growing up quickly! Her second birthday is next month and I can hardly believe it!

Just like Daddy

Ellie used to cross her arms a lot when it appeared that she didn't know what else to do. Oma took notice and said how Dan used to to the exact same thing when he was Ellie's age. It just so happens that I have a picture from our wedding slide show of Dan with his arms crossed at his second birthday. He's a bit chubbier than Ellie, eh? Oh, and I couldn't help but throw in a picture of myself at the same age (arms completely un-crossed, thank you very much)! Enjoy!

E 23 mo

Current Activities

We've had a busy past few weeks and have been getting back in the swing of our life here in the Raz household. Ellie has been doing lots of her Montessori activities lately. It sometimes seems like anything is a Montessori activity... but it all requires a little planning and preparation (sometimes something I'm not very good at).

Ellie has been cutting, gluing, cookie-cutting wonder dough, button sorting, sipping tea, and cooking! She's learning her favorite colors right now which are blue, pink, and purple. I decided to teach her what she was gravitated towards (as opposed to the primary red, blue, and yellow) first. That's where the flowers come in. I have several seed catalogs laying around and Ellie had fun "directing" me which flowers were pink, blue, or purple to cut them out. Then she cut each and every piece before gluing them to the appropriate color page. Green, yellow, and white are next on the list.

The buttons were a big hit. I was reading through a Montessori book and the author made the point that here in the US, people are overly concerned about children choking on small objects. In turn, this postpones the necessary dexterity that they learn from exploring small objects. Of course, all of this is to be under strict supervision by... ME. Dan actually came in when she was playing with buttons, so there were two of us watching. Not once did she try to eat them.

Tea time is always a hit in this house. Ellie has perfected pouring the tea (er, water) and has now moved on to delivering it to whoever is in the next room. This particular day it was Dan. He got lots of tea (as did the floor).

And lastly she is quite the pot-stirrer. She helped me make Minestrone and after that experience, any time she heads over to her little kitchen to cook, she says she's making "soup."

I think that's all she's been up to lately!
E 23 mo

22 Weeks

Finally! Showing some belly! Here I am in my Easter dress... not maternity, but it shows off ze bebe belly. Everything is still going well and I've got a doctor appointment at the end of the month. Thanks for your prayers for this little girl, she's kicking and moving about all the time. In fact, as I write this you can see my belly moving.

Anna

The Story of a Swing Set

If you've spent any time on this blog you've probably noticed one thing: Ellie LOVES being outside. From pushing her stroller around, to now running down the sidewalk (and I DO mean running), she is in love with the outdoors. We're more than thrilled because Dan and I also love being out in God's creation too! So! Every time we take Levi (dog) to the dog park to burn off some of his husky energy, Ellie requests that we take her to the park which is about 300 yards away from the dog park. This is where she's had the pleasure of swinging and learning how to climb the slide platform. Then when I took her to her friend Caleb's house, she fell in love with his swing set. That was when our search for our very own set began. [If you want to know more about this, email Dan and he can tell you everything about swing sets under $400].

Dan spent an entire morning running around from store to store (with Ellie in tow) to find her the perfect swing set. She became more and more excited about the idea as the shopping continued. Of course, she had no idea why she couldn't swing and slide on the displays! We finally settled on one from Lowe's that allowed us to add on, very appealing since Ellie will probably want more fun stuff to do in the next few years. Dan and I (mostly Dan) put the set together Saturday, and finished sometime around 10pm Saturday night. So, on Easter morning Ellie not only had goodies from the Easter bunny, but she also had a pretty nice birthday find. Of course, the swing set paled once she found out there was candy in her Easter eggs (but that's another blog entry). The little girl is in love! It's been used daily since Sunday... okay, for three whole days... but daily, none the less!

So, take a cue from Ellie and get out to enjoy the outdoors today!
Love,
The Raz's

E 23 mo
Newbie 23 wk

Yackady Yack! Another Update.

Well, after the last posting about Ellie's words, her vocabulary has exploded. Pretty much anything she wants she can say now. Like for example, when we were walking today she pointed to a pile of dirt and rocks around the base of a tree and said "dirt" (which sounds more like "dut"). That was a new one and things like that happen all the time.

She says swing, wee (as in, I'm having fun!), chair, car, bike, candy (sounds like "keys" sometimes), book ("boop"), push (when she's talking about being pushed in the swing), ball, Peter Pan (more like Pe Pa), pink, blue, purple (really working on this one), go, keys, purse, pants, shorts, bunny, home, Pop, Tudi (Tooie), Oma, Opa... and the list is ongoing!


E 23 Mo

Mowing with Daddy

Ellie has a little mower I picked up at a consignment sale a while back. It's supposed to be a bubble mower, but the bubbles only work part of the time. A few days ago, Dan took her outside to help him mow the grass. I was upstairs working on a few things when this took place, but couldn't resist stopping to take some pictures!

Sunday in the Park

We ate a picnic lunch last Sunday in a cute little park here in Lexington. Ellie had fun finding sticks and throwing them into the stream, picking flowers, and staying out of the water. It was nice, quite, and a beautiful day for a picnic!

Greens

Have I ever told you that we drink green smoothies in this house? We've been blending up greens since I got my oh-so-awesome BlendTec blender (and if you have no idea what that is, please please watch these videos, you won't be disappointed!) this Christmas. But they haven't been a regularity until recently. For whatever reason, I've decided to have one for breakfast each morning to start the day off right. Ellie has also joined the bandwagon, possibly because of parent pressure, I'm not sure. But she drinks one with me most every morning... or at least a few sips. Her favorite is banana, orange, pear, and kale.

Happy Drinking!
Anna

Little Girl's Collections

For someone who has been alive for 1 11/12 years, Ellie has stashed away more than one purse per year. But isn't that about right, girls? We amass purses before we even know how to talk. She has four purses, two (real) cell phone's, about five sets of keys, and more shoes than I do (yep, it's sad but true, my shoes cost more than hers!). And if you feel sorry for me, I will gladly accept a Zappos gift card, hah.... my birthday is August 1. Anyway. With all of these purses, she still manages to remember what's stored in each one. And in case you were wondering where we got such fabulous little purses here's the scoop: Oma hand made both of the pink purses, Tudi gave her the bunny purse for Christmas, and her Aunt Joan made the purple purse in high school (I think Ellie stole it one of the times we were in Louisiana at Oma & Opa's house). Ellie is quite fond of each of them, so don't try to come over and borrow one!