cookies, shoes and the girls - hi, fabulous day

yesterday, ella spent the day with nana and aunt jeanne!! we had lunch at the bonbonerie cafe (and i kept myself from eating roger's cookies), then we went shopping at nordstrom (and i kept myself from buying shoes).

after dinner, roger and i had our final walk-through of our new house!! on our way to the closing in a few minutes. soo excited!

ella meets her cousin

we had a fabulous weekend with mike, danielle and isabelle!!

ella gave plenty of kisses to little isabelle, but was not loving having to share her nana.

yesterday, we went to the zoo and ella got to pet a baby alligator.

thanks for visiting us and we can't wait to see you guys again soon! :-)

duck, duck, butterfly

so after being held captive in the house for almost four days due to ella's lingering virus or whatever it was, ella was feeling better and ready to get out!! yay!!!!

we headed out to krohn's conservatory in the city where they are having a butterfly exhibit. hundreds and hundreds of butterflies fly all around you. a beautiful blue butterfly landed on ella's stroller. it was so much fun to watch ella follow the butterflies as they fluttered around her.

then we went to a nearby park for lunch and ella was so happy to hold onto my finger and walk around. her favorite thing about the park? of course the ducks in the pond. :-)

welcome back, el. we're so glad to have you out and about again.

going bananas

ok, so i suck at blogging.

last week, ella got her hair trimmed so her bangs are no longer in her eyes.

on friday, we visited roger at work at the chiquita headquarters. here they are having a 'meeting' in his office. ella had lunch with her daddy in the cafeteria, she flirted with one of his co-workers, she growled (loudly) every time the elevator doors opened, and then threw up in his office (that was when we left).

this weekend was pretty chill (yay! finally. and no birthday parties to drag roger to. but he did make an appearance for some food and cake at a baby shower) and then yesterday ella and i were both sick. :-( today we're on the mend and ella's fever is down; it was almost 105 yesterday (!!).

and finally, here's my future little yogi demonstrating downward facing dog.

liars and tired and bears, oh my!

so i promised that in my next post that i would not mention blood tests or doctors. i lied.

on friday afternoon we saw an allergist. no nuts, fish or shellfish for ella and no "direct" eggs (so she can have them in pancakes, cookies, etc.). she can eat wheat. and the allergist thinks that her allergy to dogs has caused her eczyma. oy. while there are some things we can do to mitigate the dog allergens, we're still trying to work through this situation. thank you to all of the individuals who have offered to help us through this, not by taking the dogs, but by taking ella. sorry, i think we're going to keep her. ;-)

this has been exhausting couple of weeks but roger and i went out saturday night with several other couples and no babies. it was so nice to get out and downtown cincy is really cute! on sunday, ella celebrated mother's day with me, nana, mimi and gigi (via g-chat).

today, ella went to the zoo for the first time!! she got soo excited when she saw the grizzly bears and she growled when i asked her what bears say. she also liked the penguins. here's a picture of her on the zoo train - doesn't she look like she's having a blast?? i drove into the city, through the crap neighborhoods, bought a membership and hiked my ass all over the zoo; and what was she MOST excited to see? ducks. awesome.

she's standing more and more everyday and taking more little steps.

ella has discovered the merits of cute footwear!!

i feel like this blog has transformed into a depressing account of our ongoing saga. our pediatrician called today and said that the blood test showed allergies to peanuts, egg whites, wheat and dogs. um...oh shit. we made an appointment with an allergist so we'll see what he says. i used to believe in karma, but i'm almost positive there is absolutely no way we did anything to piss off the universe this badly. that being said, i look at el smile and hear her say "mama" (translation: "mommy" or "more" or generic term for anything within an arm's reach) and have to admit we're pretty lucky.

so i feel like i need to turn the blog around a bit and hopefully make it through the next couple of posts without mentioning allergies, blood tests or doctors (for dogs or humans). i love my mom trying to cheer me up. she advised that i need to relax with a cup of tea. seriously mom? have we met? yup, i'll sip the tea while i take my mind off things by knitting a sweater... but i still love ya mom.

this pic is of ella eating dinner in her coat. she pulled it down from where it was a hung and put her arms through and wore it while she was playing and eating dinner. she also knows that shoes go on her feet. she is soo my kid.

blood, sweat (from the hot yoga) and tears

and so the drama continues. on friday, we took ella to the doctor. he sent us to the children's hospital to get her blood drawn for an allergy panel. while we were in the waiting room, the vet called and said that the blood test for george came back and she wanted to do exploratory surgery to see if he has cancer. cue nurse to call us in for ella's blood test. i cry before the syringe even makes its appearance. the nurse kicks me out of the room. thank you roger for staying strong. :-)

we have not gotten ella's blood test results back yet and we're deciding what to do about george, but he is doing much better on his new diet so keeping our fingers crossed...

on sunday, we wrapped up the 5th weekend in a row of 1st birthday parties. yay. but seriously, roger shouldn't complain too much. he got good food, i conveniently scheduled our home inspection during the 4th of the 5 parties, and one of the other dads manages the sam adams brewery so he got beer out of the deal.

ella continues to practice standing on her own. and today she was hilarious. we were picking out her outfit today when she farted. loudly. the best part was she looked up at me laughing and said "dada!"