starts with...

elenora is doing amazingly well with picking out what letter words start with. when we read books i'll ask her, for example, "what does [Rabbit] start with?" and she will say "R" and point to the word "rabbit" if it is on the page. or we'll play a game where i'll just randomly ask her "what does [blank] start with?" and she will tell me. sometimes during her lunch we'll go through every item on her plate and she will get them all correct. the one she has the most trouble with is telling "K" from a hard "C" sound. but lately she'll say that things like "cup" start with "a hard C."

i'm so impressed by her.

we're also working on counting to 20. she's pretty good about it, but still needs a little leading for numbers 13-16. she often says "11, 12, dig and delve" from the poem.

ella is saying things such as "yes i would mommy," and yesterday gathering rocks at the ocean she said "that's so cool!" she also remarked about a purple rock that we found: "this is my favorite rock in the whole wide world. i love it very much."

matryoshka

elenora is was playing with her matryoshkas this morning. she was saying things like "this is the littlest matryoshka" and "this one is bigger" and "this one is the biggest."

then she just looked at me with the middle-sized one and said "this one's the middlest."

the other day as we drove to momby's house, ella suddenly exclaimed "wait a minute! wait a minute! i didn't see the horses outside today!"

tonight she suddenly said "you know what?"

i love that she's picking up on all these phrases and incorporating them into her speech.

today i went to the hospital and had a blood test to determine if i'm pregnant. i've been nauseous since wednesday, which is not common at all, so i called my midwives and they sent me for the tests.

the tests were negative. which i'm relieved about. but it seems everyone else is a little bit bummed about it. even j. said that he was a little disappointed.

we're waiting to hear about a rental house that we've made an offer on. crossing my fingers, really. the house is wonderful.

labor-in-vain

there's a road in my town called labor-in-vain. at the end of the road there is a field with rolling hills that tumble down into the salt marshes, which wind on to the ocean. today was another mild winter day, so elenora and i went exploring this afternoon.

we found pine cones. ella, who loves carrying small things in her hands, gathered a whole family of them together and cradled them in her arms as we tromped through the fields. (when we got home i found all of them stuffed into her pockets.)

if you walk past the fields down the road, you find a bridge that leads to a private way. the bridge spans over the river, which seems to be perfectly still on one side, and eddies around with huge ice chunks on the other. we stood and watched and listened for quite awhile, hearing the ice crunch and the ducks quack. it was so peaceful and beautiful, and the sun silently set behind us as we enjoyed the evening.

when we arrived home, i told ella to tell j. where we'd been. she answered "we've been exploring!"

that's my girl.

afternoon at the ocean

yesterday was in the 40s, so i did what any mother would do after weeks of 20 degree weather... i took ella to the ocean to play.

it was so beautiful. the sky was amazing. really cloudy, but luminous at the same time with splotches of color coming through the grey.

aurora and s. joined us, and we all had fun running across the open space and splashing in the wet sand.

after our playdate, i took ella to momby's for a sleepover. we told her that we'd been to the ocean and she asked elenora if we'd gone in the water. ella exclaimed "we forgot!" and i said, "what did we forget?" and she said "we forgot to go in the water!" as if, if we'd only remembered, then certainly we would have gone in.

piano: with mimi, lorien, and grandma betty

trip to SC

so ella and i have been traveling again. last wednesday we flew to nc to see my folks. my brother and his wife and daughter were all visiting (from guam), and it was wonderful to spend time with my family after so many years apart. this was only d.'s family's second time meeting elenora since she was born. also, grandma betty came to be with us. a full house, and lots of fun.

i spent a lot of time with the girls at the park up the street. ella and i were so happy to not have to deal with snow that we didn't mind that it was still pretty chilly out.

lorien and ella were really good at playing together sweetly. here they are working together on a game that requires putting shapes into the correct slots.

don't they look alike?

the girls had many sing-a-long sessions with my mom at the piano. their favorite songs included jingle bells, amazing grace, and jesus loves me.

d. was only with us for one day before going to visit friends on the west coast, but it was really special time for elenora to get to know her aunt better.

d. made one of her famously wonderful cakes before she left, too. here's ella enjoying a slice.

uncle d. fed her a kiwi. when he was done he got up and as he walked away ella looked at me and said "is uncle d. being nice to you?" (meaning she wanted me to ask her if uncle d. was being nice to her... so i did ask, and she said "yeah.")

i had lovely talks with my grandma. how special that she was able to see myself and ella twice in the last 2 months.

we read a lot of books...

and played more piano...

and played with toys...

and read more books.

here is ella playing with her poppy. he was making her laugh with these "necklaces."

d. and d. got the girls matching dresses which they wore to church on sunday.

so we got a lot of photos.