Ellie has been such a fun baby, really getting vocal and chatty lately.  She’s discovered her inner lungs and sometimes just screams for fun.  She also sometimes screams for not fun, but those are pretty quick to solve now since she’s gotten into a pretty consistent routine.  All this fun makes it so difficult for me to think about leaving her and come July that is exactly what I have to do.  I know a lot of moms encounter and overcome this challenge, but that is of no consolation to me.  She’s just such a love I can’t imagine wanting to be around anyone else all day; no offense my fellow Blue Nilers!  We did find a wonderful nanny that we’re excited to have care for our little bundle of joy, Diana.  Diana is such a sweetheart and really adores Ellie and loves holding and talking to her.  She’s very artistic too and so we look forward to lots of fun play time and creativity, which brings me to my second fun thing to share.

We had such a great time on Sunday for Father’s Day.  It was really special to celebrate Brian and his amazing dad-ness!  Molly [Featherstone] and I put together a pretty fun plan.  We each got the guys a bike trailer for our little tikes and we rode around Woodinville wine tasting.  I really can’t think of anything Brian would have enjoyed better.  It really was such a wonderful experience and Ellie looked like she was having just a marvelous time.  Molly’s got the cute pictures to prove it; perhaps we’ll share those later.

The other thing we did that I’m actually even more excited about is we made salt dough hand and footprints for the dads.  It was ironic because when we were in Long Beach last weekend, I thought of the idea to do Ellie’s foot and hand prints in clay.  When I got back and chatted with Mols, she had already been researching the salt dough idea!  Here is a link to the recipe we followed in case you’re interested in doing this in the future: http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2010/10/salt-dough-handprints.html

On our way back from Woodinville, we went to the Barking Dog to grab a quick bite and Ellie was so happy as we were leaving to go home.  Here’s a quick video clip of her enjoyment: