outside

yesterday morning we walked to breakfast downtown with no coats on! (well, actually, j. wore his coat and a winter hat and his basketball pants overtop of his pajamas and was, shall we say, a little bit overdressed.) it was so warm, and all the snow was melting. k. and i went to marblehead while ella napped, and when i got home j. was outside with her in the driveway with the tike trike. she and i stayed out for over a half hour just playing around. it was so lovely to be out. every time i said "do you want to go inside?" she would answer "outside! outside!"

j. and i went to dinner last night with j. and c. half way through our dinner with them they sort of announced that they had split up and c. was moving out next week to go back and live with her parents and pursue her own life. i got all choked up over it. they seem to have come to terms with this, and i know it's been a long time coming...but still, it was difficult. we spent a lot of the dinner talking with them about how they came to this decision and why they were splitting, and according to their standards j. and i should definitely not be married to each other. i found myself saying that if j. and i had lived together before marrying we probably would never have gotten married...but that i'm glad we got married even though there are a lot of things that are really hard. when we got in the car to go home i asked j. "are you glad that we got married?"

this is our first couples-friends who are breaking up. they started dating right around when j. and i started dating. j. has been our primary friend in the couple, but i really do care about c. and it will be so strange to hang out with j. without her.

i took her email address before we left. i really do wish her well.

today is day three of elenora being sick. she started a runny nose on thursday afternoon and has had a fever off and on for a few days now. i woke up with a sore throat yesterday and today.

this morning elenora and i went outside for over an hour. it was a gorgeous day in the 60s or something, and almost all of the snow melted away. elenora and i made a tiny snowman with rocks for eyes, nose, and buttons, and grass for a mouth and bow-tie, and a feather for an arm. ella was enchanted with him. by the afternoon he was a little pile of snow and rocks.

h. and i got out for a long walk around town this afternoon while elenora napped. i showed her more of ipswich, especially over the river and down labor in vain road to this beautiful, hilly area that overlooks the salt marshes. the sky was clear blue and it just couldn't have been nicer.

something elenora says a lot lately is "o-kay." i'll pull her pants on her and she'll point to the waist and say "tight" and i'll say "is it too tight?" and she'll say "o-kay." (as in "it's okay.") or i'll be about to feed her soup and she'll make a blowing sound and i'll say "is it too hot?" and she'll say "o-kay."

when i ask ella if she likes something she always asks me right back if j. likes it (or maybe she's just telling me that j. likes it, too). "do you like green beans, elenora?" "dadda." "do you like cheesey eggs?" "dadda." she really loves to hear that j. likes these things too.

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if one of us starts singing a song that the other person (or momby) sings most often to her, she will always break into the first line of the song with a very emphatic statement of whose song you are singing. so if i start to sing "jesus loves me, this i know" she says "mam-aw! mam-aw!" until i stop singing and say "does mam-aw sing this song to you?" and she will nod and then i can continue.

these are the little things that make up my day. i love these little things.

i bought myself a pearl and silver ring in marblehead yesterday. i spent $40 on it. that is more than i spend on jewelry in a year. i never buy jewelry. and i certainly never buy something nice. but i really liked this ring and my wedding and engagement bands are at the jeweler's getting soddered together, so i thought i'd get it to wear in the meantime and then have it as a special ring for my other hand. today the pearl fell off and i can't find it. it makes me sad that i bothered to try to treat myself to something nice like that. j. thinks we'll find the pearl, but even if we do i will always know how easily it can fall apart.

i don't know if there's a lesson or metaphor in this or not.

i'm going to vt next friday. i can't wait to see my friends there. in the car with k. yesterday i mentioned how i still always answer the question "where are you from?" with "well, i'm originally from vermont, but i've been living in this area for 10 years now." instead of just saying "i am from ipswich." after we sat quietly for a moment i said "i guess it really does all stem from the fact that i actually do believe that vermont is better." and then we laughed pretty hard.