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.