With all the (lack of) success last night, I put Ellie on the potty as soon as I picked her up out of the crib this morning. It was really quite adorable… she pushes and you can see her little belly muscles all tight, then… pfth. She toots. … and gives me a BIG grin! So, of course I had to cheer and yell, “Great, you did it!!!” Jeff calls from bed, “She did it?” Well….
We had a great day. Ellie joined Mommy at a doctor’s appointment where 5 people deemed her adorable. She smiles, like she knows it. Then, we joined the neighbors who for fun made cupcakes to celebrate Our Lady of Fatima feast day. We left for Ellie’s nap and then returned for another hour so Daddy could enjoy his movie in peace.
After dinner, we attempt the potty-before-bath, again. She just didn’t get it, but enjoyed pulling the toilet paper out. I set her on the floor and… picked her back up to be set on the toilet as the last drop actually goes into the pot! Ellie doesn’t want to get off, now. She looks down into the pot and points. I don’t believe that can be considered a success, but we are getting there. It was suggested that I place newspaper down in front of the toilet. At least then I can consider her “house-broke”. :)
As an aside, I do not plan on potty training Ellie at 11 ½ months. I do plan to keep her in diapers, but she seems to be showing interest and cleaning the bathroom floor every night is getting tedious. So I feel it is justified to allow her the chance to use the facilities.
We spent the morning in DC and then arrived back home in time for the phone call stating our first guests would be arriving in 4 hours. Ellie visited the neighbors for 2 ½ hours while Mommy went on a rampage of cleaning; vacuuming, steaming carpets, dusting, wiping, stacking and hiding everything else. They arrived after dinner.
Ellie woke up this morning with a fever of 102.9. She showed no other signs of being sick; nursed fine, ate a big breakfast, played fine, etc. We put a call into the pediatrician’s office, but after ½ hour of no call back, we decided to go to swim class. Figuring that the cool water would at least take her temperature down a little. On the way, the nurse did call and said we were doing the right thing, Ellie is just teething. 
Headed up to Pittsburgh. We had a few errands to run before we visited Grandma. When we arrived at Grandma’s, her eyes lit up and she seemed to immediately recognize Ellie, Mommy and Daddy. Grandma seemed in an excellent demeanor. She was able to use her walker and join us in the common area after her lunch and we spent almost 2 ½ hours chatting and sitting. Daddy brought some pictures of Grandma from when she was only in high school. She did not recognize them, but did point her own picture out as being a very pretty woman. Ellie has been blessed to have the same eye color as Grandma – a pure blue.
After Grandma, we visited Jeff’s Godmother, then his Uncle and Aunt for a pizza dinner, then we finally made it to his brother’s house to crash for the night.
Before our guests headed out, we visited Terry’s farm. Ellie was VERY angry that we would not let her get down on the ground and crawl with/toward the cows. She was impressed with the cows and wanted to become part of the herd. Ellie likes all animals and believes they all make the same sound, “ah, ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah,ah” (between a goat and sheep sound). She communicates thus when she sees an animal, so you can imagine how confused the poor cows were. 
Then, we went to Lowes to pick up garden plants and a new shower head. She insisted on getting down on the floor, so while I decided which shower head to purchase, Ellie pushed the cart away. She helped me push it to the register.
