I Poo Poo?

We had a big moment at the Bright house this weekend. Ellie has finally gotten to the point that she realizes that she is about to poop and tells us. This is big because she was telling us after she went and now she's telling us before she goes. I celebrated this big event by buying Ellie her own potty. And no, I don't seriously expect to start potty training her because she's only 18 months and she can't get her own pants off yet, but I wanted to buy her a little potty so she could get used to seeing it and it wouldn't be a big event when we finally do potty train. When I brought the potty ("pah-ee") home on Sunday afternoon, she was very interested in it. We told her that it was "Ellie's potty" and that big girls poo-poo and tee-tee in the potty. She pointed to it and said "poo-poo". I told her no pressure - she didn't have to use it yet, but she wanted to take it for a test drive, so I took off her diaper and let her sit on it. Nothing happened, but Lee coached her on how to relax and I half expected him to give her a newspaper to read.

We went about our afternoon activities of going to the park, feeding the dogs, and eating dinner. I was in her room making her bed (which takes 15 minutes and is harder than passing a camel through the eye of a needle) and she was in her chair reading when she looked at me and said, "I poo poo?". I asked her if she poo-pooed and again she said, "I poo poo?". I checked her pants and there was nothing there. I told her that she hadn't gone yet, but reminded her that big girls poo poo in the potty. With that, she ran out of the room. I continued making her bed and when I looked up, she had carried her potty into the living room where Lee was watching TV. Then it went a little something like this:

Lee: Tiff, she just brought her potty in here.

Ellie: I poo poo?

Me: Yeah, she just told me that she went but there was nothing in her diaper.

Lee: Well, maybe she has to go?

Ellie: I poo poo!

Me: I don't want to pressure her. Maybe we just let her sit on the potty and poop in her diaper to start out with?

Ellie: I POO POO!

Me: Or maybe I should take it back into the bathroom? I don't want her to think that she can poop on her potty in here.

Then Ellie stood up, let out a loud, frustrated scream, and started stomping her feet. I checked her diaper, and there it was - the poo poo. Poor kid. And you know she was thinking something along of the lines of, "Okay, let me get this straight - three hours ago, you buy me a toilet so I don't have to soil myself anymore, but when I tell you I have to poo poo and physically BRING you my toilet, you stand there and discuss me taking a dump with each other until I crap my pants?! I am starting to think I am the smartest person in this room." I guess she's going to have to potty train ME.

More from the weekend:

Reading her book

I was "that mom" at the grocery store. Man, those things are hard to steer!

At the Zoo with Grammie and Grandi

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom and dad looked after Ellie while we went to Wurstfest two weekends ago. Their big outing was to the Fort Worth Zoo. I've attached some pictures from the zoo and from their house. She looks like she had a great time!

Grandi and Ellie look at the giraffes

And elephants

(The elephants were very interesting)

Ellie and Grammie play in the sandbox

A movie and drinks with Elmo before bed

Wurstfest is the Bestfest

When Lee and I got married, someone gave us a book called 1001 Things to Do Before You Die. Wurstfest is not in there, but it should be because it's the best festival ever. I've never been to Octoberfest, something I've always wanted to do, but I'm pretty sure this is the Texas version of it. As we did 3 years ago during our first trip to Wurstfest, we stayed in Das Flus Haus #3 at the Gruene Mansion Inn. It's a cute little bed and breakfast overlooking the Guadalupe river. My parents were nice enough to keep Ellie for the weekend so it was just the two of us. On Friday night, we walked around the stores in Gruene, which is all of about two blocks, ate some Mexican food, and saw Cory Morrow at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas. If anyone remembers the movie, Michael with John Travolta, there's a scene from that movie that was filmed there and pretty much every Texas country star has played there. It's a cool piece of Texas history.

On Saturday, we did a little more shopping before meeting up with some of my college friends. Marcie's parents retired to New Braunfels and have a great house along the river. If I was retiring, it's exactly where I'd want to retire because the Texas Hill country is so beautiful. This year we spent most of our time in the Wursthalle kicking back with pitchers of German beer, dining on all things German, listening to "Czech and Then Some", chicken dancing, and watching professional clogging. It's more fun than it sounds. I think Ellie would have had a really great time because all of the little kids are running around and dancing and playing on the rides... but I think she still may be a little too young to enjoy it. We also bought a 48th anniversary commemorative beer stein and some outstanding new aprons. Something we totally didn't need, but had to have.

