Severino Family Blog

Happy half birthday!

2009-08-04T12:20:00.002-05:00

So, now that we're posting, here are some more recent updates.

Thomas is 6 months old, crawling around and eating solid food quite happily. He's a lot more relaxed than Ellie, not that she was a difficult baby either. He loves chewing on things, and gravitates toward shoes and cell phones if not redirected. He just started pushing himself up to sitting today - before he would get stranded lying down, and could only get up as far as his "Cleopatra" pose. Loves to watch Ellie dance and giggles wildly.

Ellie is enjoying the summer, especially swimming, running around, and playing "road trip to Alaska." She starts soccer camp next week, which should be exciting. She is "hooked on phonics," and can read the first three books in that series, through all the at-ap-ad-an-ag words. Here are some fun pictures from a trip to Disneyworld and visiting Grandpa Campbell this April:

Welcome Thomas

2009-02-26T20:22:00.003-05:00

Thomas Paul Severino made his entrance - or rather, exit - at 9:48 pm on Monday, January 26, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz., and was 19 inches long....

And, as a testament to my potential for distraction, I wrote this months ago and only now am finally posting it!

Happy Birthday Ellie!

2008-12-17T18:01:00.003-05:00

Ellie is now three - I can't believe how fast the time has flown! We went to Pennsylvania for her birthday, and visited Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster and Hershey Park in Hershey. She loved the bumper cars, the carousel, the big bumpy slides, and the excellent play area in the hotel. We had a birthday party at playgroup this week, including a pinata that Ellie helped make herself. Watching toddlers and preschoolers try to break a pinata is great. Even when we put it on the floor and let them hammer it, most blows ended up more like golf swings and bounced off it without a dent. A four-year-old finally got the technique and power right to break it open, and Ellie grabbed as many lollipops as she could get - her current favorite candy.

Current favorites:
Ellie loves role-playing. She's always suggesting that we "change our names," and the current favorite characters are Bob and Larry (from VeggieTales), Cinderella, St. Nicholas, Sts. Benedict and Scholastica, and being a doctor. She loves dressing up and reading books with "my own words." I need to get on top of teaching her other words! Her other big entertainment at home is playing with clay, but I need to get her to do more of it herself rather than simply directing me to make various things.

Skill development:
Kudos to her Sunday School teacher who taught her her first word she can really read: God. She can find it on a page full of other words now. We're also learning lots of good life skills, including making her bed, putting on and buttoning her coat, and going to the bathroom almost by herself. She likes getting our toothbrushes out and putting both her own and my toothpaste on. And the other night she cubed a whole block of tofu (a good starting point, since it can be done with a plastic knife). She also rolled some pretty serviceable rounds of pita bread dough out to be baked. My favorite is her flour measurement - for the non-bakers, you're supposed to level flour and sugar to make sure the quantities are correct. She always asks "is it time to do the 'whoop' yet?" and then runs a knife or the scoop across the top, saying "Whoop!" She knows to mix the wet ingredients together and then add dry ones (for most recipes). I encourage anyone with kids this age to involve them in cooking projects - it takes a bit longer, but she loves being able to help on real things and I'm getting time with her combined with actually getting something done.

Here's a couple photos of her in her Christmas dress and at a recent party at the Supreme Court. She's painfully cute, but she hates it when people tell her so!

Halloween and first camping trip

2008-11-13T17:31:00.011-05:00

We spent Halloween weekend and election day in California visiting family and on a work trip for Roger. Here's some cute photos of Ellie in her Cinderella dress - nowadays we're either acting out fairy tales or a superhero. Papa usually gets to be her prince, and I'm the resident fairy godmother, always re-doing her dress after it disappears at midnight.

While in California we got to Joshua Tree National Park, where we camped and hiked. Ellie loves camping, and keeps asking to do it again. She had her first s'more by the campfire, which she also liked, except the marshmallow oddly enough. She was quite impressed by the desert, which she keeps calling "Egypt". :)

We also took the rotating tram to the top of one of the mountains near Palm Springs. It was very cold and sunny at the top. Great trip if you're into hiking in the cold - which Ellie decidedly was not.

