oh where has the time gone?

Here I am, finding myself wondering how I have totally lost sight of my bird blog. Part of it is probably that I am no longer at the U when I was constantly updating the blog whenever I had down times. It aslo helped me deal with my own separation anxiety and all the whoopla that we went through in switching day cares.
Nonetheless, Ella is now at Goddard, where she has been since early October and, as her teacher Ms. Paula says, "we need to hose down Ella and Casey!" Apparently they have become quite the pair. Often times I would see Ella and Casey off in their own little world while the rest of the group was doing something else. They are constantly hugging each other. Jared said one day, "you better call Julie (Casey's mom) now and tell her that we aren't paying for the wedding."
Here are some cute bird phrases: "Here's elmo, Burp, and Big burp!" (for Bert and Big Bird) "baby button" (for Belly button, which Ella still uses to soothe herself) "you happy, mommy?" (of course, she's always spot on in picking up any sort of frustration or irritation in me. A future shrink. Great.) "it's okay baby, I gotcha. you'll be okay." (whew. at least she's not recreating play that would suggest we've been anything but loving, nuturing and caring towards her), "dobedobedo" (Ella not only dances in thie wild, wacked out way to Jared singing "pick a bail of cotton" song, she has created her own little tune).
Ella is midly obsessed with baby shows. First thing in the morning when she wakes up. "baby show." When she gets home from school. "baby show." We are trying to limit to 30 minutes per day. I guess this is one of those things I changed my mind on from when she was in utero until now. I think I can rember myself thinking that I'd try to be like Madonna and never have my child watching any TV. So much for that idea.
Jared set a limit with Ella last evening and told her to stop doing something. She looked up at him and said, "GO away dada!!!!" and continued with what she was doing. Jared was laughing really hard.
I continue to not be able to get enough of that little girl. She's the best.

Ella at the beach - by Grandpa Howard

Ella at the Beach

It was Monday, November 28, 2005. Jared, Susan, and
Ella had decided to extend their weekend vacation and
stay an extra day at the beach on South Padre Island,
Texas. Much of the Anderson family had assembled on
the island for Troy and Laura’s wedding. I think the
real beneficiaries of the extra vacation day were
Grandpa Howard and Grandma Pat.

Ella has always been a ready friend to Pat. I think
it's at least partly because Pat puts aside all (well
most) of her adult inhibitions and plays with Ella
like they are both two years old. Such fun they have,
walking, running, playing around on the floor. It has
always taken Ella a little longer to warm up to
Grandpa Howard. By the time she does, it’s time to
leave.

At the La Copa Inn in South Padre it was different.
We started by playing catch with a ball by the pool.
Later, Pat, Howard, and Ella went for a walk on the
beach. Ella liked it when Howard carried her out into
the water and let the waves roll over my his legs.
Ella didn’t want to be in the water, so we would run
away from the waves. We walked in the sand, exploring
shells, examining a live butterfly Ella found clinging
to a rock, observing and distinguishing between the
different kinds of birds --- sand pipers (small),
seagulls (middle), and pelicans(big). We played
follow the leader, running in circles until we were
too tired to go anymore. The grandparents were tired,
not Ella.

Later, in the room, after a delicious lunch of Subway
sandwiches, Grandpa Howard sat on the bed and fell
back while Ella sat down hard on the bed and giggled.
Each succeeding time we did this she giggled and
laughed even harder. Ella and Howard took turns
rolling up in the bed cover, hiding from each other.
More giggles. More fun.

Grandchildren are great. We could use some more of
them. Jared and Susan didn't suggest that we should
change Ella's messy diaper either. That's another
good thing about being grandparents.

Pool Party

On Friday (as a break from bike shows), Ella and I went to the pool to
cool off from the scorching summer days we have been having. At first
Ella would not go in--just stood on the side of the baby pool and
watched in her red swim bottoms and matching hat. Finally she ventured
in but insisted that I go in too. So the two of us sat in the end
playing for a couple of hours with the buckets and balls that other
children had left there She kept getting braver and braver, eventually
even allowing her feet to float up as the placed her hands at the
bottom of the pool and walked along! Whenever, I tried to get out and
sit on the side, she ordered me back in: "Vickkk...in." Grandpa and
Mom came later and we all had a wonderful dinner on the deck! An
afternoon at the pool with Ella (and of course John and Susan)--pretty
close to heaven for me! Grandma Vickkkk

NO bike show!

So, the tour de france is in full force which basically means that Jared tries to confine Ella to the family room so he can watch hours of the race. Sadly, Ella has begun to resent this and now says things like, "no bike show dada!" Instead, what she really wants is a "BABBEEE SHOW" which she is now slightly obsessed with. I'm not sure what the deal is with those Baby Einstein videos, but Ella can't get enough of them (and she always chooses them over Elmo.... "No Emo mama").

