trip to vermont

we had hoped to leave for vt on friday, but snow over killington cancelled our plans. i was so disappointed to not be going, as i hadn't been to vt since march, and i haven't brought ella there since last july. saturday morning arrived, however, and i was determined to go. after a morning at the new park in town, ella and i got into the car and drove the 3 hours to a.'s house. i hoped she'd take a nap, but no luck. she's just too interested in looking around to take a nap in the car anymore. but she was really good.

when we first arrived, a. and her kids (noah, luke, and naomi) went for a walk with me and ella. the wonderful thing is that a.'s new home is on the same mountain we grew up on, so it feels so much like home. ella got to take her tubby with naomi (her first dual bath ever) and then both of the girls climbed into my lap for story time before bed. after elenora was asleep, i played skip-bo with the boys and mrs. r. and then just me and a. played and had a chance to chat until late at night. so lovely.

the next morning the girls played together before a. and her family headed off to church.

here they are being punks. so funny. ella's expressing her skepticism over the entire photo process, and naomi is like "eh, whatever."

so a. went to church and i went to sugar and spice to meet my college and post-college roommate and her husband for breakfast.

after breakfast, i decided to just sort of put ella in the car and drive around this part of the world that was my home for so many years. i ended up at the church i grew up at, and it was their coffee break, so i went in and saw a good handful of people who i haven't seen in years. it was so nice to catch up with them and to show them my sweet little girl. and k. was there with her 3 week old baby! i was mostly hoping to see her, and there she was. we hung out in the nursery when the rest of the congregation went off to teaching hour, and i held baby john as he slept and she told me all about her birth story. it was so nice to see her.

then i took ella back to a.'s house and put her down for a nap. when a. arrived home, she and i made cookies for the kids and started on a turkey soup for dinner. then when elenora woke up, we took the kids outside for another walk.

here is ella on naomi's pink tractor.

here's noah. i can't believe he's 9!

after dinner i put elenora in her pjs, hoping that she'd fall asleep in the car on the ride home (since we wouldn't arrive home until 9:30...but of course she stayed awake the entire trip.)

here are some photos of the kids, all together. so precious.

our first visit to the aquarium

friday morning j., momby, ella and i went to the aquarium. we got passes from the library ahead of time, so the cost was really minimal. i'm so glad we took her when we did because she was so good and so interested.

here is ella watching the penguins with j.

she was fascinated by the fish in the aquariums. she was the perfect height to stand on the window ledge. when a big fish or shark came by (really close) she would say "they won't bite you!"

notice the giant turtle in the background.

there was a children's area where the kids could touch starfish. before i even realized it, ella had picked up 2! she was so curious.

there's a whale skeleton hanging up behind their heads.

we found the seals. this one was hanging out right by the glass, so ella got a good look.

happy thanksgiving!

wednesday ella and i went to momby's to help her with the thanksgiving preparations. this is seriously my favorite part of the holidays. i love cooking, and especially with momby, because we somehow pull together a really fun meal. one of our undertakings this year was to make Dog Team Tavern sticky buns. these are made from scratch and have to rise overnight, so we started them on wednesday afternoon (ella helped us dump the ingredients into the stand mixer) and finished them on thanksgiving morning for brunch.

here is elenora getting ready to eat the sticky buns, fresh from the oven.

j. and i came over thursday morning after mimosas to eat brunch. then while ella took a nap we took a long walk. when elenora woke up, j. and h. arrived and we all had veggies and dip as the final preparations for dinner were made.

here is elenora patiently awaiting her thanksgiving dinner. she really did a good job eating a big variety of foods, including the brussels sprouts.

and here she is eating her yummy pumpkin pie, after sweetly sharing the first bite with her great-aunt d, who was visiting from pennsylvania.

take a break

yesterday afternoon we baked pumpkin cranberry cookies with e. and penelope. this was the first time ella has baked cookies, so it was kind of a big deal although i think the girls had more fun mixing them up and dropping them onto the cookie sheet than they did eating them. they're kind of a grown-up cookie. very tasty, though, i think.

on our way there we passed by a lake that we have to drive by when we go to ballet, momby's, e.'s, etc. i said "there's the lake, ella." and she said "wenham lake. daddy called it that."

i asked her what penelope's daddy's name is and she said "matt," which surprised me because she's met him 3 times in her life and hasn't heard his name in awhile.

one of elenora's new phrases lately is "want mommy/daddy to NOT do that anymore?" which is a bit bossy. so we've been trying to help her say something else to express her thoughts. j.'s idea the other day was to have her tell him "take a break, daddy" when he was absent-mindedly singing a song over and over. yesterday i was outside walking with her and she asked if we could read "jingle bells" when we got home, so i started singing jingle bells and she got this glint in her eye and said "take a break, mommy."

