Party Time!

Last night, Ellie had yet another birthday party to go to. My Godson, Niko, turned two yesterday, and we ventured over to Kim's house after work for some pizza and cake and gift-opening.

It was quite the full house, 8 adults and 4 kids in a one-bedroom apartment. And yet, since we all knew each other, it was cozy and fun instead of cramped and uncomfortable.

I got to see my ex-in-laws, which is nice because I pretty much got along with them when I was married to their son. That hasn't changed in all these years. It's nice to see them every so often, and because I'm Niko's Godmother, I guess I'm still kinda part of the family.

I also got to see Adrienne, a friend and co-worker of Kim's I became friends with myself a few years ago. She's 5 months pregnant, and it was fun talking the "pregnancy talk", especially seeing as I was not the one with the bun in the oven. Heh heh.

The kids had a blast last night, and for the first time, I didn't need to hover over Ellie. This is mainly because she and Niko are so close in age that Kim's place is virtually Ellie-proof. It's a nice change from dodging fireplace pokers and carpet tack strips when we visit my mom at her house or the stairs o'doom (as I call them) at my sister's house. Ellie walked in like she owned the joint and proceeded to play with every single one of Niko's toys while we were there. She interacted with the other kids, charmed all the adults, and managed to get a dinner of M&M's and cake frosting instead of the usual healthy stuff. Can you say "Mommy's a sucker?" Ellie can; she repeated it after I said it the other day. I wish I had gotten that on tape.

She's really coming into her own. She's "grown up" a lot the past couple of weeks. We notice a huge change and milestone every few months, and approaching 2.5 years old is definitely one of them for Miss Ellie. Her speech and vocabulary is definitely improving. And that makes me happy.

For his birthday, we got Niko these cool wooden stacking cubes with animals painted on them by Melissa and Doug, and I got him this awesome t-shirt here:

It hasn't arrived yet, but I can't wait to give it to him. I ordered one for Ellie, too, of course.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening.