March 31st -Breakfast and Afternoon Snuggles

Facilitating Nanny/Granny offsite team building event at Jack's Restaurant.  It's important to feed good morale for the workers!

Matt worked from home today to get some work done at church too. That allowed for afternoon snuggles with Beaker and Ella. 

March 30th - Into every life a little rain must fall...

An afternoon of shopping at Target led to some unhappy Ella moments. She was okay shortly after this. 

'What do you mean I can't have it?' cries Ella.

Ella is not a super at building anything with the Duplos yet but she does like to take them apart and dump them all out from the buckets.  

March 29th- Palm Sunday

Ella is wearing a very cute outfit for Palm Sunday. Complete with sandal. Which turn out to be harder to walk in then you would think. 

After Church and stuffing the Easter eggs for next week with the Transfig Teens and a long nap we met Laura and Paul for dinner in Palo Alto. Ella showed off her walking and holding hands ability. She was a much bigger fan of Laura than Paul this time and would only hug Laura good-bye. I think Paul was crying on the inside. 

March 28th- Highlights

Ella got Highlights "Hello" from Mom Mom and Pop Pop for her birthday. She is really enjoying it. 

March 28th- Converse

I lived in Converse all through High School. There is a story about a pair that were so grungy that my mom couldn't take it any more and threw them away. Dad takes a very unhappy Julia shoe shopping, get two new pairs of Converse and Mom never throws Converse away again.

Ella finally grew into her first pair that I bought her weeks ago. The smallest size they make in real soles are 4 and they are a big 4. I think she is the cutest!

March 27th- Birthday Outfits

Ella got a lot of outfits for her birthday they are all lovely spring clothes that she has gotten to start wearing with this great weather. This one was from Nana 

March 26th- Shopping with Ella!!

Her favorite hat - she wouldn't keep on any of the straw 'Easter' Bonnets - but this one was 'ok' to her and she kept it on  - evidently she's still developing her style:

And her final ensemble.  She's wrestling her mom for the credit card! Guess she needs to pay for it herself?  Don't you love responsible spending???

Ella is also 13 months old today. Ella you have become a superstar walking this past month. You went from throwing yourself between to people one week to 2-3 steps the next day. Then a week later you just decided to walk across the room. You love following us. You really love getting to hold two peoples hands and walk somewhere. If you don't have a goal in mind you stop and examine every leaf, rock and stick you pass. You also try to steal people's newspapers when you walk with Nitsa. You are using your sign language to tell us what you want and you dance a yell with glee when Daddy comes home.

March 24th- Play Date with Quinn and Sara

Sara and Quinn are here for a business meeting for Sara. We had a great time playing together today and there was an amazing sunset. 

March 23nd- So Busy

Since Ella has become the super walker life has gotten a little more dangerous. Her new balance and height has allowed her to open drawers that do not have handles. (The last hold outs of the kitchen locks) She tired to empty this drawer many times while I was cooking dinner tonight. Don't worry Daddy will be installing the locks tomorrow. 

March 21st- Story Time

Mommy is still recovering from having her wisdom teeth pulled so we had a little quite time in the kitchen today. Reading has become a new favorite thing. 

March 19th- Mom's Brave

Mom was really brave today and did a good job at the dentist!!!

March 18th - Exercise Day!!!

At least Gigi slept quite well. Sigh.

Ella went to swim class AND Gymboree today.  The grownup strategy was to wear her out so she would sleep really well.  Matt could get her to bed easily while Julia was at an all day/late evening off site meeting and everybody would have a good deep sleep before Julia had her dental surgery Thursday.

Here's Ella with her swim hair!

March 17th- St. Patricks Day!

Ella was a hoot today. She would not model her St. Patrick's Day outfit for me so I took some on the go pictures. Then she and Beaker had the most fun playing tug for about 20 mins.

Beaker and Ella Playing:

March 15th- Fan Club and a Picnic

We went to the Joyful Noise Service today at church. It very much lived up to it's name today. At coffee hour Ella had a fan club. 

After church we went to Picchetti in Cupertino to pick up our wine club wine and to have a picnic. We had a lovely afternoon sitting in the grass and hanging out with Erin, Glenn, Chris and Teresa.

March 14th- Warm Day

It is in the high 70's today. Amazing for March. Ella had come messy sensory play with Daddy and then lost all her clothes. That is the video, the picture is the aftermath. 

March 13th- Watching from the Window

Ella loves to watch the world out the window. Today she climbed onto her firetruck and watched the world for awhile. 

March 12th- Beaker and Ella are Best Buddies

March 11th- Selfies!

It has been awhile since Ella and I have had a good selfie session. Tonight seemed like a good night. She likes it when she can see the picture that we are taking. But she likes to take the phone. 

March 10th- Like a Big Girl

So it turns out the fierce independence is genetic. Today Ella would not give me the banana back at breakfast time. She was trying to eat it with the peel on. So instead of forcing her to give it up, I just started to peel it for her. She ate half the banana from the peel and was pretty pleased with herself.