trick or treat

halloween was so much fun. elenora was the cutest little butterfly ever.

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we had quite the busy day. first e. stopped by in the morning to see us. then s. came to babysit. after work h. stopped by to play, and then we went to gordon to see momby. we ate in lane, which was so bizzare. it has really been years since i've been in there, and to sit there with elenora on my lap was just kind of funny. there's a new snack shop where a conference room used to be, and its architecture is made to look like a british pub. really, i almost expected to see pints of lager. unfortunately not, though.

when we got home one of our apartment house neighbors was outside of our building handing out candy. i took ella over to experience the whole candy thing. adorable. then i saw our neighbors rosie and emma across the street who i met the other day. so we went over and said hi and let ella pick a milky way out of the bucket. she was so excited by it all.

it gave me joy to be able to give her this experience.

momby came over later and j. and i got to go out to dinner, which was a lovely surprise. we went to weathervane, and we were sat in the same seats we sat in the night we got engaged.

a nice treat, to say the least.

puma

elenora seems to say more words every day. she tries very hard to say everything from "tea" to "teeth" to "kitty." so verbal. it's amazing. and she's walking between pieces of furniture--taking three or four steps to get where she wants to go.
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she was sick on monday. fever, runny nose. just miserable. by tuesday she was down to a simple runny nose. today j. was sick. i went to work during ella's nap times. right now i'm so tired. i've been going all day--either working or watching elenora. i usually get a couple hours during one of her naps to just get stuff done as well as recharge with some downtime.


k. is coming over tonight to chill and watch The Office (and Smallville, my guilty pleasure viewing). she's bringing red wine and tapas. thank god.


here are some photos for h. she and j. got ella this puma outfit for her birthday. it's one of our favorites. so cute.
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she's still enjoying wearing her butterfly antenna around the house... check out her sweetie feet.

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notice how her toys are taking over our living room? i always said i wouldn't be the type of parent to let my kids do that... never say never...

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this smile was for j. she just loves her dada.

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a funny video

so two nights ago i was feeding elenora dinner and j. had gone out to a violin concert. ella was thinking of him and kept saying "dadadadadadadadda" and when i finally got the camera, here's what she did:

my butterfly

elenora's halloween costume arrived today in the mail. she absolutely loves it.

13 month pictures

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"daddy" video

when we're out in the yard playing, ella will often point up to our windows and say "dada" because j. sits at the computer and will wave to her. even if he's not there, ella will point up. in this case, she first says "daddy" and then "dada."

ella's kimono

d. and lorien sent elenora a kimono from japan for her birthday. here are the pictures from this morning.

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the card she is holding here is her birthday card from lorien etc. ella loves playing with her birthday cards (even now) and will put them on the coffee table, throw them off the coffee table, open and close them, and kiss the pictures. lorien's card is one of elenora's favorite, though she recently was able to pull the "sweet" medallion off of the front:
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no, she certainly does not look very japanese.

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i like

yesterday elenora noticed the jack-o-lantern decorations hanging from the roof of our neighbor's porch. she liked them a lot and i said they were "jack-o-lanterns" and she started saying "jack" very clearly. now when i point over to the neighbor's house and say "what's over there?" she says "jack."

elenora has learned to sign "i like," which requires taking your hand and almost stroking it down your chest from your heart to your belly. elenora will cuddle up to j. in the morning and say "da-da" and stroke her chest... "i like, i like."

it's so sweet.

we're meeting our neighbors one or two at a time. across the street is rosie and her 11 week old baby emma. down the road is tanya with her daughter sophia, who is just slightly younger than elenora. across the hill is a girl named olivia and her mother. the man across the street who works with animal rescue brought a dog named halo over to meet ella yesterday. i like knowing our neighbors.

