Sister dragons

Ella and her good friend, Casey Nutting, had the same costume, so we have some shots of the two little sister dragons, too! And there's a pic of Ella the dragon and her friend Forrey the bat in his sweet little wagon.

HALLOWEEN!

Well, it's been about two or three months since our last update... Ella has obviously been keeping us busy! We will upload more photos soon, but I just wanted to show you all tonight's little red dragon.
More updates soon!
HM

Then and now...

When we first got to Washington back in the end of July, we took this video of Ella walking between us. She has gotten a lot more adept at the skill over these four weeks, so we'll put another video up soon, but this will show you how silly she thought the whole thing was - and soon we will realize just how silly we have been as parents to encourage her independent mobility!

Random

Here are a few more random pictures from the Ella Collection... Some very Berkeley pants, a little kissy face in the kayak, some impressive curls, and the spoon with which she insisted eating. Good fun.

Where are your legs, EB?

While the cousins were in town, we went up to a lake on the northern end of Whidbey Island and Ella had a grand old time playing in the sand. In fact, you could barely see her legs by the end of the day, they were so camouflaged.

Rocks and sand

Whether it's been in Upper Jay, NY or Whidbey Island, WA or Alpine Lake, CA, Ella has spent a great deal of time this summer playing in rocks, sand, mud and water. Those are her favorite toys. Here are a couple favorites of Ella playing with her grandparents out at the Whidbey cabin.

Canada is great for walking...

So about two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go visit our cousins and second cousins up in B.C. and had a wonderful overnight with them. While we were there, Ella was really trying out her walking skills. She seemed ready to go, go, go, but since then, she's been a bit reticent. Here is a quick video that captured a few of those steps.

One more image

Eating has been a bit more of a struggle lately. With her two top front teeth coming in, Ella has been more particular about what goes in her mouth (at meal-time, that is) and has been adamant about feeding herself, which is, of course, rather messy, but quite endearing at the same time. Here is a sweet-potato shot from tonight's dinner. XO to all, H

With Grandma and Poppa

Ella has had some wonderful quality time with her West coast grandparents this month, to everyone's great delight. She is a charmer and has loved giving kisses to everyone. It seems that each kiss has a preset destination, because she will walk around the room with great purpose and only plant her lips on the chosen one...
Here she is walking with Grandma, looking in the window with her Poppa, making her sweet kissy face and then showing all that she's found her nose.

Ready for the trails...

A good family friend, Patrick Dickson, recently returned these Alldredge-family hiking boots after a long-time loan and Ella just had to try them on... In the great tradition of All-trudge hikes, they came with lemon drops, which she's ready to share with anyone who wants to help her heft these amazingly heavy kids' boots up a mountain!

With the doggy

Here's one more shot for today - of Ella with her dog, probably her favorite possession. This dog gets loved, squeezed, dragged and run over by the stroller on a daily basis. What a great gift it was from the Shapiro family! Will write more soon - and publish some of the most recent and best photos yet! xoxox H

Four cousins

We had two great weeks of cousin time with Matthew (13) and Robert (9), from Alaska, and Hero (4), who lives here in Ballard (part of Seattle). Ella loved watching her cousins, listening to stories, napping, playing nose-squashing games of peekaboo, going for walks, etc. It was a lot of fun.

Finally! Out West...

Now that I have caught up a bit on posts that are long overdue, it's time to focus on our travels out in Washington and California. We shared our time between Seattle and Whidbey Island and are now packing up for the drive down to California, with a quick stop in Oregon to see some friends. Here are photos of Ella exploding a wallet, her favorite pastime, and discovering the wonder of a sprinkler.

Belated Posts Part III: The Morrises moved to Mead!

After the Ironman was over, we turned all of our energies back to the packing and moving process and, with the help of a fantastic moving crew, were able to get mostly settled into our new house, Mead, before taking off for our adventures out West. We absolutely love the new space - especially the backyard, which is really large and includes a swingset/slide play structure. It is hard to tell who is more excited about it, Ella or Bianca. We all feel pretty lucky. Here are a couple pictures from our new home... The last is of Ella playing with her bee, a gift that I was given years ago by Nicole and Khadija, former Choate students, that Ella absolutely loves to snuggle with...

Belated Posts Part II: IRON-ELLA!

Ella experienced her second Ironman triathlon on Sunday, July 20th and it was quite a day! We were in Lake Placid from 6:30 am until about 6:00 pm and in that time it rained for about 10 hours with only 15 minutes or so of a reprieve! We kept Ella dry in her little cocoon-like stroller, and though she wasn't wild about the confinement, she was a real trooper. She certainly earned the title of "IRON-FAN" and is already in training to head back next year to watch her uncle David compete in his third... this time, with her dad by her side to hold her hand and help her cheer!

Belated Posts Part I: Playing with Grampa & Bianca

This is a long overdue update... In these photos, Ella is playing in the sand up in the Adirondacks with her Grampa Bill and her trusty pal, Bianca-dog. He built up columns of sand, one for each, and E and B took great pleasure in knocking them down. It was a very sweet sight.
Then she's playing at the new community playground in Jay, NY with her Grammie Sue on a very warm Adirondack day!

Working on walking, playing at the river

Ella has spent a lot of time walking and running around the house - with our aid, of course - and is becoming a bit more confident letting go here and there and standing or taking a few steps on her own.

We have also been taking her to the river and letting her play in the water and the sand, which she loves. "Nature girl", as we call her, has no trouble leading us right into the deep water and covering herself with dirt and rocks. She loves going outside at home, too, and playing in the grass and sand around the house. In fact, she is constantly leading us to the front door so that we can take her outside to play.

As I write this, we are spending our first days and nights away from Ella down here in North Carolina for our good friends' wedding. It is bizarre being away from her, but we know that she is so happy with her grandparents and so comfortable up in the Adirondacks house that we are able to enjoy ourselves. Every report has been great so far.

Here are some pictures of Ella walking, wading and wrestling with dad.

Much love to all,
H