Instagramming It Up

I might not be doing blog posts very often right now (due to the craziness of life) but I thought I would let you know that I have been doing pretty good at regularly posting on instagram, so if you happen to be one of those people who goes a little bit crazy if they don't regularly get to see a new picture of Ella (pretty much this category would consist of Ella's grandparents) then you can follow me on instagram.

My instagram name is acurtisjones.

Of if you don't have instagram then you can follow me online here.

Instagram photos should get especially exciting as we head to Disneyland soon. 

Here's the latest:

This pretty much sums up how much fun moving is, luckily our place is looking much better now (although there are still a few boxes to go).

Also, Ella is in love with that shopping cart that her grandparents got her, she wants to drive it around ALL. THE. TIME.

And she likes to pile all of her toys into it and then take them all out and then put them all back in.

Organizer through and through.

 I kind of have this crazy collection of jars that I love that are now on display in my kitchen for all guests to see and admire (or more likely to not even notice, but they make me really happy).

 I have been wanting to try using a sharpie on porcelain for a while now and I finally had an excuse, when I was unpacking the kitchenware I noticed how plain the butter tray was and quickly fixed it.

It is getting hot around here, hot enough to go swimming in the freezing cold water of the splash pad.

I love how the water fountains look like strings of pearls.

A collection that I love even more than the jars: this children's book collection.

Oh, I'm in love with it!

So many gorgeous books.

Ella likes to pull every single one of them out on a regular basis.

Also in love with that blanket under her feet, so much color and so beautiful!

And then she loves to read them (but she doesn't like having them read to her).

She makes all sorts of animal noises (most of which I can't recognize) as she flips through the pages.

Decorations are a little bit scant around here right now, so the few that I have up I love!

We made that adorable wreath our of paint swatches at the weekly ladies group thing we have.

So simple but it adds so much to a bare kitchen.

And that is the table and chairs I got off craigslist a while ago for $50 and we've painted the table white and the chairs different colors.

Now I'm on the hunt for several mismatched chairs (I've already found one) to also paint various colors and add to the table.

I'll definitely post the finished result when we're done.

 Little Girl's room.

Another beautiful quilt that adds so much to her little bare room, I love it!

Those tissue pom poms are the only decoration upstairs but you can see them all the way from the bottom of the stairs and they add so much happiness!

The first time Ella saw the pom poms hanging from the ceiling she oohed and ahhed over them and it made it 100% worth the effort of making them (which wasn't that much effort because they are so simple, so it was totally worth it).

To be honest, Ella isn't sleeping in that crib yet, we have her sleeping in her pack-n-play in her little brother's closet (because that's what she was used to where we used to live).

But soon after we get back from vacation we are transitioning her to a crib (outside of the closet) for the first time in her life, we'll see how it goes!

 You know, just eating pretzels while waiting for her daddy to come home.

With me being pregnant and Ella being a toddler, we pretty much are snacking maniacs all day long.

 She adores chairs that are made for her size, she could spend hours just climbing up and down them.

 Making some grilled cheese.

And bits of randomness:

Ella finally started signing!

I started doing sign language with Ella when she was 9 months old and she refused to ever sign back to me.

Until now (9 months later)!

She is the cutest little signer, she can convince me to give her practically anything when she signs.

She says "peez" (please) and rubs her chest and I hand her all sorts of stuff I never used to give her because it's just so dang sweet!

And she does "more" and "again" and "all done" but what melts me is that she says the word at the same time as she signs in this little sweet voice.

 "Ah dun" (all done) is a favorite of hers.

Poor girl will sign this when we're a 1/2 hour into the church and it's so sad to have inform her that actually there's another 2 1/2 hours to go.

And she's started getting into a phase where she'd rather play than eat, so she is always saying "ah dun" and waving her little hands in the air after only 3 bites and we have to try and convince her that the food is more interesting than her toys.

And when she needs help with something she chants, "Mommy mommy mommy."

That is the only time my name is ever said, in moments of desperation.

But that's kind of wonderful that she turns to me when she needs help with something.

And she says her name! 

"Lala."

I'm getting a little bit worried.

Baby Boy NEVER STOPS MOVING.

Ever.

(Except for when Adam puts his hand on my belly so that I can show him how crazy his son is, then he never moves. Ever. He's as still as can be.)

Ella is one of the most crazy active people I know and when I was pregnant with her she did not move nearly this much.

I remember.

So if this kid is more active than Ella, then I pretty much should just plan on never sleeping or getting dressed or eating or getting anything done until the day that he goes to kindergarten.

