Dr. Ella, reporting for duty

Ella’s playing so good in the playroom that I thought I’d blog, although I don’t really have anything great to say.

I was actually looking online to see if cramping during the second trimester is normal. And it is. More of your uterus stretching out to make room. I wonder if the baby is going to have a growth spurt. My belly does suddenly look larger today.

We’ve stayed home all day today, which is rare. My husband had no conference calls (which we need to be gone or quiet for) and he’s actually out of the house for a few hours. So, I decided I could use a day with stretch pants and no mascara on.

Ella’s doing well with potty training. Accidents here and there, but none today, and she’s actually gone three times in her potty today. Now the biggest mess is cleaning up the mile-stretch of toilet paper she thinks she needs or the gallon of soap she dispenses out to wash her hands. This is how I found her yesterday while washing her hands.

I thought maybe she was prepping for surgery or something.

Date night

Steve and I had a great datenight Saturday night. Grandma picked up Ella around 2 p.m. at our house, giving us almost the whole day to relax. Is she awesome or what?

We took our time, perusing Barnes and Nobles for like an hour, we went to a few other shops, we ate some delicious Japanese food, then saw the movie “The Ugly Truth,” which was OK. Not great.

Anyway, it was very nice to have a little break, and what’s great is that Ella no longer cries when we leave. Instead, she’s psyched to go to Grandma’s. So I don’t even really have any guilt about it all.

So I think I’ve realized how very important date night is. I’m relaxed. Steve’s relaxed. We had a break from all Ella all the time, despite the deliciousness that she is.

We need to do it MORE. Once a month would be awesome. I know one mom who has one with her husband every single Tuesday night. I think that’s great. The whole family is still together all weekend, so it doesn’t cut into that time. But that would be pretty costly. Once a month would be good for us.

Baby bump – 17 weeks

I finally thought of having a baby bump photo taken and wasn’t wearing sweat pants and glasses and sporting air-dried afro hair. So, here you are, at approximately 17.5 weeks along.

Where does she get this stuff?

The other morning Ella woke me up with a serious question. “Mommy, mommy, are you married?” she asked. “Yes!” I said. Then she went over to Steve and said “Daddy, are you married?” He also said “Yes” Then added “to her” and pointed in my direction.

Then she quickly found a photo of us on our wedding day in our bedroom and asked if that was from us being married. “Yes, it’s our wedding day.” And then she said “Aw, really pretty.”

Nice. Glad she approves!