ocean voyage

elenora and i were lucky enough to spend an afternoon with j. and micaela in rockport.  first we had lunch at the cafe, then headed out for a trip on his boat.  micaela is so good with elenora, and it was fun for me to see how helpful and grown-up an almost 11-year-old can be.

(if only ella's eyes were open...)

(or j.'s hand was down!)

(or ella would look at the camera!)

here is a sight i've been seeing semi-often the past 2 weeks...

i must be wearing her out!

i bought her the black and gray lambie to go with her other lambie.  she named her "micaela".

growing up

last night elenora took her first shower.  she wanted to take a shower just like me, and told me not to help her, but to stay in the room.  she felt very grown up and proud of herself. 

sometimes she answers me with "okay mom!"

when did i become "mom" and not "mommy"?

like father, like daughter

what can i say?  i love these 2.  happy birthday, j.!

trip to ME

grampa has been in ME opening the cabin, so we all headed up for an overnight.  e. arrived with her husband and 2 girls just in time for grammy's mac-n-cheese ("i guess it's grammy's," says grampa, who has been making it for everyone for the past 20 years).  elenora loved running around with robin.

or, i should say, after her.

saturday morning, elenora got to go out on a boat ride with me, j. and s. in the aluminum boat.  s. let her drive it a bit.  so good to be out on the lake again.

 uno was played.  grampa won 2 out of 3.  ella won the other 1.  which leaves me with 0 winnings.

peabody essex museum

in the midst of a week of rain, ella and i checked out a library pass to a museum that is about 40 minutes away and went to explore it for an afternoon.

this lovely cafe is indoors, and the ceilings are a couple hundred feet up.

there's a children's room there, and this time it was all about water, vapor, rainbows and other such things.

ella found an activity table where you could build your own wooden birds.

overheard at breakfast...

"Growing up takes a long time... It took me just about forever."

ella, earnestly, at age 3 1/2.

the ants go marching

elenora had her closing ceremony today for preschool.  next year she will be in the Bees class instead of the Ants class.  momby and r. and j. and i all went to the outdoor ceremony. the children sang about 5 songs (my favorite of which was "mr golden sun").  then they were all given a certificate as well as their art portfolios.

tito and the far too big salad

last night at dinner ella was taking her time eating her dinner, so j. said that he would tell her a tito story if she took a bite.  ella took a bite and said "now tell 'tito and the salad'."

j. said: "once upon a time, there was a little gorilla named tito. one night he sat down to dinner and his mommy put a big, big, big, big, big, big, big salad in front of him and he ate it all up. the end."

elenora said: "okay, daddy, now tell it again, but this time make the salad smaller and the story longer."

afternoon fun on a hot day

of course, playing with water soon turned into playing with mud.

wore her out

i took elenora to the beach for several hours.  we ran around, splashed, dug holes, and played/relaxed all afternoon.  the drive home is about 12 minutes.  halfway home she was fast asleep, which doesn't happen often.  so when i arrived home i climbed out the window of the car and put j. on "daddy duty" in a lawn chair by the car.

she slept for 2 hours.

croup is pathetic

so elenora has the croup again.  she awoke at her mamaws with croupy cough on sunday night, was very cheerful monday, lost her voice by monday night, woke 3 times with croupy cough, wheezing and fever, spent tuesday laying in bed with fever, woke 3 times tuesday night, and has raspy voice, fever and runny nose today.

here she is last night after waking up at 8 pm.  we carried her to the floor in front of the screen to the back porch so that the cool night air could help her breathe.  she fell asleep on my chest.  it was so sweet because she usually is such a wiggle that she won't snuggle like this.

oh, and i am being treated for strep as of yesterday.