Around 5PM, we headed back to the Ahren's house for dinner. I always enjoy time with Paul and Judy especially because Paul was an engineer and we can talk about all things engineering together. Our topic de jour this time was global warming, which we both agree is a load of crap but that's a whole different blog. I guess a few hours of German beer drinking will do strange things to you because all of the guys decided to try on the bark collars of the Basset Hounds that were there. I think there was some weird peer pressure at play because all five of the guys did it. It was entertaining to watch and it reinforced my belief that women are the smarter sex. That night, we met the group again at Gruene Hall for more Cory Morrow.

My parents brought Ellie back on Sunday and we all went to the kick-off party for Deck the Hall together. I was the kick-off party co-chair so I had to attend. It was a fundraiser for the upcoming event and for my Dallas readers with kiddos, it's a must-attend Christmas event at the Meyerson so please consider supporting the Symphony and attending. I think that Ellie had a spectacular time with Grammie and Grandi. Their big event was a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. My mom also took Ellie to mass and endured the first hand torture that is taking an 18 month old to church. The only difference is that her church has a luxurious "cry room".

In other news (because I have failed to blog in several days), Ellie is officially obsessed with Elmo. This is great for me considering that she's getting a new Elmo for Christmas, but it's also bad news because we have an "Sesame Street Greatest Hits" CD and we have to listen to the Elmo theme song nonstop in the car. When I ask her if she wants to watch Elmo, she starts singing "La-La-La-La", the Elmo's World Theme Song. I guess that's a milestone because it's the first song she's singing. It's a good thing I like Elmo so much. It finally clicked with her this week that "more" can translate to things other than food. I read to her every night before I put her in bed and now after I tell her that we've read the last book, she gives me the sign language for "more" (she uses her left index finger and points to her palm" and says "more!". Then I usually give in for another book or two before putting her down.

We attended the Dallas Junior League's Auction and Casino on Thursday and I think that we were the highest bidder on the trip to Florida silent auction item. We left without checking out so I'm still waiting to hear. All of the items were a steal because of the economy. There was a $5500 Valentino leather jacket for bid in the live auction that went for $250. It was nuts. On Saturday, Ellie, Beth and I toured the Luxe Home. It's being billed as the most expensive house ever built in Dallas at $40 Million and at 21,000 square feet, it was every penny of it. I kept on thinking what an outstanding party I could host at the house. We'd better start saving up for it!

Beer Goggles

Seriously - beer goggles.

I Couda Have Been A Contender"

Greetings from Wurstfest

Budding Artist

Halloween 2008

I must say that we had the cutest poodle on the block on Friday night, and getting Ellie into her costume was not as hard as it was two days before at the Lakewood party. I think that's due in part to the fact that I snuck up behind her and pulled it over her head before she could see it coming.


She had a really great time on Halloween. Aunt Elizabeth came over to help hand out candy with Lee while I took Ellie around. We started out atour next door neighbor's house where Gracie - also babysitter to Ellie - was handing out candy before the football game. Ellie took the piece of candy from her and then gave it back. Gracie told her she could keep it and that made Ellie very happy. Ellie then ran from house to house collecting candy saying, "tick teet". Her trick was that she would run up to the house, collect her candy, run halfway down the sidewalk, and then return for a second treat in hopes that she would not be recognized. The pink poodle costume gave it away because there were not many running around in the neighborhood.

About halfway through trick or treating, Ellie met up with a group of girls from the neighborhood who were about 3-6 years old. When they'd go to a door, she'd be in back at first, but by the time candy was being handing out, she was in the front row. We ended the evening with some pizza from Campizis. There weren't as many kids out this year as there were last year. I think that was due to the fact that there was a home football game being played.

