you say yes, i say no

so in just a day elenora has learned where her zipper is and how to shake her head "no"--which she finds to be so incredibly amusing, and which i also find amusing as i nod my head and say "yes, yes, yes" and she shakes her head back at me with a huge grin.

it's amazing to see the joke in her eyes. she gets it: some things are plainly funny.

i just want to say that she is the most fun person to hang out with. i love every minute i get to spend with her and genuinely enjoy being on the floor crawling around with her and watching her precious brain at work.

j. was home this afternoon, so when she got up from her nap and i got home from work, we took the stroller to the park and pushed ella on the swings. she gets this huge smile every time she's in the swing, but also likes to look out across the playground and see the other children playing. i always feel young at the playground because most of the other mothers in this area have children much later than i did. the mother pushing the baby next to me said "and this must be your first of course."

i've been having such fun being back at work this week. someone else surprised my supervisor by placing a plant in his office and i jokingly suggested that "Dwight" had left it for him (he's been watching my bobble head while i was away) and he assumed that meant that i gave him the plant...which has been so much fun to play up by just telling him truthfully over and over that i didn't give him the plant. it's even better that the plant turned out to be poisonous and in the top 25 for most demanding houseplants. it's the best prank i never played on him.

i love work. i love home. how can i have it so good?

oh, and tonight after elenora's tubby she got exasperated with how long it was taking me to get her jammies on (can you believe that i sometimes call my own pajamas "jammies" now, too? oy vey), and she started protesting loudly with a wail that was basically "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" over and over.

i'll take it.

ella crawling

here is the video of elenora crawling for the first time on her hands and knees:

since being home, she's really been so happy and she's been crawling all over the place. she's followed me into the kitchen from the living room, and she pushes her toys out into the open space and rolls them around on the hardwood floors.

if you ask elenora where "outside" is, she will look out any window in the room.

today she was waving "bye-bye" for the first time.

she has this new smile. it's so cute. kind of a "say cheese" smile.

k. and i went out to celebrate her birthday the other night. we walked to an authentic mexican restaurant and had this amazing fish and guacamole and beer. then we took a walk by the ocean since it was such a mild night. she's coming over to watch The Office tonight. she hasn't seen the finale yet, and i need to see it again.

ella and i just got in from playing in the grass outside of our building. she climbs a bit. she likes to pull herself up if i'm laying down and she stands with just my leg for support. i was holding my keys up in the air and she was pulling herself up, holding on with one hand, and reaching up and grabbing them with the other.

momby is watching elenora three days a week this summer, and j. is watching her one day. i love that she can be with her family so much. she has such a close bond with them.

oh, and she's eating cheddar cheese. there's a product of a vermonter for you.

word recognition

elenora knows the difference between the questions "where are your feet?" and "where are mommy/daddy's feet?"

we've been chilling today. just enjoying each other and our home. i'm so happy to be here. ella has been so happy and napping so beautifully without crying. which is a relief, since i'd started to worry that my happy-go-lucky, independent baby who has been sleeping so well had had a personality shift that could not be repaired due to the trauma of being schlepped across the country.

it's nice to see she'll go back to being herself.

now that i have a nice new car, i'm not going to drive anywhere.

back home again

we're back where we belong and the baby's in her bed. it was an easy day of driving, but we couldn't get home fast enough. it is so good to see j. again. ella was so precious in his arms and just was so excited to see all of her little toys and her room and all of the things that are so familiar to her. she just couldn't contain her joy.

so here's how the last few days have gone:

we left aunt m.'s on wednesday and went to uncle s.'s in IA.

elenora had just gotten used to her new surroundings and so she was terribly upset when we were in a new location again. she cried so hard wednesday night and then woke up an hour and a half later to pass a very hard bowel movement (ouch!). then during the night she woke up and cried for an hour. it was so sad.

thursday we traveled to naperville IL, but stopped at aunt m.'s house in Atlantic IA. it was my first time meeting this eldest sister of momby's and we had a lovely lunch.

visiting with my uncle d. and his family was wonderful. j. is getting married in just about two weeks. she's so young (22) and neither of them have a job. it seems a bit crazy and all but they're super in love and have been together for years. we all stayed up late having tuna salad and creamy tomato and red pepper soup. j. and i talked about her upcoming wedding.

