Ella {23 Weeks}

It seems like Spring is trying to start! We had a few nice days this week, so Ella and I took advantage of it. I think we're finally done hibernating for the winter, so we had a few outings this week. 

There are a lot of parks in this city, and I'm bound to explore many of them this summer. We got started by enjoying an afternoon at one park with some friends. We took a half-hour walk around the trails, then went to the playground and let the older kids play. Ella had a snack and played with a toy on the side while she tried not to get run over. It was a fantastic park and we made some fun friends... I think it will be a great summer!

I have been searching for things to do with Ella around town, and I found a Baby and Me Storytime at the library. We dropped in Wednesday morning, and apparently we were supposed to register [although it didn't say anything about that] so they let us stay, but we won't be able to go back for the remainder of the four-week series. Bummer. But we had a great time while we were there. We sang songs, read stories, and met some other kids about her age. Once it was over, I had about 30 minutes left on the parking meter, so we had to take advantage! We headed across the street to Panera, where I had a yummy latte and did some reading; Ella had a bottle and a great nap. 

One very nice day we actually took two walks. We just couldn't get enough fresh air! While we were taking the first walk, Ella was sitting in her carseat [it just pops right into her stroller while she's too small for the stroller itself] and she got kinda fussy and wanted out. So for the second walk I strapped her right into the stroller like a big girl, and she did great! She loved looking around; I hardly heard a peep from her the whole walk. She's getting so big!

This weekend was Penn State's last set of home hockey games for the season. Next week is the conference tournament, followed by NCAA playoffs. I haven't taken Ella to the last few games because she gets pretty upset when it gets loud. But we couldn't miss the very last game of the season! So we went. One of Mike's interns got Ella some ear plugs, which definitely helped. She still got a little scared when it got really loud, but she did much better than without them. And the kicker - Penn State won the game!

This one is a little late, but better late than never, right? A couple weeks ago when Mike was out of town for hockey, Ella and I enjoyed a girls' night out with a couple friends. We went to dinner and then to a fun concert, The Sing-off. This was an acapella singing competition show on NBC recently, and some of the groups are now on tour. It was a lot of fun, and Ella did great! She danced for the first part of the concert, then slept through the rest. 

I hope you enjoyed this warm weather just as much as we did. 

Here's to hoping for more soon!