ABC's hit TV show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was filming in Toledo last week, working on a house for a deserving family of 14 that live about 20 minutes away from us.  As much as I love that show, I never took the time to drive by the site, or be shuttled there as a spectator.  I kept up with the progress through local news broadcasts and websites set up by the local company who headed up the build.  Fortunately for us, some of our friends live right next door and took some great pictures from their own backyard that they shared with us.  (see them in the New Pictures gallery) I've watched the show so many times on television and it is always hard for me to fathom how they could really demolish a home, rebuild one from scratch and completely furnish it in 7 days time.  But...I watched it happen right before my eyes here in our own community.  Talk about extreme! 

Another cool bonus for us was that my dad's printing company was able to create some awesome decals for the new house, and my dad got to go to the site on Saturday and install the graphics himself.  I really wanted to go as his "assistant", but I understand why he decided to take one of his fellow employees instead!  He was able to meet Ty Pennington and the team of designers as he worked on one of the bedrooms that would house 3 out of the 12 kids in this wonderful family.  My dad even got his own private tour of the completed home after the family had returned and the Design Producers were so impressed with his work that they want to use his company again in future shows.  I can just see my dad with his own spot on the show someday as...Skip, "the graphics guy!"  Don't turn Hollywood on us yet, dad!!  We are very proud of you and thankful for the generosity of your company to donate time and effort towards this great cause   Great Job!!  The show is set to air sometime in November.

All of the Extreme Makeover buzz around this town last week really got me thinking.  Ella's life lately could be titled Extreme Changes:  Transitioning from loving things you used to hate doing, being carried all the time to walking, using two word sentences to an explosion of language and excelling in social situations.  The most obvious change in our lives is that we are preparing for the impending birth of our second child which in and of itself will be a pretty darn extreme change!  We are all really looking forward to welcoming a little boy into our family and giving Ella the special gift of a sibling to love, care for...smack upside the head and boss around daily.  Boy, is she ever excited!! 

We talk about the baby constantly and I believe this has helped her understand what is happening and will make the transition easier for her.  She will touch my belly when he kicks hard (did I mention he appears to have a black belt already?) and "ooh" and "aah" and rub her hand over it and sing him songs.  She also loves to say things like, "Yep, he's in there!" or "Goodnight...see ya when you're born!"  She will go through the list of things she thinks he will want to do with us when he gets here - it is so cute.  She says, "maybe he will want to lay in bed with us"  or "maybe he will want to go to the park with us."  Some other ones are, "he will sit in the rocking chair and read books with us" or "maybe he will play with toys with us."  She will tell me that the thing she wants to do most when he gets "born" is touch his baby piggies.  (She loves toes!!)  I can't wait to see how they will interact once he is here, and if she is being honest, or if she is just "all talk!"  Speaking of talk - I've compiled a list of things Ella has said over the past two months.  Now, those of you who know me, know I have a tendancy to exeggerate at times (me? no!!) but I tell you the honest truth...these things have truly poured from my daughter's mouth and some of them have left me trying to pick my jaw up off the floor.  PS:  I also had Erik check the list and he gave me a thumbs up on the legitemacy of all of these!!  Keep in mind - Ella just turned two in June.  She is smarter and retains more in that little brain of hers then I ever imagined possible.  I hate to brag...well, who are we kidding?  I love to brag!   And this site is perfect for just that sort of thing.  ENJOY!!

• Ella loves to have books read to her.  Tactile books and regular, no texture at all story books.  She will request book titles by name and she can finish almost all the sentences in her favorites that we read over and over.  We have recently checked out two books about Pumpkins and Halloween at our library and she will say outloud as she turns the pages..."don't rip these pages, this book belongs to the library!"  Needless to say, she has become smitten with the idea of pumpkins and we are headed this weekend to our local Apple Orchard to pick out one for us to carve.  She can't wait!  And I can't wait to take down a carton of apple fritters myself.  (Whoo-Hoo!  Being pregnant rules!)
• She has been linking things together lately and she will pick up an object and relate it to something else similar.  Ex:  She stood up on her changing table the other day and knocked on a big picture frame that I have hanging on the wall.  "this is kind of like a window," she said.  She was playing with the hardware on the front of this antique dry sink that I have in our dining room and said, "these are kind of like doorknobs" because they were circular and she could twist them around.
• I told her the other day while we were out that I needed to get some coffee.  (I got decaf - Ugh!)  Anyway, we pull up to the drivethru window at McDonalds and she is in the back in her carseat listening to music on the radio.  The woman asks, "may I help you?"  and Ella says, without missing a beat, "Small coffee, one cream, one splenda."  Turns out, that is exactly what I wanted and I didn't even have to open my mouth!
• Ella has been relating the idea of time to baseball innings.  I have no idea how she is doing this, but she is always dead on.  Erik was watching a Phillies game the other night when she asked him to "turn off the TV please."  (she does that now)  He said, "Oh, it is almost over" to which she replied, "How many innings are left?"  She knew that he was watching a baseball game.  Amazing.  We were on our way to my parents the other night and I told her that we were almost there, about 10 minutes to go.  "Two more innnings!" she yells.  And when we were almost to my friend Angie's house the other day, I said, "we are 2 minutes away honey" and she yells, "We are in the last inning!"  I just sit back and laugh sometimes!!  I would love to know how her mind works.
• I took her to my OB appointment last week and explained to her, as she sat in her stroller with a sucker, that I would be talking with my Dr. and would appreciate if she just sat there quietly and enjoyed her sucker.  She asked me, totally seriously, "Is your Dr. going to say No more monkeys jumping on the bed?  Cuz that is what the Dr. in my song says."  I nearly wet my pants.
• When the Democratic National Convention was on TV, I was watching Bill Clinton speak one night and Ella was sitting on the floor playing with her toys.  I never talked to her about what I was watching and she never said a word about the TV being on.  Later, as I was rocking her to sleep, she took out her paci and exclaimed, "I'm such a Democrat!"  I said, "oh really?  well who do you want to be the next president?"  She thinks for a minute and replies, "Well...Barack Obama, mama!"  How could I argue?  She has her mind made up.  (I secretly think it is just because his name is so darn fun to say!!)
• She can spell her first and last name, tell you her complete address as well as her phone number.  (minus the area code...we are still working on that!)
• We have a little neighborhood ice cream place that we love and recently they featured pumpkin ice cream which Ella and I just adored.  Before they closed for the season the other night, we got some and she proclaimed, "this is the best pumpkin ice cream I have ever seen!"  It was so cute. 
• She will sit in the family room and play with her toys that we have in baskets on the floor.  She reached in a basket and found a pair of shakers that she got as a gift on her first birthday and said, "Ooh, these are my old school shakers!"  Erik and I just looked at each other...neither of us had ever called them that before. 
• She will go into a total "mocking mommy" routine that is pretty hilarious.  She will be on the couch or sitting on the floor and then out of nowhere, she will start with, "Oh, my aching back!"  or "This baby is kicking me right in the ribs!"  My personal favorite has been, "Jeez, I need to get my feet up...NOW!"  Do I really complain and moan these things??  I must not even realize it at times...oops!   Leave it to your two year old to keep you honest.
• Ella loves to name her cousins and the friends that she loves.  She will all of the sudden get this huge smile on her face and name someone that she is thinking of right at that second.  Lately it has been our good friends from Pittsburgh that we miss dearly.  She will sit and smile and say, "Hey Ava...Hey Luce...I am thinking about you my good friends!"  It is very sweet and sincere.
• We were in my bedroom the other day and I was just watching her walk from my dresser to my bedside table, without holding on to anything.  She got to my table and reached up to feel what was on it.  She touched my library book and said, "Mommy's library book - don't rip the pages!"  Then she grabbed my chapstick and said "My lips are chapped.  I love lip gloss!"  She got my bottle of contact solution next and said, "I've got to put my contacts on now!"
• I will leave you with something she just said today that still blows my mind.  We were in the kitchen and I opened the medicine cabinet and the bottle of Tylenol came flying out at me.  "Ooh, you've got medicine, " she said, because she knows what a bottle of pills sounds like.  She then proceeded to tell me, "I'm allergic to amoxicillin."  I almost did not believe my ears...but then I realized that she was just remembering that the Dr. had told us months ago that she is indeed allergic to amoxicillin.  Ok then.  How am I supposed to respond to that??!!  I said, "Yes...yes, you are honey" and she went back to smiling and eating her fruit snacks like any old two year old.