16 Months and an Unplanned Trip

Ella playing with the puppy dogs at her Great Aunt Cindy's house in Albuquerque.



Ella and her Great Grandma Keiss.

Ella and her cousin Sandler holding hands at dinner (no one prompted them to do that).

Jeff's Grandma had been in and out of the hospital the last month or so and wasn't doing so great. The end of the week before last, she decided she wanted to stop the unessential medical treatments and go home on hospice. Jeff and I talked about it all weekend trying to decide if we should go try to see her. No one really knew what to expect, so we weren't sure if the time was right. His parents got there on Monday and that afternoon his mom gave us the go ahead to come. So, we started scrambling to figure out all the logistics of getting there as quickly as possible. We finally decided (at 9pm that night...) that Ella and I would try to fly standby to ABQ first thing the next morning and Jeff would get up, pack, and hit the road as soon as his brother arrived from Houston. Minus a few little set backs, that's pretty much how it went. Ella and I got on the first flight out and Jeff and Thomas made pretty good time getting there with all of our stuff.

I think any trip with a small child is difficult and a last minute one is doubly so, and this was not an exception. Overall though, Ella did really well and of course it was well worth it for us, especially Jeff, to get to be with his Grandma for her last few days. I know Ella won't remember it, but I'm so glad she got a chance to know her Great Grandma

Sauteing Legos, Play Dough, and Food Trucks

Jeff was trying to cook and Ella wanted him to play, so he gave her the little skillet to play with. She brought it to me and I was showing her how to flip her legos in it. She was amused by that, although she'd rather watch me do it than try to do it herself. I have to say, flipping legos is harder than it sounds.

The weather was kind of yucky last weekend, so we were trying to find indoor activities to do. We ended up making homemade play dough. It was so easy and turned out way, way better than the store bought stuff. I would say it took less than 10 minutes to make. Ella didn't really get it, she wanted to tear it into little bitty pieces and eat it. I thought one of the advantages of homemade play dough was that it would be safe to eat, but Jeff kept insisting there was enough salt in it to kill a horse and old oil with free radicals. Somehow I think the two or three tiny pieces she actually swallowed will probably be ok.

The play dough pushed Jeff's mess-anxiety buttons, so we'll only be playing with it while he's at work from now on.

Sunday afternoon the sun was out so we packed up the baby and the dog and headed out the the food truck park in Fort Worth. It was really fun, but not as kid-friendly as we had hoped. There were four trucks out there and we tried something from each truck. Everything we had was good, but the gouda nachos were my favorite for the day. The trucks are different every day, so I can't wait to try them again.

Ella was a little crazy toward the end so we decided kind of abruptly that it was time to go home. We were trying to reign her in, clean up our mess, get our stuff together, etc. So we make it to the car and get about two or three blocks away and Jeff says "where's the dog?". We look all around the car and realize we left her tied to the table in the food park. AHHHH!!! We busted a u-turn at the red light and went flying back. As we're driving back Jeff says "you have to go back and get her" and I think well, of course, you're driving. I didn't realize until I got out that it would be a walk of shame to go get her. I felt like the worse pet owner ever! Everyone was laughing and giving me a hard time about it. LaRoo didn't seem to even notice, she was too busy playing with another dog. Opps.