Knoxville Zoo!

With this unusually warm weather (75 degrees today!) we just had to get outside. Melissa and her boys invited us to join them for an afternoon at the zoo. We had such a good time that we will definitely be getting a membership soon. Chris was jealous and says that if the weather is good he wants to go this weekend!

So these are the Mancini boys with Ella Kate. John will be 3 in May and George will be 1, also in May. These are two boys that we won't mind Ella Kate hanging out with!

John was excited to be at the Zoo-- he was climbing all over everything! My favorite, I wish I had a shot of it, was John saying to the monkeys "Hi Blue Monkeys!" It was so matter of fact, like "Blue Monkeys" were their names.

Mel is probably my "oldest friend," not necessarily my first one, but the one I've kept the longest. We met as freshman in college and just clicked right away. By the end of our freshman year people would call us Kat and Mel interchangeably-- we'd respond to either name! We lived together sophomore and junior years and have so many crazy and fun memories. Since neither of us is from TN we never ever would have imagined both of us ending up here, much less living in the same city! We literally live 10 minutes from each other! Now that we both have kids (obviously Mel got a head start on that one!) we will have so much fun watching them play and grow together.

Just behind Mel on the friendship time line are Nicole, Amy-Chris, and Shannon. When they said, in our freshman orientation, that these are the friends we'd keep for life I'm sure we all rolled our eyes. Who knew that 12 years later we'd all still be so close?! We've shared so many life changes- jobs, houses, pets, marriages, deaths and births-- I'm blessed to have such amazing friends in my life!

EKV's First Superbowl Sunday

You may recognize Meg from EK's first few pictures. I've already contracted her as Ella Kate's future babysitter! She's only 8 right now, but I can tell she's gonna be a great babysitter soon.

Seth's lap seems to be one of EK's favorite places. She fit in that nook perfectly and just sat there contently and observed.

Sweet Miss Lacey

Lacey is our sweet loveable floppy dog and our "first born." We assumed she'd be the one who mothered the baby and would hover and be protective. We were surprised to learn that Abbey was more in tune with our new addition and Lacey kinda shirked away. This is one of the first shots of Lacey lounging so close, and calmly, near Ella Kate. She did try to lick EK once before and EK cried. I don't think she cried b/c of Lacey, it was just a coincidence (as I've said before, EK doesn't discriminate about who she'll cry for!), but it made Lacey stay away. Finally she seems to be warming up to the new little human in the house!

This is a shot of EK so tuckered out on her rainforest play mat that she actually fell asleep! I let her sleep there for as long as she would (maybe 15 min)-- as my friend Sarah says, "let sleeping babies lie!"

On a fun baby note: I'm pretty sure she's eliminated the last feeding of the night, usually around 10ish. Three times last week she fought us during that feeding and I was complaing about it to Kristen who said "maybe she's not hungry." Hmmm.... wonder why we couldn't come up with that on our own! So at her suggestion we didn't try to force that feeding, and since last Friday EK's skipped it and slept until the middle of the night (around 2 or 3 am) feeding. Then the amazing happened last night: we fed her at 6:30 and put her down around 8:30 and she slept all the way until 5:30 am! I'm curious to see if it was a one time thing or if it happens again.

I forgot to mention that two of Ella Kate's best girlfriends were born 3 weeks ago! Bree Simpson was born to Shay and Brian, and Lila Hagan was born to Maria and Carr. Up to this point most of my friends have had little boys, so girls are a new and fun development. One more may arrive next week when Kristen's secon baby is born. I'm convinced it's a girl, but you can go to her website and post your own opinion!

This Tummy Time was much less torturous!

She loves this rainforest mat!

Week 12

Every mother that has ever nursed a baby knows what I'm thinking here: no one will ever see this baby from the same view as me. Every time I feed her, as I gaze on in wonderment, I think of how, once she's grown, I'll never see her from this angle again. I know there's no way to capture just what I see, kinda like how you saw your wedding day through such different eyes as everyone else, but for posterity's sake, I'm trying. I got Chris to stand over us and take this picture, and it's pretty good, but I guess I'll never get on film like it is in my mind. When I'm feeding her she's a different little baby than the one everyone else gets to see and play with. She's my little soul mate, my little angel, my new best friend, my little "mini-me." We communicate, we talk, we read each other's minds (or at least what I like to think she's thinking!). When someone else plays with her I almost shock myself by thinking, "that's a different baby!" It's like a split personality, I guess I've interpreted her as someone completely different than what I see when other people are around. OK, that sounds crazy, but it makes sense to me!

We've been eyeing this coffee table for a while now. It matches our living room perfectly and it finally went on sale at the World Market. We set up EK on her bouncy seat (yeah! she finally will hang out in the bouncy seat for longer than 30 seconds!) while we assembled the table. Ok, while Chris assembled the table and I just puttered around cleaning up the scraps of packing material. What would I do if I hadn't married a manly man? There are so many little things he fixes around here, he's awesome!

Here's the final shot of the table. See what I'm talking about matching?! The slate and darker wood go perfectly with our fireplace's slate hearth and the armoire is a darker wood, too.

EK at the end of the project. Just tuckered out! She's blissfully asleep. Wouldn't it be great to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere knowing someone else would take care of you?

We had photographers to take our shot before we went to church this morning b/c Mimi and Pops were in town this weekend. We managed to not get any pictures of Mimi and Pops, though-- how do we always forget? We had a nice weekend, and even got free baby sitting out of the deal! Last night Chris and I actually left the house by ourselves for 4 whole hours to go to the movies. Woo hoo!!! We saw National Treasure 2, it was great!!! Thanks, Mimi and Pops!

Just another shot of our angel baby and Francine!

After lunch we had a bath and got all snuggly in our Pooh bath bag. Love the little ears on the hood! Her big deep blue eyes remind me of blueberries! I wonder if they'll stay that blue?

Tummy Time video. I know it looks like I'm putting her through torture, but when she looks up at the mirror she seems excited. "They" say you gotta give 'em tummy time every day, so here we go!

Ella Kate Speaks!

Finally!! We got a video of EK "talking." Unfortunately, the picture is really dark. Still, it's the most we've gotten on video. It's precious, if you ask me, but I am a little biased!

Who is that baby in the mirror?

Ok, she may be my daughter, but this is the funniest thing I've seen her do yet! It's a little long, but the laugh at the end is the best!

It's been so chilly here I tried to bundle her up. This adorable boucle jacket and cap are from our friend Crissy, but I think they're still a little big. Cute, though, huh?

She's also had a bit of a cold this week so I've been trying to keep her propped up so as to keep the drainage from building up in her sinuses. Here's a shot of my make shift wedge! We put the actual wedge in the crib that night.

Miss Abbey has needed a manicure for a while, so Daddy finally got around to it yesterday. She usually totally freaks out, but she was being so good I just had to take a picture for posterity!

This was supposed to be a video of EK "talking," which she's been doing a lot of lately. But, of course, as soon as I get the video out she stopped! One little coo is all I got.

Ella Kate loves her daddy! Sometimes she may be fussy but as soon as Daddy does the airplane "super baby" move she's totally content.

Here's some of our handywork in the nursery. We're trying to make it a little girlie, so we got this cute crib set from Target. It's called Bubblegum Bananafish, isn't that adorable! The shelf is actually from a craft store. It came with the 5 hooks, but it wasn't painted. Chris painted it white and I painted the pink polka dots. I have to say I'm impressed with our work!

Ella Kate's first trip to church. Oh, she's SO cute, I could just eat her up!!!

This is a shot of her after church, notice the new outfit. All you moms will know all about that! The teddy is her new friend, Francine. She's started to grasp on to things, so we gave her the little bear. She holds its ears and arms and often puts an ear in her mouth. Also, Francine makes a nice pillow in the car seat! Don't ask where the name Francine came frome, I have no idea, but it's stuck!

Touchdown! Don't know who I'm rooting for, but I'm happy about it!

Just another shot of me and Francine.

It's been pretty chilly here lately, so we bundled up in the Teddy Bear suit that is now pretty much too little for her and proped her up in the middle of some fresh laundry. Great shot, huh?!

Silly Mommy! Imitating me cooing. Daddy got me dressed this morning. Notice the snaps in the front of the onesie; not usually where the snaps go! Chris said he wondered why it was so difficult to snap at the crotch! I guess he was thinking those snaps that go in the back were like the buttons on a polo shirt and they should go in the front. We left it on that way b/c she didn't seem to notice and it would've been too much work to turn it around!

Gran Gran (my almost 96 year old grandmother) came to our house for Christmas to visit with her newest great grandchild. We set up a bed for her in the play room, and we just might leave it set up in there for a while. It amazes me how well Grandmommie is doing. We are so lucky to have her in our lives and we count our blessings everyday. She's doing great for 96. Some (ok, a lot) of hearing loss, and she's had both hips replaced, but other than that she's great! She's sharp as a tack, witty, and funny. We had a great visit.

Four generations in one picture. Grandmommie is Dad's mom and I was the first girl born on that side of the family since Grandmommie (62 years). It was a big deal when I came along! Even after me there were more boys, then the girl explosion happened, and I've continued it with my own little girl!

Chris always likes to take pictures of the meats he cooks at Christmas, so here's a ham and a turkey. Way to go, babe! Beautiful, and tasty, as always!

In case you can't read it, her little cap says "Baby's First Christmas" -- our own little elf!

Just a sample of Ella Kate's Christmas presents. A baby gym/ play mat that matches the other rain forest themed Fisher Price gear she's gotten. Next to the swing, this has been the best purchase we (I mean Santa) made. She hates spending time on her back, but this gym has flashing lights (big plus) and music. She will actually stay on it for more than 5 minutes, sometimes up to 15 or 20! It's been a great treat for us!

The second picture is of just a few of the many many outfits she got at the after Christmas sales. What makes these so special is that these are all from Pops, and he picked them out himself (ok, he may have had some help from the sales ladies)!

Mimi and Pops with their favorite Christmas gift!

EK in the above mentioned swing. This thing has saved our life! It would be worth it even if it cost a gazillion dollars! She has spend numerous hours in this thing. Several nights she's slept in it, and I believe there may have been whole days she's stayed in it. It has been the only thing that she's comfortable in! She doesn't like the bouncy seat and she resists sleeping on her back. So, there you go. Swing, Baby, swing :)

More of Chris' creative cooking. The smiley is a nice touch, huh?