road trip

elenora and i went to vermont. j. needed some peace and quiet at home to counteract all of the stress he was facing at work, so ella and i got into my two door, 1992 nissan sentra and headed up to my parents' house last wednesday. she was so good in the car. just slept the entire drive. her mimi and poppy were so excited to see her, and she was such a sweet girl the entire trip.







she's started smiling at everybody. she smiled at my folks and also at c., who i spent time with on saturday, and m., who i stopped by to visit at the nursing home.



a. came by with naomi so that the girls could meet. it's so amazing to think that a. and i were only five years older than our girls are now when we met. i get to be "aunt b." again.





mom and i spent our time cooking while ella napped and shopping when ella was awake. and dad joined us in playing yahtzee in the evenings. elenora actually loved watching us play, and would stand on my lap watching for over an hour without being cranky.

the sleeping wasn't a problem. every time ella got tired i would take her right up to the guest bed and lay down next to her and nurse her off to sleep. that way when she was asleep i could just slip away and not have to worry about putting her down and startling her awake. it works well. she sleeps for two or three hours per nap, too, so i get to do stuff during that time.

c. and i went to a vermont holiday crafts fair at a local college. i love going to those things in vermont because everything is so unpretentious. around here people would charge three times as much because things looked homemade and country. up there the things just are homemade and country and everyone charges unbelievably low prices. i bought a gorgeous green scarf, a little handmade teddybear for ella, and some hot sauces and pickled garlic. i ran into my high school drama teacher, and all she could talk about was the theater department reunion coming up. she seemed to think it's the greatest thing in the world and that of course everybody who was ever in drama would be excited to come... i guess i've just moved on. high school drama seems very far from my world now.

my drive home was good. ella slept for two hours and then woke up as we passed the concord rest stop, so we stopped and i nursed her in the back of the car. then we drove the rest of the way and she slept again. what a darling.





j. was so happy to see us. he said that while we were gone he had peace and quiet, but that ella and i are his joy.