We're off!

We have entered Travel Time, which bears no relationship to Ordinary Time. After getting up at 4am for a 6:45 flight, we have done one leg. No idea about time...we leave at 2 and then arrive at 3:15 the next afternoon, which is 3:15am...but OF WHICH DAY???!!!

My goodness, we've been busy.

Ellie is now 17 months, and blossoming into a toddler. She's got a bunch of words: up, ball, bird, more, Alex, Ellie's shoes, Ma (which means "come someone" not necessarily me), ahden (which refers to a drink, mostly water), night-night, and bath. She understands a lot, and will respond with a joyful laugh when she's successfully communicated. When I bathe her and ask for a foot to wash, she will give one to me, then the other. When she's whining and I ask if she is hungry, she will laugh and nod her head with a grateful smile.

She's also figured how how a lot of things work. When she wants more food, she takes her bowl in her two hands, Oliver Twist-style, and will hold it up, saying "more?". When she is done, she will hand the bowl, then the spoon, then the stray bits of food, then the placemat to someone. When we are getting dressed, she is very helpful putting arms and legs into the holes. She likes to put on underwear, but of course she doesn't yet own any. Mine serve as necklaces, the boys' are anklets. Phil's boxers make nice hats. I do yoga every morning, and today Ellie wanted me to unroll the yoga mat on the floor for her. When I showed her how it unrolled, I thought she'd want to repeat it, but instead, she stood on the mat and did a pretty good imitation of a temple pose. I had just figured out what she was doing when she did a back bend, then got down and did an upward dog, then downward dog. I couldn't believe it. She'd gotten about half of my routine down, in the right order.

She likes to be a part of things, and assigns herself jobs. She is the official light extinguisher of the family, and she helps put wet clothes in the dryer. She is the one who closes the dishwasher door. At school she always helps wipe the tables, and she takes the chairs off of the table in the morning when she arrives. Her teachers have told us also how much she likes to help.

She's also watching the kids at school very carefully. She periodically bursts into a screaming rage when she doesn't get what she wants, but it comes and goes so quickly, and is about so very little, it seems more practice than real. She even threw herself on the floor once or twice to kick and scream. She's got a couple in her class who have tempers, so she's learning that too!

All in all, she's keeping us very busy, but she is such a joy.

Pretty Wardrobe

Another few fashion shots

Grown-Up Ellie

Leslie: Ellie has decided that she is one of us. She watches what we are doing very carefully in order to participate. She sees us reading all the time, and so has decided to join us. She'll pick up a book (more often upside-down than rightside-up!) and flip through it. If it is a magazine, she flips through the pages with her thumb, very grown up. She'll sit for a surprising length of time looking upside-down at a book.

She also spends a lot of time at the computer, one hand on the mouse and the other banging on the keyboard.

She even joins us when we watch tv. She doesn't watch, of course, unless there is music or birds. If there is music, she'll bop up and down, dancing. If there are birds, she'll point and shout. Otherwise she just climbs up on the couch, cuddles next to one of us, and pops her thumb in her mouth to settle in. Again, she'll sit there for a surprising amount of time.

At night, she falls asleep on our bed, while one of us sits with her. After a while, she noticed that we sit propped up with pillows. Now she always sleeps propped up with pillows.

She likes to help. She's assigned herself a series of jobs. It started at the JCA, where she is the one who hands the ID card to be swiped. Then it moved to credit cards, so she pays all the bills at the grocery store. Next she began to unload the cart onto the belt at the register. Recently she's appointed herself the official light-master, and she is in charge of turning on and off all lights. She also opens and closes lids, unwraps food (especially chocolate bars) and opens and closes doors. Her first real words manifest the importance of these activities: she says "light" when she wants to turn on or off the lights. She says "uh-oh" when she drops something. She also says "ouch" when she pinches us, and then promptly pats us with "gentle pats."

Poor little thing, with not two but four big people, she's got a lot of catching up to do.

More fashion shots

From the Glickmans, the Gawels (sorry it is blurry, she wouldn't keep the hat on and this is the best of 6 shots!) and the Strentas.

Brave and Bold Baby

Leslie: Ellie started pre-school on August 25. She is in a "Busy Bee" class from 8:30-12. I stayed for a few hours the first couple of days to try to ease the transition, but then I had my first day of my new job, so I've been staying only about 10 minutes. After a few days, Ellie began to be anxious as soon as we got in to the room, and cried as soon as she saw her teacher, Ms. June. I said a quick good-bye and then left each time. Today, after only a few weeks, Ellie finally didn't cry when I left. As you can see from Ellie's choice of reading material, it is an accelerated program.

Momma and Baby

Note the gorgeous outfits Ellie wears. We have wonderful, generous friends with really good taste.

Mom is in a 25 year old tee-shirt.

Gardening Day

We planted almost 200 plants over three days this month. We thought the landscapers were going to bring us the plants in two trips, but they didn't. Ellie likes to eat dirt, so we couldn't let her help. She was not happy about being left on the deck, but she sure was cute.

Storm Damage

All that open space in the yard, and the tree drops its trunk right on the swing bar. The tree was hit by lightning two weeks ago (I saw the fireball), and then as I looked out the kitchen window, Fay smashed Phil's playset into toothpicks. We think it can be fixed. This was the only major damage we had, though, and we never lost electricity, so we count ourselves lucky.

Snuggly baby

Ellie has learned how to cuddle. She cuddles stuffed animals, baby dolls, and of course, brothers.

Alex's Return

Alex was in Denmark for the month of July. He had a wonderful time at CISV, but we missed him a lot. This is Ellie's reaction to his return. She let him hold her, so clearly he wasn't a stranger, but she is trying to figure out who, exactly, this handsome young man might be.

Techno-girl

Ellie likes to copy what we do. She bangs on the keyboard, wondering what the attraction is. She also tries to talk on the phone, and somehow figured out that the toy phone is a phone, too.

Mama's birthday picture

While we were on the road, I turned another year older. We stopped at the American Folklife Festival in Washington, DC as a special treat. The festival was pretty lame (NASA??!!!), but we had fun anyway. Bhutanese food was pretty good, we all agreed.

Ellie had her first carousel rides, one each with the boys.

Ellie and her Teddy

Ellie loves the teddy bear that the boys gave her.

Ellie at the beach

She wasn't at all sure about sand. She'd eat it just fine, but didn't want her feet in it. By the end, she'd tolerate it on her feet, and would play with it in her hands, but she never wanted to get off of the safety of the lap.

Feet Redux

We are back from our three weeks in Connecticut.

Ellie didn't like sand or grass on her feet, but she continues to think they might be a part of a balanced meal. Sometimes she even puts both feet up at dinner.

We didn't get any photos of the sand, but it looked alot like the grass experience, only with a beige background.

Proud Sister

Ellie helped Alex celebrate his 5th grade graduation. She dressed up in her baby finest and looked so beautiful next to her handsome graduate and her baseball brother!

Little Feet

Ellie loves to sit in her high chair and tease us by putting her feet up. We've tried to explain that it isn't polite to have your feet up on the table, even when you aren't yet walking on them, and even when they are really more like food than transportation. But she doesn't listen. She smiles mischievously and puts the back up on her high chair tray.

Alex's Ellie haiku

I am a baby,
I'm trying to go to sleep,
warm hand on shoulder
eyes now closing sleepily
FINALLY, asleep