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.