Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Year in the Life

Ellie's first year of life will draw to a close on June 24th. I've been reflecting a lot about it this last week. Although I'm excited to see what the next year has in store, it makes me a little sad to say goodbye to a year filled with firsts. I realize that I'm probably being a bit dramatic, but this is my BABY.

Looking Back...

June. Taking your first bath at John Muir Hospital. We would spend hours staring at you in amazement. I thought you were the most breathtaking sight I ever saw.

July. Your hair is so dark and spiky. I almost wouldn't recognize you.

August. Here you are celebrating Dad's 30th Birthday in Aptos. It was your first trip to the beach.September. What a little Peanut! You started to enjoy your Bumbo seat. Your sweet personality really started to emerge.

October. We dressed you up as a Dalmation for Halloween, but most people thought you were a Cow. I think you wore that hat a total of 10 minutes.

November. The spiky hair I loved so much began to relax. You went through a big growth spurt and started to get "rubber band" wrists.

December. Here you are for a night out in the city! You are always the life of our party.

January. Your hair started to get blonder. Do I talk about your hair a lot? Here you are eating Saltine crackers. They were your favorite at the time.

February. You were my funny Valentine.

March. We took our first vacation as a family to Hawaii. You weren't really interested in relaxing on the beach, but enjoyed looking at the fish in the hotel lobby.

April. I dyed you two dozen Easter Eggs and you could have cared less, but you sure were happy!
May. You started to look more like a "big girl" and less like a baby.

June. We've come almost full circle now. This is where you enjoy spending the majority of your day (outside).

Wherever did the time go???

Monday, June 1, 2009

Say Cheese!

We had some new pictures of Ellie taken that I can't resist showing off. Knute's Senior Partner's daughter (follow that?), Courtney Steffens, came over a couple weeks ago for the event. I say event because it involved two hours of constant singing, dancing, and anything else that could get Ellie to smile. Courtney graduated from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, and although babies aren't her typical subject to photograph, I think she has incredible talent. She even got Rudy to cooperate for a short while (and that is an extremely hard thing to do).