friday we left for cleveland. it was a fairly short day of driving, so it wasn't too bad. saturday we traveled to the fingerlakes of NY. so beautiful there. this morning we stopped in the town of skaneateles on one of the finger lakes and we walked around and got coffees. i want to live there. it was just so beautiful and peaceful. i'm going to do some research about jobs there and the cost of living.

we arrived home around 5.

j. and i just watched The Office season finale and had local pizza. so good.

babababa

last night during ella's bedtime routine i asked her "where is your baba?" and she looked around and found the bottle and smiled and reached for it. then while i was giving it to her she started saying "ba-ba-ba-ba" with a huge smile on her face. i really believe she knows what she's saying.

this morning she was saying "ba-ba-ba" over and over. she woke up so pleasant. so much more like the elenora i know. all smiles and happiness. she let c. hold her and she ate applesauce and whole grain bread for breakfast at the table with everyone.

we leave today for momby's brother's house in IA. tomorrow we head to my uncle's in IL. that will be a very long day of driving. but i can't wait to see my cousin, who is about to get married.

when i ask elenora where her grandma is, she smiles and looks for momby and then smiles when she sees her. she definitely has a lot of word recognition now.

i've just had the best time here visiting with j.'s family. they are all so nice. there have been three babies crawling/walking around. i hope to come back again at least in the next year sometime.

we'll be home in four days. amazing. i can't wait to see j. elenora and i are not going anywhere for months. we're just going to stay at home and be boring and routine and normal.

j. and i will have the same exact car. same year. same make. same color! although, he calls his "grey" and i've always thought of his car as somewhat tan-ish. at least pewter. so his car can be "grey" and mine will be tan/pewter.

i forgot to mention in my last blog that WY has a smaller population than VT. really.

midway

we're in NE. i looked on the map and it said that the most central town in all of the U.S. is right below where we are now.

we've been taking a break from the driving. last wednesday we left d.'s house and went to momby's cousin's house. if i'd not gotten lost on my way, elenora would have slept the whole car ride. but i accidentally had the gps set to take me to my final destination via the place i really wanted to go, so it took me right past and suddenly i found i was going to spokane. i had to back track through rush hour traffic, and ella woke up and started crying and it was stressful.

i'm sick, too.

but jeanette and gene were so nice to me and i got elenora a tubby and put her to bed and then went to bed early myself. in the morning momby was there and i was just so thankful to see her. after taking care of ella and lorien and helping my brother with things i just wanted someone to take care of me. plus, my clingy baby loves her grandma, so it was nice to be able to leave ella with someone while i walked out of a room.

here we are just before starting on our journey across america (notice my new car!):

thursday we left for spokane. first we went through the cascade mountain range where we lunched in the middle of a ski resort in a restaurant with snow just piling off the roof. gorgeous.

the middle part of WA is pretty empty, but towards idaho it got very lovely. we stopped semi-frequently so that elenora could have breaks and crawl around. j. got me a picnic blanket for mother's day that was so wonderful to take breaks on.

we got to the hotel after ella should have been in bed, so momby and i just ate our dinner in the hallway outside of our room so that elenora could sleep.

friday we traveled from spokane to montana, via idaho. it was so gorgeous. we saw huge mountains with snow on them and there was this incredible view in coeur d'alene ID with a lake in the valley of these pretty mountains. we lunched at a small burger joint where we set out the blanket on the side of the parking lot in the grass.

montana looked exactly as i'd always pictured it in my head. there were wide open grassy areas with large grassy hills and then huge mountains with snow in the distance.

we stayed in gardiner MT for the night at a lovely hotel with a beautiful view of the mountains. and elenora crawled for the first time on her hands and knees! just took right off. she must have been so happy to not be in the car.

saturday we had a long day of traveling that started with us going straight through yellowstone from the northern entrance to the southern entrance. we saw buffalo, deer, a bear, a wolf, a moose and antelope. the sights were just amazing. we were up so high and could see so far. there were hot springs and waterfalls and frozen lakes and thawed lakes that reflected the pine trees and snowy caps.