Thomas' Ultrasound Photos

2008-10-29T17:20:00.004-05:00

Finally I figured out the scanner! Here is an ultrasound shot of Thomas, now several months old. I'm almost at 28 weeks now, and he's very active - more so than I remember Ellie being even though I was convinced she was a very active baby. We're making the rounds of family visits in the next few weeks since we'll be grounded for Christmas and avoiding the Thanksgiving weekend traffic. So hopefully more pictures of Ellie coming soon. She is out of her lobster phase (the unused parts of her potential lobster costume are in the closet) and is all princesses and ballerinas. She'll be Cinderella/Cenicenta for Halloween and thankfully we'll have warmer weather to trick-or-treat in California because she never wants to wear anything under her short-sleeved dress and it's getting really cold here! She wants to wear either that dress or her ballerina tutu all the time, and we're running into more and more resistance getting her dressed for church because we don't have many other dresses that reach the floor (as all princess' dresses should). I'm either going to have to start sewing myself or find a local Muslim childrens' store - I have had no luck with finding little girls' dresses that are longer than knee-length! Any leads welcome... and have a great end to October, everyone!

Big news!

2008-09-15T19:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a while, I know, but I'm starting to get in the swing of being at home and getting things done. My clerkship ended in July, and we've been pretty much on the move ever since. We were traveling most of August, first visiting the Severinos in California for Mina Marie's baptism and lots of quality cousin time, and then visiting the Campbells in Michigan for a great reunion of high school / middle school friends and more family time. I'll get photos of both up soon.

But our biggest news is that we're now expecting again! Baby Thomas (no middle name yet - email with your suggestions!) is due January 28 and the whole family is very excited. We have ultrasound photos that I will scan as soon as I can figure the scanner out, and they even threw in some 3-D ones for fun. Ellie is a wonderful big sister already. She talks to the baby all the time and has felt him kick once while she was sitting on my lap. The first thing she does when Roger gets home from work is to insist that he give the baby (my stomach) a kiss too, and it's all I can do to keep her from pulling my shirt up anywhere and in front of anyone to tickle him or give him a kiss.

Roger is at a new job since May - he's working at the Department of Justice in the Housing section of the Civil Rights division. To the non-lawyers, that means he's part of the biggest law firm in the nation - the US government. He helps enforce several different civil rights laws, including the ADA, Fair Housing Act, and Religious Land Use and Insitituionalized Persons Act. It was hard to leave the Becket Fund, but he's learning a lot at DOJ and we love the flex time: he gets every other Friday off now!

My new job is just starting, too. I have an Olin Fellowship from the Federalist Society that I'm doing at Georgetown Law this year. Basically I'll be spending the year trying to get a paper (or two) ready for publication and taking part in the academic life on campus by meeting faculty and attending workshops. The research and writing I'm planning on doing mostly from home (knock on wood) and the campus-life stuff will mean I'm gone for lunches several days a week. We have a wonderful homeschooling mother who is watching Ellie with her own two sons while I'm gone, and they've been having a great time. Her boys love having a little sister for a while, and Ellie gets to learn from them - she even does her own tracing and cutting projects when they have schoolwork to do while they're here. She's excited to learn about school!

I can't post without including a picture or two, so here are a couple recent ones of Ellie visiting the Natural History museum. She got to hold a grasshopper and a caterpillar, and was disappointed there were no slugs. I was disappointed there was no hand sanitizer.

Sad News

2008-04-18T14:27:00.000-05:00

Early on the Monday after Easter our second child arrived earlier than we had hoped. Lucas Anastasio Severino was born at home into the loving hands of his parents at around 2 am on March 24. The Lord has been very merciful to us. He gave us eleven joyful weeks with our little one and allowed us to see his precious face which we hope to see again one day. Christ's resurrection has made joy possible even in times of deep sadness.

Thank you all for your prayers, and Happy Easter.

Happy 2008... long time no see!

