Sonogram This Tuesday!

Assuming that our passports are returned to us tomorrow as scheduled (they are currently at the visa office), we will be heading to another city this week for doctors appointments! Ella has to have some immunizations and I am going to have a prenatal check-up. Hopefully when we have the sonogram we will be able to tell whether we are having a girl or a boy! With Ella, I was 99.9% sure that we were having a girl, but I'm not sure about this little one so it will be fun to find out. My best guess would probably be that we're having a boy.

Any guesses???

As far as pregnancy goes, I am now at 18 weeks and still throwing up almost everyday! But other than that and the normal amount of tiredness and absentmindedness that comes with being pregnant things seem to be going well.

Puzzles

Here is Ella sitting in her new little chair (that we bought with Grandparent Christmas money...thanks, Grandparents). She loves this little chair and carries it all over the house. Its not very clear in the picture but she often will put the pieces behind her when she takes them out which I think is really cute.

Ella's Room

We're so excited about Ella's Dr. Seuss room! The paintings were made by my BFF Bethany and they absolutely make the room. I still need to print off some pictures for the frames but will hopefully be able to do that later this week.

Lovey Still Fits

Ella likes standing in this little spot in her room. It's just the right size for her.

Ella's Hat

Last week Ella walked out of her room and announced that she was wearing a hat. I thought that was so cute!

Just a Pic

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Thanks, Nan, for helping us get in the spirit with the care package! Ella LOVED the frog book and looked so cute in her little green outfit.

You may notice that Ella has a clip in her hair. All of the sudden she is into clips (which she calls bows)...even when she is not wearing her monkey backpack! It reminds us of when she first started sleeping on her stomach. Up until that nap when she decided that was the way she wanted to sleep she had absolutely hated being on her stomach. I guess everyone can change!

My Little Help-pa

One of the words I hear most in a day is "Help-pa" which is Ella's way of either saying "I'm being your helper" or "Help me!!!" She is always looking for ways to help me out. She sweeps (video), helps fold and put away clothes, gets her silverware, plate and bib out before dinner and sets those on her highchair, helps put up her toys, and tries to help me carry heavy things. My favorite is when she gets things out of the back of her stroller after a shopping trip and brings them to me so that I can put the groceries up (picture). I get really nauseas if I bend down too much so this really is a big help. We are so thankful for such a sweet girl!

Supervising Progress

Ella was very interested in watching L work on her kitchen. It's going to be so cute when he's done.

Cutting Veggies

Our Herb Garden

Last week L and a friend went outside of the city and got some soil from a farm so that we could begin planting a little herb garden. When he got home with the big bags of soil, Ella had a lot of fun playing dress-up in Daddy's boots and hat. The next morning she supervised as he put all the soil in the pots. She kept telling him, "Side, side" which is her way of saying "Put that inside." Then that afternoon he showed her how to plant the seeds. We're so excited about having fresh herbs and jalapeno peppers!

Spring is Almost Here!

Hopefully this was the last time Ella had to get so bundled up to go out. I took this picture last week because I think her little boots are so cute but it seems that the weather is finally warming up now.

Reading Cookbooks...

Our shipment had three new cookbooks in it so I've been having so much fun reading new recipes this week! Ella helped me one day and once L heard that we were in a cooking mood he decided we would make Coconut Cream Pie. It was a fun family night!

...Leads to Coconut Cream Pie

Baby Belly at 15 Weeks

Pillow Fight

L's 29th Bday

It's hard to believe that we are almost 30!!! For L's birthday this year he decided that he wanted banana bread instead of a cake. We also had his favorite meal for dinner and enjoyed talking to all our family at home. I always want to make a big deal out of his birthday because I'm obviously pretty glad he was born and always ready to celebrate that, but he practically swears me to secrecy every year (although he has said that I'm allowed to throw a party for him next year which I'm already looking forward to)!

I love how Ella is too busy looking at the bread to look at me for pictures! She actually was a huge help in making the bread. She poured in all the ingredients after I measured them and also helped stir and mash the bananas. I love having my little helper with me in the kitchen.

First Play-doh!

Thanks, Mrs. K, for making Ella her first batch of Play-doh! I'm not sure whether L and I or Ella had more fun!

Ella's Monkey Backpack/Leash

Our friends, the Smiths, have one of these for their daughter and we thought it was the coolest thing...especially for the crowds that are here! And, fortunately, Ella thinks it's pretty cool too! This was one of the things that arrived in the shipment we just received and Ella wants to wear (or snuggle) it all the time. You might also notice that Ella is wearing a bow in the second and last pictures! I try to get her to wear one about everyday and that lasts all of about three seconds, but she associates the backpack with the bow (I think because we pulled them out of the shipment boxes at the same time and put both on her) so when she wears the monkey, she also asks for a bow in her hair.

Also, the Cat in the Hat rug was made by L's mom. Ella is going to have Cat in the Hat themed room and I will post pictures of that when we finish getting it all set up! I'm so excited about it!!!

Christmas in March

While we were in America this fall we decided to go through the boxes that have been sitting in our parents' houses and finally and completely "move" to Asia. We wanted to have our special things with us here...and, added to this we did a fairly good job of accumulating a lot of new things while we were home. So, we decided to ship 8 large boxes here. But, after returning to Asia we realized that it was just going to be too expensive to ship everything and even if it had been more reasonable the custom's laws prohibited us from sending it all (one example is that we could only ship 50 books and, of course, knowing us that made up almost the entire shipment). So, the majority of boxes are still at my parent's house waiting to come with people that visit us, but we chose three to go ahead and send. They were still held up in custom's for almost six weeks but arrived this week. And, it was like Christmas!!!!!! We had so much fun!

Beans

Ella is a busy girl and it can be work to keep her occupied throughout the day. Granted, it's the best job I've ever had, but it does keep me on my toes! Last week her favorite thing was playing with beans. She especially liked pouring them from cup to cup. Since the weather is finally warming up we have also been going on a lot of walks which she enjoys (and which will hopefully keep me from gaining the same incredibly large amount of weight I gained when I was pregnant with her). Please give me your mom tricks for entertaining a child without buying a new toy! I'm definitely in need of some help!

Girls' Night

A week or two ago L had to be out of town to work on our visa situation (which thankfully seems to be at least in the process of working out...) so Ella and I were on our own for a few days. We really missed him! One night we ate burritos, which is probably the messiest thing to give a 1-year-old and I figured that while she was good and messy we would do some finger painting. The funny thing is that Ella HATES having her fingers dirty. As you can see from the pictures, both with the burritos and paint, when she notices something is on her fingers, she wants me to clean it off immediately. I finally got out a paper towel and let her smear the paint around that way but I guess next time I'll need to get some paintbrushes before we try any art like this. She's so cute!