she's doing a lot of "if this, then this" type of thinking. we passed by a house that had corn stalks lying next to the porch and she said "those used to be standing up here. now they are lying on the ground." and last night during her tub she pointed to the drain and said "the other one didn't look very good, so mommy got a new one." (which is correct... we had a tub drain that got rusty fairly quickly after i'd put it in, so i just bought an OXO one that looks much better.)

we've figured out (at least temporarily) how to get elenora to go on the potty again. we give her a miniature oreo cookie if she goes on the potty. it's worked twice.

i really need to read the book on potty training that i just got in the mail...but i'm so involved in Howards End that i haven't taken the time.

today ella and i are going to momby's to cook all afternoon. it's my favorite part of thanksgiving. we're going to try out the Dog Team Tavern sticky bun recipe. after elenora goes to bed, momby and i will keep on cooking so that there's not too much to worry over tomorrow. j. and i will be able to sleep in and have mimosas in the morning (hurray for traditions!) which is really significant to me since that tradition kind of got way-layed for awhile when elenora was little. it's so nice to have kind of a normal life now.

actually, things are really good. j. and i are doing great. i'm so lucky to have such a good friendship with my husband. and i'm glad that he and i have the same goals and desires in life. elenora is amazing and brings us so much joy. i'm really lucky.

and thankful.

here's the cookie recipe:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries, halved or finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, egg and pumpkin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; stir into mixture until well blended. Cut the cranberries in half and stir into mixture along with the orange zest and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

happy birthday to Lorien!

here's a message from elenora for her cousin lorien:

and here is a series of photos i will call "faces of punky":

anything else?

yesterday afternoon elenora and i went to visit the h. family. l. and i took a walk with a stroller and their dog, and then when we got back to their home i visited with a. and d. they pulled out a fisher price loving family dollhouse for elenora to play with and it was absolutely magical to see elenora's imagination go to work. in general she much prefers animals to dolls, so i haven't thought it important to provide elenora with a dollhouse as of yet. but she spent at least an hour fully engaged with the furniture and people in this house--moving them around, having them talk to each other, etc. she didn't even care that i was completely tuned into my conversations with l. and d., and not paying her much attention at all.

as of 2 nights ago, elenora has come down with some sort of cold or something. it could be the molar that is coming in. or maybe she's really sick. but in any case, her nose has been runny and she's been waking up about 4-5 times a night. poor girl. last night she had a fever. at midnight she awoke and i went in and gave her tylenol and then gathered her binky and 2 bubbas and i asked her "do you want anything else?" and she replied "want mommy to get you a BIG dollhouse?"

things she says

the other night during dinner, elenora took a sip of her milk and then declared "this milk is not organic."

(it was, but it was a new carton and must have tasted different.)

we laughed so hard.

at lunch the other day ella said "want to take a 10 minute walk with mommy?"

while momby was watching her this week, she had ella sitting in her high chair playing with little toys and playdough. ella was having so much fun that momby couldn't convince elenora to get out of the chair to go do something else. ella said "want to stay in your chair for another hour?"

during a "10 minute walk" a few weeks ago we saw some mud on the ground. ella said "that's mud." and i said "that's right. do you know why there is mud?" and elenora replied "cause it rained yesterday."

she was correct. (but how did she know?!)

she noticed that "it's getting dark outside" the other afternoon. and i said "it will start to get dark earlier and earlier now, ella." and she solemnly stated "the nights are getting longer now." i said "that's right, but who told you that?!" she said "mamaw told you that." i asked momby about it, and she said "yeah, but just once, and i didn't make a big deal out of it."

we took elenora to the beach on a mild day last week. j. asked ella about whether the waves were big or little, and she said little. then j. asked her if we'd seen some big waves (thinking back to a day many months ago when we took ella to bass rocks to see the leftover hurricane effects) and elenora said "yes" and that she had thought that some of them were "too big." which is exactly what she had said about them, so she really did remember that experience. in my mind i remembered that we'd run into c. in rockport that morning. ella has met c. about 2 times in her life, i think. without prefacing who "c." is, i asked ella "when we saw c. that day, what did she have with her?" and ella immediately said "a dog."

how does she remember these things? like who c. is and that she had a dog on a random day many months ago?

the next shirley temple?

c. said she wished she could hear ella singing animal crackers. here she is, singing/saying it.

here's a second animal crackers moment. this time she really sings it.

j. likes to sit with her and put fun things on youtube for ella. things like dvorak and shirley temple. elenora will sit and listen to a 10 minute dvorak movement, watching the conductor and taking it all in. she'll ask questions like "what is the conductor saying?" and then practice waving her own baton. when she watches shirley temple, she'll furrow her brow or make other facial expressions that mimic what she is seeing on the screen. here are some photos of elenora sitting with j. watching music take place.