"the count of monte cristo" is absorbing. a good fast-paced story with real intrigue. i've already ordered my own copy from amazon.

it's a cloudy wet day. cold. i wouldn't mind this weather if it weren't for elenora. but i feel stuck inside with her. if only it were dry we could still get out.

i packed up the bottles yesterday. put all but one of them away. we haven't used a bottle in weeks. maybe a month even. it's kind of sad to put those away. just another reminder that she is every day moving further away from being a baby.

memory

yesterday h. came over to go for a walk with ella and me at appleton farm. before we left the apartment h. asked elenora "what does daddy do?" which i thought was an odd question. i was wondering "does she want ella to tell her j. is a clinical therapist?" after about thirty seconds ella wrinkled up her nose and sniffed. which is so funny because about two weeks ago j. had allergies and was sniffing a lot and we noticed that every time he sniffed she would copy him. h. was referring to that, but even i didn't remember what she was talking about because we haven't asked ella that question in weeks. i can't believe that elenora remembered that and knew to do that.

also, we have a stack of her birthday cards on the coffee table in the living room, and she likes to pull them off and distribute them around the floor. momby says that a week ago she mentioned maybe once that there was an angel on one of the cards, but yesterday morning she asked ella "which card has an angel on it?" and ella went right over and grabbed it.

what an amazing memory!

at ella's birthday party she still didn't look like she had hair (even though there was a couple inches already). but in this last month her hair has really started to fill out and you can see it very cleary. people still remark "oh, she's a red-head, huh?" when they see her. here's a photo:

baby steps

elenora is taking steps. real steps. not falling towards me steps. she can probably take about four solid steps at a time. we were outside this afternoon before her nap and i kept placing her about three or four feet from me and letting her walk to me and she did so good! i am so proud of her. and she is so pleased with herself, too.

she's also very in to taking things in and out of other things. she has a bus that she can put little people into, and she has a cubic shape sorter with all kinds of blocks, and she spent a lot of time today carefully putting things in and out of both the bus and the cube. it's pretty cool to watch her be so intent on something like that. also, today after her nap she spent a good ten minutes just pulling her binkies out of her crib and throwing them onto the floor, and then picking them up and placing them back into the crib. nice that her attention span and her ability to amuse herself is getting longer.

we went to the library this afternoon. i got myself "the count of monte cristo." it's more pages than "war and peace," although i think the text is a good deal bigger. if i like it i think i'll go to the bookstore and get a used copy of it so i don't have to check it out of the library a million times. there's just no way i can finish 1400 pages in three weeks.

it feels good to have a new book.

blue eyed punka

our family routines

without even trying, j. and i have been establishing some common occurrences in elenora's life.

• every morning when i go to work and j. watches ella, j. takes her for a stroller ride to dunkin donuts for his coffee.

• every afternoon when i get home from work i feed ella her lunch and then take her outside to crawl around and explore the yard for at least a 1/2 hour before her nap.

• we read stories before she is put in her crib, three times a day.

• the 3 most common songs i sing to her are "raindrops keep falling on my head," "somewhere over the rainbow," and "edelweiss."

• on friday mornings i don't leave for work until 11:3o, so i've been making elenora a special breakfast of eggs or pancakes while she sits in her high chair by the counter.

• at 3:30 every afternoon i get elenora out for some sort of special outing: to russell orchard to see the animals, to crane beach to see the seagulls and ocean, to appleton farms, to the library, downtown.

words

elenora is collecting quite a vocabulary. at the birthday party on saturday she was clearly saying "cra-kr" (for "cracker"). she continues to say "bye-bye." she would say "ba-ba" for bottle, except that we've sort of been phasing those out (bring on the sippy cups). "baa-baa" still substitues for "da-da" although sometimes she does manage the "d" sound. "ma-ma," of course. she says "K" for "car" and "truck." she says "oof-oof" for doggy. she says "duck" and "jeans." she says "cl" for clock. she has said "cheese" a couple of times (in context). she said "geese" yesterday. j. thinks she's said "yeah" before. she makes the following animal noises: "cock-a, cock-a" for rooster; "quack" for duck; "oof-oof" for dog; "caw-caw" for bird; "baa-baa" for sheep; "rrrrrraaa" for lion; "mew" (very high-pitched) for cat; and "grrrr" for bear.

today she was walking back and forth between j. and momby and me, taking several steps on her own each time. she's so excited about it.

yesterday we were at russell orchard again. we walked past the refridgerator where they sell cheeses and j. and i were discussing whether or not to get some. ella aparently wanted to put in her two cents, so she pointed to the cheese and very seriously put her hands together in the sign for "more" (which she also uses to mean "i want it"). j. and i laughed pretty hard on that one.

which reminds me... last friday i had a really long day with all of the visitors and cleaning and when j. got home and was spending all his time on the computer i said to him "i've been dealing with everything all day...And now, you have to deal with me."

isn't that the way it goes sometimes?

baby steps?

ella gets closer and closer to walking every day. she kind of took a first step yesterday afternoon while we were outside on the lawn. she stood up next to her trike and then walked/leaned toward me (about two feet). i think she got a good one or two steps in before she was in my arms. she also attempted to walk a few other times yesterday and today. which is a big deal because that means she isn't scared of trying it and is willing to go for it. i have no doubts she'll be walking in the next couple of weeks.

my visit with uncle m. and c. was really good. they arrived late, so i woke ella up to meet them. she was so cute. she got excited over the cheese and cracker platter i had laid out for everyone and she even showed them how she dances (she sort of tips her head and raises her arms and sways side to side). uncle m. brought three little dresses and a pair of red shoes and other presents for ella. so thoughtful of him. he reminds me of my brother a lot. i think they are maybe even the same height and build. definitely much the same temperament. i always sense that my brother is standing next to me when uncle m. is there. funny.

today is penelope's first birthday party. when ella wakes from her morning nap we're going to head over there.

if you ask elenora where she is, she now points to herself as if to say "Me! I'm Ella. Here I am."

spoon-fed

elenora is helping out at the dinner table now. she will pick up her spoon and try to shovel some food onto it. then she is actually pretty good at getting the food into her mouth herself. it is exciting to see her become a bit more self-sufficient. she tries to drink her sippy cup herself, too, though sometimes it is too heavy or she just doesn't tip it up enough to actually get anything.

she's my blueberry fiend lately. she could eat a ton of berries.

k. was over last night and we made butternut squash soup with an almost french onion base. so good.

my uncle m. and his wife are stopping by this afternoon for a visit. i'm not very close with any of my uncles, but since my mom's other two brothers have passed away i think uncle m. is trying to make an effort to involve himself more with my life. i'm really grateful for that, although it's also kind of awkward at the same time. i'm almost thirty years old and he's just now doing this. don't get me wrong--better late than never. i'm happy for the attention and for the fact that he cares to come see ella.

that's a reason i'm so glad that j. and h. live two minutes away. it's so nice to have family around and for elenora to grow up knowing her uncle and aunt (and her gramby) as semi-weekly occurances in her life.

soft? funny? more?

elenora is so close to walking. she barely pulls on my one hand as she walks. today momby says she stood up in the middle of the floor a couple of times without holding onto anything.

she's signing all the time. and snuggling. today we stopped by the toy store and saw a big stuffed animal dog. she tottered over to it and patted it on the head and then leaned her cheek against it.
that's what she does when we say "is it soft, ella?"

she's also affecting a laugh. we'll say "is it funny?" and she starts laughing. super cute. she did that at the park today for the first five minutes on the swings. and she did that yesterday at russell orchard while following a mother duck and her ducklings.

j. and h. are married now. their wedding was a lot of fun. friday we started the day with a brunch at the b's house with all of the family.

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then i worked a few hours before the rehearsal. ella was so adorable at the church in her jammies walking around the sanctuary. k. babysat so i could go to the dinner, and we sat at a table with reverend h. (who married j. and me) and his wife. they also have a 1 year old baby girl. saturday we again had a brunch with the family. i made sure that ella got a good nap in the afternoon. she was a good girl during the ceremony. we sat in the front row and she kept standing on the pew looking back at everyone and waving and smiling. she even ducked her head down and then popped up a couple of times. at one point j. played a violin piece and ella called out "dada" and pointed up to him. h. was gorgeous. she cried during the vows and it was really precious.

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sunday we relaxed and recuperated. we took ella out to breakfast and i shared my eggs and toast with her. it felt good to just chill as a family.

yesterday my mom stopped by for a couple hours to visit. we took ella to the farm and to the ocean. it was a short visit, but nice.