Just what the doctor ordered...

Brady and Ella "watching" Dora.

Under the Knife

Tomorrow, Brady will be getting surgery on his right knee... for the second time. The first was on January 13, 2006. It's funny that we remember the date, but it was also the day that I found out for sure—absolutely sure—that I was pregnant. I took a test at the hospital right before he went into surgery and got the results right before visiting him in the recovery room. This time around will probably be a bit different. We'll be heading to Ft. Meade in the morning and Brady's surgery will be around 1 pm. His recovery will be much longer than the last time around, as the damage is more significant. He has a complex tear on his lateral meniscus, as well as a cyst that is causing his knee to be swollen. It only took 8 months of appointments to get him to surgery, so I'm glad he'll have some relief in the near future! :-)

Wish us luck!!!

Ruby Red Slippers

THE shoes.
These are Ella's new shoes... and she picked them out herself. They are lovely. And only cost $1.50. Even better :-)

Bathing Beauty

au revoir

I am headed out in less than an hour to catch a flight... for my first night/weekend away from Ella. I am absolutely terrified and hardly slept at all last night. I am going to visit Larissa in Boise—for her baby shower (yay!)—and will return on Sunday. It should be lots of fun and I'm so glad that I'm going to visit her for my first time away... but I already miss my silly little girl :-)

I'll let you know how it goes. Until then... have a wonderful weekend!

Baltimore

This weekend, we met up with Gretchen, Wessley and Phoenix to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time looking at all of the fish, turtles, frogs, birds, etc. After a few hours in the aquarium, a little lunch and shopping... we were tired! We said goodbye to cousin Phoenix and checked into our hotel for a long nap! We stayed at the Harbor Court, a short walk from the aquarium. Ella enjoyed swimming in the indoor pool with the big kids. Afterwards, we had some dinner... and they brought Ella her own bowl of ice cream! Yum! What a great weekend! More photos can be seen here >

Bake me a cake

WORDS!!!!

Ella has always been rather chatty... but most of the time we have NO IDEA what she's saying. Recently, some of her words have become recognizable. Here are the ones we know she says:

shoes (by far the cutest word Ella uses. sounds like "shzzz". hilarious!)
socks
wow!!
ooohhh!
uh oh
bear
woof
quack (ba ba ba)
dada/daddy
mama
gramma
baby
bye bye
hello
no
yes (more like zes)
please
ppththththth!!!
d d d d da (dora... the explorer)
map
backpack
boom
bird