Ella is 17 Months Old

I can't believe that another month has passed!!! In the past month, Ella has traveled the Western United States and learned all kinds of new tricks. She is officially in mimic mode. All of a sudden, everything we do, she will mimic. If not immediately, it will show up out of the blue when we least expect it. For example, whenever I change a poopy diaper, I will make a big scene about how stinky it is, saying "wooo, pee ewww" and waving my hand in front of my face. Well the other day, I was just saying it to her for fun and all of a sudden, she starts waving her hand in front of her face. Soooo cute. I captured it a little bit on video.....



She is also really starting to try to copy sounds more and more. And FINALLY she is getting some teeth!!! Her TOP two teeth are just starting to break through her gums. Pictures to follow when they are in enough to capture some day. (If she lets me). She still has no interest in trying to stand. When we try to stand her up, she still just brings up her legs and bends her knees to try to sit down. I don"t know how she will ever learn to walk!! She also still has no interest in eating. I get a few bites of baby food down her once in a while but she doesn't really want it.

The good news is that I FINALLY met someone in town with a little girl with Ds and she knows of a group here in Temecula. Her daughter is almost 5 so a little too old for playdates but maybe I will be able to meet someone at a group function eventually. The group is actually a group for all disabilities...not just Ds but it is a start.

In the next week or two, I need to take Ella back in to check her blood work...aaaggghhh!! But other than that, she seems to be doing great!!!

Ella thought you all would like to look at

her tonsils in this photo!!

Pigtails

Papa's 70th Birthday, Some New Pics and A Video Showing Ella's Signs

Today, we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday. I made my first EVER homemade German Chocolate cake. I have to say.....NOT BAD!!!

My dad, my sister and me

Papa and his Grandkids

I decided it was time to get a new photo for the top of my blog but I really liked the style of the old photo so I attempted to copy it. Of course Ella wasn't completely cooperative or my camera was too slow to catch the perfect smile but I still thought the new photo at the top came out pretty cute. Here are a few of the other attempts.

One of my new favorites

And finally, (again with my poor quality digital camera) here are a couple videos of Ella showing off her sign language. In the first one, she is doing "more", "baby" and "all done". In the second one, I am trying to get her to do "daddy". When I say "where's daddy", she points off into the room and says "dada"....if you listen carefully you should be able to hear her. When we say "kitty" she will VERY QUIETLY say "kikikikiki"

Wordless Wednesday

The Ella Tour Comes to An End......Texas and Home

Well.......after 4,300 plus miles....we are finally home. Well, we actually got home two days ago but this is the first time I have had to catch up my blog. It sure feels good to have a regular computer again!! I just don't do well with laptops and therefore didn't always have the patience to get on and read blogs or update my own. I left off my last post when we were in East Texas just outside of Houston. The next day, both Ella and I came down with colds so that put a little damper on the next few days but we still had many amazing visits with friends. We finally made it to McKinney, TX where we used to live and where part of our hearts still remain. We had a big pool party where we got to see all of our old friends from school. It was so great to see everyone and even though it has been over two years since we left, we felt like no time had passed at all. The next day, we got to meet with more special blogging buddies. Kele and Presley had us over to their house along with Cheryl and Ruby and Heidi and Henry. It was so much fun to see them all after having been reading their blogs for all this time. It was also a great ending to our road trip. The next morning, we hit the road for our final leg. We spent two and half days getting home. We arrived home about 3:30 in the afternoon on Saturday and got to Abbey's first soccer practice at 4:00......whew!!!! The trip was so wonderful and the kids were amazing in the car. I can't imagine it being any better (and therefore would probably be afraid to do it again :)

Abbey hamming it up in the pool

Most of the McKinney Gang (a few had already left)

Friends since kindergarten


Abbey and Karoline in their Hollister shirts

Kele and Presley

Heidi and Henry

Cheryl and Ruby

The four darlings!!

Ella and Henry (and I thought Ella was big!!)

Henry and Ella playing together

Fascinated with something!!

Moms and kids

Henry can't control his girls

The Ella Tour....Days 5,6,& 7

This will be a pretty quick post as it is after 1am local time and I have no business being up but feel that I have to take advantage of any chance to get online and post some pictures when I can. We have been in TX the last few days. We finally crossed the state line into the Republic of TX on Thursday...then hit a family wedding in Tyler, TX on saturday and currently are visiting some friends from CA who just recently moved to the Houston area. We have finally began to understand the true meaning of humidity although I think we have been tolerating it quite well. Tomorrow, we head up to McKinney, TX ,where we lived for a year, to visit many friends there for a few days. Hopefully I willl get another chance to add any new pics while we are there. We are REALLY hoping to get together with a few more blogging friends while there to really put the perfect ending on our wonderful trip. So far the kids have been traveling wonderfully!! Although things could get a bit hairy on this next leg as one of the DVD players broke (which could be tragic). So here are a few pics from the wedding and our visit to Conroe, TX.

The girls in front of the gateway to my

beloved second home

Our family at the wedding


The handsome best man

Aren't we a cute couple??

Ella finding ways to occupy herself on the road

Our family in front of Lake Conroe

With our friends the Hansen Family

The Ella Tour Day 4 ---- and older pictures

Today we drove from Grand Junction to the Denver area. We saw some beautiful sights especially through the Rockies that I managed not to get any pictures of. We were very late leaving our hotel this morning and therefore didn't arrive in Denver until 5pm. We made a quick stop to see our friends from TX who happened to be visiting the Denver area 15 minutes from my cousin. Then we headed to my cousin's where they had a wonderful dinner waiting to be eaten followed by birthday cake for Joe as today is his birthday. It is beautiful here!!! Tomorrow will be the beginning of the long trek to Texas.

I was also finally able to download all of my pictures thus far so bear with the large amount of photos.

Our family in the middle of nowhere in Utah

Grandpa Vollmer and the girls

Our most treasured blankie EVER....a Jaxson Blankie


Abbey loving on Jax

Me loving on Jax

Abbey loving on Max

Ella escaping down the hotel hallway

Grandpa Vollmer's first time seeing Ella

Ella reading to pass the time during the drive

Abbey and her friend Karoline from TX

Emma and Ella and her friend Sam from TX

Me and my friend Barb from TX

Daddy celebrating his birthday

Our host family....the McLarens (minus 2 boys)