This week with Ellie

Last Sunday, Ellie was not as confident in her steps as she is now. It's amazing to see how much steadier she has become, although she still needs to hold on tightly to something or someone. That accomplishment comes on the heels of her first devastating fall, devastating to Gramma, that is.

On Monday, she was crawling on the wrought iron tables as she loves doing. She can pull up to them, crawl through the middle and hang on to the sides to pick up anything on the floor. These tables have caused her mother and grandmother and any visitor who sees her on them much angst. They have sharp edges.

On Monday, she fell against one. I was sitting next to her. She was not walking, just crawling, and she slipped and fell on a flat surface, biting her tongue. It bled and bled and bled and bled for at least 48 hours--well the clock said three minutes but MY clock was sure it was much longer. And she cried for...my clock several weeks, kitchen clock two minutes. Believe whichever. She did stop crying before she stopped drooling pink tinged slobber. She ate fine that night and slept well, too. Me, I just worried and had nightmares.

Kim and I took her to get Ethiopian food Monday night as a treat. She loves it and stuffs it in with both hands. Yes, it is spicy but she doesn't seem to like bland food and positively refuses baby food in a jar. She will, however, eat chicken sticks. They're a bit like Vienna sausages except for babies. My kids loved them when they were little. too.

Ellie and I ventured out in the car twice, once for a post office box to mail something to Uncle Kristen and to pick up a book for Kim from the library. The other time was to find a community center near here. It has a great park and I think it also has play dates for children Ellie's age. She does need to know that there are other children her size.

She still wakes up between 5:45 and 6:30 but will play in her bed until the 6:30 time UNLESS Maddox starts clamoring around wanting someone to feed him. Then she wants up, too. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 at night and takes 2 hour-and-a-half naps. We might prefer that she sleep later but I do appreciate the regularity of her schedule.

On Wednesday night, I gave her a bath in the kitchen sink because her mommy was going to be late coming home. We both enjoyed that, especially the "shower" when I turned on the sprayer on the faucet. Don't newly washed babies smell great?

Today, Thursday, is rainy and overcast. I imagine we'll stay in all day. Tomorrow, Kim will work from home and take Ellie for a doctor's appointment. Ellie will probably have to have some inoculations and Kim will cry. On Saturday, all four of us (Maddox is included) will drive to Knoxville to spend a week with Grandpa while Kim works in Chattanooga. The drive will be challenging. Imagine an active baby confined to a car seat for 8-9 hours and a large yellow lab confined to the way back of a small SUV. But we'll have fun when we get there.