I was kind of planning on that anyway, so that's good, but things might be even more insane than I had originally assumed.

Chunker Child

^This chunker child turned into this:

In just ONE year! 

Bah!

Can't even believe it.

 But Adam says she still eats like a chunker:

 But being able to run around and play at the park and dance and climb into things and tackle stuffed animals has slimmed her down a bit.

 And based on the near non-stop dancing in my tummy, Baby Boy of Chunkiness is itching to keep up with her.

Should be fun!

Ella is Sunshine

 

Mmmk, first item of business: these photos.

Are you dying with how gorgeous they are?

The photographer, Jostlyn, is incredible!

It was next to impossible to only put this many photos up on the blog because there were so many that I was in love with!

I love how she captured the little person that Ella is! 

The little details in the pictures are so perfect.

And now onto a mom rant:

When Jostlyn posted a few of the pictures on facebook she captioned one of the pictures "Ella is Sunshine" and I love that she said that because that seems like the perfect way to describe Little Girl.

Obviously she is my sun, because my whole world revolves around her and her little life.

But to other people too, I feel like one of her roles in life is to be the sunshine for them.

We were at a nursing home for an activity this week and Ella went up to every elderly person sitting in this room and waved her little backwards "hi" to them and gave them her little shy, cock of the head smile and you should have seen their faces!

If I had danced and sang and done tricks for hours on end for these people their faces would not have been half as lit up as they were when they saw Ella.

People who you thought were fast asleep suddenly were all wide-eyed and grinning at Little Girl, as she jabbered at them and played with whatever they were holding on their lap.

Through the entire activity they hadn't shown half the energy they suddenly seemed to have upon seeing Ella.

They were in love with her.

And when we are at random places like the grocery store and Adam's work Ella is always toddling up to people with a big grin, waving and giggling and these complete strangers break into the hugest smiles and can't seem to take their eyes off her.

She just radiates with this happy energy and love of life.

Ella is truly sunshine.

Plus, she's a toddler and toddlers are just cute and fun to watch in general, so we'll see if this continues to be a part of her little personality as she grows up.

And third item of business: I'm sorry for the lack of posts!

We have been moving and holy cow, let me tell you that moving with a toddler is not like any other moving experience I've ever been through before and I've moved quite a few times in my adult life.

We are currently living off frozen meals because I refuse to cook when things are so crazy, but much to our happy surprise we are kind of loving it!

I don't know if technology has just advanced in the frozen food world or what, but everything we've had so far we've loved, Bertolli is our current favorite frozen food brand.

Eating those dinners makes me wonder why I ever spend time making meals from scratch, and I'm not really kidding about that, although I'm sure I'll go back to making my own meals when we get tired of the options that Bertolli has to offer.

Also, Magnum ice cream bars are a favorite here these days.

Until things settle down, we may only have a little post every here and there.

But one day we will finally have settled in and then the nursery and living room decorating begins and furniture refinishing projects and all sorts of wonderful craftiness like that so there are sure to be lots of posts covering all of that, and I can hardly wait!

Ella's cute little life lately (as recorded in a zillion and half pictures)

 Ella's favorite position in the grocery cart:

Where she usually ends up sitting by the end of the grocery trip:

Because she does things like tear apart lettuce leaves when she is in the main part of the cart:

Although, her absolute favorite thing to do at the grocery store is help me push the cart.

I put her down on the ground and she puts her little hand on the back of the cart and we very slowly make our way through the entire grocery store like that, occasionally she switches hands, but she never tires of pushing.

This has led me to discover one of the best ways to entertain that girl at the park is to place her and the stroller in the middle of a large grassy field and let her push it for as far as she can go.

This honestly keeps her happy for 20+ minutes, that is phenomenal to have her entertained by one activity for that long!

Also, I love her face.

She is such a happy girl!

She is always excited about something and on a constant adventure.

"Places to be, people to see" is this girl's motto, always on the move.

The one exception to that rule is when Dancing With The Stars is on, then Ella will sit down next to me on the couch and watch when the dances are on.

I think we need to get this girl enrolled in a dance class when she's a little older.

She likes to dance in her carseat to the music playing in the car, waving her arms in the air and bobbing her head.

 Bedtime routine goes like this:

Ella says "Nigh nigh"and waves her hand to let us know she is tired and then we change her diaper, put on PJs and she brushes her little teeth all by herself and then Dadda gets to brush them (while Momma sings and makes crazy noises in the background to keep her entertained and not throwing a fit) and then Ella gets to brush them again.

She loves brushing her teeth, she just sucks all the toothpaste off.