2008-02-09T18:04:00.006-05:00

After a long hiatus, here we are again. Rather than give an update on too many details (and further delay this post) I'm just going to quickly summarize. Carrie is now working at the Supreme Court for Justice Thomas and is almost done with the term - it runs from July to July and at least partially explains my lack of posting. :) Roger is still working at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty but soon will be moving to the Civil Rights/Housing division of the Department of Justice. We've had alternating grandparents living with us this year to help take care of Ellie. Right now we're on GaGa Campbell, and TaTa and NaNa Severino will be here at the end of April. Ellie is growing up so fast! She is very articulate (for a two-year old) and although she prefers English she does understand pretty much everything in Spanish and can manage well in Spanish when NaNa and TaTa are here. Now we're up to 35 3/4 inches tall, 32 pounds, brown curly hair, brown eyes. She eats nearly everything but her favorites are still eggs, avocados, hummus, and nuts. Her favorite story is Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and her favorite song is Peter and the Wolf - she loves identifying the various instruments and characters. She's also now enamored of her new little brother or sister - as she calls it her "baby in da womb." I'm due October 13 or thereabouts and so far am having an extraordinarily easy pregnancy.
Here are some pictures - enjoy!

Mama, Ellie, Uncle Scotty and Miss Heidi (Scott's girlfriend) in front of the Library of Congress

Papa, Miss Heidi, Ellie, and GaGa before their White House tour last month

Ellie and Papa flossing teeth

Hiding under the icon stand at church on Christmas

St. Patrick's Day parade with the dog show

Book Reviews in progress: what I'm reading now

2007-06-25T00:28:00.000-05:00

When I get a chance to read or listen to audiobooks I've been enjoying a couple different things. My current recommendations that I'm not finished with yet are:

Moby Dick - I remember it being much more boring, but as an audiobook it's working well, perhaps because I'm busy and not having to commit 100% of my time to it in between the really exciting parts. It would be interesting to go back and look at the significance of all the Biblical names of the characters.
Hold on to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld - he analyzes why many current problems with kids arise from them being attached to peers more than parents and how to keep your kids attached to you.
Witness by Whittaker Chambers - I'm loving historical books lately, and this one really brings home the danger of communism while filling in some major gaps in my education about the cold war and reading like a detective story. Now Roger is getting into this one too so I may have to fight him for it! This one makes me really look forward to nap time when I get a bit of reading in as Ellie falls asleep.

So there are some mini-recommendations for you all while I'm taking a break from kids' books for a bit to wait for the last Harry Potter. I'm 43rd on the wait list at the library, but hopefully the other 42 will read it fast!

Ellie the biker

2007-06-25T00:11:00.000-05:00

Here are some adorable photos that Dad just sent from our recent trip to Grand Rapids. We were there the first week of June for my cousin Beth's wedding shower but because of some crazy plane problems our flight was cancelled and we ended up missing the main event! :( We did get to see the family for part of the weekend, though, and gave Ellie her first (stationary) ride on a motorcycle. As far as I'm concerned, that's all the riding she'll ever need. Let's hope "Ta Ta" doesn't get any ideas about taking her on the road...

Where's my helmet?

Ellie with Grapefruit

2007-06-25T00:03:00.000-05:00

Here's another video of Ellie playing with a grapefruit - she likes to pretend to nurse her toys by sticking them under her shirt, and that's what she was doing as I was trying to bring the groceries in one day.

Hint on the videos: you have to click on the photo below first to activate the video control, then click on play (the triangle at the lower left). If you want to see it in Google Video, click on the link.

Testing video: Ellie reads at one year old

2007-06-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

Here is Ellie reading us a book, a test of Google Video as a method of posting baby videos, hope it works! Next challenge will be embedding video in the page, which I'll try below. So far it looks like a black box, but tends to work when you hit the play button on the lower left. When in doubt, just use the link underlined above.

Ellie helps out in the kitchen

2007-03-23T15:34:00.000-05:00

More details soon, but I finally uploaded some photos of Ellie's recent kitchen exploits, and they're too cute to keep to ourselves. She has become a real help - sometimes just helping me keep her occupied while I do some of the work, and occasionally actually moving chores along toward completion. I'm hoping to get a link to some videos up soon, as well, because we have a couple good ones.

