Ellie Walks

Since Thursday evening when Ellie decided to walk she really hasn't used the skill as much as I thought she would, at least when we are home. But things changed on Sunday.
 Sunday morning Jon had to be at church a little early since he was leading cooperate prayer. We dropped Ellie off at her classroom and when I was giving my instructions to the nursery coordinator Ellie was trying to get out of her arms to go play with the toys. I hope she always reacts this way to nursery. We went to first service then Sunday School. Following church we picked up Ellie and the workers said she was very good and walked around all morning.
Donna hosted a lunch for Jess's birthday (and we threw in Doug's while we were at it) and our little family was graciously included. Jon and Doug grilled steaks and Donna provided the sides. It was delicious. Ellie was barely holding on and we finally had to leave as soon as we scarfed down the pudding cake for dessert.

Ellie playing with the chair's controls

We arrived home close to 3:00 and Ellie took an hour nap. After she woke up I hung out with her until Jon got up then we went to evening prayer. After prayer was over I picked Ellie up from the nursery and returned to the sanctuary. She saw the opportunity to show off to a crowd and was walking all around the chairs. At one point of time she started walking towards Dan Darling and then starting crying (I was several feet away). I wondered what happened and as I went to comfort her someone told me "Dan said 'BOO!'". HA. Oh so sensitive. She soon recovered and was walking all around like she owned the place.
We tried inviting a couple people over after church but struck out. Omar finished up his schoolwork earlier than he thought so he came over after dinner and he and Jon battled it out with a few games of FIFA.
Monday morning Hunter came to play. Ellie woke up before 8:00 and was gnawing at the bit to do something new by the time Hunter arrived at 9:00. She settled down and played nicely near him and we went outside to play once it warmed up a bit more around 10:30. I put her down for a nap early at 11:30 then Hunter and I ate a snack before heading back outside to play. His mom picked him up at noon.
Ellie slept for two hours then we worked on a grocery list and hit up BBs for some good deals (orange juice = $1.99 for a gallon of Tropicana, expiration date 12/13) before heading towards Elverson for my piano lessons. Grandpa and Grandma watched her during the first lesson then I took her to Mimi's for the second two since Jon would be late. He picked her up at 6:30 and we met at the Verizon store.
I have been eligible for a free upgrade for a couple months now but I wanted to wait for the new iPhone to come out before getting my upgrade. It came out about a month ago but we were just finally doing the upgrade. Plus, Jon wanted to give my iPhone 4 to Doug since Doug hates his current phone (a Samsung something). We made the transfer to my phone and Ellie was spent by the time we pulled out of there around 7:30. Jon remained behind since Doug was meeting up with him to transfer over to my old iPhone. I went home and ate, packed, and cleaned up the house.

Sometimes we play duets

I say packed because on Monday morning Dad had asked if Ellie and I (and Jon but he couldn't because of work) wanted to go up to Skyview for a few days. Jon spent almost two hours at the Verizon store trying to figure out Doug's phone situation and had to meet up with me at Mom's house since I arrived there at 9:15 to pack up the car in order to leave by 9:30. Jon walked into Mom's house and asked what was going on. Apparently I wasn't clear on when I was leaving for Skyview and he was confused as to why he was meeting me at Mom's. Oops. We're saying goodbye until Thursday night. We straightened him out, packed the van, and pulled out of Elverson shortly at 9:45.

We had a great time at Skyview and I'll have to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Ellieisms:
Ellie picks up my phone and puts it to her ear (backwards) and talks into it.