Wake

Ella can now pretty much repeat anything you say to her. Of course, what she repeats is not perfect, for example:
We're celebrating the July birthdays last night (for Jared, John and Jason) and for some reason the subject of menopause comes up and Mike asks Ella if she can say "menopause." She says, "meepakes." It seems like most things Ella says end in this hard consonant sound. Like when you ask her if she is tired or sleepy, she says, "NO.. WAKE!" (like, no I am not sleeping now mom, I am awake!)
She is also very cute now in her questioning of the world. She often says, "wass dat?" or "where mama go?" or "what dada do?" It is super cute and you can't help from responding to her and then she'll say something like "ooooohhh." Kindof like the "yeaahhhh" she did a while ago, but now doesn't say that like that anymore. Jared is, of course, so proud of her endless curiosity as it is the one thing he prides himself on the most. Let's just hope that Ella's curiosity lands her in med school, rather than someone who could watch endless hours of tv because "there's so much to learn from tv!"

Holiday Weekend

Jared, Ella, and I spent the weekend house-sitting for my parents. Other than the dog, Sadie, running away and going crazy with all the fireworks, it was a grand ol' time. Ella liked going for boat rides. Jared asked her who's boat it was and she'd say "VICK." He then asked her who drives the boat and she'd say "VICK." Jared then said, "oh, your dad is going to love that one."
Ella and I were talking about her upcoming 2nd birthday party. "Ella, how old are you now?" "two." "Not quite yet, you will be two very soon and we are going to have a birthday party for you. What do you want to wear for your birthday party?" "CAKE!!!!!" Apparently Ella has associated party with cake, so every time a party is mentioned, she looks at you excitedly and says "CAKE!!!" She also says CAKE whenever you go into a fast-food restaurant as she associates all of those with Dairy Queen when we had ice cream (aka CAKE!).

Grandma Vickkks posting

Since grandma Vickkk is having a hard time posting comments, here is the latest from her:
So fun to hear how Ella is communicating.
She uses her own blue eyes to communicate too. When I kept her last
Friday, we were having scrambled eggs. I would look away and then back
quickly to her eyes. She thought this was hilarious..she would do the
same--look away and then quick make eye contact--and laugh and laugh.We
must have done this a dozen times and each time was funnier than the
one before. This is a subtle form of peep-eye (Southern version of
peek-a-boo) and this one truly uses the eyes. Grandma Vickkk

Mama's eyesa blck!

So I was trying to teach Ella about eye colors the other day. "Ella, what color are your eyes?" "bluuu." "Yes, that's right. What color are mamas eyes?" "blckkk." "No, mama's eyes are brown. What color are mama's eyes?" "Blckkk!" Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes. Ella also thinks that the broom is a "brussshhhh!!" and wants to help out with the sweeping whenever she can. We are going to try and find a smaller baby-sized broom so she can get started early on chores.

Dirt Cake

So last night we are enjoying an evening on the deck -- classic summer fare: hamburgers, corn, watermelon, and a half-eaten coffee health bar crunch piece of cheesecake form the cheesecake factory. And, of course, Ella is all over the "CAKE!!" which she has decided to call "dirt cake" becuase she thinks the oreo crust looks like dirt. Despite this being dirt to her, she readily ate most all of it. Jared is worried that when he goes out of town today that Ella and I will just eat crackers and cake for dinner every night... and, so what if we do :).

Travelling Ellaberry

Ella is s traveling wonder. In the past month, she has visited St. Louis and checked out the penguins at the St. Louis zoo, travelled to North Carolina and sepnt time beachin' it at the Seaside Club, and then this psat weekend to.... Moorhead, MN! Jared took Ella up there to see her grandparents. I stayed back to finish my dissertation, but it sounds like I missed some cute sayings. Apparently when Jared was talking to her about seeing grandma ArNetta, Ella would say "ruru?" (after grandma Ruth). And then she would say "viCK" in response to other inquires about grandmas. Jared's theory was that "ruru" meant grandmas she doesn't see very often and "viCK" meant grandmas she sees more regularly.
Ella's vocabulary is quite expansive. Here are some recollections: nose, back, cheek (she wants to put the Burt Bees cream on her CHEEK!), bounce, blue (every color is blue) and of course, BABY! Ella has also learned about the concept of her "safe space" (leave it to us shrinks), which comes in handy whenever I am vacuuming.

Words are good

Ella is now verbal and it sure is facinating the words she chooses to say. Here are some of her favorites: messss (pretty much any small crumb is a mess and we think she must hear this one a LOT at day care), move, ella (said aiya and whenver she thinks it is her turn), dance, MAMA! (often shouted when she first gets home, but knows that I am not there), bike (bayeK), truck (truK), heehaw (when she wants to ride horsey), up, down, and our current favorite: yeah (yeAH)(which is said in the cutest, most gentle way, w/ the smallest influctuation at the end & in reponse to pretty much anything we ask). These are some of my recent recollections: "Ella, did that vacuum noise scare you?" "yeaah." "Ella, do you want to take your medicine?" "yeaah." Words, when coming from Ella, are certainly a good thing.

Woe is Ella

We are not sure what is going on with Ella these days -- teething, exhaustion, growth spurt? Anyways, on Sunday we had some friends over and Ella was falling asleep on the floor. Poor thing, (for two reasons) 1) because she was so tired and 2) me as her mom had no idea that I should even have this on my radar screen. Afterall it was only 5:30pm. I decided to put her down for a nap and instead she slept through until about 9 when we woke her up and took her temp. She had a little fever, but went back to sleep fine. Same situation the next day, so she ended up coming home from day care and spent the day with Jared jumping in the puddles and learning a thing or two about worms. Jared said they learned about live worms and dead worms and Ella was facinated by all of this. I asked him if he took pictures, you know for the scrapbook, and he hadn't. I am still working on training him to think about scrapbooks more often. We still aren't sure what was going on, and maybe that's ok... I'll take it as practice for things to come in the future that will end up being unkown or mysterious or Ella just saying, "mom I don't want to tell you about that!"

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend we had fabulous weather and Ella couldn't have loved it more. On Saturday she helped Dada out when he was cleaning his car. She wanted to sit in the driver's seat, have me close the "dooo" and pretend like she was driving. Jared thought it also may be a good idea to have her try and fish out all the coins that found their way to the bottom of his arm console. On Sunday, Ella joined me (bright and early) at Caribou where they were offering a free shot of espresso to honor daylight saving time. We then played on the deck and she loved to push all the chairs and tables around. The rest of the afternoon was spent over at Casey's where Ella chased balloons and ate pizza with Casey. They also enjoyed the sandbox (that is when neither of them were throwing sand on one another). I am looking forward to the summer and being outside because, like Jeff Greely said, "it's like having another room in your house!"

Here I am with Dada! 

My little clingy one

Today Ella was not her usual self. I think that it may have had something to do with the foods she ate yesterday, which of course, were are large variety of milk-based products: yo-baby, cottage cheese, cheese sandwich, etc... I hope that she doesn't end up being allergic to milk like Jared. Anyways, the only good thing about Ella not feeling like herself is that she gets more needy and clingy. She wants to cuddle and snuggle and I can't get enough of it. Today Jared was commenting, "I can't believe she is actually a separate little person" and "I can't stop staring at her, she's just so beautiful." I could agree, of course, after carrying her for 9 months, nursing, and staying home with her for that first year, it is hard sometimes to see her as not me. Today was nice, she went into the bedroom and said "tee" which usually means she wants to watch TV on our bed. But this time, she wanted to go to sleep. So I slept with her for her second nap of the day and loved it. There are benfits for me when she's not feeling well. I get to remember how nice it feels to be sleeping next to that beauty and knowing there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be.

Welcome!

The Ella Diary 3/17/05

I realize, after visiting a website called the “trixie report”, that there are a lot more things that I want to write about Ella’s ever-changing self. Ella began Kinderberry two days ago, a center where she is with other children her same age. It didn’t work out at the last place because Ella was not connecting with the other children or caregivers. At first Jared and I thought that it was OK that she would just observe the other children, after all, that’s what kids do sometimes. Jared was convinced that there may be more to the story… that Ella hadn’t really ever attached to Sara and that perhaps Sara (having 3 children of her own to care for as well) was worried about the implications of giving Ella more attention. Whatever the case, after hearing that Ella had basically stood in the same place for more than a hour, Jared and I decided that it was time to take Ella out of there. It was a good decision. I don’t know if it is because she is in a good place now or what, but Ella has had a flurry of verbalizations over the past few days. She is saying “my ball” and “mooooooo” (which means mama move from where you are or stop looking at me or stop touching me) and of course “babeeee!” (which is her favorite). Her first night after day care, I don’t think Ella stopped talking. It was mostly incomprehensible. I wanted to go out for dinner last night and asked Ella to pick a restaurant because Jared couldn’t decide and Ella turned to me (as she was plugging in the mic cord from the keyboard into the TV, and said “no”….. like “no mama I am busy and anyways dad should decide.” So we went to Rey for Mexican food and I commented that Ella has been going to this place since she was born. I wondered if she would have her grooms dinner there. Ella enjoyed putting the chicken quesadilla in her mouth and, at times, spitting it back out. I think she didn’t like all the peppers. Anyways, she liked to run up and down the aisle and say “baooon” as she pointed to the blown up maracas. Then later at home, she remembered a game where she directed Jared and I from standing by the wall in our bedroom to flying onto the bed. Jared said “look, I am going to do a pike” and then Ella copied, fell and hit her head. There was the silent cry and then she was fine. Jared and Ella did this for a while until Jared broke the bed frame. Then the game was over.