This is Ellie's new food obsession: peeling garlic. That kept her busier than many more expensive toys, and was actually helpful, although I didn't really need all the garlic peeled. After Lent we'll have to make that 40-clove chicken dish, and she'll be in heaven!

She's also a huge fan of water, and loves to take a bath (finally!) and wash her hands. The hardest part is getting her to stop. When I'm feeling like cleaning the floor, I let her "help" washing dishes and she loves to fill up the dishes and dump them. When the floor is inevitably totally soaked, I give her a cloth and she helps dry it up. So far, the Pergo is holding up. Thank goodness we didn't go for regular wood.
Having witnessed Mama on the iPod a lot, Ellie now wants to play herself. Sometimes she tries to talk on it like a phone, but she does know that the headphones make fun noises.
Along with all the help, Ellie has gotten into a few things. This day it was the flour, even after I had put the bag into a ziploc bag as well - her zipper and ziploc-opening skills have some real downsides. But, again, the floor got cleaner as a result. So in the end at least she's an incentive to keep things tidy.

Sometimes she's just happy to be standing on a stool to be at the counter-top level. Here she was having fun with the spices. Funny, because I can't get her to stack the regular blocks!

Book Reviews coming: Beta Test

2007-02-15T00:48:00.000-05:00

Ever since Ellie was born - and before even - I have been spending a fair amount of time thinking about and reading children's and young adult literature. The Harry Potter debates really got me thinking, and I determined that I couldn't really decide whether to have my kids read that or other books without checking them out myself. I had so much fun reading, and later was so shocked at the downright evil things I found in other kids' books, that I decided to start this project of reviewing books for parents who want more info on the things going into their kids' brains and who don't have the time to read everything themselves. This will also be good notes for me so I can read up now before Ellie is reading them faster than I can keep up!

So the plan is to start including reviews of books I'm reading and have recently read on this site. If I eventually amass enough and/or find other people who want to contribute, I'm thinking of starting a separate site for them. For now I'm planning on giving a quick summary a la Decent Films, a website I really love for movie reviews. Steven Graydanus gives each film a ranking on age appropriateness, artistic/entertainment value, moral/spiritual value, and an overall rating. This helps separate out the great works of depraved literature from the insipid but well-intentioned stuff and everything in between. I'll try to go into a bit more detail than the executive summary, but I'm going to err on the side of including a book with a limited discussion rather than waiting to write an essay and not having anything posted for months. As my mother would say, the perfect is the enemy of the possible.

Here's a quick list of things I've read recently that I hope to put up - to whet your appetite and give me something to shoot for:

Harry Potter (liked it, but will need a nuanced discussion because of the controversy)
Philip Pullman's Dark Materials series (very disturbing and explicitly anti-Christian)
A Series of Unfortunate Events (fun but not terribly uplifting - surprise)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (not really for kids, but made a huge impression on me)
Winnie the Pooh books
Stuart Little
The Penderwicks
The Ender Wiggin books (liked the first ones best, interesting moral and religious issues that require discussion, though)
Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson (some are surprisingly gruesome!)

Any advice on ways to improve the system or volunteers to review your own favorite kids' literature welcome!

Finally a Book Review: Cheaper by the Dozen

2007-02-15T00:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, it took a while, but mostly because I got almost finished with this one ages ago and stalled - typical pattern of mine. So here you go, finally.

Overall: B
Artistic/Entertainment value: B+
Moral/Spiritual value: B (generally positive view of parents and family, negative aside about religion, some swearing and rebelliousness)
Age appropriateness: I'm bad at this only being familiar with toddlers - but with some censoring it's fun for the whole family.

