Jennifer Woodbury

It's a Good Thing She's So Cute

Because if she wasn't, I don't know if I could handle all the whining and crying and tempter-tantrum throwing she's been doing as of late. I can't be too hard on her because she did just cut a molar on top and I see two more about to pop through on the bottom. I'd probably be cranky too if I were trying to push a few huge teeth through my gums. But still, I'd like to put the kibosh on the whining as soon as possible. Or at least make it a lot less frequent. I know it's normal behavior because the weekly e-mail I get from Babycenter tells me it is, but nevertheless I think I'll head out to Barnes and Noble today and pick up this book, which I have heard good things about. I liked his other book for babies a lot so I'm hoping I'll get some good advice from this one too.

I'm happy to have an excuse to go to the bookstore because I have just discovered that Ella loves the little train table they have set up in the children's section there. She doesn't really pay attention to any of her own toys at home for more than five minutes, but I let her play with this train table a couple of weeks ago and she was happily playing for almost an hour and could have gone for longer if we didn't have to leave. I think we will be going to the bookstore a lot more often now!

And since I feel bad complaining about Ella, I will share her latest accomplishment. She just learned how to say "thank you" (well, her version sounds more like "ty ty") and it is so cute! She's pretty good about saying it whenever you give her something, but lately she's also started saying it when she hands something to someone else. It's fine with me though. I figure you can't be too polite, right? This is the kind of stuff that makes up for all the whining!

It's Getting Hot in Here

I don't normally make a habit of quoting Nelly songs, but I couldn't think of a more appropriate title than this one. It is so hot here right now. Hot as in every time I walk outside I feel like I am going to instantaneously melt into a puddle on the pavement. Either that or my body is going to spontaneously combust. On Sunday, our car's outside temperature reading was 118 degrees. I know the entire country seems to be in the middle of a heat wave right now, but really, that's just ridiculous.

We got back from Portland on Sunday. The weather was only a balmy 100 degrees while we were there (which is actually extremely hot for the Pacific Northwest). My mom and I took Ella to the zoo for the first time last Thursday. Perhaps going to the zoo in the extreme heat wasn't the best idea since it seemed like most of the animals were sleeping in the shade (and the heat didn't help the animal smell at all either), but it was still fun. Ella seemed especially fascinated with the underwater exhibits. She got very upset every time I encouraged her to move on from one of these areas.

She also thought this guy was pretty interesting.

The highlight of the zoo trip was the train ride. A 30-minute ride in a covered train car through the beautiful forest with a slight breeze to cool you off? Sounds like a perfect way to end the day to me! This was me and Ella standing outside of the train:

Friday we headed to the beach, where thankfully the weather was perfect and not too hot at all. Ella wasn't a huge fan of the sand, but I think she still had a good time. Mostly she kept herself busy by eating the seagull food (stale donut and bread pieces) that we had bought at the local bakery to feed to the birds. The seagulls weren't really interested in it, but Ella sure seemed to like it!

On Saturday, Ella beat the heat by swimming in the pool her grandma bought her.

Now that we're back home, I'm just counting down the days until the weekend when it is supposed to cool back down to normal temperatures. Maybe we can actually venture outside on Saturday. What a concept!

Caught on Camera

My dad smiling that is. He is not one who generally enjoys smiling for the camera. But he was here visiting last week and I managed to get these pictures of him and Ella...and if I'm not mistaken that is a genuine smile on his face. Was it the stern direction I gave right before taking these pictures to please smile like he meant it? Or is Ella just such a cool kid that he couldn't help but smile? I'd like to think it was the latter. Because obviously, she is the coolest. Either way, thanks for the smiles Dad.

In other news...

Dream Dinners Update

We have tried out three of our Dream Dinners and thankfully they were all quite tasty and, dare I say, dreamy! So far we have had the following:

• Lemon baked tilapia w/baby shrimp and a side of steamed broccoli
• Gorgonzola steak with a side of baked potatoes
• Chicken milano w/artichoke hearts served over spaghetti with a side Caesar salad

Yum...I am really enjoying having actual meals every night!

Weekend Project

This was our big project over the weekend:

Hanging curtains may not seem like a big deal to some, but for people who have only hung up three things in the entire 20 months they have lived in their home (and I am talking about me and Matt here, in case you were wondering), it really is quite a feat. Sadly, all of those three things we hung have been in Ella's room. What can I say? We have a fear of putting holes in our walls. And it doesn't help that we aren't the handiest folks around the house.

Anyway, this all came about because the blinds in Ella's room haven't been filtering out enough light during these long summer days, and she was having a hard time sleeping. More specifically, she had taken to waking up at about 5 AM with the sunrise. Needless to say, we wanted to put a stop to that ASAP. So we hung a big, black fleece blanket over the window. It worked great at keeping out the light, but since it was hard to keep taking it down during the day and then putting it back up in the evening, we just left it up there all the time. And it was really depressing. So we finally sucked it up and decided to spend the money on these cute curtains for Ella's room. And now she officially has the nicest room in the house. Really, she had the nicest room even before the curtains, but this was the icing on the cake.

Another Airport Adventure

Ella and I leave on Wednesday to fly up to Portland, OR, to visit family. I am not so much looking forward to braving the airport alone with Ella again, but at least this time I have my handy backpack contraption for the car seat. I hope to have a lot of fun pictures when we get back. I'm planning to take Ella to the zoo for the first time, and also head to the Oregon Coast for a day. Should be a blast! Oh, and to my fellow Gymboree addicts, Gymbucks redemption start on Thursday, and I am quite excited to be able to spend them in a state with no sales tax!

What's for Dinner?

Unfortunately, that's a question I don't have an answer to all too often. Sometimes I will get really motivated and plan out dinners for the week, but most of the time I am scrambling to figure something out at the last minute (which means we eat the same two or three easy meals over and over again), or we just go and get take out. I like to blame it on Matt's crazy schedule. With him out of town every other week it is hard to develop a routine for dinner, but in reality it really shouldn't be that hard, right? Now Matt really doesn't seem to mind, and Ella doesn't know the difference, but I still feel some sort of guilt over not cooking meals more regularly around here. So last night my sister-in-law Ashley and I tried out this Dream Dinners place. It's one of those places where you go put together a bunch of meals and then take them home and freeze them. I did six meals, but the great part about having a small family is that I could split each of the meals in half so I actually came home with twelve whole meals! It was actually sort of fun putting them all together, although Ashley and I felt sort of incompetent since we took so long to finish. We were the last ones there by a long shot - but I figure since we were first-timers we were probably slower than normal. Anyway, now comes the true test - seeing if the meals are actually tasty. I really hope they are so that I can make this a regular thing.

Although, I may not have to worry about cooking at all anymore since Ella has taken up a new hobby:

I gave her this bowl and spatula to play with the other day and it kept her more happily occupied than any of her other toys ever do! She just sat in the kitchen for what seemed like forever "stirring" very contently. She was even so smart as to go and get her cup of Cheerios and pour them into the bowl so she could stir them around. I think I'm onto something here. Ella may be taking over the cooking duties in this household sooner rather than later!

5 Days Later...

...and I finally have some 4th of July pictures to share! I just had to finish this page highlighting them all before I showed you (credits HERE):

Journaling reads:
As has been the tradition almost every year that we have lived in California, we went to the Lloyds’ home this Fourth of July for a backyard barbeque. Everyone stuffed themselves with hamburgers and hot dogs except for Ella, who wasn’t interested in any of the food until it was time for dessert and the ice cream appeared! The cousins loved being together as usual, although I think Ella had the best time with the pot and toy spatula that her Aunt Melissa got out for her to play with. Even though Ella wasn’t feeling well for most of the day and we went home early, there was no better way to spend a holiday than by being together with family and friends.

And here's another photo I took last Sunday that I just loved:

So I made this little page for it (credits HERE):

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Bubbles

Some cute pictures of Matt and Ella blowing bubbles on our front steps Sunday afternoon:

Today we are doing the typical American barbeque thing with family and friends for the 4th of July. It should be fun and hopefully I'll have lots of pictures to share later. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

I Think We're In Trouble

Ella Shopping from Jennifer Woodbury on Vimeo.

Ella "shopping" at Janie and Jack yesterday.