Off To Dance Class

Here are some recent pictures of Ella on her way to dance class.

 She loves her ballet tote. We keep her tap and ballet shoes in it as well as an extra dance outfit just in case.

 This flower barrette that Auntie Joy made for Ella matches her dance outfit perfectly.

Talking to baby sister

 Emma loves to watch Ella dance.



Knocking Over Blocks

Emma loves to play this game with Daddy. He stacks up some blocks, she knocks them over, then Daddy says "Uh oh", and she laughs and laughs. We jokingly call her "EmmaZilla". :-)

More Steps

Emma's been taking several steps at a time all day today and I've been trying to grab the camera quickly enough. With Sead's help this evening we finally got a video of a few steps at a time.

Adding this one just because I think it's so cute when she's standing somewhere examining something.

Clapping

Emma just started clapping a couple of days ago and now she loves to clap all the time. :-)

Summer Pools

The inflatable pools we had last year had too many holes (from one of our cats) to keep for this year, so we got a couple of new ones. Ella spent almost the entire day in the pool with Daddy yesterday. Emma loves playing in her little pool or getting into the big one with Mama or Daddy.

 Ella in the large jungle pool

 Practicing her kicking

 Emma in her little mushroom pool



Watching Daddy splash in the big pool

Ella's learning a lot in her swim lessons this year. She'll even paddle short distances.

One Step On Video

I never have the camera close enough to catch multiple steps, but here's Emma taking a step.



First Steps

Emma took her first few steps on Tuesday evening. She took a few more last night. This morning I was buzzing back and forth between the living room and the bedrooms and I come down the hall back out to the living room and there's Emma walking straight toward me. It took me a second to realize that she was "walking" toward me. She took about nine or ten steps before returning to a crawl. She's getting this walking thing down fast. I'll try to catch some of her first steps on video as soon as possible and post them.

Escaping the Heat at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

I drove down to Monterey yesterday with the girls to escape the heat for a day. It was a beautiful day down there, not a cloud in the sky, but no more than 70 F.

 Eating lunch at our favorite bakery

 Ella loves their pizza!

 The Open Sea exhibit has been reopened. It's pretty dark in there, so the pictures don't show much, but here's Ella sitting in front of the huge tank.

 The dark made it difficult for my camera to focus, but this captures Emma's reaction to the huge fish in the tank. The girls especially loved the huge Sun Fish, Sea Turtles, and Tuna.

 Exploring one of the play areas

 Ella's really into drawing right now.

 Trying to catch fish and krill

 Tide pools

Emma loves shape sorting in the Splash Zone (Coral Babies)!



Sunday on the Beach

We braved the traffic for an afternoon at the beach in Carmel. It did take us awhile to get down there, but it was worth it. The weather was perfect!

 Emma wasn't too sure about the water at first, but warmed up to it later.

Dinosaurs at Gilroy Gardens!

Today was my first solo trip to Gilroy Gardens since Emma was born. It went well. We have to skip a few rides that Emma can't go on with us, but Ella doesn't seem to mind. The big thrill right now for Ella is their new dinosaur exhibit. It was our first and last stop of the day.

 You'd think this one might scare her, but it doesn't. She waves to him and says hi. :-)

 There was a little tour of the dinosaur area going on all day today and Ella decided to join in.

 She volunteered to show everyone what a scapula is (your shoulder blade bone). :-)

 Pointing out his small teeth

 Digging for fossils

 Emma on the hot air balloon ride

Ella on the hot air balloon ride, a little wet after playing in the spitting frog area