we lunched at a really nice lodge at the end of yellowstone where we had the soup and salad bar and let ella crawl about. i got her a little stuffed animal bear to remember the trip by.

we continued through wyoming for the entire day. WY is such a strange state. it is vast and barren, with different scenery around each bend in the road. we saw tall mountains with snow and flat open spaces that were kind of like deserts. the land is really not good for farming there. we saw large sandstone plateaus and lots of cattle.

there are miles and miles with no towns, and then the towns you come across are so small they look like ghost towns. there appears to be much poverty in WY. there is a lot of land, but the homes are trailers and shacks. we had to stop in Rawlins for the night. very sketchy. i woke up around 4 am having had a terrible nightmare, and i just kept expecting someone to break into our room and murder us.

we lived, of course.

here's ella in Rawlins. i couldn't put her on the floor because it was sticky.





sunday we had a long day of driving (12 hours) since we didn't make it to cheyenne the day before. elenora was such a good little girl the whole trip. we kept her entertained and tried to make sure she got naps. for lunch we picnicked in the grass and had wendy's and some ice cream.





then we made it all the way to lincoln NE by 8:30 pm. we were so happy to pull in here and to see momby's family and to just know that we can now relax for a few days without going anywhere in the car.


poor elenora was a mess yesterday morning. i think she's just so thrown off and also overtired from losing sleep each night. between the time change and the napping in the car and getting into hotels late at night, it's been very strange for her. but after a good morning and afternoon nap, she was much more pleasant and ready to enjoy seeing her cousins.










oh, and c. is here, and her children! and we're having so much fun. c. is so amazing and i'm so blessed to have her friendship. we just get along so well. i feel so comfortable here. we took the children to the park yesterday afternoon and i pushed ella in the swing. c. and i walked last night after the kids were in bed, and then we sat with momby and aunt m. until midnight just talking and laughing.


yesterday when ella started to cry at one point i said "elenora, where is mommy's button?" which is a question i've never asked her before. she immediately stopped crying and looked down at my sweater and grabbed my button!!! now i hadn't mentioned my button to her that day. she just knew i was wearing a sweater that had a button. what a smart baby. also, when i pretend to call her on her toy phone, she stops and listens and then makes little talking noises into the mouth piece. she also knows what to look for when i ask her where her duck, bunny lovey, cody, big ball and "mary had a little lamb" are. i can't believe how much she can comprehend. oh, and she knows where her feet are and if i'm lying on my belly and have my feet up behind me and ask her where mommy's feet are, she knows that too.


brilliant little girl.


everyone says she looks like j. i don't mind. he's a cutie.


today we're just chilling. elenora has been a sweetheart. she's napping now.

my clingy baby

so elenora is having a really difficult time being away from home. poor little girl. she is usually very independent, but the past few days i can barely even put put her down without her falling apart. she's pretty happy as long as i'm holding her, but i'm pretty worn out. luckily she is sleeping very well for naps and then 12 hours every night. i'm looking forward to momby arriving tomorrow night and helping me out. maybe her presence will make elenora feel as if we haven't completely abandoned her life as we've known it until now.

the movers are here packing everything up. we've been displaced. ella is in the office. tonight we'll be sleeping at some friends' house. tomorrow we drive to seattle in my new car.

it's the newest car i've ever owned. and the third car i've been given. i'm pretty blessed that way.

i've been able to take good walks around here with lorien and elenora. there's a sweet little park where i pushed them both on the swings. last night i mowed the lawn and then weed-whacked the edges. it's been years since i've mowed a lawn, so that was a lot of fun.

i can't believe this trip has only just begun. over a week and a half until we'll be home again. i miss j. a lot. every time he's on the phone and i hold it to ella's ear and say "ella, it's daddy!" she just smiles and listens as he says sweet things to her.

i'm trying to keep as much of her routine the same as i can. same stuffed animals as home, same songs as home, same stories, same routine. but i know she's just feeling so displaced. when i think of it, she really only regularly goes to three familiar places back home: our house, her gramby's house, and e.'s house. otherwise, we're very much homebodies. i try to protect her schedule as much as possible.

it's kicking me in the A right now. but she's sleeping well!