On Saturday, Lee and I had plans to go to a Barnett Vineyards wine dinner at Lakewood. We'd plans to go for about three months. We love Barnett wines and it was our favorite winery when we visited Spring Mountain when we visited there in 2006 so we were really looking forward to the wine dinner. Our babysitter, who had never sat for Ellie before, was scheduled to come at 6:00. I started getting nervous around 6:10 when she hadn't shown up so I started calling and texting her. Nothing. She no-showed. Honestly, if she'd called two hours before and faked an illness, I'd be somewhat forgiving... but no-showing? That's inexcusable. When I realized we were not going to have a babysitter, Gracie from next door came over immediately. Thank goodness she was home. We wound up having an awesome time... the wines and the dinner was fabulous. The onlyproblem was that Saturday night was daylight savings so Ellie woke up at 4:30. I stayed in bed while Lee got up to check on her. He changed her diaper and maybe due to the wine dinner, he put her diaper on backwards. It could have been worse, he could have put it on inside out.


Ellie got in her first fight this week. That's right - fight. I picked her up on Tuesday and Irma told me she, "wasn't too good today". According to Irma, she didn't see the fight start, but when she looked up, Ellie was clawing at some girl and pulling her hair. My girl is smart to go for the hair since it's not an advantage any opponent has on her. Irma said she pulled Ellie off the girl (they don't name names at daycare) and then Ellie ran back to for more. Ellie usually plays well and shares better than I ever did so I'd like to think that the other girl started it, but who knows.


In other news, the election was this week. I didn't vote for the guy who won, which was Obama. I recognize that the election was historic in that he will be our first black president, but I don't think that he was the right person for the job, and I think our forefathers are rolling over in their graves because of the ideas and beliefs that he espouses. I'm a worker and I always have been. I went to work on the day of my 16th birthday because that's the first day I could legally go to work and make money. I believe that hard work is the way to get ahead in life and the government has no right to step in and redistribute my wealth. If you want money, work for it. I didn't get here by sitting on my butt and collecting welfare checks. I got here by spending thousands of hours studying. If you looked at McCain's resume versus Obama's it was a no-brainer. People wanted change and they're going to get it on my dime. I'm trying to look at the bright side and that is that many people were motivated to vote in this election. My hope is that this makes more people interested in our government and that they become more active participants.

Tennis, anyone?

Thanks to our friend Mike, we saw some great tennis this weekend. His company was sponsoring a tennis tournament at SMU and several well-known pros were there. Lee and Ellie met Anna Kournakova on Saturday afternoon while my mom and I were at the St. Thomas mother's association market. I got there just as Anna was leaving the meet and greet party so I didn't get any one-on-one time with her like Lee and Ellie did. We had great box seats for the match - right at mid-court. We watched a mixed doubles match with Anna and then a match between Jim Courrier and Ferreira. Ellie was good the entire match, but right at the end as Courrier raised his racket to serve, it was pin-drop silent and Ellie let out a "Whhheeeeeeee!". Courrier stopped his serve and looked right at us. He knew it was her making the noise because there was nobody in the tables to the left of us. I should have been mortified, but I couldn't stop laughing. I stopped Courrier after the match to apologize and Mike got his autograph for Ellie. Mike recorded the match and watched it when he got home. He fast forwarded to the "incident" and said the announcer calling the match said in a hushed voice, "...Courrier to serve... Courrier stops to look in the stands... aaaaannnnd Courrier serves". We returned on Sunday for more tennis and Courrier went on to win the entire tournament and took home $75,000 for his efforts. Something is telling me I should have played tennis.

Our other big fun this past week was attending a Jason Mraz concert. I had been looking forward to it for months and was a little disappointed. He sounded good, but I can't stand people throwing politics in my face. I don't spend money to have a celebrity give me his views - I spend money so he'll stand up on stage and play his little guitar and sing. I'm so over it all. I would have been fine with him had he not created a stained glass window backdrop during the song "Live High" and overlaid the face of Obama on Jesus' face. It was too much. Obama is not Jesus. At all. Maybe he's a half-witted community organizing version of Robin Hood who thinks it's okay steal money from someone who her worked her butt off to get a bachelors and masters in engineering only to give that money to people who illegally crossed our borders or won't get off welfare, but that's as much as I'll give him credit for. But Jesus? Spare me. So we left.