A cute story about a family with twelve children in the early 20th century, this was fun to listen to but definitely deserves some caveats in terms of age-appropriateness. The vast majority of it is fun-loving big family hijinks, but there were several instances of swearing (D-word and even "Jesus Christ" once), and toward the end there are some references to sex as the girls grow up in the 20s and struggle for permission to wear bobbed hair and short skirts. Very tame by modern standards, but it might be a good section to skip with younger kids and discuss with older ones. One other aside asserts the father's disbelief in the Immaculate Conception - although it actually is referring to the virgin birth. Elsewhere it's clear that he's not a religious man, but he's not generally anti-religious (he even researches convents during the aforementioned teenage crisis with the girls). That's something that could be easily discussed or even left out in family reading without losing anything.

Don't let my caveats totally turn you off - I plan to read this one to Ellie eventually, although I'll probably skip certain chapters when she's younger.

Uh-Oh!

2007-02-14T01:01:00.000-05:00

That's the word of the month, apparently. And very apt it is - Ellie is getting much bigger and is into everything, but generally hasn't destroyed anything. She does periodically slime my phone with her teething drool, disabling the speaker until I can dry it out sufficiently, but otherwise no major casualties. Below she demonstrates her talent at getting into drawers - ninja skills continue to flourish. She brings the stepstool around and gets into things before you know what hit you - I have to keep knives far, far away from edges!

Her current stats:

Weight: still 26 pounds

Height: 30 inches - almost half my height!

Teeth: holding steady at eight, but teething like crazy.

Hair: Bangs starting to get out of control. I have to either find a mechanism for securing them out of her eyes or cut them. :(

Skin: Very dry. I can't wait until we don't need the heat anymore. It'll also be good when the constant teething drool slows and lets her chin dry out.

Eyes: Dark brown

Mobility: Trying to climb stairs upright now, and she really can do it if she has a banister her own level. Most of the time she just holds our hand. She carries really heavy object and "helps" me carry things back from the car. Or she did, until the cold snap hit and I take her in the fast way.

New Words: uh-oh; kaka (kitty cat - used also for horses and other animals); hola (talking on the phone); very into GaGa after my parents visited last weekend. Still trying to get her to call Dad something consistently. Sound effects are very popular now, including pretend nose-blowing (she just learned to wipe her nose) and weird whooping-cough sounds.

New Signs: half of the sign of the cross (the upward part, ends with kissing her fingers); hat; want a tissue (to wipe nose); drawing/crayons. "No" is still the all-time favorite. "Potty" is a favorite one lately, but she often just uses it to inform us when she's gone, and not that she wants to go.

Chores: Ellie loves to help out. She regularly throws her used diapers away, tries to flush the toilet, turns lights on and off for me (with a boost), throws trash away when asked (unless it's really interesting and she wants to sneak off and play with it), carries things back from the car, wipes her high chair tray, puts toys away, helps take her clothes off, helps take the dishes out of the dishwasher, helps load the washer and empty the drier, delivers Maltas to Roger, and puts her hat on.

New Likes: Backyardigans. She loves dancing to the songs, and Roger and I get a kick out of it as well. Current front-runners for best episode (between us, since Ellie doesn't vote) are the Quest for the Flying Rock and Surf's Up. She now has pots and pans she enjoys "cooking" with on her kitchen, and like randomly rolling on the floor, especially the new kitchen floor. She finally enjoys baths again - whew! And she no longer hates the vacuum, although I guess it's a stretch to call it a "like". She is really becoming a clothes-horse, and likes picking things out of her drawers and attempting to put them on. It usually ends up being pants on the head or some such, but is very cute. She also is taking after Mommy and getting excited about hats. Finally I can keep something on her head and not get nasty looks for taking a toddler out in the cold with no hat! We also just got a new Kozy sling, which she enjoys and I love because it keeps her centered and not off to one side. No more leaning sideways from 26 pounds all on one hip! I have to say, I appreciate the "poppability" of the Maya Wrap that lets me get her in and out quickly and cover her head for public nursing, but for longer-term carrying or "wearing her down" to sleep the Kozy wins. She is a big fan of kid-sized chairs and loves to sit in her chair in the kitchen and sit to draw at her table upstairs.

New Dislikes: Hmm... nothing really. Except perhaps being stuck inside all day without time to run of steam because it's so cold out.

