opinions

elenora is voicing her thoughts with emphasis. frequent thoughts include stating "all done!" and answering "'kay" when asked if she wants to do something.


me: "want to read a book?"


ella: "'kay."

on friday i prepared ella all day for her sleepover at "mam-aws"...to the point that after her afternoon snack she was standing by the door saying "mam-aw! mam-aw! mam-aw!" it put my mind at ease to know that i didn't have to feel like she thought we were abandoning her for the night.


j. and i had a lovely valentine's dinner. a full bottle of riesling, this gorgeous cauliflower soup with poached mussels, lobster risotto, steak and duck...and banana cake with cream cheese frosting and sauteed bananas...mmm.


yesterday morning elenora and i got out to play. the snow that had accumulated has now dwindled to the edges of the driveway and a few patches in the shade. it is so nice to see the flattened, frozen grass and to know that it will soon be green and thick. it's still very cold up here, but at least we can go outside and run around and push the tyke trike. the sunshine feels amazing.


j. had a concert yesterday afternoon, and he really was hopeful that ella and i would come. it was in a town about 45 minutes away, so it took some effort, but elenora and i walked into the upper balcony about halfway through. she didn't really want to sit and watch after sitting in her car seat for so long, but there was a good amount of room up there where we could walk around and sit on the floor looking at books and listening to the music without bugging anyone. she was so good. though randomly she would suddenly start loudly saying "bubba! bubba! bubba!" (meaning, i want/have my bunny lovey) or she would say "ella! ella! ella!" after putting a necklace around her neck. j. said he could hear her. oh well. her favorite toy was the door to the auditorium, which she was enjoying opening and walking through, in and out, in and out. again, it was the type of situation that didn't really bother other people, so it worked out okay. i know j. was so pleased to see us.
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the concert ended at 5:30 pm, which is right around ella's tubby time. but we decided to go out to eat dinner as a family at ihop. i got ministrone soup for ella, which she dragged bubba through a few times. but she was very good and so cute. we don't really ever eat as a family since she eats at 5 most nights. so it was very special. she was an angel all the way home even though i didn't get her into bed before 8 pm... 1 and a half hours after she usually goes to bed!


today at work i started training e.'s replacement. i think she will be great, though it's taking a lot of time to coordinate with the other team leaders in order to get all the work completed. not everyone is as conscientious about getting the work done as elizabeth and i are, so it is really requiring a lot of me to stay on top of things. once j. is trained i think things will be fine again.