The Texas Ranger

A few months ago, Brian dubbed Mary Ellen's walker "The Texas Ranger." See? He's a funny guy.

Well, as of late, Mary Ellen and Ranger have become fast friends. Check her out!

Mary Ellen is One Year Old!!!

Can you believe it? I mean, can you actually believe that it's been an entire year since this little beauty entered the world?

We celebrated in style this weekend. Mom, Dad, Amy, Jenson and Matt all made the trip, and they definitely made the weekend one to remember. We tried not to go overboard, and I think we were successful in making the birthday simple yet very, very special. Here are a few highlights:

One Grandpa in particular had been requesting permission to give Mary Ellen ice cream since she was about 4 months old. We managed to fend him off until she hit the 12-month mark and finally let him give her a taste on her birthday. Her opinion on the matter is still pending, as she didn't hate it but didn't necessarily love it, either. Don't worry, Dad, the seal has been broken and I see many more ice cream treats in the future for both of you.

One of the sweetest things I've seen her do so far. When Mary Ellen opened her gift from Brian and me, she picked up the little doll and planted a kiss on her immediately. Precious.

Grandma and Grandpa got her the Little People farm! It's awesome!! Gotta learn about farming somewhere, right?

This is one of those photos that will live to haunt the cousins... Oh well, they christened the new bathtub together. Hooray for bathtime!

The babies got along so well. There were a few pokes and eye rakes here and there, but all in all, I think they'll be great pals very shortly.

To be continued...

Chatting it up

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right? Well, apparently this little piece of wisdom is holding true for Mary Ellen.

Legend has it that Brian was speaking in full phrases at 11 months. Apparently, his first words were, "Cow says Moo." The kid was a genius.

Well, I'll admit that Mary Ellen isn't quite that advanced, but she definitely has a little collection of words that are all her own. A few weeks ago, I heard her say, clear as a bell, "All done." She'd been working on that one for awhile, but on that particular day, she finally managed to squeeze the necessary consonants in there to make the words sound like actual words.

At this point, her vocabulary includes:
dada
k (cat)
ba (ball)
dere (there)
dow doh? (where did it go?)

Now how about we start working on Mama?

Happy 4th of July!

Okay, so it's the 6th of July but who's counting?

Mary Ellen celebrated her first Independence Day with a BBQ on the 3rd and a trip to Winter Park's festivities on the 4th. She didn't manage to stay up for fireworks either night, so we'll have to wait until next year to get a reading on how she feels about the noise.

Mary Ellen's first official washers game. She wasn't on the winning team, however. Don't worry, kid. Someday you'll give me a run for my money.

What BBQ would be complete without Cheerios?

It was way too hot to spend much time in the park on the 4th, but since there was a fountain we just had to check it out. Mary Ellen just loves the water and she could have stayed by the fountain all day.

Check out her little outfit - I made it! I really think it turned out cute, though it was a little big. This is the second outfit that I made for her; the other being a little dress for her birthday. Just a few more days until the debut of that little number!