Hey November 18.

The last week has been riddled with good stuff here and there but mostly, we are just plugging away in our school, work, music and art schedules.

Ella is doing a great job of napping at my mom's on her school days and fighting it to her death when she's with me/us on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. Occasionally, I'll even allow co-sleeping at naps. Like this:

Mavis and Thomas catch on and it becomes one big carnival in my room. Then this face stares at me, "Are you tired? Are your eyes getting heavy?"

60 minutes of quiet time is dashed. We waste 90 minutes trying to get quiet with "Shhh!, Quiet down, Stop teasing the kittens, Thomas get off my head", etc. You combine the lack of nap with the pitch black skies at 5:30pm and we are doing our best to keep her up until 7:45 on those nights.

Saturday was a great day of art in the city. We did our best to eat breakfast before hitting art class at the museum. Thomas did his best to eat it as well.

Class was all about watercolors and landscapes. Ella was in a zone and made her grass a delightful purple/pink.

We took in the indie craft scene and holiday art loop downtown later on. Because Ella woke up at 5:30am determined to wreak havoc on the household, this happened...

She perked up at our arrival at the first stop: the Amtrak Train Station and spent most of her time looking out the windows for a her favorite things.

We all spent more time socializing than we did shopping at this venue as it turned out to be quite the well-attended event by our friends. Ella declared it a fun adventure, indeed. And her pants were incredible (see above).

The very last remnant of Ella's toddler life came down yesterday. The 'baby gate' at the top of our stairs isn't necessary. Ella has never been a monkey on the stairs but we were worried that once she transitioned to a big girl bed, she might wander. And by wander, I mean go out her bedroom door, walk one foot to the right and fall down the steps. Ella was the big helper with the power tools. We've been running into that thing for almost four years now. I was strangely sad about it all.

Have a great week, Ella-Land!! ~H