ella in my jumper

here's elenora in a jumper that my grammy made for me when i was a girl.  (oh, and you can see her haircut that we got last thursday--the third of her life.)

this morning started out with elenora coming in to say she had to go poop on the potty (sorry, mom, but i'm just recording this because the blog is the baby book and this is a first).  i was so happy that she did that because although she goes all day with no accidents and no diapers or pull-ups, she still wears a diaper to bed and hadn't, until this morning, come to me to help her go on the potty if she woke up and had to go before i saw her.  mostly her bio-rhythm helps me out and she has her bowel movement sometime after she's already up and about with us, but would just go poop in her diaper if she woke up and had to go.  i've been kind of frustrated with it since there's no reason why she couldn't run upstairs and ask for help (or just go in her own bathroom by herself).  so this is major progress.  hopefully it sticks.

this afternoon i put elenora down for a nap, hoping that she'd fall asleep so i could take her to j.'s salem philharmonic orchestra concert.  it took about 45 minutes, but she did eventually fall asleep.  of course, come 3 o'clock it was so hard to wake such a sweetly sleeping angel.  my first attempt i just stroked her hair and she opened her eyes and looked up at me and blinked and then turned her head away, closed her eyes, and was fast asleep again.  so i gave her 10 more minutes and went in and rubbed her chest, but she didn't even stir.  so i gave her another 5 minutes and then went in and rubbed her chest and she did finally wake.  

oh, and i got a video, because how often do i get to watch her sleep?

the concert was very fun.  we arrived halfway through and had to go way up the auditorium to find seats, but then elenora was so well-behaved.  she makes everyone around her smile because she stands up and dances to the music completely unabashedly (and in rhythm!).  i just wear a permanent smile.  how can someone bring such joy?!?  after the concert i had so many people around us comment to me on how good she is, how sweet, how cute, and what a good dancer. 

Auntie's baby shower

h. had her baby shower yesterday.  it was so good to see her out and enjoying her pregnancy, since it's been such a stressful one.  she looks beautiful.  elenora was so excited about the shower that she woke up 4 times the night before just to chat with momby.  we got elenora this pretty dress just for the occasion--complete with a matching dress for lambie.

lambie and violet are her 2 favorites right now.  they get dresses and barrettes and they go everywhere with her.

we were given little white onesies to color in with fabric markers, and elenora was writing various letters on it and then chuckling and saying "this is a joke i'm writing.  baby gracie will laugh!"  i like that they have inside jokes already.

h. had about 50 people at her shower, so there were lots of presents to open.  elenora went up and "helped" by handing h. the presents out of the gift bags and pulling the wrapping paper off.  i snuck up and told h. she could let me know if she wanted a little less help, but h. loves ella so much that she didn't mind.  i have to say that elenora was really, really good.

she kept running back to my table to ask "is it cupcake time yet?" finally, it was.

hop-a-thon

elenora participated in a hop-a-thon at her school to raise money for the goats.  3 of the goats at her school are going to give birth in the spring, and those babies are going to heifer international.  ella made this headband with goat ears attached that she glued confetti and buttons onto.  and she made a jingle bracelet so that when she hopped she jingled.  i got to be her counter, and she did 100 hops exactly in a minute!

snowy day adventures

elenora and i have done a lot of sledding lately.  we have so much snow!  sometimes we just sled around the neighborhood (there's a great hill here) but sometimes we go to appleton farm and i pull elenora around, up hill and down.  it's great exercise for me, and she loves it.

here she is in our front yard.  when i shovel the driveway she likes to play by the house with her sand pail and shovel, so i made her a snow cave to play in (see left-hand corner).

here's the entrance to appleton farm.  the snow has been skied over and trampled on so much that i don't need snow shoes to stay on top (though if i wander off the path i quickly sink in up to my knees).

ella quotes

the other morning at breakfast ella said, "mommy, was it this ear, or last ear?"  and i said "this 'ear'?"  and she said "yes, was it this ear or last ear?"  and i said, "do you mean 'year,' as in 2010 and 2011?"  and she said "yes."  and then we both got a good laugh off of that one.

yesterday, elenora was home from school all day because she was, according to her, "out loud sick."

in the afternoon she exclaimed "i need a tissue.  i'm hangin' on for dear life!"

today elenora took her first nap since november, when she had a nap before going to j.'s gordon orchestra concert.  i hardly knew what to do with myself.  when she woke up she said "i am so happy of myself!"  (i think she was confused with "so proud of myself.")

r. and momby are getting a puppy named buster.  we're pretty happy that elenora will have the excitement of a new puppy without any of the work.  in her words, "it's a cute little guy."

before playing uno the other day, elenora looked at me and asked "mommy, are you done shoveling the cards yet?"

snow storm

we've had a lot of snow this winter, and several snow days where work and school are canceled.  here is ella eating some of the bread that we were breaking up to throw out into the snow for the birds.  the snow came down so quickly that the bread crumbs were covered before the birds ever saw it.

when settling is good.

as we were driving home from newburyport this week, we passed by a town commons where we saw some boys playing hockey on the frozen pond.  i almost pulled over right then and there to pull the skates out of the trunk (i always keep them in there for just such an occasion), but it was already close to ella's bedtime, so we kept going.  but yesterday afternoon we headed over to check it out.  it was really easy to park right next to the "rink," and there's a stone ledge around the outside of the pond for us to sit on and tie our skates.  i stepped out onto the ice and just felt so free!  i love skating so much, and i'm so lucky to have a little sweetie to take along with me.  i held her hands and helped her slip-slide across the ice.  then i sat her on a green blanket and sped off around the pond, coming back to circle her, laughing, and then pick her up to lead her around the ice again.  the sky was blue and yellow as the sun sank down towards the horizon.  by the end, ella was getting braver and more solid on her feet--holding just one of my hands and taking steps across the ice with pretty good balance.

i hosted girls' night last night for the first time.  i think it took me about 5 months to really settle into our new place, so hosting felt overwhelming for the first few months.  but now i feel like i've got the house under my control--everything in its place and a good rhythm for keeping it all clean and tidy.

i think it took about 5 years to settle into marriage, actually.  but that, too, is easy now to a great extent.  i'm really happy with j., and more in love with him and our life together than ever before.

Happy New Years!

here i am with 2 of the 3 girls' night girls: h. and s.

here is j. with t. and a.  they've been buddies since high school.  it's nice that all us girls get along so great, even though we were just kind of thrown together based on the men in our lives.

h. hosted the party for the second year in a row.  she puts out a good spread of food.

this drink is from the czech, made from the plums in h.'s family's backyard.  yum.