it looked like spilt milk...

elenora got the babysitter all to herself today. e. decided to keep penelope home with her grandmother, so ella got all the attention she desired... which is a lot right now while she's teething. when s. got here it had just stopped raining and was sort of mild out, so i told her that she could take ella out for a walk if she liked. when i got home s. said she'd taken elenora out and they'd had such a good walk. when s. left, it was sunny out, so i took elenora out for another walk around the neighborhoods. she chewed on my thumb the whole way and jabbered on and on as we walked. i conversed along with her--imagining that she was telling me about all of the things she was seeing, smelling, and hearing. she gets so happy when we're outside. the earth smelled wet, like dead leaves and spring, and we could hear the birds and there were wind chimes in someone's yard. the breeze was blowing nicely and there were huge puffy clouds in the sky that "looked like spilt milk" as one of ella's books says.

i get so happy when we're outside, too.

the other night when k. was over she was playing with ella on the play mat and she was putting "clarence" (a little stuffed animal lion) on ella's head and asking "where's clarence?" then clarence would fall off her head. by the third time, ella was tipping her head to drop clarence off. by the fifth time ella was dipping her head in expectation of clarence being placed on her head. it was so amazing how well she got the gist of the game. she laughed, too, as the lion fell off her head.

she's so amazingly smart.

elenora likes to touch our faces now. sometimes i'll wake up in the morning and she's staring right at me with her hand out-stretched by my nose or cheek. she also likes to pass her fingers through my hair.

during bathtime now, she's figuring out that the water is fun. i take the little water scoop and pour down a stream of water onto her belly, and she really likes to reach for that. then after the bath she always turns around on my lap as i dry her off and faces the tub to look at her bathtub. she likes for me to pour the water out and to watch it swirl down the drain.

ella is getting impatient with changing times. she starts fake crying as soon as i pull her onesy over her head and try to pull her arms through. i know it's fake crying because it can stop on a dime if i sing "itsy bitsy spider" or pick her up.






tonight she was turning the knob on the jack-in-the-box all by herself.


her favorite book is still "too much noise." she sits through that story better than any other, though she also loves a book of "mary had a little lamb" because there is a soft lamb head on each page of the story. she thinks that is so cool.


i think she is so cool. what do i know. i'm just her mother.