Our Trip to Tennessee

What a fun weekend! I can't believe that it's all over. You wait and wait and wait for a vacation to come and then it always seems like it's over in the blink of an eye. We had a whirlwind trip and got to see a lot of our Tennessee folks. On Thursday morning, we flew to Birmingham and then drove to Chattanooga. We were originally scheduled to take the second leg of the Southwest flight on to Nashville, but Lee came up with the idea to deplane early in Birmingham and it saved us a few hours of travel time. Ellie was no problem on the plane at all *thankfully*. She was glued to the window of the plane for the first 20 minutes and then crawled back and forth between us in the seats. Thank goodness we had the DVD player because she spent the last 30 minutes of the flight watching Sesame Street. Elmo always calms her inner beast.





As soon as we arrived in Chattanooga, we met Lee's aunt Judy for lunch and then an outing at the Creative Discovery Museum, which is a children's museum - maybe one of the best I've ever been to. We have one in Dallas, but it's nowhere near as nice as this one. There was an area called "Riverplay" which was set up for kiddos to play in the water. I've never seen Ellie so excited about something. We stayed in that one area for about 45 minutes and when we left, she turned around and ran back in the room. Didn't want to leave. I took a ton of pictures and you can see all of them here. She also loved the player piano and all of the scorpions and millipedes they had in the "Excavation Station" area.


After the museum, we had a meeting with our financial advisor where he told us that he had not lost us as much money as the overall stock market had. Thank you? I did not like to see him pointing to a number and telling me we'd only lost "this much". But I guess everyone has, right? I think I'm going to start investing in telephone poles or marbles or something that is at least tangible. After the "you've only lost 10% of your net worth" pep talk, we headed to the big party... Lee's grandmother, Mimi, turned 90 on Thursday. When I planned the trip, I though that maybe she'd like it if we were there on her birthday. After seeing her with Ellie, I'm so glad I planned the trip around her birthday. Mimi lives in a retirement community on a mountain and it is beautiful. We ate in the dining room and then we were treated to a tour of the facility. Later that evening, Lee met up with his friend from high school, Ronnie, while I stayed with Ellie at the hotel.




When we woke up the next morning, Ellie looked like she'd been slapped in the face. I still haven't figure out just exactly what went on... I can't decide if it it was some sort of a respiratory thing, a reaction to the padding on the pack and play the hotel provided for us, or an outbreak of eczema. We'll never know. She was acting okay and eating fine so we took a trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. Again, Dallas has an aquarium... but it's nowhere near as nice. The great thing about our outings to the museum and aquarium was that we were there on school days so we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Ellie couldn't get enough of the penguins, butterfly garden, king crabs, river otters, and giant turtles. There's so many other fun things to do and see in Chattanooga. I would suggest a trip there for anyone - especially people with kids.




On Friday afternoon, we drive to Knoxville to meet up with Nicole, Wayne, Miles, and Audrey. For those of you who don't know, Nicole is my cousin, Wayne is Lee's friend from college, Lee and I were bridesmaid and groomsman at their wedding, and the rest is history. Audrey is 9 months younger than Ellie so they're not really hanging out too much yet. Miles is three and Ellie was more into playing with Miles and his toys, but Miles was not so much into having Ellie play with his toys. I warned him that in about 9 more months, he was going to be back in the position that he was with Ellie there, but for now, he's happy living in denial. Miles is really into his trains and all things power tools. He even has a jackhammer, drill, and welding equipment. I was half expecting him to show me his little Union badge. Audrey may be the best baby ever (well, second to Ellie). That sweet child was so quiet, I forgot that she was even there most of the time. We had dinner at a nearby Mexican food restaurant on Friday night and then put the kids to bed. One of Wayne and Lee's college buddies, Hunter, came over and the five of us proceeded to have way too much wine. Way. Too. Much.


Saturday was "The Big Game" between Tennessee and Florida. Nicole planned a fun football watching party and I got to meet fellow blogger Erin and her daughter Eileen. It's strange to read all about somebody's life (as many people do about mine on my blog) and then actually meet them. It sort of felt like stalker meeting stalkee. Too bad I couldn't meet Raven too! Tennessee could not pull out the game and they wound up loosing 30-6 so in the end, Lee and I were glad we weren't there to witness the butt whipping in live technicolor. Nicole was such a great hostess and made the best pork chalupa. Even Ellie was a fan.



Nicole was so nice to buy Ellie and Audrey matching UT pajama outfits. Those will be great pictures to bring back out when they're 30. On Sunday, we went to brunch with the Erwins and then headed to Nashville for our flight. When we got to Nashville, there was go gas anywhere so we couldn't fill up our rental car. It was weird. Apparently, Atlanta suffered the same fate this week. Now I hear rumors that it's headed to Dallas... anyway, the trip home was without incident except for the slight kicking and screaming breakdown that Ellie suffered going through security. I had three bottles of opened drinking water with me and the guards just waved me through. I guess they thought I did not look like I had it together enough to pull off a well-planned terrorist attack. So Monday, it was back to reality... back to work, back to daycare... thank you Erwins! We had so much fun!