cross country

so elenora and i are in WA state! we left friday night from b-town. ella was so good on the plane. she was so interested in everything. even though it was after her bedtime when we took off, she just smiled at everyone and looked around. at first they had us in the middle of two seats, but they switched it up so that we could have two seats to ourselves. it was the last row, though, so i couldn't recline. i just held elenora the entire flight except for about a half hour where she fell asleep and i put her on the empty seat next to me. but mostly she did sleep for the entire flight, and was so cute falling asleep in my arms. she just snuggled down and let her eyes slowly close. in the middle of the flight she woke up and was looking around. we were following the sun, so she was looking out the window and then saying "oh!" and looking at me like "do you see this mom?!" she thought it was pretty cool. i don't know how she knew it was so cool. ella probably only cried for about a minute total during the flight.

when we arrived in seattle it was 10:00 pm local time. so it was one in the morning for us. elenora was so interested though that she was very pleasant. my brother and his family picked us up (their first time meeting ella!) and my niece entertained elenora for at least an hour (she had her laughing in the first ten minutes). but with all the excitement ella had a hard time falling asleep and by the time we got to d.'s house she was crying very hard. i put her straight to bed and she slept until 6:04 am local time.

she wakes up at 6:04 am at home, too. how's her biological clock?

we played around and she got a good morning nap (two and a half hours) and then we went out to lunch in Burlington, WA, at a really yummy italian restaurant. ella sat in the high chair and ate gerber "sugar" puffs, as j. calls them. she's amazingly good at picking them up with her finger and thumb and putting them right in her mouth. we all went to a children's museum afterwards and played in the toddler area with the blocks and things. it was a lot of fun, but it really got in the way of elenora's afternoon nap time. by the time we headed home it was almost 4 pm and she was exhausted. she fell asleep sweetly for a little while, but then woke up for the last ten minutes of the car ride and just cried. she hasn't cried this hard in a long time, so i know she's having a hard time with the time adjustment.

i started her bedtime routine right away. she had a good dinner, but at tubby time i blew up a duck tub that d. picked up for this trip and elenora was just terrified of it. she refused to have a tubby. i felt so horrible. i just put her jammies on her and nursed her and put her to bed. poor baby. i'll have to figure out what to do about the tub.

after ella went to bed my brother and i went for a walk. this area is just so gorgeous. you can see the sound from their house (a large body of water with large land masses rising out of it and huge mountains covered in snow in the distance). it is more summer here than it was at home--foliage-wise. we walked to the water and down along the beach on the rocks. i can't wait to take elenora outside today.

this morning she woke up at 6:06 am local time. we played with toys and with lorien and elenora was crawling after the cat. she's down for a nap now. i'm skipping church because i just feel like it's more important for elenora to get a normal schedule again, and church was right in the middle of her morning nap. she really loves her routine, and it's so disruptive when she's thrown off it. i'm finding i just have to really protect that.

so, we're good. the flight is behind us. we get a few days to relax and see the beauty of this area and visit with family. then momby arrives next wednesday and we're like a boomerang back across the country.

first word???

i don't know if this counts, but tonight when i gave elenora her "ba-ba," which is what we call her bottle before bed, she started saying "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba" while patting the bottle with her hand!

i'm not making this up.

isn't she a genius?!

j. quotes.

the other night i had k. over to watch The Office and we made tofu and veggie curry with wild rice. so of course j. decided he had to order himself something "tasty" from downtown. for some reason he can't just eat veggies.

as he was leaving the apartment to go to a friend's house he asked to borrow my car. my keys were in my purse, so as he sifted through he came across a couple tampons and asked, "oh, nice! are these mints?"

friday night we had friends over who we haven't seen in a long time. i served cheese and crackers and carrot sticks as a snack. just now as j. watched the celtics in game seven i brought out celery and carrot sticks and blue cheese dressing. as j. ate the celery he gave me this kind of grossed out look and said "vegetables." and i asked him what he had against vegetables. he replied, "well the other night i ate them when b. and a. were over and you brought out carrot legs."

hopefully elenora will continue to like vegetables as she grows.

we leave friday for our trip. i've started packing. so much to remember. i'm nervous and excited, and can't wait to see everyone.

next sunday is mother's day. i'll be in WA with my brother.