not walking

i love that i captured this moment. love love love it.

top left: she could not be working harder to chew on that piece of mango, she's all strained & intense.

top right: you can see why. all gums baby! & oh so happy about it!

borrowed the walker from cousin lena without holding my breath that ellery could use it soon. then i realized i could add resistance to the front wheels. genius! she'll follow this thing but is definitely not walking. doesn't count at all. truly. honestly. i mean it! look i'll make it extra clear & label this post not walking. cause she's not!

our jellybean can't turn either so she'll cruise forward til she rams into something which usually results in the entire thing toppling over on top of her as she falls backwards.

she still loves it though... goob.

bruschetta

chief's home, jellybean finally fits in some of her shoes (the newborn size), trips to the library cause i'm too cheap to buy a book, roughhousing, trying new recipes that austin finds too "fancy", rock band with the extended, & boiling in the heat. yep, think that 'bout covers it.

scapegoat

aust can't find his favorite belt. he's convinced that ellery ate it. he's expecting her to pass the buckle any day now. i really hope she proves him wrong.

wuss bag

i'm one of the biggest wimps you have ever met.

period.

being alone for a week, everything is locked at all times, i get tempted to wake up the baby, all the lights are on, i keep the car alarm remote on me @ all times, & i do anything possible to keep from getting hysterical. i also don't sleep. literally 2 or 3 hours a night is all i can get.

with the husbando here i still avoid scary shows/movies/stories let alone being... well... alone. i watch things like jeopardy, ace of cakes, & whatever classic series i'm enthralled with this month.

tonight i'm watching the dick van dyke show & it's about 3 in the morning. i haven't slept yet. so i'm safe, right? until this particular episode i find myself watching laura petrie piling aluminum cans by the door, blaring music & switching lights on in the middle of the night, scared & weepy because she's home alone. hearing noises & checking every corner.

now i'm writing a post.

because that keeps me protected.

CLEARLY.

sunset cove

all the hodgman girls (a couple hills too) loaded up & headed over to santa cruz. the beach was the perfect sayonara for aunt stephanie. goodbye bopi! see ya @ thanksgiving!

it was pretty cool for the first couple hours of beaching it but ended up baking like a toasted cheeser.

kara & her girlies. i love this shot, especially the sailboat in the distance.

there was a lot of wave jumping, snacks, playing in the sand, naps, bathroom searches here & there, up-chucking from the ride, & hammock rocking with the chillins. gotta love it!

belt chewing?

6 month shots, now that she's 7...

i love her cork bows.

ellery likes being tall like her daddy.

week full of farmer's marketing, swimming, giggling, michael babysitting, laundrying, beaching, belt chewing, cuddling, gpa feeding, vaca planning, date nighting, picture taking fun.

don't run with scissors

i can't be trusted with sharp objects. i gouged my foot open on the track at the bottom of ellery's glider & probably should have gotten stitches. been limping all week. today i sliced my finger open & in jumping back, nicked my neck. it's a joke. i'm covered in bandaids.

N2O poisoning

chief & i are strange. we laugh at stupid things, quote stupider things, & make up the stupidest of things. but we think we're funny. & that's all that really counts, right?

last night was one for the ages. we were being so annoying! i promise if anyone had been there, they would have left. at one point i thought we'd wake up miss e with our over-the-top gregarious howls. over seriously nothing.

but we weren't just up.

there was a lof of up AND down.

we turned on that new show shark tank (kind of like a classier version of pitchmen) & 90 seconds later i was aghast in the other room going on & on about the greed of the american public & how can people consider this entertainment? we're watching people getting reamed out about how half-baked & foolish their dreams are! it's so sad!

a little background: i have a tendency to take these things too seriously. like WAY too seriously. i literally cannot watch american idol until everyone's actually good. it's too mean! & don't even get me started on the bachelorette season finale; don't even watch the show but per kara's request watched the last episode. these poor people, i was sick about it!! & awkward/intense scenes in movies. yeah, i have to pace. the news? forget about it.

so austin is just dying laughing at me from the family room while i'm quite literally yelling at him to turn it off so we can watch something together. he conceded after lecturing me for 10 minutes about any hypocrisy i exhibited, all the while busting up.

it was then we discussed the possibility that there was a nitrous oxide leak in our apartment making us both delirious & loopy.

how else do you explain it?

musical chairs

ellery's big girl car seat from g & g hill!

her new high chair! she does everything in this chair, including watching jeopardy after jeopardy with her lame parents.

jellybean's many seats. all borrowed from my SIL kara 'cept the highchair. almost all returned now that our baby is ginormica. but really how ridiculous is this? took this pic especially for renee...

sugar & spice

my nieces came over to play today. lexy is 3 & lena is 18 months & they are so sweet to 'baby erelly'. lena keeps pointing at the ba-ba (baby) & telling us to shhh whether ellery's asleep or not. hilarious. lexy leans in & plants kisses on her & cheers her on no matter what she's doing.

we watched fern gully (takes ya back doesn't it?), jumped on the trampoline in my living room, danced, blew bubbles, ate hot dogs, read books, made juice, watered the plants, & played the sandwich game. they are fun girls. lexy grace lena kate

ellery renee

my favorite is that lena follows every little thing lexy does. verbatim. lexy drops a pretzel & looks under her chair. subsequently lena peers under her own chair. it makes me nostalgic for when steph & i were little. & i love it.

mostly it makes me anxious for my girlie to be able to play more with me! she already has such a little personality, i know we're gonna have so much fun! the real problem will be when she grows too sophisticated to go dancing around the kitchen with her mommy. then again i never did so i guess there's hope yet.

peanuts & cracker jacks

we've been exploring & playing & running around crazy for a couple weeks. library stops, swimming, long adventure walks, parking (not single life 'parking' but mommy trips to the park...), picnicking, teaching jellybean her latest tricks, going into the city, bbq after bbq after bbq, & tying up the loose ends on all my projects. what a daring, intrepid life i lead. hehe.

ellery sitting up has literally changed my life. she started almost 2 months ago but has gotten steadier and steadier. she's such a big girl now & just plays in her room & gabs. i love it. austin says we should time it so we have a 6 month old at all times. seems a bit too ambitious for me. :)

this friday we went to the giants/phillys game with a group of austin's work buddies. bad game but still really fun. we got slaughtered. i love this ballpark & will always think of it as candlestick park. why did they ever change that?! what other mlb game can you watch while following sailboats in the background? it's sa-weet!

editor's note: i was recently repremanded for my lack of baseball knowledge from my cousin sam. "Not to get all over you about it but where the Giants play never was candlestick. They used to play in the stadium formerly known as candlestick, but that's just the 49ers now." so to clarify, i like the name candlestick & apparently don't know where/what it is. that is all.