Crazy haired, naked baby

The dry weather is really doing a number on Ella's hair. It's fine from the time it gets washed until the first time she lays down. Then the back becomes a giant rat's nest. No amount of brushing or smoothing will fix it after that.

Ella's favorite game is diaper/clothes change escape. She gets this wicked grin on her face as soon as we lay her down on the bed and the first chance she gets, she takes off in whatever state of undress she happens to be in. It usually takes three or four times of catching her and pulling her back to us to get her changed/dressed. She thinks it's hilarious.

We went to the Mansfield Holiday Festival on Friday. It was not as little kid friendly as I had hoped, but I think Ella liked all the lights and music and she was very interested when Santa and Frosty walked by. She barked at the reindeer, as she does all four legged furry animals that aren't cats. She has a funny little meow for cats, it actually sounds very much like our cats. She loves looking at cats and dogs in her books. In fact, we have four bedtime books we usually read, and she knows exactly where the cats and dogs are in each books and some nights she's not interested in anything else but finding them. Last week at the grocery store, we spent ten minutes in the pet aisle pointing to the puppies and kitties and woofing or meowing appropriately.

Ella and Lucy. I was trying to get a picture of Ella kissing Lucy, which she did about ten times, but it was too quick to catch. She's really gotten the hang of giving kisses and makes a MWAW! sound too. She's fairly generous with her kisses, especially with other babies. She kissed one little boy at Toddler Time on Thursday and another one at the restaurant we were at Friday night. It's funny to me how shocked the other kid always seems to be. They usually just freeze while she's giving them hugs and kisses and I eventually have to say "ok, that's enough" and pull her away.

I'll be starting back to work a week from today. I wasn't actively looking, but keeping my eyes and ears open for the "perfect" position. It's hard to find a part-time Nurse Practitioner position, so when one came along, I was eager to follow up on it. It's not my usual thing, it's a medical weight loss center, but they're very flexible with the schedule, which is super important to me. I'll be working about 20 hours a week with about half of those hours being evenings and Saturday, so Jeff will be with Ella during those times. The rest of the time Ella will be with her Grandma and my friend Erin. I'm still not sure how the schedule is going to work out, I'm hoping to get all that nailed down tomorrow. I have extremely mixed feeling about going back to work. On the one hand, I'm ready to have a career and money(!) again. On the other hand, I get choked up every time I think about spending that much time away from Ella. I'm sure it'll all be fine, but it will definitely be an adjustment for all of us.