Ho Hum

Not much happening around here... We've been busily packing and trying to de-clutter to prepare the house to go on the market in 2 weeks. Our realtor sent over a professional "home stager" to give us some tips on how to make the house appealing to a wide range of potential buyers. For starters she said all drawers, closets, and cabinets need to be half-full! Let me just tell you, that is harder than it sounds! It has taken me 2 weeks to pack/store/sell/give away half of the things we had shoved in every nook and cranny.
Anyway, for the first time last night I finally felt like we had made a dent in the list she left us. I'll post some before and after pics when we're all finished.
Ellie has enjoyed playing with all the things she got for her birthday and today the temperature was 66 degrees!!!! (This after it being 17 on Thursday!) She hauled her tent, tea set, Baby Doll, and a couch pillow (not sure about that one?) out back and played all afternoon in the beautiful weather. She is learning new things all the time- it's really remarkable to see how all of a sudden she is just talking up a storm, able to memorize things, sing songs, etc. She's a joy. I heard her playing with Rosie in the living room the other day and telling Rosie: "Zowdie- You obey! First time, Zowdie! Listen to me the first time!" Rosie was no doubt trying to steal whatever tasty morsel Ellie was carrying around. It made me laugh because that phrase is something Ellie has definately heard a time or two from me!
Still no end in sight for getting over Christmas... today we were at Target and she scared me to death as we passed by the produce section. She screamed (I'm talking, loud... loud enough so that several other shoppers looked our way instantly), "CARROTS!!! Mommy, Mommy, Reindeers need carrots!!!" Anyway, we had to buy a pack of carrots which she promptly devoured on the way home while she chatted about "reindeer dust" (the glitter residue that Rudolf left on the carrot he ate at Christmas). She's a nut. She and Campbell have officially started taking a bath together, which of course gives her another opportunity to play with her real baby! I can't turn my head for a second or Campbell is getting her hair washed, or being force fed "tea"! I realized this when I was lost in thought while bathing them the other night, then all of a sudden I heard, "Close your eyes Baby Campbell... ", just in time to see Ellie holding a huge cup of water over Campbell's head, ready to douse the "shampoo" out of her hair. We're planning on moving Ellie into a toddler bed sometime next week... any tips from you seasoned moms?

Campbell is growing and changing right before our eyes! She is very easy-going and even seems to have to talk herself into crying. It's so funny because she'll be sitting whereever and she'll start this little protest squeal, but kind of gives up on it before it actually turns into a real complaint or cry. It's like she's thinking, "well, I'm probably going to have to wait to get whatever attention I want, so I might as well be happy in the mean time!"
She's trying to roll over, but the poor thing hardly ever gets laid down! She spends most of her time in the baby wrap, or in a bouncy seat (not too much time spent on the floor with Godzilla and her fur-faced side-kick running around constantly just waiting to trip and fall over onto poor Campbell!) She still doesn't win any awards for sleeping, though I'm starting to think that some of this is my fault (Daniel will concur!) She'll wake up after about 5 hours down (she goes down around 8:30) and I'll feed her and then fall asleep... the next thing I know it's 6:30 and she's still in bed or asleep in the chair with me! Lately I've wondered if she's waking up because she's really hungry or if she just wants the pleasure of my company. Hmmm. We'll have to work on that. In the mean time, I don't mind it all that much... what's a little sleep deprivation!? Besides, I hardly get any time to cuddle with her during the day, so I guess I'll just have to take it when I can get it-- even if it is at 3 am!

Here are some pics from life the last 2 weeks:

Campbell's first time in the "big girl bath"

Ellie helping out with packing up boxes:

Ellie insisting that we close the box with her in it:

Ellie freaking out after the box was closed on her: