Daddy's Little Girl

This is Tony, substituting for Shannon.

Welcome to the world, Ella Cate Balloon. You were born on February 15, 2011 at 5:20pm. 6lbs, 3oz and 19in long. You and Mommy are doing great. Your brothers are excited to have a little sister. As for me, everyone warned me that you would have me wrapped around your little finger in no time. Everyone was right -- four-plus years of blogging and this is the first blog post I ever have written. Mommy thinks I am blogging as a favor to her, but you and I both know better . . .

Getting Ready for Ella

Ella will arrive any day now, and her nursery is ready and waiting for her. It is, of course, all pink. But it also coordinates with our much-loved yellow glider in which I nursed each of my boys for over a year. It holds lots of memories, and I'm glad I'll get to use it with her too.

















And a few months ago Susan's (Mima's) friends threw me a baby shower. The reason the closet and drawers of Ella's room are so full is in part because of the shower, and in part because of a good friend who has handed down all of her daughter's baby clothes. I have bought some things, of course, but really not much thanks to the generosity of these lovely ladies and other friends and family members who have given us gifts.










While in Gainesville for the shower, the boys got to take a bubble bath, Grayson went to a Gator basketball game, and we had nice family dinners.

Rock Climbing Party!

Today we took a few of Grayson's friends rock climbing to celebrate his 6th birthday. The kids had a great time and Max had fun watching them and climbing and sliding on a rock dinosaur. We topped off the day with a Mario Brothers birthday cake, and Grayson's 6th birthday was now complete.





To see many more photos, click on this one:



And for the singing of "Happy Birthday," click here:

Untitled from Shannon on Vimeo.