saturday mornings

I remember quite well Saturday mornings just a few months ago, when we would bring Ellie back to bed with us after her first morning bottle. She would just lay in between us, cuddle with us, and probably go back to sleep. What a sweet time!

This morning was much different...Ellie was climbing on top of us, climbing the pillows to look out the window, playing with my phone, crawling all over the bed...Then, finally, wearing herself out and cuddling up on my chest to go back to sleep. Just as sweet, but totally different from Saturday mornings this past Spring.

a mother's frustration

This is a first for me, and it will hopefully be a last. I'm writing today to vent an experience I just had as a mother...it was suffocating and more frustrating than maybe anything I've ever experienced.

It is by far the most frustrating thing in the world to me when a complete stranger feels the liberty to tell me how to take care of my daughter, or better...to tell me that I am not doing a good job taking care of her. Here's the story...

Ellie and I went on a walk (2 blocks away) to pick up a prescription at Walgreens. A lady who was driving by decided to yell and curse at me because Ellie didn't have shoes on. "It's cold as hell," she said. She continued to say that I should go home and put some shoes on her (with several other words that I will choose not to include). This continued for a few minutes while she was stopped in traffic. I can honestly say that I have never in my life wanted to hurt someone, or yell at them in response to something. That's not my nature. Today, I did. I actually told her to shut up! I mean, seriously, it's in the 70's today, and the sun is hot. Ellie hates more than anything else having something on her feet. She had pants and long sleeves on. Unless it's necessary (and today, it wasn't) I'm not putting shoes on her. It took everything I had to not go put a note on her car saying "In case you didn't know, hell is not cold. And you know nothing about me or my daughter."

Is it wrong to defend my daughter? and to defend my parenting skills? Ellie is my life. Besides my husband, there is nothing on this earth that is more important to me than her. How a complete stranger can judge be based on the fact that she didn't have shoes on, and she thinks 75 degrees is "cold as hell," I'm unsure.

I'm sorry she thinks it's cold outside. That's not my fault.

fall snapshots

I met a friend at Overton Park this morning to hang out, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to take some fall pictures of Ellie. Here are a few of my favorites...







There are more pictures on my facebook page if you want to see them all!

http://www.facebook.com/alunner

every day something new

Ellie is 6 1/2 months old now, and I can't believe it! Since she turned 6 months old, it seems like she accomplishes something new every day. Here are some highlights...

• 5 months, 3 weeks old: first tooth. Then she got her second tooth the next week! I think she's working on a third as we speak. She's been chewing on everything so hard, like she's trying to get it to come out! So far she has her bottom front teeth in.
• She began to sit up very tall all by herself, then the next day, she was "swimming," as we call it. She was trying to crawl, but it looked more like the breaststroke across the living room floor.

• This past weekend she figured out how to crawl for real! I think she was getting bored with being in the same place all the time, so she did something about it!

• Now she's pulling herself up, not only on small things around her like my leg and her lap, but also on the couch, the recliner, the door jam...everything!! When she pulls herself up and holds onto my or Nick's hands, she immediately starts taking steps toward us! She might be walking next... Now, when she wakes up from her nap, or in the mornings, I find her kneeling in her crib looking out into the hallway, waiting for me to come get her!
• Apparently, she's not as easy anymore for her teachers at Parent's Day Out...She is (I think) the only one that can successfully move around on her own, so she tries to "play" with the other kids and ends up crawling on top of them! They just lay there, and she keeps going! I think she's frustrated that she's the only one that can move around.

Since she started progressing so quickly over the past two weeks, we are forced to baby-proof the rest of the house. The living room was pretty safe, and that was fine because she just stayed in there all the time. But now, if I'm cooking in the kitchen or something, she will crawl out of the living room, through the dining room, down the hall to the kitchen! This means, she has to go past the computer desk full of cords, which is her favorite thing to play with!

Anyways, Ellie is not so little anymore, and she's so happy to be mobile and more interactive. It is so much fun!

We also went to Missouri this past weekend. Nick ran another half-marathon with his brother, so we waited in the 40 degree weather to watch Daddy run :) Here's Ellie all bundled up... Can you find her??

And Ellie, of course, had lots of fun playing with her cousins Iris and Milo. They were so excited that we got to stay with them for 3 days. They LOVE when Ellie comes to visit :)