Lee also caught an (un)lucky break this weekend - he tore the ACL in his right knee... or so we thought at first, which would have meant surgery. But we found out today that it was more of an up-and-down tear rather than a side-to-side so he may not have to have surgery after all. That's the lucky part. He's limping around and is a lot of pain, but the doctor that will go away and he'll have to do some physical therapy.

Last night, we attended a Halloween party at Lakewood. We met Jenny, Brandt, and Garrett there. Garett is about 4 months older than Ellie and is such a doll. When we arrived, I took Ellie in a bathroom to dress her in her costume - the pink poodle. She's had it on twice before, but decided two times was enough. She started screaming immediately when I took it out of the bag. I almost had to hold her down to get it on her. All of this while she was crying in this guttural voice, "Mama! Noooooooo!". It was very dramatic. This little Hispanic cleaning lady watched it all unfold and I felt like an A+ parent. She calmed down after I got the costume on her.

The six of us ate dinner and then went on a hayride around the golf course. On the hayride, Brandt asked Garrett if he would give Ellie a kiss, and he leaned over and planted one on her. There was also a "Monster Mash" with dancing inside. All of the kiddos were running around having a great time. One little girl was dressed as Elmo and Ellie couldn't get over her. She pointed and screamed, "Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!". I discovered that if you want to be treated like a celebrity at Halloween, dress up as Elmo. We're trick-or-treating tomorrow night. I can't wait to take her from house to house and let all of our neighbors see her. It will be much different than last year!

Happiness Is...

An Elmo Balloon (captured on Lee's cell phone)

The Exclamation Point!!!

After receiving a few comments on the “Tag, I’m It” post, I’m issuing a formal statement on the exclamation point. I am not opposed to the use of the exclamation point, rather I am opposed to the blatant overuse of the exclamation point. Some people end every sentence with an exclamation point. I found the following in a grammar guide on the internet:

**************************************************************
Use an exclamation point [ ! ] at the end of an emphatic declaration, interjection, or command.

"No!" he yelled. "Do it now!"

An exclamation mark may be used to close questions that are meant to convey extreme emotion, as in

What on earth are you doing! Stop!

An exclamation mark can be inserted within parentheses to emphasize a word within a sentence.
We have some really(!) low-priced rugs on sale this week.

Note that there is no space between the last letter of the word so emphasized and the parentheses. This device should be used rarely, if ever, in formal text.

**************************************************************
My main peeve is with respect to the last sentence – the use of the exclamation point in formal text. The exclamation point has no business in business communications. I would not send an e-mail or letter correspondence to a client with an exclamation point in it because I work with 99% men and I think it undermines the credibility of my writing.

My stance remains firm on smiley faces :P.

Tag, I'm It.

Nicole sent me a "Tag, You're It" message with a challenge to write seven things weird or random about myself that other people may not know. Then you're supposed to tag other peoples blogs. I'm not going to do that, but if you're reading my blog and want to play along, please do (Meg this will give you a topic for you new blog)! Nicole tagged me about a month ago and I've been thinking about my list ever since. So obviously I'm putting way too much thought into this. Here it goes... I'll be surprised if anyone gets a seven out of seven:

1. When I was a junior in college, I almost changed my major to meteorology because I love the weather. Weather is so interesting to me and when a storm comes in, I always watch it on the radar. So what would I have done with this meteorology degree? I would have been the weather girl. And most days, I wish that's what I was doing... pointing at a green screen, smiling, and making weather puns with the anchorman. But I know I'd probably be doing the weather in Duluth or something, so maybe it wouldn't have been that great.

2. Speaking of career aspirations, my first ambition was to play the accordion just like the man on Hee-Haw. I was 4. I started taking piano lessons when I was 5 and about a year later, my parents discovered that our creepy neighbor had an accordion, so he lent it to me. I tried to play it, but it was really difficult. It ended my dream of becoming a professional accordion player, but I am still secretly fascinated by the accordion.

3. One of my biggest pet peeves is the overuse of the exclamation point! Or the double use!! Or triple use!!! REALLY?!!??!! Every sentence needs an exclamation point??!!! What are people trying to convey?!! Are they excited, yelling, or crazy?!!! A girl that used to work here would e-mail clients and every sentence in her e-mails ended with an exclamation point or a double!! I eventually told her to stop because it didn't look professional! My friends said I was crazy, but I couldn't help it! She had to be told! And this ":)" - or any variation - drives me nuts too.

