I have to say this is my favorite age so far. I guess ever since Ellie hit about 14 months it’s just been so fun. If I weren’t 33 weeks pregnant (see below), I think I would love it even more because I could be more active with Ellie, but that will come in a few months.  This pregnancy really has just flown by, but I’m hoping we can savor the last 7 weeks and really focus on relaxing and getting ready to welcome our second little girl into the world. 

We’re planning a home birth, just like last time hopefully. Our midwife lives in Ballard, so it will be a little more of a trek to get to our new Issaquah locale, but hopefully she will make it out before the baby is ready to come out…or not; I might be okay with that too!  It’s funny to hear people respond when I tell them I’m having a home birth. I don’t offer it up to many people because they usually look at me like I’m from another planet, but occasionally it comes up in conversation.  Brian found this awesome clip from Jim Gaffigan, whose wife also had home births for their four kids and I thought it was just so hilarious I had to share it.

I can’t help but laugh every time I watch this clip! 

Every time Brian and I go on a vacation, we come back with some revelation, which is partly why we love traveling so much. Seeing a new part of the world and taking time away from “the hustle and bustle” allows us to reflect and look at our lives with a new perspective. For me this vacation really brought me back to a place of gratitude. I’m not going to lie, the past year and a half has been really difficult. It’s also been incredible and fulfilling and amazing and wonderful and yada yada, but challenging and difficult at the same time. The acclimation to parenting is not easy, at least for us, but I’d like to say at the end of the day we’re happy with the job we’re doing and we feel like we’re good parents. Spending a week away from Ellie made my heart ache a ton and it was so nice to come home to such a happy baby who had been so well taken care of while we were gone.

Ellie’s vocab the last few weeks has just skyrocketed and the other revelation we came to while we were on vacation is that we’d really like to get her into an environment where she’s learning, playing and socializing as much as she’d like. We started talking to other parents and people in the community who have knowledge about our options and decided to investigate Issaquah Montessori. Brian visited first and fell in love. He was so ecstatic I knew it was going to be the place for us. Ellie started her integration on Monday. A lot of the kids have trouble when they start school because it’s an unfamiliar environment. They sometimes cry a bit when they arrive because they miss their mommy. Ellie on the other hand, cries when she has to leave! That makes me feel really good about her experience there for sure. Here is a pic of her on her first day (yes, our front door is heinous) and then with one of her classmates outside “mowing the lawn.”

At Montessori, they teach her how to eat properly without throwing food on the floor, how to wash her hands, change her shoes to go outside, etc. Her teacher also told us that she can potty train her for us, which I’m ecstatic about. I don’t know how much training Ellie is going to require though really. She says “poopy” when she has to go potty (even if it’s not a poopy) and then we take her to her toilet and she goes potty. It’s so wonderful; we feel a little spoiled – and A LOT grateful!

Other than that, it’s just been the usual obsession with Max (see below), running around like a wild girl, riding her giraffe (see video below), drawing, playing outside, etc. Too much fun for sure!