back.

all week elenora has been saying "church...back." and then i ask her "do you want to go back to church this week?" and she says "okay." so we went to church this morning and it was, again, wonderful. i really love this church. it's very small (maybe 150 people) without the inundation of students from gordon college. lots of families with school kids, senior citizens, and a few other young couples like us. elenora is one of maybe three or four children under 3. again she was one of two children in the nursery, and she was so happy to just stay and play with t.

more and more, elenora will say anything you ask her to say--even large, multi-syllabic words. if i ask her what i do for work she says "editor," and then if i ask her about what momby does for work she says "teacher."

we went to the park multiple times this week. on friday we went to a park behind the local elementary school and there must have been some after-school program going on because one of the adults who was watching a group of kids sent over a girl with an ice cream sandwich for ella. this was ella's first ice cream sandwich ever. (she came home saying "ice cream sandwich.") at this park there was a little play house just elenora's size that she had fun going into and opening the shutters and ringing the doorbell.

we had such great weather this week...it was so lovely to spend so much time outdoors. the daffodils are all in bloom and the trees all have buds. i ask ella "are the trees fuzzy?" and she gets a very solemn face and says "noooo!" because she knows that i think the buds make the branches look fuzzy. it's our little joke. she's such a silly.

sometimes if i guess wrong about something she's saying (or if i purposely suggest that she's said something different from what she actually said) she starts laughing hysterically. like, she was on the swings and she was saying something that began with a "B" and i suggested "did you say 'boot'?" and it must have been so different from what she was actually saying because she just started laughing really hard and saying "boot" over and over. and now any time she even thinks about a swing she starts saying "boot" as if it's this great joke.

we were walking yesterday around the block and she saw a group of three dandelions and she said "three!" and then we walked past a bush with little buds on it and she said "buds" and then she said matter-of-factly "leaves" (because i've told her that buds turn into leaves).

she comments on the weather, too. if it's rainy or windy or sunny, she will tell you. she says what something is, what color it is, and how many there are. "one boat. red."

she uses participles. "singing." "sitting." "walking." "eating."

i got out a ton this past week. i got up and worked out every morning before work, and found i had so much more energy in the afternoons to go back out for walks with elenora around town. i feel so much better about life in general when i'm taking care of myself.

j. and i got to go to the boston symphony last night (an annual event). we got in early enough to relax at the malaysian restaurant we frequent every year. split a bottle of wine and some appetizers. mmmm. our seats were excellent in the auditorium, and the music was fantastic. i loved getting out with j. last night, and we really couldn't have had more fun together.

tomorrow i get a day off. i'm planning on getting up early to go work out and then momby is coming over to go out to breakfast with us. then j. and i are going to a few stores to look at computers. the one i'm typing on is possibly 9 years old. just really time to look into something faster.

i did go house viewing yesterday morning. ugh. the 3 homes i looked at were all just falling to pieces. cracked walls. cracked ceilings. siding that needed complete replacement. floors that were uneven. is this all $240k can buy? oh well. my realtor and i are getting to be very good friends. i'm the same age as her kids, so i think she's sort of taken me under her wing. she says "you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince." so i guess we'll keep looking a little longer.