In My Girl's World

Hi all! It's been a while since we've done any sort of life update here, and I felt it was long overdue. If you follow along on Instagram, you saw that I was not feeling very well right around Christmas. We tested negative for Covid, but I had pretty severe fatigue and cold symptoms. I also lost my smell and taste, so I quarantined anyway. It turns out, we did in fact have Covid because Michael's Mom unfortunately caught it, and tested positive shortly after we had all recovered. I found out via an antibody test that I did have Covid recently, so be careful trusting those rapid swabs 100%. I am so thankful that nobody in our household had severe symptoms, but I feel awful that Michael's Mom is still feeling the fatigue. We haven't seen her in weeks, nor have I been able to go back to work. I've been getting lots of quality time with Ella at home, which is great... but let me tell you- stay at home life is not for me, haha! 

So that's what's been going on around here. We haven't had a chance to enjoy our home and just live 'normally'. We bought the house, bought the dental practice, moved, had Christmas, got sick and now here we are. Hopefully life will get back to 'normal' soon. Here are a bunch of random pictures of what we've been up to lately.

When we have nice weather, Ella loves playing in our yard- watering the plants, picking up leaves with Michael, stalking the lizards that hang out on our fence, or helping us fill the new bird feeder.

This particular day was over 80 degrees, so jackets and shoes were not required and it was bliss.

Here's our lizard friend. He's always there and Ella absolutely loves him. But yet gags if she gets too close... hahaha! 

Someone down the street was selling this water table and I knew we had to have one. I had wanted to buy a new one anyway, but this was much cheaper and in great shape. Ella has been enjoying it so far, but still prefers playing with water at the sink.

She loves digging around in the garden box. We will eventually take some plants out and try to plant some herbs and veggies. We want to do a bit of research first!

We bought a bird feeder and Ella enjoys filling it. She also likes carrying the bird feeder around the back yard... Haha! 

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Ella has been loving helping us all over the house. She actually demands that she helps us, whether we want the help or not! :)

Cooking and meal prep is probably her favorite practical life activity. Here she is getting her breakfast made. She helps slice the apples and pour the milk for her cereal. 

She likes helping me prep for meals too. I was making chicken salad, so I let her help me trim the leaves off the celery stalk.

She also does a great job peeling the onions for me. She loves this, but doesn't like when her eyes start to water.

Here she is mashing the chicken salad together. She was so proud of herself and the final product.

Ella did an entire load of laundry independently the other day. She carried her own basket to the laundry room, put everything inside, threw the laundry pod in (which I did have to get for her) and pressed the buttons I directed her to. It was so funny watching her do it herself. She also transferred the wet laundry to the dryer but needed a bit of help with this because things got tangled and were "SO HEAVY!" As she stated.

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We miss living within walking distance to the beach, but we're still very close so once in a while I drive us there just to walk around.

Ella loved being back by the beach. I think this was our first trip after moving.

We shared a breakfast burrito from our favorite spot on Main Street!

Ella enjoyed looking for whales and dolphins by the shore.

We always stop to say hi to the seal on the pier.

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We still go to the park once in a while, always wearing masks and leaving if there are too many people, especially those that aren't masking themselves.

She insists we push her as fast and high as possible. I can't wait to take her on rollercoasters one day!

She stopped sliding by herself for a short time, and was acting like she was afraid of it?? So bizarre, especially considering how she likes to swing... But now she's back to sliding all by herself!

And we love these rockers at the park, but we always sanitize after because... gross.

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When Ella will let me, I do her hair and we take pictures to document it.

So cute, right? 

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I'm still growing a baby and she's getting big!

Side note: Ella's working on her smiling face. I just love it.

She also insists on jumping on my back and going for rides around the house. She's lucky this pregnancy is a bit easier than hers and that I have energy for this!

Twinning! 

Grow baby girl, grow!

Snuggling my bump. Ella felt Mia move for the first time the other day and it shocked her! 

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We've been mostly just staying home (like all of you) and playing with our toys like crazy!

This Dollar Tree puzzle is one of her favorites. Money well spent!

She just LOVES all of her little figurines. I bought this storage box at Michaels to keep everything organized.

Building towers and smashing them with her hammer is her favorite! It's even more fun if she has a friend inside the tower that she has to rescue. 

And we've been doing lots of arts & crafts...

Painting and drawing on our easel! 

Stickers and scissor practice.

Finger painting!

Water colors, glitter paint and stamp markers! 

Play dough is always fun.

As you can see, lots of attempts at staying busy while staying home (mostly.) I so miss the adventures we used to share on here, but we will be patient and just to get enjoy the adventures when Mia arrives too. Thanks for checking out our blog today. We love sharing our family with the few of you that read here regularly, and we appreciate you. We'll see you all back on Friday for some favorites. (I really plan to post- I promise!)