She's "That Kid"

Ellie has two big announcements: #1 - she is getting another tooth right next to the first one on the bottom (if you click on the picture you may be able to see it) and #2 - she figured out how to pull herself up to standing. She did it for the first time on Sunday right and we were both there for her big debut. Lee and I both cheered for her and she was so tickled to be getting applause.

When I opened Ellie's drawer at day care yesterday, I found a letter from the school nurse. It was a form letter and I assume that all the parents of all 48 infants got one yesterday. So I gave it a quick look: "Dear Concerned Parent... blah blah blah... it has come to our attention... blah blah blah... one of our infants has recently contracted pink eye." Stop. Surely they cannot be talking about my perfect, sweet Ellie?!! One of the other mothers was dropping off her little boy at the same time and read the letter. "Wow - pink eye. I think that's pretty contagious". Me laughing nervously: "Oh yeah? Um... yeah... that's what I've heard". So my little bitty 17 pound ball of joy caused the school to be canvased with "pink eye" letters leading to conjunctivitis hysteria yesterday.

Speaking of day care, there is finally another girl in Ellie's room. Until this week out of 8 babies, she had been the only girl. One boy advanced to the toddler room so a little two month old girl joined. We'll call her "Madeline Flowers" (names have been changed to protect the innocent). When I went fill out Ellie's paperwork on Monday, there was a big typed out page on the wall with the title "Madeline Flower's Typical Day" and Madeline's picture on it. Madeline's mommy had gone to the trouble of listing her schedule out minute by minute including her likes: cuddling :) and dislikes: tummy time :( as well as the optimal angle to hold the bottle when feeding her and how best to swaddle her. This made me feel a little guilty because when I dropped Ellie off the first day, all I told her teachers was to feed her if she got hungry. Somehow, she has survived. There is another little girl in the adjoining room, but she and Ellie don't have much in common. She's 2 months younger and 10 pounds heavier so the ladies call her "Pork Chop". Pork Chop can't sit up and just sort of rolls around, so Ellie spends her days with Simon, Tanner, Cooper, and Grayson. She's not going to know what to do when she graduates to the toddler room in a few months and there are little girls everywhere. She takes her "class photo" tomorrow and I can't wait to get that up on the blog.

We had a really nice weekend. On Friday night, Lee and I went to dinner with Elizabeth. We ate at one of our favorite sushi places and Ellie didn't make a peep the whole time we were there. On Saturday, Ellie had a swim lesson and then I worked out while she stayed in the kids place. I really wanted to get something to wear to Jenny's wedding shower so all of us went shopping in the afternoon. It was there that I overheard the #1 thing I don't like to hear while I'm shopping: from the woman in the dressing room next to me to the salesgirl ,"Excuse me - this size two is a little big. Could you bring me a zero?". And while you're at it, could you please bring me a tent? Seriously - they should round up all the people who wear a size zero and make them shop someplace else.

As I said, Jenny had a wedding shower on Saturday night and it was really nice. Roger Staubach was there because he's a friend of the family. Since Lee grew up in Dallas in the 1970's, he was a huge fan. Staubach was sort of a football god around here. I can't remember any athletes I idolized as a kid. I liked Mary Lou Retton because she's from my dad's hometown and I liked Troy Aikman because I thought he was cute, but that was about it. Anyway, Ol' Rog was there and Lee refused to take a picture with him. I was going to walk by and casually snap one for the blog, but was afraid I was going to get busted. Roger seems pretty nice so I doubt he would have gone all Sean Penn on me and stomped my camera, but still that may have been annoying for him. Maybe he'll be at Jenny's wedding so Lee can take his 8X10 glossy for an autograph then.



Something weird did happen at the party, however. The hostess had a buffet of Mexican food set up in the dining room. I made a plate, walked out of the room, stopped, and looked back over my shoulder to see if Lee was following me. I heard, "Oh my gosh! This looks so yummy!", and turned my head back around to see some random woman taking a taquito off my plate. I just stood there. As she went to bite it, a younger girl (found out later it was her daughter) screamed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!!" The woman looked up at me, jumped as if I had scared the daylights out of her and threw the taquito back down on the plate. "Well, go ahead and take it now", I said. Then she freaked out and ran off saying "no, no, no - I'm sorry - sorry, sorry!". I can't figure out if she thought I was wait staff or what.

I hit some after Christmas sales on Sunday and got Ellie a few outfits from my favorite kids store, Janie and Jack. I got CUTE stuff for next fall and winter. It looks huge because it's for 18-24 months, but I guess that's how big she'll be. Hard to imagine.

Stay tuned for the next blog because I will have a full Van Halen report for everyone!! That's right - it's this weekend and we are e-x-c-i-t-e-d.