Forty Weeks Old

The highlight of this past week was celebrating my step-dad's 70th birthday!! My step-sister, Sally, organized a family dinner to celebrate John's big day at Rizzo's Restaurant on Monday. We had a great time as almost all the local siblings and grandchildren were in attendance.

Other than that, Todd and I spent the weekend at the mall. Needless to say, we were doing some last minute Christmas returns. We started out at the Outlet Mall on Saturday and took advantage of some great sales. We then headed to the Galleria on Sunday which was not busy at all due to the freezing weather. Ella came with us on both excursions and was a super trooper. She definitely preferred to be carted around in the umbrella stroller as she can see much more than when she is in her infant seat stroller.

Ella is on the move more and more these days. When we put her on her tummy there is no stopping her. Ella still isn't crawling, but is up on her hands and knees much more, scooting backwards much more, and rolling to get places much more. She also loves making sounds like "Bob bob bob," "Mmmmm," "Ma ma ma," "Da da da," "Pss pss pss," as well as lots of raspberries. According to Carol, her physical therapists, not many babies make the /p/ sound this early.

Other than that we have some exciting numbers...

• As of today (Tuesday), Ella is 280 days old!
• On Thursday, the twins will be 300 days old! And in 65 days they will be one year old!
• On Saturday, it will be 80 more days until Ella's first birthday!
• And also as of today, we have 40 more days until Todd, Ella, Mom & Dad Rassman, and I leave for Marco Island, FL!!!! Warm & sunny weather awaits us!

In the meantime, we're loving the snow that is coming down! If it's going to be cold, it might as well be snowing!!! Enjoy your week!