New Food Tricks: Elie is getting quite good with a spoon, but she often gives up part way through her morning yogurt and just takes finger-fulls. Can't blame her. :) She drinks from her sippy cup mostly, but is great with a straw or out of a water bottle with minimal spillage. She can do a cup as well, but eventually ends up dumping it and I'm never totally sure whether it's on purpose or by mistake because she likes to play in the puddle afterwards.

Ninja Skills: Ellie is now totally into zippers, which means that my change purse is fair game. She's not really that excited about eating the change, but it's still not a great toy. Grandma and Grandpa Campbell taught her to put it in her Snow White piggy bank (a gift from the Severino grandparents). So I guess that generation will be responsible for whatever financial acumen she develops. Ellie almost can reach the doorknob, and I'm sure she'll lock me in/out of somewhere soon. Her most dangerous feature lately is her speed and stealth. I often turn around to find that she's gotten into the cupboard and brought me some package of food she wants me to open for her - all so quietly that I didn't notice. Worse yet is when she manages to get food or interesting objects off the counter without my noticing. Must hide all knives! This is also the stage when using the back burners is crucial.

Now off to bed to snuggle with my little ninja - Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Goodbye Linoleum, Hello Pergo!

2007-02-14T00:36:00.000-05:00

On Monday we finally got our kitchen floor redone, after months and months of talking about it. It looks like a new kitchen! We also have a new desk/bookshelf and table thanks to a trip to Ikea with Mom and Dad over the weekend. Now we just need new chairs and a new counter/sink area. Oh, and curtains to keep the bedroom dark for naps. Which reminds me, I need to get to bed, since it's way past naptime! More photos soon of more interesting subjects, but for now here's a before and after of the kitchen.

Before - note ever-present scuff marks on floor with a million pock-marks to catch dirt and necessitate cleaning on hands-and-knees to make any progress:

After - smooth, clean, hides dirt and yet doesn't horde dirt. So far. :)

Top Chef

2007-01-20T02:30:00.000-05:00

I was making corn meal muffins today, and to try to keep Ellie entertained, I tasked her with putting the muffin liners in the pans, which she did with surprising accuracy, once I took the liners apart one by one. I needed to occupy her while I put the batter in, so I let her play with a pan and some more liners herself, and she went to town, running around with them and playing in her kitchen and trying to bring them upstairs. She also enjoyed the muffins when I was done, and sat and ate them in her new play kitchen! Adorable, see below for evidence. Also she clearly is learning to mug for the camera - what a crazy smile!

Happy Thanksgiving - and Happy New Year

2007-01-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

New year's resolution: post at least once a month. Sorry about the absence, folks! Here are some back photos from Ellie's trip to California for Thanksgving. I'll try to get some photos from Christmas up soon! Below is also a long update on what Ellie's doing lately.

At Santa Monica beach - Ellie got to wade in the water...

Ellie investigates the barnacles under the pier

At the gardens of the San Gabriel Mission. Unfortunately most of the plants were cacti, so Ellie couldn't get as close a look as she wanted.

This is the family at the Griffin Observatory in Los Angeles. Ellie enjoyed it all, but loved being outside on the grass the most, especially because there were dogs there.

"Cinder"-Ellie is learning to help out around the house, and loves playing with brooms!

Here are her current stats:

Weight: 26 pounds
Height: 29 inches
Teeth: Eight total - four on top, four on bottom. Very sharp - she only bites us occasionally, and usually by mistake. A few weeks ago she destroyed the back of the pew in church before we realized what was happening. Father said she didn't have to go to confession for it. :)
Hair: Brown and curly. Seems a bit lighter than at birth - I think it's more my color than Roger's now.
Skin: Tan - I'm often asked where her other genes come from!
Eyes: Dark brown and mischievous

Mobility: Ellie is on the run!!! She's totally steady on her feet, and is getting scarily fast. She goes up and down stairs climbing-style, but if she has someone or something to hold on to or the stairs are short she can do them upright. She loves getting on and off her kid-sized chairs, and also can get onto her table and the rocking-chair footrest. Ahhh!!! She'll be on adult-sized chairs very soon - already she can get onto the lower recliner we have upstairs. To Roger's delight she also has learned to dribble a soccer ball, and is now working on her throwing arm.