4. I took my baby blanket to college with me, and I really don't care who knows it because I've been out and proud about my blanket for a long time. My mom tried to "lose it" when we took a trip to visit my grandparents when I was 7 or 8 because she thought I was too old to have it, but then I "found it" when I ransacked their house looking for it on a return trip 6 months later. Why would she want to take it away from me? Maybe she had some strange fear that I would still be sleeping with it when I went away to college? That's crazy talk. I still have it, but it's sealed in a bag because after years of wear, if it's exposed to the air, it will fall apart. It's like the Shroud of Turin.

5. Before Ellie was born, I didn't know any lullabies to sing so I downloaded "Que Sera, Sera" by Doris Day from iTunes and memorized it. It was the first song I sang to her, and it's what I always sing to her when she cries.

6. I'm the most inartistic person you'll ever meet. I can draw a smiley face and stick figures, but that's it. Art class was my least favorite class in elementary. My stuff was NEVER picked to go on the bulletin board. It's like the left side of my brain ate the right side of my brain and I have no ability to create. Well, I shouldn't say I can't create because I feel like I'm pretty good at writing and I've been dying to take a continuing ed class on creative writing. In fact, I have a funny book idea floating around in my head that will most likely never find its way to paper.

7. I'm not a picky eater, but I do not eat raw tomatoes. I never have, but for some reason I can't remember to say "no tomato" whenever I order a sandwich. So every time I order a sandwich, I have to pick the tomato off. I'll end this little exercise with a word problem: Assume Tiffany orders a sandwich every week and has been ordering sandwiches for the last 25 years. How many tomato slices has she picked off? If you said 1,300 slices, you'd be correct. Writing that makes me feel like a genius.

That is everything interesting to know about me that you may not have known. I don't have 6 toes, I can't play the flute with my nose, I have no tattoos, I'm not a secret agent, and I haven't hiked to the highest mountain in North America, but I did sleep with a baby blanket until I was 25.

Where have we been?

So I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been a little absent from blogging. The crazy thing is that the last time I blogged was over 2 weeks ago, and I can't really remember what I've been doing since then. And the only reason I know it's been two weeks is because Lee keeps reminding me. October is proving to be one big blur. And I've been so bad at photographically documenting this blur... the only pictures I've gotten in a while were this past weekend. The weekend before last was poker weekend at our house. Lee had all of his poker friends over for the big game and since the weather is so nice, they played outside. That's actually the only way it can happen with Ellie asleep because they get pretty loud. The game lasted until past 2AM. I forgot to take Mike's picture... he really wanted to make the blog. Maybe next time, Mr. Steele.



I do remember what happened this past weekend. Lee was out of town hunting. We dropped him at the airport on Friday morning on our way to work, Tee picked him up at the San Antonio airport and they headed south to the Herradura Ranch. It's the same trip that they took this time last year. So Ellie and I were by ourselves for the weekend. On Friday night, I stopped at Target on my way home to get some dog food, but I also got one of the most coveted toys of the holiday season... Elmo Live. Apparently this is the holiday item that people will be stampeding each other for this Christmas. In fact, the doll came out on Tuesday, and I got the last one in the store on Friday night. That night I stayed in and watched a girlie movie, Becoming Jane, but on Saturday, I had a whole girl's day planned.


I started off with a trip to the gym where Ellie got to play and then we met our friends, the Hardeman's at the Arboretum for more pictures. Yes, we had been there a few weeks ago, but there was a professional photographer there. I couldn't decide if I wanted to dress in her cute fall jumper or Halloween costume... I went with costume. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag yet on her costume so I'm not going to post any of those pictures just yet, but I'm certain that Ellie is going to deeply resent me for this year's costume when she is old enough to realize what I dressed her as. I will say one thing this about the costume - it nearly paralyzes her so she stands there motionless. This makes it easy for me to pose her, but doesn't make it easy for her to smile.