Hurricane Ike

Yikes - I could not believe all of the destruction that Ike did this week as it hit the Texas coast. It's so strange to watch all of the news video, and think "we were just there" every time they broadcast from a location along the seawall. I was really hoping some of my friends would agree to a joint vacation to Galveston next summer, but that possibility is not looking good now. Most of my Houston friends are okay except for the ones who still don't have power. We didn't get as much rain as we expect around here... but it's just as well. I didn't feel like being underwater. And with the cold front that blew through on Sunday, it finally feels like fall here.

I'm short on time this week, so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. I'm so glad our friends Debbie, Justin and their little girl, Molly, moved back to Dallas. And they're so close! On Friday night we met for a wild dinner at Mi Cocina. While we were waiting for our table, Molly and Ellie met another little girl who lives in our neighborhood who is one month younger named Bessie and Ellie fed her Goldfish.

Since it rained Saturday, we mainly used it as a football watching/inside day. I need to figure out what to do with Ellie when it rains because unless we pack her up and take her somewhere, there's not a lot to do around out house. Lee had his perfect day of football... I like to call this picture "Touchdown Vols".

Sunday was beautiful so we took a long walk and went to the park. We live close to a great park with a pond that has a ton of ducks so we took some of Ellie's stale Cheerios and went there. The ducks were a BIG hit. Ellie had seen them before from the comfort of her jogging stroller, but had never gotten up close and personal. There was a huge white swan there and a black one too. Lee got them to eat right out of his hand, but I'm sure these ducks have a lot of experience being around people. We went to a park after we fed the ducks and let Ellie swing for a while. Every time we took we out of the swing, she'd run right back to it. We have big plans this coming weekend - I can't wait!

Word of the week: Turtle.

Hi! My name is...

It's amazing to watch kids develop when they're really little because they have big milestones like sitting up or crawling... but I think it's almost as amazing to watch Ellie develop now. It's especially interesting to listen to new words that she breaks out. It's seems like we're getting a new one almost every day now, and the one she blurted out on Sunday was "purple". I've been working on red, yellow, blue, and green, but she chose a color out in left field and went with purple. Then I wondered what she would say if I asked her what her name was. I'd never thought to do that. She pointed at herself and said "Eeh-yee". Those L's are proving difficult, but I was still impressed that she knew what I was asking her. She also added the words "bird" and "up" this weekend. She's really into talking on Lee's cell phone now. It's not on, but she holds it to her ear and says "Hi! Hi! Hi!". She was doing this on Saturday while carrying around my purse, so I went to Toys R' Us at lunch on Monday and bought her her very own pink purse and a baby stroller too. As you can see, they were a big hit. Her other new trick is that she learned to put her dirty clothes in her hamper. Next we'll work on dusting and pouring mommy a glass of wine.



Ellie played with so many friends this weekend. Mom, Ellie, and I went to The Heldebrandt's house on Saturday morning to visit with Henry, who is 9 weeks now. Grace is 3 and Ellie has so much fun with her - mostly emulating what she does and trying to eat Grace's play food. Ellie also has a thing for babies now and wasted no time giving Henry a kiss. She was pretty good right up until she bopped him on the head. She also tried to give him a drink from her sippy cup.


After the briefest of naps, Ellie and I went to to the mall so I could buy her some new fall shoes. We went to the sale at Nordstrom's and that's where I saw the cutest girl shoes I've EVER seen. They're shiny hot pink ballerina flats with a little strap across the top of the foot. Had to get them. That night we met our friends, the Hardemans, for dinner at Zushi Sushi. It was sort of slow at the restaurant, but that was good because it meant they didn't have to sit anyone within a 15-foot radius of us. It's always nice to go to dinner with other parents. They came back to our house afterwards and put Cooper to sleep in a pack and play in our study, but not before Cooper and Ellie had a bath together. Then we all watched Florida beat Miami. On Sunday, we celebrated Grandparent's Day by taking Ellie's grandparents to Lakewood for brunch. Unfortunately, my dad couldn't make it because he was traveling for work.




I've discovered the key to getting Ellie to eat vegetables - blend them up and put them in mashed potatoes. On Sunday, she had broccoli, spinach, and cheese mashed potatoes and loved them. I'd like for her to just the broccoli and spinach by itself, but it's not going to happen. And finally, Ellie is 100% paci-free now. I'm really glad I just did it. I was dreading it, but it turned out to be a case of me building it up in my head too much. Since I last wrote, she hasn't had any trouble and is sleeping through the night. But I may take it on our upcoming plane trip just in case...

Apparently I have too much time on my hands

I made some more "yearbook photos" yesterday. I can't stop myself. It's fun to make pictures of myself and Ellie, but it's even more fun with Lee. I like to call this one "Hair God Lee".



Some of you may know that Lee used to work at the Moon Pie Factory in Chattanooga. The next picture is one I like to call "Moon Pie Lee". In my mind, it's what Lee would look like if he was still working at the Moon Pie Factory.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Seems like every day more and more people are telling me that Ellie is starting to look like me.

I don't see it. Do you?

Update - In case it is not apparent (because it was not to my mother), the photos above are of me and Ellie with our heads superimposed on 1960's pictures. Yes, those are our faces. I created these fun little diddys on Yearbook Yourself. More to come.

Galveston and Gustav

I have the perfect reasons to blog tonight - we had a wonderful trip to Galveston this weekend and all that's on TV are political conventions. It's not that I hate politics or anything, I just hate conventions. This is because in 1988, I was staying at my grandparents house while my mother was in Hong Kong. For the week they were taking care of me after camp, the only thing that was on all four channels they received with their rabbit ears on the one television they owned was the Democratic National Convention. I defy you to find me one 12 year old that wants to watch 4 hours of Michael Dukakis for 5 straight days. So that pretty much ruined me. When I hear "___ National Convention", the only thing I can think of is unwaxed eyebrows and I want to run screaming. And By the way, if you ever said to yourself, "I bet Tiffany never posts a picture of Dukakis on 'The Bright Spot'", I just proved you wrong.

As I said before, we went to Galveston for Labor Day weekend. Before we left, we knew that there was a possibility that we may have to cut our stay short because of Hurricane Gustav churning in the Gulf, but we went anyway. Galveston is only about 5 hours away, so it's the perfect distance from Dallas when Ellie is napping for 2 of those hours. We stayed at the San Luis Resort, which is right across from the beach. We stayed in a one bedroom condo, and it was great because we could put Ellie to bed at 7:45 and then watch TV in our living area. I would not say Galveston is the greatest of places to visit, but it's got a beach and a fun pool so that's all that mattered to Ellie. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, we hit the pool. There was a water slide that Ellie could not get enough of and we bought some floaties for her so she could kick around in the pool.

On Saturday morning, we went to the beach. Lee took Ellie into the water, and my poor kiddo got stung by a jellyfish. The only reason I think it was a jellyfish is because her arm was red when she got out of the water. Lee got stung too. By Sunday morning it had started to blister and then by that night the blisters opened. It got her pretty good on her left hand and it's about the size of a quarter. It looks bad, but it doesn't seem to bother her. It bothers me. She didn't even notice it until I sprayed some Bactine on it. Now she has started poking at it. When she does I tell her to quit it and authoritatively she waves her finger back at me and says something in Ellie language. I'm afraid that someone is going to see it and think that I burned her with a cigarette or threw hot water on her of something. We'll see how the daycare ladies react when I tell them this tomorrow. Part of me is expecting a call from CPS.

After a Ellie had a good nap on Saturday, we took a shopping trip to the Strand where I bought my Christmas ornament. I have to buy two things wherever we travel: a silver charm for my already full charm bracelet and a Christmas ornament. I could not find a charm so I had to settle for the ornament. After an early bite to eat, we all went back to the pool. Ellie is turning into a water baby because she put up quite a fuss when we decided to go up for the night.

We left one day early on Sunday because we could tell Gustav was going to hit around New Orleans and did not want to get caught in the evacuation traffic. It took a little longer to get back as we were leaving because there were a lot of Louisiana people on the road. One of my co-workers was driving back from Houston at the same time and noticed something strange about the Louisiana folks - when they want to stop, they just pull over on the side of the highway. No need for a rest stop or a McDonald's - they just pull over. It's weird. We made it back fine, but it was just sort of a bummer that we had to leave early. I would like to go back again next year with a group of friends.

Right before we left for our trip, we found out that we were accepted as members of Lakewood Country Club so actually by coming back a day early, we we able to enjoy the last day of summer there with my parents. It's too bad we finally got our membership late in the summer, but we're already looking forward to next fall. When Ellie was in the kiddy pool, three little girls were playing with her, but started screaming "gross!!" when they saw her hand. Poor Ellie didn't know what was going on. I tried to tell them what happened to her, but they just looked at her like she had leprosy.

In other news, September 1 marked the drop dead date for Ellie loosing her paci. The doctor said she had to loose it completely between 15-18 months. I'm trying the cold turkey approach. She only has it at night now for about 6 months, but she's still had it. She was fine on Sunday night, but Monday night and tonight were a different story. She doesn't mind getting into bed without it at first, but she notices that it is absent after about 5 minutes. Then she gets MAD. I don't think it'll take long for her to forget about it and the sooner we loose it, the easier it will be. Another big pet peeve (in addition to baby talkers) is kids walking around with a paci hanging out of their mouth when they're 3 years old. I just want to snatch it out of their mouth. So I told myself Ellie is not going to be one of those kids. And she's not.