Words: mama, papa, dog! (always shouted, sometimes without the "g", and used for other animals/birds as well), gaga (Grandma), tata (Grandpa), baba (for baby or baby doll), juzzz (for "Jesus" - she really likes the statue of Jesus at the back of church), shhhh (snake sound), clicking her tongue (instead of snapping to songs); ahhh (whenever she hugs someone or something - sort of an "I love you")

Signs: music, food, please, more, pray (especially before meals to hurry the food along), bye-bye, drink, give me, no (very insistent head-shaking - a big favorite), nursing, hot (as in things too hot to eat or touch), all done, potty, book, ball, points to self (we're not sure what she means, but something like "I want" or "I like" or "mine" or "let me do it myself")

Likes: finding belly buttons, toes, noses, and tongues; dancing; playing with water; drawing; rearranging furniture; getting tickled and tickling us; bouncing on mom or papa's legs; babbling; putting on lotion; taking off her diaper; all animals, especially dogs (actually she seems to think they all are dogs); taking off her clothes (she can do socks by herself and helps with shirts and pants); exploring new places; chasing games; funny faces; "helping" us clean things around the house; giggling for no apparent reason; trying to drink out of a cup

Dislikes: diaper changes; going to sleep; Tickle Me Elmo (she gets really scared of him!); riding in the car; wearing socks; getting dressed; having Mama leave the room; being introduced too quickly to new people

Favorite Foods: rice and beans; tamales; malta (shocking, especially for those of you who've tasted this disgusting drink that Roger somehow likes); clementines; tomatoes; raspberries; hummus; hard-boiled eggs; anything that someone else is drinking (but she only gets water because she's very sloppy, except when Roger sneaks her tastes of juice and other staining sugar substances). She often will refuse to eat something unless she can feed it to herself. She's actually getting somewhat okay with a spoon, and with some guidance can scoop things out of a bowl. Very good at picking things apart and eating by hand, whether it's styrofoam, pieces of food she threw on the floor from her last meal, stones, leaves, or carpet lint.

Ninja Skills: Ellie is almost a full-fledged baby ninja on a mission to cause havoc. She can now open car doors, escape from her car seat straps if they're not down really tight, open and close doors with a doorknob, turn on and off lightswitches, unplug lights (uh oh...), turn on and off faucets, open the oven (aaaaahhhh!), close the dishwasher and switch it from heat dry to economy setting, open most containers with her teeth (even got a childproof screw-cap off once), dismount from our bed, scale the wall on a toy about half her height, head-butt her parents, open drawers and cupboard, and almost support her own weight hanging from a countertop. Is that the baby-poo-yellow belt or the banana-stain-brown belt?

As you can see by the imbalance of likes and dislikes, she's a pretty happy girl and we're all having a blast!

More photos

2006-09-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

When it rains, it pours:

Eating broccoli sprouts. Oddly enough, ths was inspired by my father who says they have the highest amount of antioxidants of basically anything. Ironic, since he wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
Mom and Ellie reading with cousin Leila. During the Michigan visit we had a dress-up reading recital with the cousins.
Ellie loved the grandparents' coffee table with the delicious coasters underneath!
Ellie showing Great-grandma that she's "so big!"

The whole family getting ready to go canoeing. In the end, Ellie passed out for a nap soon after this, and Grandma babysat while Roger and I went for a relaxing canoe ride up the river.

Family Reunion

2006-09-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

We had a Campbell family reunion in August in Grand Rapids, and so all the Severinos set out to attend with the cutest family member in tow. After three hours in the airport waiting for a delayed flight, we thought we had fianlly made it when the plane boarded at 11pm. But our adventure had just begun. Before the plane had even taken off, Ellie had thrown up.

