She's Solid

Ella's had a big, exciting weekend. She had to put up with her unemployed dad, storms, Chanhassen and rice cereal.

Loran's last day at ShopNBC was Friday. Ella attended his happy hour at Champp's on Thursday night and was quite well behaved. When she wasn't, it was drown out by general bar/restaurant merriment. She coveted one of the Champp's napkins - a black cloth napkin which was the greatest thing she's ever encountered. I thought we were going to have to steal it and retire Chewy. Luckily, Chewy Bear still has a place in her heart.

Saturday we attempted to throw Loran a party to celebrate his new job. The day was gorgeous. We got a lot done around the house to get ready for the party. Went to church in the afternoon where Ella is always a hit at Kid-o-Deo and then home to do the final party prep. There were some ominous clouds to the west, but we were optimistic they would pass. Ha! It sprinkled as a few guests were arriving, but then the sun came out! We hauled everything outside, started the grill, set up tables and chairs and got the party started...then it quickly clouded up and suddenly there were tornado sirens going off. We had a lot of help packing up and moving everything into the house. Guests were taking shelter in the basement (which is not in any form to entertain people - unless it's a Goth themed party where icky old house basement fits the theme.) Loran stayed out to grill in the storm. Ella was strapped into her car seat in the basement, ready to roll. The storm eventually passed but the party remained inside. We did get a fire started in the new fire pit, and then it started raining - again. Ella was a little party girl and stayed up until 9 to mingle with guests.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We packed up a picnic lunch, slathered on the sunblock and headed out to the Arboretum in Chanhassen. It was a great walk and Ella seemed to enjoy seeing the bright flowers and numerous people. Eventually, she fell asleep but really stuck it out for quite a while before finally sleeping.

When we got home, it was the big moment - Rice Cereal! Since the new thinking is to wait until 6 months to start solids, we figured June 1 would be a good day to start. Easy to remember and close to 6 months. We weren't sure how she'd take it. Truthfully, we've been giving her the spatula with baby food remnants on it for a few weeks without any response from her. I was nearly convinced her taste buds didn't work.

We sat down with the cereal and initially she had a funny little face, but she really took to eating from the spoon quickly. She started lunging for the spoon when I would put it in front of her mouth. She loved it! She ate a lot more than we were expecting and did a great job. It was very cute and now I'm excited for tonight's feeding.

Loran's off to his first day at 3M. Ella's napping after a morning walk. I'm going to try to put some screens in the windows downstairs so we can get some fresh air in the house...finally. This post has taken 4 hours of non-continual work to publish. Thanks to google/blogger being partially down and the massive amount of pictures and video content! Enjoy!

And a little video of Ella eating her cereal!