Staying Home & Going Out Wedding Dress Shopping

Wednesday morning we generally attend Precepts but Ellie had woken up a lot throughout the night and was still looking pretty bad at breakfast. After thirty minutes of being awake her eyes were puffy and her nose was running so I decided to remain home. We cuddled and she slept in attempt to help her feel better. Basically we hung around all day and I spent some time researching for the retreat and our shopping day to be done today (Thursday).
In the afternoon I taught piano lessons and Ellie behaved fairly well. Since she spent most of the morning sleeping she was wide awake during the lesson times. Jon came home at 5:30 and we had spaghetti for dinner before Dr. Kane came for his piano lesson. Afterwards I put Ellie to sleep and went to Bible Study while Jon stayed home.
While I was enjoying my time with the ladies at Brittany's, Jon was home trying to calm Ellie down. Apparently she did not sleep very long and woke up very sad. Giving her some medicine Jon tried to help Ellie fall asleep by reading a story to her, swaddling her, and finally leaving her in the crib to cry since nothing else seemed to work. Finally Jon brought her down to the basement where he was working and swaddled her, laying her down so she could see him working on the computer. He said that Ellie just stared at him for close to thirty minutes before falling asleep.
I came home at 9:30 and we brought her to her crib before heading to bed at 10:30. I was very out of sorts when she woke up wailing at 11:30. She was very upset and mad for the next hour: she was inconsolable. Finally she stopped crying and calmed down. She nursed and hung out in my lap before I put her back in the crib and she fell right to sleep. Maybe Ellie just wanted to cuddle some more. When she was wailing I couldn't believe how big Ellie was getting. Then I remembered The Baby Whisperer's comments on how she would always be called when the baby reached sixteen pounds because that's when they were getting to heavy to hold all the time. So true.
Thursday morning we decided to go wedding dress shopping for Corinne. After doing my research online I picked two shops in Delaware because they carried specific dresses Corinne is interested in. Ellie fell asleep just as we were pulling into the first store's parking lot at 10:00 so Kelly and Clark hung out in the car so she could get a cat-nap.
When I made the appointments I did so under the name Corinne Stoltzfus. After spending fifteen minutes in the shop Mom came out and told her our story (I'm the same size, Corinne is in Uganda, we need to order a dress soon because of the wedding) and said the wedding was set for January and possibly will be pushed up to October. For whatever reason wedding dress shops freak out when you give them a date sooner than 6 months away so we played it safe and gave them late dates.
Generally they say you only have one opportunity to pick out your wedding dress. I was able to experience the fun parts of trying on the dresses and giving my opinion without the pressure of actually having to choose the dress. Lucky me! The first shop had a lot of Allure dresses so I tried on eight or nine and we took pictures and sent them to Corinne. Kelly, Clark, and Ellie joined us and gave some input. After we jotted down some information we headed to the next shop.
The worker could not believe we were on time (?) and then proceeded to make us wait for about fifteen minutes before pulling some dresses. We explained the story and we tried on four or five, taking pictures. She was Greek and very loud and emotional. We did not spend as much time at the store but the prices were great and the dresses pretty! We'll see what Corinne picks and if we need to go try more on.
On our way home we stopped by Applebees for lunch. We went to Mom's house and I complied the document with our findings that Corinne approved and Ellie and I came home. The entire time we were out Ellie slept probably thirty minutes and twenty minutes, both naps in the car. She was very ready for a nap when we came home so I put her down and put dinner in the oven. Jon worked a bit late and came home at 6:00. We ate dinner and then Ellie woke up.
Jon did the dishes while I pulled out a piece of furniture (end table) and a few baby extras I had sitting around to give to Uncle Keith. He has a new very young, expecting couple living in one of his apartments who could use some furniture and baby stuff. I gave them my extra boppy and a bouncer that Nelah had sitting around. When it was time for bed Jon read a Bible story to Ellie.

Before bed Jon and I watched the latest Amazing Race episode (does anybody else watch this?) and now he's in bed. It's 9:15 and I'm thinking I want to sleep, too. I'll most likely be back up in an hour or so with Ellie if her nightly pattern continues.
Update: after Kelly's text informing me of The Children's Place sale, I have now spent an hour shopping. Fortunately I cut half of the stuff I wanted to purchase out of my shopping cart.

Ellieisms:
Ellie has recently started sticking her tongue out again. Like stinking it really far out.
Clark and Ellie were the easiest kids to take shopping.

Picture to show you how big she's getting

Tongue tricks