Happy Valentine's Day!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Elle woke up in a great mood today...here she is this morning with her first valentine.

Thanks Annalise!

This is what most of our pictures look like these days...she is always on the move.

Elle's first Valentine's Day dinner was pretty special - for an 8 month old anyway!

First course, guacamole hummus by the fist full.

Second course, yummy pizza from a local take n' bake place.

Mushroom and bacon (because everything is better with bacon!).

She cleaned her palate (but not her plate - messy girl!) with blackberries. Still using her exquisite manners, she shoved these in her mouth whole!

The aftermath...

The grand finale was organic peach yogurt.

I think she enjoyed her dinner and her first Valentine's Day - hope you did too!!

It Was Bound To Happen!

Last weekend, we were in New Orleans...trip 3 of 4 (stay tuned!). I thought we were off to a good start on Friday. The nanny showed up and was a nice, helpful college student. I was even impressed that she was able to get Elle to nap. It is rare to get more than 30 minutes in a nap and even rarer to get more than one in a day - but she succeeded!

That was Friday. Saturday, was a different story. It turns out her roommate was diagnosed with strep throat. She texted me that she was going to urgent care to get a test done to ensure she didn't get Elle sick. I really did appreciate the consideration. But, then I never heard from her again. I guess she was positive for it???

So, it became 'take your daughter to work day'. Elle spent the entire day in the meeting room with my committee. I spent the entire day on the floor trying to keep her occupied (mainly by bribing with Cheerios) and trying to stay engaged in the conversation. No small feat on either of them!

Fortunately, most of my committee are either parents or grandparents or completely smitten with Elle so we survived! I insisted on a group photo to commemorate her first meeting!

My boss is the bald guy to the left. The one holding Elle is completely smitten with her - pretty funny!

I am glad they were all understanding about the situation, but I really hope this doesn't happen too often. I didn't realize how stressed out I was about it until I fell asleep before Elle did that night. That was another first!

A New Skill!

We were playing after we got home this evening and Elle surprised me with a new skill. Fortunately, she repeated it a few times so I was able to catch it on video!

She is growing up too fast!

8 Months!

On the 2nd, Elle turned 8 months old. For the last few months, I've been trying to take a picture of her in the same chair with the same toy. This month was a bit challenging!

Hey...what's back there?

Cute but you can't really see the toy!

In the middle of a whine...

Probably the best one I took this month!

At 8 months, Elle is a pretty speedy crawler. Her current favorite activity is to crawl up behind me, stand up holding onto my knees, and having me 'help' her walk while she holds on. Pretty cute! Scary, but cute. A few times this week, I have seen her standing up without holding on to something! I don't think she even realized what she was doing and it only lasted a few seconds.

Is there anyway to slow down the progression to walking???!