Is that Mr. Miyagi in my bath tub?

I started putting bubbles in her bath for the first time this week, and I was planning to stage this picture. I didn't have to. She was leaning over the side of her bath seat, fishing for Rubber Duck, and when she came back up she looked like this. I made Dave run for the camera. She loves having bubbles in the tub, and one of her fun new games is for me to scoop up handfuls of bubbles and blow them all over the place. She laughs and laughs. Oh, how I love that laugh!

This week she's clap-clapping about everything. It's so very cute. She claps when her toys play music, when I sing for her, when Georgia brings her ball back, while she's getting her diaper changed, and just when ever she feels like it. I think the cutest was the night that Dave came in late from work. She was already in the tub and when he came into the bathroom she clap-clapped at the sight of him.

Christmas holidays, when the sight of Daddy was enough to invoke fits of crying, are a distant memory now. Every day she is more and more happy to see him. She's starting to seek him out when she knows he's normally there, and she gets excited to play with him. Yesterday, I even got to nap by myself while they played on the front porch. I'm not sure I slept, but lying quietly on the couch, listening to the man of my dreams play with the our baby was very restful.

We tried the family date again yesterday and were much more successful since we went for breakfast instead of dinner. She had a blast at the Huddle House, flirting with all the men and playing in the middle of the table. I did have the waitress bring a high chair for her when the food arrived because she can quite literally dive into our plates, with hands wide open and grabbing. I didn't realize when I ordered the waffle plate that the eggs were for Ella, but she proceeded to gobble them up. We did our grocery shopping and made it home in time for the nap. Afterward, we trekked around town again with our dog and our baby. I wonder what people think when they pass us on the street? This time Dave wore her in the new mei tai carrier he gave me for Christmas. We turned it inside out so the girly flowers wouldn't show. Wouldn't you know that he got a compliment on his "man pack" as soon as we ran into someone he knew?

Because football season officially ended last weekend, we attempted to fit as many sports as possible into yesterday afternoon. We ended up at the intramural fields again to watch the UM baseball game from the deck behind the field. Shortly after we got there, the College Night soccer game was under way behind us on the intramural field. It was a perfect nursing situation for Ella. I sat on the deck watching the baseball game, and she nursed contentedly while watching the soccer game behind me (instead of popping on and off repeatedly to see what's going on around her). We later moved to sit on the soccer sidelines, and a lady who was taking pictures of the game ended up taking some of Ella while she sat in her sun hat picking grass and clapping. Last night we ventured (after dark!) to the basketball game. She slept through first half, but we had to leave about halfway through the second because it was bed time. I just needed to see some live basketball. I'm seriously hating that the NCAA tournament is not here this year.

All this work hauling our stuff around town tires out a dog. We put her in the kennel when we left for the basketball game last night, and she decided to just stay in there once we were home. I had to go down and get her so she would go out to potty before bed.