toys

elenora is really opening up to the world now. she smiles at everyone who comes to see her and reaches out for things like the couch pillows and her lime green stroller. today i put her in her stroller and then decided to show her various toys and see if she's interested in them yet. she was so focused on each toy i showed her and wanted to touch them all. mostly rattles, but her favorite toy of the day was a cloth book with lots of patterns and colors. which i should have known because the couch pillows really are her best friends right now. when we got back from vermont she looked over at them and smiled as if to say "oh good, you're still here." and one time she was staring at one of them for a long time trying to trace the flower patterns and she turned her head and saw the other pillow and she whipped her head back to the first one as if the world couldn't get any better. there are TWO pillows! amazing.

she sat for a good long time touching the cloth book and feeling it crinkle in her hands and noticing the textured rubber corners.

now i know what to get her for christmas.

i tried to take her christmas shopping yesterday. it was a disaster. v. said in her message that just one hour can throw off the entire schedule for the day, and she was so right. s. arrived to go shopping with me after ella had only had an hour long morning nap. she usually naps two or three hours in the morning. i fed her and put her in the car and she cried. as we walked around the mall i hoped she'd just fall asleep in her babybjorn. but she's too social and interested in the world now to fall asleep with that much chaos going on around her. she just got more and more tired and started crying and then pretty much screaming. i nursed her in two different store dressing rooms hoping she'd sleep. no such luck. poor s. went into vicky's secret to get something sexy for her to wear for her husband for christmas and she didn't get to buy anything because elenora was just screaming so loud. (some store clerk tried to help me and i said "yeah, do you have anything sexy i could nurse in?")

when we got home s. came up to nurse her own baby and to let aurora crawl around before getting into the car again to go home. that unfortunately kept ella up even longer so that by the time i lay down with her to nurse her off to sleep it was four in the afternoon. poor baby.

but then she did sleep for a good three hours and i made italian sausage tomato sauce for spaghetti and then j. and i got to go to his basketball game while Gramby babysat. after the game, which j. won, three of his high school friends from the team came over to watch the tape and eat snacks. gramby had put ella to bed so i got to hang with the boys and just have a fun evening.

tonight k. and i are trying for a girls' night with The Office and garlic veggie pizza.

we'll see.