hot

when ella went to bed last night i thought she felt a little warm. but it's been 90+ degrees outside every day for a week, so i just pushed it out of my mind. at 4 am i awoke to elenora crying so hard. i went in and she was the hottest i have ever felt her. her limbs were all tense and kind of shaking. it was really scary. we administered tylenol, and got a wet wash cloth and a cup of water, and sat by the open window in the rocking chair. she just kept saying "sing another song" and so i'd sing another song until finally her head became cooler and she said "want to go in your crib?" and so i put her in her crib at 5 am and then got up and checked on her at 6 am. then i dragged myself out of bed to go to work.

when she got up later her head was cooler, and besides a lack of appetite, she has been acting fairly normal. when j. woke her up this morning she told him sadly "i had a bad nap. mommy put some tylenol on you."

i keep going over in my head all the places we have been this week--trying to both enjoy and stay out of the heat--and wondering if she could have picked up a bug somewhere.

monday morning i took ella to the beach and we went swimming. then monday afternoon when she woke up i said "do you want to go to the mall?" (thinking of where we could be in air conditioning) and she was very excited to go to the mall, which seemed strange to me since she's been there about five times in her life. so i asked her "what do you think is at the mall?" and she said "teddy bears at the mall!" which surprised me because, sure enough her grandma had taken her to look in build-a-bear back in june when we got photos taken at the mall for father's day. i couldn't believe she remembered that. so i took her to the mall and k. met us there and we got a little candle at Yankee Candle for ella to hold (vanilla cupcake, mmm) and 2 shirts at children's place.

on the way home from the mall ella was holding a book about corduroy's pocket, and i started telling her the story verbally while i was driving, and every time i got to the end she would say "read it again." so i told that story about the pocket about 6 times. in the middle of monday night, elenora woke up crying and i went in and she said "want to find a pocket? where's my pocket?" and i said "here it is ella, in my hand" and i "gave" her a pocket from my hand and she went right off to sleep. she must have dreamed about a pocket.

tuesday morning she woke up talking about baby nathan and how she was going to see him. maybe she had another dream? so i called m. and she invited us over for lunch with her and nathan. then in the afternoon elenora and j. and i went to the beach. she loves putting her face right into the ocean water and then comes up laughing.

wednesday after ella's nap i took her to the library to meet up with frannie and j.l. while we were there i pulled some books off the shelf that we had gotten out a couple months ago, and ella took a look at them and said "emily's birthday" and "little bear and the missing pie"... which are the exact titles on the covers of these books. somehow she knew the titles and had remembered them for a couple months.

someone should study her brain.

h. met up with us at the library and she and i took elenora to zumis for ice cream. then ella and i went to get our vegetables.

anyhow, today i'm sort of dragging with the lack of sleep. it's at least not as hot outside. we were going to have ella sleep over at momby's tomorrow night, but we'll have to see how she's feeling.

e. had her baby on tuesday night. little robyn verna. i told elenora she has a new cousin.