Warm days!

So we've had a few warm days this March which we have taken full advantage of!  Ellie LOVES playing outside and all the freedom that comes with it!  We had our first really warm day (80's) March 6th which was followed by 30's a few days later, but we still enjoyed it!  So we pulled out the shorts (skort is Ellie's case) and went to meet "dadda" for lunch.  After eating, we spent some time outside running around.  Ellie LOVED it! When she was done she was flushed so I had to get some pictures!    

        

Ellie sportin' the skort:

Notice the beautiful cracker in the foreground:

And here I got a pic of Ellie pretending to talk on the phone, yes she is using her shoulder to hold the phone up (no hands)!

These are some more Gymboree pics but this time Ellie and Gabe are matching! Yes, it's on purpose. The Tao's were at the Coca Cola factory in Atlanta and got Ellie and Gabe matching onsies! So cute! :)

Ellie on the trampoline:

I like this one.  Ellie pointing and looking at herself in the mirror and Gabe with the "what is she doing now?" look on his face! :)

Last fall (I think) we got a bike with a baby seat from my uncle Andy and we are finally putting it to use now that the weather is warmer and we have a bike helmet that will fit Ellie!

Getting ready to go:

Since Ellie was going to be at daycare on St. Patrick's Day, we decided it was pretty important that she wear green.  Ok, by "we" I mean "I".  We quickly realized Ellie has NO green, so we went out and got her a green dress ($6 at Walmart!).  I wasn't going to see her in her dress, so we had a St. Patty's Day dress rehearsal the night before and took pictures!  Apparently, ALL the little kids at daycare wore green and Joey could not understand this!  "Why do non-Irish, non-catholics wear green!?"  What? Do they not wear green on St. Patrick's Day in Taiwan? But, it must be said that He, himself wore green on St. Patrick's Day! (ok, he may have thought he was putting on brown that morning but yay! for colorblindness!)  And yes, I wore green to work along with most of my coworkers! :)

Caught red-handed reading a book in the corner.  So cute! :)

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

My brother, Matt is playing hockey for Liberty, a D-1 Club school and his team headed out to nationals this weekend in Ohio.  My mom, dad, and sisters Haley and Tori drove over to watch him play.  Last night while they were there playing, some of the players started complaining of headaches and some were puking.  They finally decided to evacuate the building and start testing some of the players for Carbon Monoxide.  Sure enough, they were all testing positive! Then they decided they better start testing everyone at the rink, and EVERYONE was testing positive ( probably about 400 people)!  They had actually set up a triage center in the parking lot of the hotel to test everyone!! My mom had tested high enough (22%-the highest my dad heard anyone had tested) that they decided she needed to go immediately in an ambulance to the hospital (which she documented with her camera as you can imagine!).  The treatment for high carbon monoxide is oxygen therapy, which my mom received in the ambulance so by the time she arrived at the hospital, her levels were much lower.  She still stayed in the hospital for two hours to receive oxygen.  The rest of my family got on the bus to head to the downtown hospital to get oxygen therapy as well.  My dad decided he didn't need it as he was only slightly dizzy while others were puking! So he went back with my mom and when she was done, they headed out to get my sisters.  Everyone is ok and no permanent damage was done, thank God! This is incredibly scary because as we all know carbon monoxide poisoning can be deadly! We are just thankful they figured it out in time and that no one was permanently injured!  They will resume playing tomorrow! And my family is headed back to Chicago today because of work tomorrow!

A visit from the Great Grandparents!

Joey's grandparents came into town this past weekend on their way home to MN after a birding adventure out in Southern Texas as well as a school visit in Mississippi!  We are so impressed with their energy and ability to do all that traveling!  And they still had enough energy to visit us, play with Ellie, get a few rounds of cards in and visit downtown St. Louis!  They're amazing!

While Ellie and I napped, they took a trip downtown St. Louis and visited the old court building where the Dred Scott decision was made.

Then they visited to arch:

They went inside too! :)

Ellie was amazed by grandpa's hair!

We enjoyed their visit immensely and can't wait to see them again! :)