dirty

we took ella to the beach yesterday. walked down the boardwalk to where we could view the stretches of white sand and beautiful ocean.  placed her feet in the sand.  "pick up! pick up!" was her panicked response as she felt her feet sink into this warm, soft stuff that her mind gave only one adjective to: Dirty. 

she's so funny.  at the park, if she falls down off the slide or something, she sits there looking at her hands--her fingers outstretched and a disgusted look on her face.  she looks up at me and says "dirty!"  and i say "it's okay to be dirty."  and she just says "dirty."  and i wipe her off.

we spread out a beach blanket and got out the trowel and the little cups for scooping.  she could barely bring herself to sit close enough to the edge of the blanket to gingerly move some of the sand around with the trowel.  every time she reached too far and got some sand on her fingers she looked at me and said "dirty!" and i'd have to brush her off.

we tried multiple times to show her how fun it was to walk in the sand.  i ran around kicking at it and j. took her down to look at the water.  i picked up some seashells and she put them in her cup.  but every time we tried to put her feet down on the ground she would urgently say "pick up!" 

j. says that he had an irrational dislike of being sandy when he was a child.

great.

friday afternoon i took ella to a different beach before dropping her off at her grandma's for the night.  she had shoes and socks on then, and didn't mind running around.  although, each time i handed her a seashell she would hand it back to me saying "dirty" until i'd brushed it off for her.  oh brother.

saturday morning i babysat aurora and took her to the beach and she proceeded to pick up great handfuls of sand and throw it in every direction, including in her hair.  funny how different kids are.

i'm sure elenora will get past this after a few more trips to the sea.

saturday afternoon we took elenora to a birthday party for the daughter of one of j.'s old colleagues.  we'd randomly run into d. and his wife the night before at a mexican restaurant, and they invited us.  it was so fun, and elenora had a great time running around a beautiful backyard, throwing whiffle balls and climbing in and out of a low-sitting beach chair.  she'd climb up, turn herself around and say "backwards."

yesterday at the beach she started saying "everybody sitting." then as we walked to the car she said "everybody walking."  then she started clicking her tongue and she said "somebody clicking."  hah!  so now we play this game where i say "ella, somebody's [sitting, laying down, standing, etc.]...who is it?"  and she will say who it is.

sunday morning we took elenora to church again.  she really loves it.  all week, if i said "did we go to church this week?" she said "back."  j. and i are liking it, too.  the congregation seems to have good community.  they have a good sense of humor during non-formal moments, but also keep the formality when appropriate.  only, i wish we could meet people easier.  it's almost as if they have such good community with each other that they forget to welcome or introduce themselves to new people.  we awkwardly stand to the side during coffee fellowship after church for about 8 minutes while ella eats a muffin or cheese and crackers, and then we slip away.

i bought a plane ticket last night.  i'm going to NC to see my folks in june.  randomly, i will arrive there on my brother's birthday.  too bad he can't be there to celebrate, but maybe we can have ice cream in his honor?

spring is here.  all the magnolia trees and forsythia and daffodils are in full bloom.  this is my favorite time of year.  it's just as colorful as autumn.

here are newish clear words:

computer

avocado shell

sea gull

fix it

I broke it. (second full sentence...she was actually saying it after i said it...i broke her mobile)

sea shell

strawberry

blueberry

ice cream sandwich

hold that

ocean

beach

clean up

wash

new one

everybody

somebody

climbing

clicking

stay

mamaw's house (in response to "where are you going to have a sleepover tonight?")

sunscreen

broken