What a weekend!

I love long weekends. And my weekend was a blissful four days!

Ellis and I spent Friday morning with some baby and mommy friends in the park. It is always so awesome to spend time with our mom friends. It's very grounding.

Friday afternoon I took Ellis to the doctor to check out some spots on his leg. She thought they might be bruises that hadn't healed right (I was terrified she'd think we'd been hurting him) and she ordered a blood test. It slowly dawned on me what that meant - it means the same thing as it does for us... rubber band around the arm, needle in, etc. Yuck. It turned into a bit of a saga because not everyone is prepared to take blood from a squirmy baby. We eventually got help from two very nice pediatric hospital nurses and got it taken care of Saturday morning. I was so proud of Ellis. He howled his head off which is exactly what he should do when people hold him down and hurt him. But he recovered pretty quickly with breakfast out in a restaurant with cool light fixtures, ceiling fans, and a dog - three of his absolute favorite things!

Having blood drawn was a pretty scary experience for us. In the end, it was all okay. But it certainly brought about many worrying thoughts like "what if the results are bad? what if this is just the beginning of a really tough road?" And I had to question my own judgement too. I was confident the spots weren't bruises so I wasn't convinced a blood test would show anything. But how do you decide whether to follow your gut or the doctor's advice? It was a reminder to ask many questions. But all in all, my choice was absolutely ok.

Ellis rebounded incredibly quickly because on Saturday afternoon he crawled for the first time. He's been scooting around on his tummy for a few weeks now but on Saturday he pulled his knees under himself and truly crawled - just two steps. But then, he did it again on Sunday! And on Sunday he went four steps! Way to go Ellis!

Sunday morning Bryan and I had a brunch date while Ellis stayed home with a babysitter. So nice for us and fun for him! Sunday afternoon we had some friends over to BBQ and Ellis rode a plastic car for the first time. He loved it!

And then Monday we were incredibly lazy but treated ourselves to a nice brunch. Ellis would tell you the highlight was the bread. Bryan and I were thrilled Ellis was calm and happy and we are still talking about the berry tart.

So much to look forward to in the coming weekends! Friends visiting from Hawaii, playdates, street fairs, sign language class, berry picking, a wedding in SF, grandparent visits, and a group birthday party!