Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ellis turns 2!!!

She looked so cute in her party hat...
...for a few seconds
Half the spread
Balloons (Hello Kitty) and food
Birthday cake (carrot) made by our friend Becca
Getting ready to blow out her candle with mommy
She was more interested in all the people singing than she was in blowing out her candle.
All the kids loved playing in her new big girl chair
A few of the guests. I love how it looks like Ellis is "working the room" in this picture.
Ellis talks about Naima constantly. She just adores her little friend.
Emma and her mommy
Ellis helped feed Hudson (One of the 5 month old twins that lives downstairs from us.)
Ellis LOVES Becca (Our downstairs neighbor who found time to make a carrot cake while caring for her 5 month old twins--she's my hero!)
The morning after, and her ACTUAL birthday, with her leftover balloon.
She wore her party hat all morning the next day. Playing with her new toys.
At music class on her birthday. I posted this picture to show off how TALL she is.
Waiting, with mommy, for music class to start.

If you can't tell from these pictures, we decided to throw a small birthday party for Ellis on Sunday and so we invited over some of her friends to our house. I didn't really have a "theme" for it, but I did buy a few Hello Kitty balloons and accessories. It's funny because Ellis doesn't really watch TV so she doesn't know any of the characters but she loved the "kitty cat" on the napkins so I went with that!

Anyways, we had six two year olds running through our house + parents and nothing got broken. I repeat, NOTHING GOT BROKEN! I think this means that it was a successful party. Vimal and I were worried that Ellis would have a hard time letting other kids play with her toys but she did really well. I think that it helped that there were so many people here so she really didn't have time to focus on any one toy being used.

I can say with certainty that Ellis's favorite part was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She started grinning from ear to ear. In fact, the next day, she sang "Happy Birthday" to herself for an hour rather than taking her nap! Too funny.

It's really hard for me to accept that my little girl is growing up so fast. I want to hold on to the baby so badly that I find myself in mourning over her latest accomplishments. Weird, I know, but it's still true. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the pictures. I think I'm finally caught up on my postings. Still working on those videos though...

New Year's + Early January

The best restaurant in Atlanta.
Love on New Year's Eve
Mommy and Ellis
Uncle Dane comes to Boston
Chillin' in her big girl chair
She loves her birthday present from Nonna.

Here are some photos from early January. Vimal and I were able to travel to Atlanta together for New Year's while my mom took care of Ellis. We went to The Woodfire Grill for dinner one night (the Executive chef was on "Top Chef" last season) and we both agree that we had the best dinner ever. It was really nice to get away for a little bit but, of course, we missed Ellis and were glad to get back to her.

When we all got back to Boston, my uncle was in town and we got to spend some time with him. Ellis is funny because when she sees my uncle in pictures she thinks he is my dad (Pop), but in real life she never confuses the two of them. Okay, my next post will hopefully contain all the pictures from the big birthday party. Still trying to post videos but Blogger is giving me some grief so we'll see when that happens. More soon...

Monday, January 18, 2010

Christmas and Beyond...

Well, again, I have to apologize for how late this post is. We were traveling until after New Year's, at which point I started having some computer issues. Luckily, that seems to be fixed now so I'm going to try to post a few times today. First up is our Christmas pictures and videos. We went to Nashville for the holidays, and we had a great time. Ellis was showered with so many gifts from both of our families that we ended up with an extra suitcase on our trip home!

Opening gifts at Bah's house with her daddy.
More gift opening with Bah
Bah and Ellis
Ellis and Daddy are checking out her new toys
Dancing
She loves her Cousin NeNe
Getting ready to ride the carousel with Bah
Waving at Mommy and Nonna
Stacking her blocks with Nonna
Ellis's Great Mamaw (How cute is she!)
Giving Great Mamaw a big hug
Skating with Uncle Bro
Still skating with Uncle Bro
Christmas morning. This dress was mine when I was 2 years old. My mom kept it and it was so sweet to put Ellis in it too.
Still daintily opening her gifts. I kept waiting for her to tear into them but it just never happened.
Nothing like a girl in a dress playing with an airplane. That's my Ellis.
Mom and son. I love this picture though I'm sure neither of them will.
Helping Uncle Bro open his gift.
Talking about it.
We got Erick a colander for Christmas and this is what he decided to do with it.
We turned our Christmas card into a coffee mug for my mom. She loved it.
Showing Ellis the coffee mug.
The 3 P's: Playing, Puzzles, Pop