I'm not avoiding you!

Me to my mom recently: "Have you gotten my messages lately???"

My mom in response: "Yes! Have YOU gotten MY messages lately???"

Me: "No."

Mom: "I've left a few."

Me: "Where?"

Mom: "On your home phone."

I thought Gabe cancelled our home phone service awhile ago (it turns out he tried a few times, but because of one thing or another on Qwest's end of things, was unable to)----so I stopped checking our messages long ago. So, people (my mom, for sure) may or may not have been calling and leaving us countless messages of supreme importance because unbeknownst to me, we actually did have a home phone/voicemail. Well, then Gabe really did cancel our phone and now I can't check our messages.

SOOO, if you called and left us a message, we weren't avoiding you; Gabe and I just got our lines of communication crossed, as it were.

Our first trip to the zoo

Ready to explore the ZOO!

It was perfect weather for spending the day outside...

Our friends Amy, Amelie and new little Finley spent the day with us---some of our favorite ladies to be with.

The peacocks roam around like they own the place.

Ellis thoroughly enjoyed our picnic by the carousel.

Number of people in our little family who can sit up by themselves: 3.

Ellis has become a drool factory. If I could sell bottles of her drool, I would be richer than Oprah. But still no teeth...

Ellis and Amelie are quite fond of each other, which is very sweet to watch.

A day well spent.

Seven months and chewing...

Peek!

Chewing on placemats...

...on Auntie Janae's cat, Champ...

...and anything else that comes within reach.

Here is a picture from our send-off dinner with Janae, who is now in Indiana at Taylor University, starting off her freshman year of college! We miss Janae. (And note that once again, Ellis is chewing on something :)

It's about TIME I updated this blog!

Ellis has a lot of updates for you, so let me get started.

We rounded out the end of summer vacation by playing with water in the back yard.

Ellis is ready to take off...maybe not quite yet, but her little lamb chops are getting stronger and stronger everyday.

This is how big Ellis looks lying next to her Dad's shoe:

One of her favorite new tricks:

At our first annual NICU alumni reunion picnic:

I ate a lot of sugar that day. A lot.

How Ellis spent most of the picnic:

Bath time is no excuse for NOT grabbing your feet.

Ellis' pallet has been broadened to include rice cereal! Here are some pictures of her first time eating cereal. Overall, she seemed to enjoy it with a couple of gagging exceptions:

Ellis with her buddy Keaton: