catching up

i just finished the brothers karamazov.  ah, i love that book.

j. and i have spent a hectic week trying to decide on whether to put in an offer on a condo we saw on sunday morning.  by monday night we'd signed papers and written a good faith check, but with the stipulation for our realtor to hold onto those things until we make a decision.  since then we've sought advice from many people, and have made contact with a really helpful mortgage guy who helped j. and c. buy a house last fall.  he's looking into all kinds of factors and seems really knowledgeable about the various programs that would help us get the best rates, etc.  we will probably meet with him on monday (j.'s birthday!) to make a decision about whether it's wise for us to move forwards on this or not.

so crazy.  we'd just accepted that we would not be buying a house and we'd decided to just enjoy our life here...bought this beautiful computer, etc.  now since this one condo has come on the market we're scrambling to decide on whether to flip our lives around.

we had our 4 year wedding anniversary last week.  j. gave me a diamond necklace that sparkles so beautifully.  we went to dinner with j. and m., who share our anniversary, on thursday night, and then went to country garden inn friday night.  this anniversary was kind of a reflective one for us...thinking about how we can move forwards and make our relationship better than it is.  we're both committed to our marriage and to each other, but we realize that sometimes it's difficult for us to manage the task of living together since we're so different.  i'm sure there are ways (small ways even) that we could change in order to make daily life more mutually satisfactory.  

today i took elenora to the beach.  it was the first sunny day in a long time.  we heard the other day that there have been about 3 sunny days in june so far.  so we were really happy to be out!  first i took her to the natural foods store to pick up some fruit.  then we went on a special mission to pick up a surprise present for j.'s birthday.  i thought maybe we'd just go to russell orchard afterwards, but on the way there ella started saying "beach!" (which is beyond russell orchard, on the same road) and so i took her to the beach.  as we walked up the boardwalk to the ocean she suddenly said "crane beach," which is the correct name of the beach...but i hadn't said that in a long time.  it's so calming to go there with her, because she's really good at wandering around my circumference and discovering things on her own.  today she was fascinated by the seaweed, and also by a kite that a little girl was flying.

tonight before her tubby i put elenora on her potty like i do every night and suddenly i heard her tinkling into the potty!  i was so excited, i just clapped and said "yay!  you're going pee-pee in the potty!" and she got excited, too, because i think this was the first time that she really understood the reason for this sitting-on-the-potty thing.  i called j. in and he clapped too, so hopefully all the positive reinforcement will help her to do that again.  i have big plans for leaving diapers behind right around her birthday, and that is not so far away.

wednesday night of this week we picked up our first CSA share at the farm.  lots of fresh greens and radishes and cilantro.  elenora surprised me by wanting to try a radish slice from my salad, and then she liked it and ate a whole bunch of slices.  we've been eating a lot of fish lately, too, since i've discovered the ipswich shellfish company.  you can't get fish fresher than that.  and scallops, too.  we've been eating altogether most nights as a family since elenora goes to bed later now, and i think that's been really good for her trying new things.  she loves fish, and enjoyed the scallops.  oh man it's good.

tomorrow morning j. and i head out on our first road trip since elenora's birth--sans ella!  we're going to vt for a wedding i'm in, and momby is staying with ella.  this will be the furthest we've both ever been away from her at the same time.  she won't even miss us with her mam-aw around.