Sunday, March 4, 2007

Boy am I slow to update lately. We have had a good week and two weekends since the last post. We have enjoyed spring like weather for a lot of time outside. We have taken daily trips to multiple playgrounds and even several picnics. Landon and Ella have had a blast getting sandy and dirty and wrestling each other on the ground. We have also enjoyed visits from Nannie, Pops, Uncle Barry, Cathy Lee, Aunt Caroline, Kelli, Sam, Uncle Chuck and a trip over to Uncle Jay's and Aunt Katherine's. We had two dinners out with friends. We also went to feed the ducks at the local lake. Both Landon and Ella have a blast throwing crackers and cookies out in the water and seeing the ducks go after them with intensity. After 2 sleeves of Ritz and a bag of vanilla wafers I thought we should let them have a break but Landon and Ella thought that they needed some more. We got them away from the ducks by showing them a bike race going on, so they turned their attention from throwing crackers to yelling "go go go" at bikes zooming by.

I am happy to report that as of tonight Ella finally fed herself again. She has refused to feed herself anything but crackers and berries for the last couple of weeks. She would put her fork in food or take food and dip it in ketchup and then hand it to me to feed her. Then she even took a step further and would just wine until I fed her and she wouldn't even pick it up. Tonight, with some tough love, she finally picked up her food, dipped it in ketchup and fed herself. After each bite we all clapped loudly in appreciation, but probably none more enthusiastically than me. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes for your dinner if you don't have to feed every bite to your almost 2 year old. Another one of Ella's things right now is that everytime you ask her her name she proudly says "me". If you ask her to say Ella she will say "Ewwa" but if you ask her name it is always "me".

While Nannie was here last week she took Landon to play Putt Putt (Ella and I also went but it was mainly for Landon). He had 3 hole in one's over two games. I am sure he would have played a 3rd round if time would have permitted. As hard as he has been playing all week you would think his appetite would be big but he has been eating enough some days that I would assume he was 6 or 7 years old. I think he must be hitting a growth spurt and our grocery bill is going up. Lastly, Mike has created a monster in Landon's desire to watch sports. He was crazy about football and now basketball and even has an interest in NASCAR. He is always giving us the minute by minute score report and on occassion roots for a team other than who Mike wants to win. It's great that he has a mind of his own but I think it pains Mike a little that he chooses to not always side with Dad.

Hope all is well in your household.