We're still a few days off from their official birthday, but Nate and Ella celebrated their first one today with family and friends! Here are some pics and videos, along with some other recent pics. Don't miss Nate's reaction to his first cake in the second video!
Happy Nate
Birthday girl
Ella with her friend, Harper
Nate and Ella with Grandpa T.
Proper birthday attire ...
The birthday song, twice
Nate takes the cake
After the feast, with Aunt Karen ...
From a few days back, baby gate standin'
Bringing up the rear
You think this is fun, wait until they put the sand in:
Between the record heat and some sicknesses, it was a challenging last few days. Thankfully we managed to wrangle an air conditioner, the weather has cooled a bit, and both Nate and Ella seem to be feeling better. Nate was particulary sick last night, and ended up making his first ER visit early this morning with a bad cough and general discomfort. Fortunately it looks like just a bad cold, but we wanted to get him checked out. Again, glad to report he is feeling better later today.
On the bright side, we've been dogsitting for our good friends Sara and Don this weekend. Molly has been doing a great job "guarding" Nate and Ella. She is a very sweet dog and the kids love her.
Daddy has been flying solo for the last day-and-a-half, so Mommy could sneak in a quick getaway with her PEPs friends. Thanks to Colin and Erin for spelling me for a couple of hours yesterday. It's really hot here, but the now-11-month-old Nate and Ella are doing great. Here are some recent shots ...
From today. I like this one. Nate and Ella are definitely interacting and laughing more these days:
Here's Ella with friend Lila Claire, during a recent trip to Sequim. Lila is daughter to our good friends Don and Sara, who hosted us:
Nate with Lila:
Here's a shot of Nate and Ella with Lindsay, our super-nanny:
Where does the time go, not just the past 10 days but the past 10 1/2 months? Hard to believe Nate and Ella's first birthday is so close. Here are some recent shots:
Ella Philanise(a.k.a. "Roo") loves to talk ("dada" and "mama"), clap, squeal with delight when she sees a doggie during a walk, mow down finger foods and put her hands together for an "Amen" for a little prayer before bed. She also likes to hold her own bottle these days when she's having a meal.
Nate is crawling everywhere and loves to head for things he isn't supposed to get into. He loves books, especially turning the pages in board books. His main word is "baba" which means "bottle" in Nate-ese. He loves little bites of whole-grain pancake and Yo baby yogurt. Here he models his new baseball PJs, which are for 18-month-olds but aren't all that big on him:
We need to invest in a wagon at some point, but Karin discovered both of the babies enjoy being pulled in their toy box:
Today Nate and Ella took their first dip in the pool to celebrate the holiday (thanks Aunt Jayne for sending the pool as a gift, and Mommy Karin for getting it inflated.) Daddy has been under the weather today but enjoyed taking a few pictures and some video:
