Last Swim Day

Today was Ellie’s last swim day for another month.  She is doing great in the water – even floating on her back with less stress.  I lowered our hot tub temperature and the three of us have been swimming (only Ellie for that part) in the hot tub every other day.  Ellie loves it – she scares me just a little with her total trust that we will be exactly wherever she needs us to be.  She enjoys standing on the benches that go the entire way around the tub, walking about, then letting go – turning – and pushing off in our general direction.  Of course, I am always right with her, but geez!  She always gives a great, big grin before pushing off and if a little bit of her face goes underwater in the process, she comes up clapping and laughing. 

Daddy's Day

Dancing with the Zebra

Daddy is gaining confidence babysitting Ellie.  This morning, we all went out to play at Ellie’s water/sand table.  Mommy went back and forth into the house bringing containers of water to fill the table.  The first time, Ellie screeched.  After there was a smidgen of water, the dogs came over to drink.  Ellie was so fascinated, that it did not bother her that Mommy disappeared a again… several times.  Ellie seemed to be busy and happy, so Mommy decided to leave Daddy to watch her, so breakfast could be started.  Daddy agreed.  So, Mommy disappears.  The two outside were doing great!  Daddy was talking to Ellie, Ellie was responding to Daddy, so Mommy decided to stay inside and get more stuff done (I could see and hear them the entire time!)  After about 5 minutes, Daddy started calling to find out what was taking Mommy so long.  Ellie realized Mommy was not within reach and starts screeching.  Mommy comes running out with a decision… Daddy will start watching Ellie in a safe place (her room) for 15 minutes a day, gradually to be moved up to one, full, glorious hour.  Starting today!

Later (around 4 because Mommy went loopy and mistook today for Thursday), Daddy and Ellie were set up in Ellie’s room with a sippy cup of milk, 2 bags of fruit snacks, a bag of dried pears and Daddy’s computer.  Mommy went into the office to attend a webinar… waited 10 minutes, realized the day was wrong and then joined Daddy in Ellie’s room.  Daddy had done a GREAT job!  Ellie was entertained, busy and focused. 

I knew he could do it! 

Laundry

Laundry was finished in two days, this time.  Not like last week where it took the entire (7 days) week to complete the laundry.  Of course, we didn’t have that much more laundry than usual… we just didn’t get to the basement for the switching and the removing and the filling up again parts.  That has negatively affected the towels which now smell of mildew – YUCK!  Does anything fix that?

In any case, two day of laundry is way better than 7 days… by the end of last week, we have added another 2 loads just from what we were wearing out while the other clothes were being washed.  What a vicious cycle!

Ellie had swim class today.  She napped all the way to Winchester, so she was in great spirits in the pool and seemed to have a blast!  Then we went to Costco for some yummies.  Jeff was told he was losing too much weight and he needed to gain some back.  Of course to him that means Tiramisu and Crème Brulee.  Ellie was on the low side and was told to fatten up some.  That means smoked gouda, full-fat milk and yogurt; all of which she would rather feed to me.  I am the only one that needs to lose weight!  That means carrots, lettuce and cabbage… just doesn’t seem right…

Monday

Spent all day cleaning house and trying to get laundry completed.  Here is a nice picture of Ellie being Ellie, but having nothing to do with today!

Just Another Day

Woke up bright and early, then headed off to church with Ellie, because Daddy opted to get more rest.  A new medication he is trying keeps him awake at night and asleep during the day.  So, because Daddy was at home, Ellie and I went directly into the crying room; do not pass front pew, do not collect Holy Water.  Ellie, of course, was tired and decided it would be appropriate to make everyone aware of her situation.  We did the best we could, but must have offended a gentleman who arrived late to mass and sat in the crying room, as not to disrupt the congregation; he left after a few minutes.  But, we did make it through and back home where Ellie and I both took naps.

Daddy and our guest went out for breakfast so Ellie and I had a good hour rest.  BTW:  The only reason I asked that they go out for breakfast was because the coffee maker and I had an argument this morning before mass.  The coffee maker had won and I spent half an hour cleaning up.  I don’t even drink coffee!

This afternoon, we met some of Mommy’s family at a water park!  Everyone had a great time!  Ellie actually had to wear a life preserver, which she doesn’t like at swim class, but wore extremely well in the pool with her Aunts, Uncles and cousins! 

Daddy's Day is Made

This morning, Ellie was up bright and early (3 times over… 3:30, 4:30 and finally at 5:30 I brought her into our room.)  In the process of getting her situated to nurse in bed next to Daddy, he wakes up and heads off to the bathroom.  Unheard of, Ellie STOPS nursing (Wow!  Unbelievable!!!)  She sits up and reaches for Daddy, who is now halfway down the hall.  “DaDa!” Ellie calls out and then starts crying.  Daddy can not stop, he is on a mission; but he does return quickly and Ellie is all over him with hugs and kisses!  Daddy is glowing!

Daddy and our guest watch movies and relax.  Ellie and Mommy wander around finding short-attention-span activities to keep us busy.

Smarter Than A Baby

This morning to entertain Ellie as we all sat in bed, I gave her a small shoe box to put her Animal Wheelie toys into.  She was very happy placing all four critters into the box, but then had some trouble getting the rectangular lid on.  I helped her out saying, “Here, turn it a little more, and then it sets right on top.”  She looked at me with such admiration!  Mommy is SO smart!  Of course, it is either at 10 or 2 years of age that she becomes smarter than me and loses all respect for my age superiority.  (Mommy, I am building a space shuttle because they stopped the space program and anyone in my generation that wants to walk upon the Moon’s soil has to build their own craft.  When asked to hand her the framis, I, of course will accidentally hand her the fromis and she will roll her eyes and say, “Can you just go get Daddy for me?”)  But, for today… I am the smartest person Ellie knows!  JOY!

Dog Toys

Just a short note today… Ellie has tons of toys; big, little, soft, hard, bouncy and every other thing you can imagine a baby toy is and can be.  What does she want?  The dog toy!  Alex and Katy have a small basket of toys – Ellie is always in it!

Feed teh Goats

We have some vegetables that are starting to turn – from Ellie’s Birthday Celebration 10 days ago!  We could feed them to our horses, but the neighbors have goats that are even friendlier, so I call and we all traipse over for a visit.  This is a little switch because they are always calling us to see if they can bring over carrots for our horses… the grass is always greener on the other side…  Anyway, as you can see – Ellie was the only one unable to feed the goats – she was too busy EATING!!!  Afterwards, Ellie and I stayed to visit and Jeff left to mow our lawn.

Story Teller



Arizona in the Pasture

6/7/11 
The neighbor kids had a party, Ellie and Mommy joined them.  It was so nice outside, that a bunch of us played in  kiddie pools in their backyard.  After a short period of time, the little ones (except for Ellie) were nekid, dragging their shirts and shorts through the sandbox and then “washing” them in the kiddie pool.  It happened so fast, I didn’t know what to say, so I let them play… where were all the real adults?!  Ellie was very excited and tried to join in as much as a fully clothed, soaking wet kid could.

On the way home, she was super animated.  She told me all about the crazy time she had at that party.  Of course, the words came out in baby babble, but with her intonations, you could almost hear what she was saying…  Excited, “so, we all went into the backyard,” Super high-pitched excited, “…and they all took off their clothes, can you believe it?!” Regular excited, “they said, let’s wash the clothes,”  super high-pitched excited, “and they did… they washed their clothes after rolling them in the sand box.”  … and this went on and on for over 10 minutes!  I can not imagine what she will sound like when she starts talking!

Catch That Kid!

Woke up early (-er than usual, which makes a difference!) to go to Harrisonburg for Jeff’s hip MRI. His hip is still sending shooting pain when he turns since the fall several weeks ago. Then, we stopped off at the bank, had lunch at the local diner and got the car inspected – putting us at 11am by the time we returned home. Ellie missed her morning nap, but immediately went down for an improvised nap – almost no complaints.


(As an aside, before we left this morning, I set Ellie on the potty and she went! WOW!)

I always try to hold off going to the bathroom until we get home, but by the time we were having the car inspected, I was in dire straits. Ellie and I headed to the public restroom where I changed Ellie on her clean diaper pad. Then, I had to have her stand on the floor, holding onto what I hoped was a relatively clean dresser (I am assuming it is used for supplies). I gingerly squat, as to not taint my delicate behind on a germy, public toilet seat and Ellie reaches for the nifty, little white can with the swinging lid for sanitary napkins, it swings in a complete circle… cool. Balancing, I grab her hand, almost falling onto the seat. She carefully uses my hand to stabilize herself and then reaches with the other hand. Yes, the cool lid flipped both ways! Thanks to my sister-in-law, my thighs are strong from the slow squats that keep Ellie quiet during mass, so I am able to grab Ellie’s other hand without mishap. Then I fail her… I have to get the toilet paper and it is too far away to reach with my teeth. As soon as I let go of Ellie, she drops to her hands and knees and makes a mad crawling dash around me and uses the toilet as her grip to stand up. I manage to wipe as I am pulling up undies and pants AND swing her up onto my hip in a little less than 2 seconds, still unzipped, I pump a fistful of sanitizing soap into my hand and am covering her in it from head to foot as she wiggles and slips around in my arms. The rinse off went smoothly, drying, a bit of a challenge and then, oops – zip up and THEN, back out the door and to Daddy sitting in the waiting room… whew! Is it just me, or was that waiting room hot?!
After her nap, Ellie got her 1 year immunization shots. She did GREAT! Then, at bathtime, she actually wet into the toilet! WOW! & YAY!

Traffic Jam on the Steps.  Took Ellie about forever to get around Alex.
She finally had to step on his head...

Two Teeth Day

It has been an exhausting week. After mass, Ellie went down for a nap and I decided that this entire week I have been resting, so I really needed to get out and work, er… enjoy God’s great creation! So, I went into the garden and weeded. It is a good thing I did not look at my progress until I was ready to go inside, because I barely made a dent! Argh!

Our family pictures came in and now we need to decide which ones to keep.

I continued to make progress on my task list during Ellie’s second nap. Even Daddy got some things done! When Ellie woke up, we noticed her two, top side teeth (lateral incisors) came in! With all that fever stuff from last week… it is about time!

Then, we enjoyed some outdoor playtime in the sand/water table and then the whale pool (tried out the spout for the first time… Ellie liked it until we moved close enough to get sprinkled on… then it was a not-so-much like.)

We had an early dinner and then I went back outside and worked until Sunset.

She Did It!

Well, she did it!  As always (since May 12^th) whenever Ellie takes a bath (which is not everyday) I sit her on her potty seat for a few minutes.  She sits very nicely, pulls out the toilet paper (to poor Daddy’s confusion, I removed the toilet paper roll and set it where she could not reach it but I could, forgot to tell Daddy…) and then pees on the floor when I take her off the potty or as soon as I place her in the tub.  BUT, not today!  Today, she sits down, peers into the toilet, I say, “Go potty,” and the tiniest little stream is visible, so little, it doesn’t make a sound, but I see it and am ecstatic!  I try to stay calm so I do not scare her into stopping.  When she is done, I calmly say good job and then scream down to Daddy, “She did it, she did it!!!”  Now, Ellie is clapping her hands, I am clapping mine, we are both grinning and I let her pull some toilet paper off the roll to use.  Dad comes upstairs and congratulates Ellie and tells me, “You know, this doesn’t really mean anything.”  But he can not sink my boat.  Sure, this is just routine, but maybe Ellie is getting the idea…?!  Ah, who cares?!  GO, ELLIE!!!

Whale Pool

We tried out the whale pool in the front yard because Alex and Katy would have enjoyed it for 30 seconds before inevitably putting a hole in it. Ellie LOVED it! The water was a little cold (it was so hot today that we did not go out until 5pm and then in the shade it was cool, so the water felt icy), but we only put a little in and she enjoyed standing outside the pool, throwing her clothes that we had removed in.

Ellie’s oldest cousin had a whale pool just like ours when she was a child, so it was a whole lot of fun for Daddy to watch Ellie enjoying herself almost 30 years later! 

Exhausted

Went to swim class this morning.  Ellie did OK, but I could tell she was tired.  Planned to go to Costco to return some things, but Ellie didn’t make it that far…

1 Year Appointment

Ellie’s 12 Month appointment is a little off.  She had that fever for three days, so instead of being close to 19 pounds as I predicted or 18.3 as Daddy predicted, she was only 17 pounds 14 ounces.  That puts her in the 10^th percentile in weight. 

We weigh Ellie at home every couple of weeks and she was 18.5 pounds the last weigh-in, so we know today’s weight is not true to Ellie, but her doctor tsked us and told us she needs to eat more fatty foods; milk, cheese, avocados.  She doesn’t like milk too much, but we will cut out water for a while and only offer whole milk.  As an aside, we weighed her again when we got home and their/our scales are correct.  Ellie must have lost a bit of water weight during that fever bout.  In all other respects, she is right on schedule.  Completely average on height, but still carries around a big head.  I was actually a little disappointed, If she had continued the tradition of 90% in height and 50% in weight with a huge head, I was going to post a picture of the classic alien; tall, super thin with huge eyes in an enormous head.  Would have made me laugh… as it is, we still have a completely normal and healthy child, not an alien.

OK, maybe not completely normal, but what child is?!  Today, she crawled all the way up the stairs without help and she practiced kissing the other child in the mirror.