After pictures, Stephanie, Cooper, Ellie and I ate lunch outside at the club. The weather was great. I think Ellie is recognizing Cooper more now because as we were leaving, I told her to tell Cooper goodbye and she started saying "Bye! Bye!" and waving at him. Then I told her to give him a hug. She did and they both fell over in the process. After a big nap, Ellie and I participated in some retail therapy.


On Sunday, I went against my better judgement and took Ellie to church. By myself. It's really all one can do to keep up with her when we don't have to be quiet and still. We made it through the gospel and then she pooped so I gave up and went to the club for breakfast. Maybe Jesus will give me double credit for the effort I put in while I was there. I don't know how single parents so it. Lee got home around 4:00 and Ellie was so excited to see him. She saw him getting out of the car, ran up to him, and gave him a huge hug and kiss. Then she was beside herself with excitement when he made it upstairs. She was running around giggling and screaming. She definitely missed her daddy.


We've gotten a few new words out of her lately. She can say owl, Morgan, Lucy, Irma (her teacher), airplane (pronounced "eh-pane" though it would be much funnier if she screamed "da plane! da plane, boss!" when she saw one - Fantasy Island reference), buzz like a bee, and she's really been working on "please" a lot. If she sees me eat something she points to her hand and says "mo! mo!" meaning "more". Then when that doesn't work, she gets this pitiful look and says "peas?". How can I say no to that?


Here she is trying to put on her favorite shoes... they'd be my favorite shoes too if they came in my size.

The 2008 State Fair of Texas

October means one thing - the State Fair of Texas! This was Ellie's first trip, but it was also my first trip. No, I'm not kidding. I've lived here my whole life and I've never been to the State Fair. We got to the fairgrounds around 10AM and they were already frying up the Fletcher's Corny Dogs so Lee had to get one right away and let Ellie have her first taste... it was a hit! There was also fried ribs, chicken fried bacon, fried Snickers, fried oreos, and fried grilled cheese, but the corny dog was the only thing we tried.



Our next stop was the petting zoo, which was also a big hit. There were goats, a giraffe, emus, an ostrich (which tried to pick my arm off), some things with horns I'd never seen and a lot more animals. At first, I was feeding the animals with my hand, but then Ellie tried to do the same and I was afraid they'd bite her hand off so we switched to the little shovels.

There was also some sort of a rabbit competition there which they were judging when we were in the exhibition hall. Whichever rabbit wins must win based on the talent portion, because they all looked the same to me. White with pink eyes, white with pink eyes, white with pink eyes. I hope she never asks me for one because she'll get a quick "no". The only pet we'll ever have will be a dog... *maybe* a fish, but that's pushing it. Still to this day, I'll never know why my mother ever bought me two gerbils, but it taught me three valuable lessons: 1) Never swing a gerbil buy the tail because it will come off in your hand and no amount of therapy can make you forget that. 2) Gerbils can have heat stroke if left in an enclosed garage in August. 3) No exotic pets. Ever.

Around noon, I noticed her putting her head down on her stroller and about 5 minutes after that, the meltdown occurred. The corny dogs, zebras, airbrushed t-shirts, midway, and car show had finally worn our little munchkin out so we headed for the car and she was asleep before we hit the highway. Later in the afternoon, Lee met Mike to watch some football and we stayed in on Saturday night.

The pumpkin patch is back at the Arboretum this fall so we went to church and then there for a photo op. Ellie did not want to cooperate with picture taking so I didn't get one picture of her sitting there with the pumpkins like I did last year. She kept saying "ball!" and wanted to play with them. I had her dressed in a pink striped dress, bubble gum tights, and hot pink shoes, and at lunch, a lady at the club still told me what a cute boy I have. Are you kidding me? Does anyone have a son who dressed him like that? Pay attention, people.

I also played a whole round of golf for the first time ever this week. Some guys asked me to play on their team for the Society of American Military Engineers scramble. I am NOT GOOD. There was a lot of whiffs and missed putts, but I am interested in playing and I thought it was really fun. Now to get some lessons... Lee told me that he can teach me, but that may be more of an exercise in frustration for him.

New words in the past two weeks: Yellow, bracelet, please, thank you, slide, swing, fish.

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...