happy valentine's day!

j. and i continued our tradition and celebrated our own valentine's day last night (dinner out and a movie in).  so today i got to concentrate on making elenora's valentine's day as special as possible.  in that spirit, we headed out on a valentine's day adventure in rockport.

first we headed all the way up bear skin neck and watched the seagulls in the ocean.  notice the seagull directly behind ella's head in this photo--it perched itself about 5 feet from where we were sitting.

we, of course, stopped by j.'s cafe next for a valentine's treat.  elenora wanted a chocolate chip cookie.

then we walked up the other direction to the local beach where we found a lot of sea glass (which we have a project planned for).  yes, that is the moon in the sky.

it was such a mild day.  up to 50 degrees, i think.  this is the start of the thaw, and it was just glorious to be outdoors with just sweaters and take off the scarf and hat half-way through the afternoon.

we also stopped by the little book store and got a copy of "three ladies beside the sea", and we stopped into a shop where they had men's slippers on sale, so we got j. a pair of slippers for valentine's.

when i got home, j. had been doing the dishes !!!!!, so i got the best present of all.  oh, and also a box of chocolates and a bouquet of pink roses.  j. also got elenora a heart-shaped balloon and a small box of 3 chocolates.

what a day!  i'm tired.

ella's puppy... (ie. mamaw and pop-pop's puppy)

elenora got the best kind of a puppy today: the kind that lives at mamaw's house, is cared for by mamaw, and is paid for by mamaw.  (oh, and pop-pop, too.)

welcome, beauty.

a girl and her dog:

figure of speech

so the day before gracie arrived, i was showing momby one of the outfits i'd washed for h. that was a newborn outfit, and i said "this is so tiny, but little gracie will probably be swimming in it!" and ella looked at momby and said earnestly "this is what gracie is going to swim in!"

this past week, j. took elenora to the YMCA to swim in the pool, and later that evening i said "you really need a tubby tonight to get the chlorine out of your hair." and ella said "the what?" and i explained "there is chlorine in the pool." and elenora looked at me quizzically and said "is that a figure of speech?"

elenora continues to make new strides in growing up and becoming self-sufficient.  we haven't had any issues with dirty diapers, and i can't remember the last time she had any kind of accident.

this week she came up into the bathroom where i had just finished my shower and she was fully dressed (the pants and underwear were both backwards, but we didn't notice that till later), and she is definitely becoming more interested in picking out her own outfits and dressing herself.

she is such a loving little girl, and it comes out in the way she plays with her "friends" (stuffed animals like gigi, silky, lambie, clarence, bubba, etc.).  she is always saying "how sweet you are little [friend's name]" and giving them loving kisses on their noses.

what a darling girl.

visit with gracie

momby and i took a trip into boston to see grace together.  it was so special because she opened her eyes, which are a gorgeous dark blue (not unlike elenora's).

here she is with her daddy, j.

date with daddy

thursday night is still girls' night for me (gnol, or "girls' night out loud"), so j. provides dinner for ella.  therefore thursday night has turned into pizza and salad night at our place.  this thursday night, j. decided to take elenora out for pizza for a special daddy-daughter outing.  elenora was extremely excited.

visit with grace and h.

j., ella and i drove into boston to see h. and get a chance to touch and talk to grace.  it was so nice to visit with them both.  grace is on a c-pap, which helps her breathe.  she's still having trouble breathing on her own, and she's not yet able to really feed.  but she responds so well to touch and when the nurse rubbed her leg in a way she didn't like, she gave a little complaint.  it's nice to observe her sweet personality already.

elenora was not allowed into the NICU, but she had a good visit with h.  we hope that gracie continues to get stronger and can be moved back to the hospital near j. and h.'s home.

Happy BIRTH-day Gracie! (5 weeks early)

yesterday morning as i skyped with my mom, i heard my phone chirping (yes, chirping) upstairs.  when i checked it about 20 minutes later it was from h., with no message.  i called her back and what she said was such a surprise: her water had broken that morning and she was at the hospital about to have a c-section.  i didn't get many details because just as h. was telling me, ella closed her thumb in the bathroom door and started screaming.  i handed the phone to j. just as h. handed the phone to j.'s brother, so the boys briefly talked to tell us where and when to come.

(elenora's thumb was fine.)

we gathered ella's overnight bag (i forgot pjs) and the premie clothing i had just washed for h. on friday and we headed out to the hospital.  elenora was so excited that it was gracie's birthday ("is it march?" "nope, gracie is early.") and kept saying "i'm going to be a big sister now!"  "nope, you're the big cousin." "why can't i be the big sister?" "because then i would have to be the mommy, and auntie h. is the mommy."

we arrived just after noon and found h.'s parents in a waiting room.  just a few minutes later the doctors wheeled the incubator out into the hallway with j. following to go down a floor to the NICU.  we glimpsed gracie for about 2 minutes (so beautiful and sweet!) and then she was gone--no sight of h., who was taken to recovery (she'd had a c-section with general anesthesia and hadn't even seen her daughter yet).  grace marie was 4 lbs 3 oz.

we followed her down a few minutes later to wait in h.'s room for h. and to see what we could find out about grace.  j. was the only one allowed into the NICU, and even he wasn't allowed in most of the time, but he was reporting to us when he knew anything.  we spent over an hour walking back and forth between h.'s room (waiting for her to come) and the hallway outside of the NICU. 

gracie wasn't able to breathe on her own, so after awhile it became clear that they were planning to transfer her to tufts medical center.  h. did finally arrive in her room, and she was given the information about grace's transfer.  just before the ambulance took gracie, they brought her into h.'s room so that she could finally see her sweet baby and touch her briefly.

j. and i left around 4 pm (ella went home with momby) and arrived home at 5 pm.  he had invited (days before) all of his buddies over for a superbowl party, so i had 15 minutes before everyone arrived.  luckily i had prepared all the food the night before and had time to clean the day before.

this morning i talked with h. and she is good.  grace is still on a ventilator, but the doctors are hoping she will be off of it in the next couple days.  we plan to visit her tomorrow.

what an unexpected turn of things.  we are just so happy that grace and h. are doing well.

the mountains of snow

this is what this winter has looked like for our family.

this is the side of our driveway, and really the snow is this high or higher everywhere.  it's so difficult to shovel because you have to heave the snow up over your head in order to get it on top of the banks!

we're looking forward to spring.