When we say "time to brush your teeth" she opens her mouth wide and says "Ahh."

Then we say, "Time for a prayer," and that little girl folds her arms while we pray and then sometimes when the prayer is over she keeps her arms folded and says her own version of a prayer.

And then we get "Baby" Gerard and say "nigh nigh" to everyone and blow kisses.

And then we sing You Are My Sunshine (her favorite is when both Momma and Dadda sing it together  and not just one person) and then we lay her in bed, she cuddles up in the very far corner of her bed, with Gerard held right in front of her mouth with one hand and the other hand's thumb stuck in her mouth and we close the door.

She likes to sleep the short way in her bed, all scrunched up.

Sometimes we hear her talk and giggle to Gerard for a little bit after we say goodnight but sometimes she just goes straight to sleep.

I love that sleep time is not a traumatizing time, it's calming and she eagerly tells us when she's ready for it.

Let's hope sleep-training goes just as smoothly with Baby Boy.

She still sleeps from 7pm-10am (and sometimes longer). 

This is a girl who needs her sleep.

Although we've recently cut down from two 2 hour naps a day to one 2 hour nap.

Little Girl does not like being fed the same foods over and over again so this has forced me to be creative.

Thank goodness for ideas on Pinterest.

Whenever Ella is getting upset at being in the store for too long, find a mirror and place her in front of it.

This will buy you at least 2 minutes of time to grab things you need on the aisles near the mirror.

Or go to the toy aisle to keep her happy.

I have a really hard time making decisions, but Ella won't let me stand still in an aisle long enough to make choices (things start flying out of the cart and she starts getting restless and upset) so I just grab all of the choices and head to the toy aisle and let her play while I try to decide if I should get the blue one or red one.

 She kind of is in love with draping things around her neck, like purse straps, balloon ribbons and swimsuit bottoms with belts.

She's a hoarder through and through.

And a bag-lady in the making.

She gathers as many things as possible in her arms and walks all over the house until she is forced to put something down.

When she sees Gerard or an infant or toddler she says in this sweet little high-pitched coo "Hi beebee (baby)!"

One thing I love is that she does things to imitate her Momma.

I go everywhere with a messenger diaper bag over my shoulder and so I was absolutely tickled when I first saw Ella imitating me doing the same thing.

She found this bag of mine that I had back in middle school, and this bag has been waiting it's whole existence for Ella to find it because it has never been so loved.

She pulls it over her shoulder and goes around with an adorable proud strut to her walk, quite obviously feeling very grown up to be doing what her Momma does.

Also, going on walks and watching barking dogs are still a favorite:

 She is a constant snacker.

Which is fine by me.

Now that we have been shopping for Baby Boy of Chunkiness we sometimes get things that are big enough to fit Ella, so she's been wearing Baby Brother's clothes.

Occasionally throughout the day Ella will say, "Dada" and point to the garage door, as if she wants him to walk in it.

It breaks my heart when she does this on a day when she won't see him because he's gone from morning until late at night at work and school.

Oh she loves him!

She understands SO MUCH!

I love that I can say, "K, let's go to the car" and she'll walk to the car by herself.

Or "let's go outside" and she walks to the front door.

And when I put a shirt on her I put one arm through a sleeve and say "switch hands" and she switches whatever toy she is holding to the other hand and then puts her now-empty hand through the other sleeve.

She used to get so upset when I would remove her toy from her hand to put it through the sleeve, but now she understands switching hands and we don't have to get upset anymore!

And I love the face she makes when I say, "where is your nose?"

And she points to her nose.

 We love snacking on Costco dried mangos, they are one of Ella's favorite snacks (although they are probably terrible for her teeth)

 Little Girl is an organizer.

She likes to sort things.

She has a "discard" pile on her highchair tray where all of the undesirable piece of food get placed.

And she likes to line things up and move items from one place to the next.

Here she is organizing golf balls:

 With the new apartment to equip and a baby on the way, Ella and I have been running around thrift stores and checking Craigslist like crazy.

Everyday Adam comes home to a wildly excited me, telling him about the beautiful cherry wood dresser I found for $40 at the thrift store, or the $50 espresso crib from craigslist, or the 80 bajillion adorable boys clothing items I found for 50 cents to $2 a piece.

I'm sure it also thrills him to hear about all the projects I have enlisted him in to refinish the furniture I just found for such a steal.

Anyway, sometimes we find additional things along the way that are super cute and a fabulous price, like a cute striped summer dress for $2 at a thrift store:

Oh, I just love good deals!

And I love that girl!