By the end of the weekend Roger and I had both gone through her flu- and by the end of the next week the rest of the family had as well. :( Mom and Dad were somehow spared, luckily, and we still had a lot of fun - Ellie and I at the reunion (hoepfully not contagious at that point) and all of us at the beach.

Ellie and Scott at the reunion
Ellie and Mommy in a Grand Haven store

Ellie appreciating the beach, and Roger showing her how to appreciate the lake.

Photos

2006-09-10T22:15:00.000-05:00

Ellie loves climbing stairs. If only she knew how to go back down safely.

She hates her car seat - in the car. But she had lots of fun playing with her old outgrown seat once we took it out of the car.

Ellie likes emptying the diswasher and playing with the dishes. Good incentive to rinse the dishes well, and to keep the forks and knives toward the back.
She's been doing some pretty funny faces. Her "squishy-face" is a favorite.

Eating corn on the cob - adorable, but the results are a bit messy with bits of corn all over.

Officially a Toddler!

2006-08-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

On August 20 Ellie took her first "real" steps - not just to maintain balance but going places. (For the record she was walking from Roger to investigate his suitcase from the last business trip he was on.) I have video that I'm going to try to get up, but I'll settle for stills for now.

In other news, here's a quick summary of Ellie's current status - thanks to Lindsay Palazzolo for the format idea.

Likes:
- egg yolks, yogurt, papaya, mango
- Anything she can feed herself, like peas, cheerios, whole onions, bean sprouts, corn cobs, whole apples, watermelon rinds (washed well), pieces of raw greens, tofu, puffed corn, grass, rocks, etc.
- opening cupboards
- opening tubes and bottles with her teeth
- riding on Roger's legs - "el torito", the little bull-rider
- picking things up to walk around with them
- trying to eat very dirty things like stroller wheels, fallen leaves, and bottoms of shoes
- playing peek-a-boo
- pulling Mommy's hair
- emptying wallets, tossing credit cards around and chewing or ripping receipts and bills
- ripping paper
- unrolling toilet paper
- climbing stairs
- seeing and playing with other kids

Dislikes:
- applesauce, sweet potato (if she's not feeding it to herself)
- riding in the car in her carseat (we can't wait to be able to face her forward!)
- missing naptime
- having things taken away from her
- being away from Mommy for very long (but she is much more tolerant than she used to be, and now will let others play with her in another room when she's in a good mood)
- diaper changes, especially if she's on her back

Milestones:
- says "mama" and sometimes "papa"
- makes clicking sounds with her tongue
- stands up without extra support or help
- walks about as far as she wants to
- sometimes will go back to sleep without nursing!
- climbs stairs

New Teeth!

2006-07-28T18:47:00.000-05:00

Ellie now has two teeth! She is putting them to good use:

Eating everything she can get her hands on - she has discovered where I keep the onions and now I have to hide them better in the basket. I had to relocate the garlic altogether, and now I have potatoes there so I'm guessing that's next.

Getting much better at feeding herself. I may have a lead on hosting videos if I just follow up, then I can show you her mad skillz in video. For now here is her making some funny faces at mealtime. The scrunchy face is her latest favorite, mostly for when she's annoyed. Picture it even more scrunched (hard to catch on film since she starts smiling at the camera), with her upper lip curled more and her making a snorting noise. Very attractive. :)

Another video I"ll hopefully get up is her climbing the stairs. This is the scariest milestone yet, and I'm trying to train her to go down backwards but she really has no sense of danger, so it's gates or nothing for now. :(

This is one thing Ellie is not eating, but I was so proud of the pear tarts I made the other day that I just had to put this in. :) Served with cherries or blueberries on the side - and I used yogurt instead of sour cream in the crust so they were quasi-healthy. :)

Visiting Friends

2006-07-28T18:38:00.000-05:00

We got to see some old friends from law school recently, as well as meet some new additions.

Ellie meets Clare Palazzolo for the first time - they're only a month or so apart in age, so it's too bad we don't live closer!

Watching the World Cup finals with Fred, munching on chips and cheerios.

Hanging out with Bronwen on her recent visit to DC and finally seeing Christina!