March 16th was a sunny, warm day so we took Ella outside and played for a bit. While we were out there, I grabbed the rake and shovel and went to town on a very messy little flower garden in our yard. While Dan and I were pulling all the dead stuff and weeds, Ella decided to help us out. She was quietly playing in the dirt. Next thing we know, we look up and she has a mouthful of dirt! My first though was, "Ewe!" my next was "Go get the camera!" So that's what we did.

I love how she's trying to pull the dirt out of her mouth!

Of course this is not her last attempt to eat dirt. A few weeks later I was weeding that same little flower garden, with Ella of course. She mostly just crawled around and played in the yard, but she did like my little shovel so she came to "help" me dig out the weeds. I was trying to keep my eyes out so she didn't repeat eating the dirt; but geez louise, that girl is quick as lightening. In a matter of seconds she had a handful of dirt and into the mouth it went. Bummer was, dead camera battery so no pics. Well, last Saturday the 15 (May) we were out weeding the disaster behind our garage. Ella was crawling around, playing with the weeds, just having a grand old time. Dan and I were talking about how you would think she would learn her lesson, that dirt doesn't taste good. She sat right by us helping to pull the weeds (really she was just flipping dirt everywhere, but that was fine). She was playing so good, we both thought, "Well, maybe she did decide it was yucky." Nope. A moment later there she is with a HUGE handful of dirt into the mouth, and I mean huge! She couldn't get it out of her mouth it was so much. And of course it instantly turned into mud so it stuck every where. We ended up opening her sippy cup and pouring water out of the side of her mouth to wash it out. It was hilarious. Maybe she learned her lesson now? I doubt it. :)