Happy Summer!

Slingy Thingy

Thanks to all of you who suggested a sling in my "One Handed Pizza" post. It has been a complete lifesaver! And, you can tell by the absolutely thrilled look on Ella's face that she pretty much loves it too. Yay for slings!

1 month!

Happy Monthiversary Ella! She's grown and changed so much in such a short time! Thanks to everyone for your help, love, and support. We wouldn't have had such an amazing month without you all!

The fruit of our "labors"

Last year we planted a SWEET garden with a sprinkling system and everything... and nothing grew. NOTHING. So this year we decided to scale down and plant some tomatoes out on our patio in pots.... and our FIRST tomato graced us with its presence. It was a little guy, but we're hoping that since he was so brave to grow that his friends will soon follow. Yum!

One-Handed Pizza

So I was feeling very domestic today and decided to make homemade pizza for dinner. All was going well, we ran our errands and even made it home "on schedule" to start making the dough. Then Ella didn't want to be sat down AT ALL. So I made the entire thing with one hand - until Jon got home to rescue me. The only thing that was really tricky was grating the cheese! (I won't horrify you with how I managed...) It just made me realize once again how different things are now with Ella in my life. Even seemingly easy tasks like making dinner take a lot of extra planning and time. We ate later than planned, but at least it was edible! And it was kinda fun to "talk" her through the steps of how to make pizza, even though she probably has no clue what I'm saying. My cute little helper. Sorry, there are no pictures of the ordeal - I had my hands full!

Do you wanna get Frosty with me?

Since becoming a mom I have watched an embarassing amount of daytime TV. Not much else to do when you're feeding every few hours! Sadly, I can quote a lot of commercials - something that is driving me absolutely nuts. So, last night we went to Wendy's and this annoying commercial came to my mind. I started singing it and dared Jon to order one and sing the song. He's a good sport - but it came out all crazy-like, something like "Uh, yeah... I would like a Soffee Toffee Twisted Strawfee." Oddly enough, the drive-thru guy still knew exactly what Jon was ordering. It was hilarious! I hope you enjoy this commercial and that it gets stuck in your head as badly as it's stuck in mine. (Oh my gosh - the break-dancing portly fellow (Let's do this homies!) and the skinny dude that looks like Beaker from Muppets crack me up! It's amazing what becomes funny when you're practically alone all day!)

BFFs

This is Ella the day we got home from the hospital.She's already hangin' outwith her best friend Italia from across the street. Italia is about 2 months old - and they're about the same length!Yay for friends!

Sushi

I get asked a lot by my third graders what my favorite food is. I'm not sure why it's such a must-know topic, but they get really grossed out when I tell them I like sushi. Their curiosity made this school year especially hard because saying I "like" sushi is an understatement. Better said, I LOVE SUSHI! I adore it, crave it, practically live for the stuff. And for nine months I told myself it was worth it to abstain from my one culinary true love (with only a couple of cheats) if it meant we'd have a healthy baby.

The only fantasy that helped me through it was that I was going to send Jon to our favorite sushi bar for celebratory spicy tuna the minute our baby was born. Imagine my utter devastation when the lactation specialist at the hospital told me I ABSOLUTELY could not have sushi while breastfeeding. Other prohibited foods have been found to be myths (chocolate, onions, spicy food) so I asked again, just to be sure, and she looked at me like I wanted to feed my baby arsenic. My question is ... what do women in Japan eat after they give birth? Their babies seem just fine!

So, lately I've been haunted by sushi. I want it so bad I can taste it ... almost. And I can't have it for at least another year. Oh, the cruelty. But I found some alternatives that just might have to do until then:

SUSHI USB drives... pretty funny.



Fruit sushi. Not nearly as good, but might trick my eyes and tummy for a while.



Do you have any ideas?

Oh MY GOSH!

We are so lucky! Our friends Alana and Caity are VERY talented photographers. I had fun taking the cheesy photos from the last post, but then these two came over and put me to shame! (In a good way!) We had a fun time posing and ooh-ing and aaah-ing about Ella. She is so beautiful, if I don't say so myself. To see some of the results of our fun afternoon, click here:
Alana's blog

Caity's blog

Thanks girls for all your help and attention. We are amazed at all you can do!