pronunciation

elenora's pronunciation has really improved the past few days. all of a sudden she can clearly say words that she has said only partially before. some of these words include: white, one, ten, brunner, red...

she's started saying "hi, baby!" which is so sweet, because that is what i say to her. i'll hear her walking around saying "hi, baby." or if i talk to her on the phone she says to me "hi, baby." i took her to the park today and she walked up to a little boy who was digging in the sand with a dump truck and said to him "hi, baby!" hah.

i took her to the hannas' two days ago for a visit. they have a huge german shepherd named elsa who elenora thought was hilarious. elsa was running around with a blue frisbee and ella was laughing. she said "elsa" very clearly, but vascilated between calling elsa a "dog" and a "cow" (it's a big dog).

yesterday we viewed three more places. two of them were old and falling apart, but one of them was a large, beautiful condo in a renovated victorian home with vaulted ceilings, large windows, three bedrooms, and tons of closet space. we really liked it, and it's about in our price range. but it's in danvers, which is almost a half hour from ipswich. i'm trying to think of how a long commute would affect me. i'd have to go to bed even earlier and wake up even earlier so that i could still try to get home and have that time with ella before her nap. j. and i don't go to bed or get up at the same time right now most nights, anyhow, and sometimes i just feel like we don't really see each other or get time together unless we make an actual date night.

this whole house thing is so complicated. i feel so inadequate to make such a huge decision. even getting pre-approved has been a huge hassle. i want to go through USAA, but i can only do that over the phone during the day (which is hard because i have work and then taking care of elenora) or over the internet (which is also difficult because i don't really understand all the intricacies of the questions or how best to answer them). and j. and i never seem to have time to sit down and do it together.

also, i'm afraid of buying such a huge thing at such a huge price and then discovering that it's a nightmare of problems. buying a large, old condo (even one that's been renovated) could lead to all kinds of trouble.

or maybe it'd be great. i don't know.