Centennial Park

Yesterday Matt picked Ella Catherine up from Daycare and then picked me up from work. It was a beautiful fall day in Nashville. So, we decided to head to Centennial Park to feed the ducks. Here are some photos from our trip.

Ella Catherine throwing bread for the Geese and Ducks.

Ella Catherine and Mom sitting in the park.
Matt and Ella Catherine feeding the Geese and Ducks

Get her Groove on

For the past several weeks Ella Catherine has shown her artistic dancing skills. She has no prejudice against any music, she seems to get her groove on for all types. During this particular show it was Hip Hop. We can't seem to find the camera when she really gets going but we were able to capture a little bit on Friday.

Sorry for the shotty camera work I am still trying to learn how to use a digital video camera.

JAWS

Well, it happened. As a parent of a child in daycare, there are 5 words that you hope you never hear. And those words are, drumroll please................................................................ "Your child bit another child." Matt heard those words yesterday when he picked up Ella Catherine from daycare. I am so glad it was him. You just feel so bad and although you know it is a phase that most children go through, you can't help but feel like a bad parent. We had a talk on the way to daycare about how biting is bad and not nice. So, let's hope that she kept her chompers to herself today.

Walking in Memphis

We headed to Memphis this past weekend to check up on the house and spend some time with Matt's parents. Ella Catherine wasn't too sure about the house when we first arrived Friday night. Of course, she had been asleep in the car for several hours and was a little groggy. It didn't take her long to remember the place and start bringing out toys and books. We had a time getting her to sleep Friday night. Saturday morning Mimi came over and they played outside. She picked up acorns, squashed bugs, rode her trike and played at the park in our neighborhood. After some lunch, we headed to Olive Branch to surprise Grams, Grandpa, Uncle Christopher and Uncle Michael. Surprised they were! She had a sleepover and mom and dad had an evening to themselves celbrating our 3 year anniversary.
We met with our realtor and unfortunately it wasn't great news. The housing market in Memphis is not good. If you know anyone looking for a house in Memphis, Tn send them our way, we will make them a really good deal!
Matt is going to post some pictutres of our trip soon. She is getting so big!

Doctor's visit, a Test and a lost child

This is a post from Matt:
Ella Catherine visited the doctor last week for a check up. Everything looked and sounded GREAT according to the doctor. She is in the 80th % for height and 60th% for weight and 94th % for head size. For those who know us, the latter is definitely a daddy gene. She is getting more teeth her two top fang teeth are coming in. We are working on potty training; we started working on this last Friday afternoon. We were successful once but she is more comfortable with sitting on the toilet and reading while waiting.

Last Saturday Amy had to go and take a recertification test for her work. She tried to go the previous weekend, however when she got there they didn't have a record of her registration even though she had a confirmation printout, so they told her to either wait for four hours until a computer was available or try again the next weekend. She was able to take the test last weekend; unfortunately she will not know the results of her test for six weeks. I know that she did a great job on it and will get her recertification.

Amy is substitute teaching Sunday school at the church we are attending. This past Sunday was here first class. She was very nervous because we are new to the church and she has never taught Sunday school before, plus I didn't pick up here lesson planner on Friday or Saturday, as I was asked to do (oops!). Class is from 10:05 to 10:45 in between masses at the Church. We all went to mass at 7:30 a.m. (which is not that difficult to get up for when your daughter wakes up everyday at 5:30 am) so that Amy could go by and pick up her lesson planner from the office after mass. After church we went home and ate breakfast, then Amy left for school. When she got home I asked her how it was and she said it went well except for the child that I LOST. Turns out that every class is supposed to have two teachers. Well, the lady that called Amy only obtained one substitute instead of two. She and her husband normally teach the class and where going to be out of town. So, a mother offered to stay and help. After class was over, Amy lined all the children up at the front of the classroom at the door. The “helping” mother went out in the hall and said she would help make sure each child’s parent or guardian was there to pick them up. So, Amy handed each child an assignment card as they left the room and then began straightening up the room. Two little girls came back in the room as there mothers were not there to pick them up yet but a short while later both moms came. Amy was about to close up the room when another teacher came to the door. She had a little girl with her that said she was supposed to pick up her little brother and meet her mother at the flag downstairs. Well, there was no little boy left to be picked up, oops. After a short search with panicking teachers, sister and a mother, the little boy was found playing on the playground.

Beautiful Weekend at the park

It was such a beautiful weekend here in Nashville that we decided to take Ella Catherine to the park. As you can see from the photos, she enjoyed herself.

We came upon some deer and I don't know if Ella Catherine or Matt were more excited!

Taking in the scenery below.

Here is what she was looking at.

Enjoying the beautiful day.

Hanging out with Dad.

18 months old

We had Ella Catherine's 18mo photos taken while we were visiting Nana and Pop in Macon. Neal Carpenter at inward studio took them (http://www.inwardstudio.com/) and we think he did a FANTASTIC job! Here are some of my favorites.