Getting Ready

Ella in her new dress for picture day at school.

We've made some great leaps forward in the realm of baby preparedness this last week.  Gabriella and I put together the crib in the spare bedroom.  She was super helpful, putting in all the bolts and even tightening them most of the way, and then helping clean it up.  It's a super nice crib that was given to us for free from a mom at Shelley's work.  We also got a king size bed for the two of us, and a glider for the baby.    

Yesterday, there was a baby shower at Shooting Stars for the 3 of them there that are pregnant, and the one who just gave birth.  We got a major haul of stuff, some of it stuff that people weren't going to use anymore and some that is brand new.  One cool thing is a nice big swing, like one we had in Chicago that my cousin Karin lent us.  It was super useful, and we're very glad to have it.  

   

Today was way fun because I fixed up a bike in the garage and went for a ride on it with Ella.  She was on her bigwheel.  We went for about 40 minutes, which in normal people time would only have taken about 20 minutes.  However, my daughter is a genius at not paying attention to important things.  Dogs walking by, kids 50 yards away; she can focus on them like a laser.  A big yellow pole right in front of her... crash!  And that not all, she also  steered right into a wall.  And when ever I got behind her, she would always turn around to look at me, which caused her to swerve around a lot.  But she rode the whole way, and was really good about it.  Afterward we went to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for a big siblings tour of the maternity wing.  There was an incredibly goofy video about being a big sibling and then they got to practice changing a baby doll, and then we went to the nursery and saw a real live little baby, which all the little kids loved, and then we saw a birthing room.  Ella and Cody were both really excited the whole time.

November

So I'm a little depressed right now. I bought a new ringtone for my phone on Tuesday, the very first one I've ever bought. It's All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. I was totally psyched about it, but so far I've only gotten one call (thanks Mom!), and that was when my phone was on vibrate. But it's Christmas song time again, and I'm excited about that. That also means that it's very very close to baby time, which is way crazy. We are still undecided as to the name, for those who may be wondering. Maybe we'll put it to a vote if we can't decide, or just let Ella handle it if we can't figure it out.
We've kinda started to get ready, we're slowly buying the things we need, although Shelley is convinced he's coming sooner rather than later, so we had better hurry up. We've also got to ry and get in Christmas shopping with the baby shopping, and haven't been doing to great at either. Luckily we've been gifted many things from people at Shelley's work, so we don't have a ton to buy.
Ella had her very first cavity, and filling last week, which wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The dentist only drilled for 5 seconds, and she didn't need a shot. The funny thing is she was more freaked out by the filling stuff than the actual drill. But we got through it, and as a reward we took her to see High School Musical 3, which she loved. It was actually pretty good, nothing tremendous, but as no one else is making musicals, it'll have to do.
Oh, there are pictures from Halloween time on our picasa website.