We'll just start out with the big news. IF there is anyone in the room who doesn't want to know this, please leave now. The streak continues for Jada's family as 4 generations of women have only given birth to girls. This will be no exception. Obi is a girl! She's healthy and doing well. The doctor said she was progressing just like she's supposed to. We're very happy. Of course, now I really need to start working on my future boyfriend intimidation techniques. According to the data, Obi is 1 lb as of Friday, Oct. 25. Just 6 more pounds to go.
Ellen was very good during the whole appointment. She watched the monitor for a little while, and then got bored and started playing with the toys in the toy box they keep in the room just for such occasions, I suppose.
Ellen is really working on her vocabulary now. She can say her aunt, uncle, and cousin's names: Mandy (Manny), Uncle Allen (Unko Ayen), Shelly (Shewy), Charlotte (Shewy again), and Noah (comes through very well). Plus the rest of the family: Nana, Boppa, Papa, Grawa, and Tessie. She can also say Elsa quite well (my Goddaughter). Her other vocabulary is surprising sometimes too. She can say and recognize a backhoe. She caught us off-guard with toboggan last week (it's a word in one of her books we get at the library). I taught her how to do snow angels (well, carpet angels), so every time she sees that in one of the library books she has now, she lays back so she can do one. She's just an amazing kid.
Ellen has also learned how to hop, blow her nose (sort of. She at least goes and gets tissues immediately after she sneezes. Better than me, right, mom?), say "bless you" when we sneeze, pick up after herself (some times), throw things in the garbage, climb up onto pretty much anything (her high chair, our bed, her dinosaur, couches, chairs, you name it). She's all over her play house now. She's freakishly strong. She was hanging from a stair railing by her fingers swinging back and forth this weekend while we attended a friend's wedding.
She made it into the full Catholic ceremony about 10 minutes which was just long enough for the bridal party to make it down the aisle. Every time the singer or organist would finish, she would say "all done". Then she started running down to the end of the pew and fighting when I tried to pull her back. So instead of ruining someone else's big day, we decided to go outside so Jada could watch the rest of the ceremony. (The Bride was a friend of Jada's since their college days) It wasn't easy occupying Ellen's time for an hour and keeping her dress reasonably nice. Luckily it was such a beautiful day or I don't know what we would have done.
For Halloween, we dressed up Ellen in a Blazer cheerleader costume (not like a Blazer "dancer", but a traditional cheerleader), and I put on my Blazers warm-up shirt for a short run around the neighborhood. We only hit 4 houses of people we know so they could see Ellen, and, well, "she" could get some candy. She enjoyed carrying around her sack, and showing off her bounty when we got home. She had fun helping us dole out candy at the door when we got back. It was very cold out, so we put her outfit over a warm outfit with a coat over that. Plus she was wearing her cute new fleece attitude hat. Adorable.
Let the screaming begin! We took Ellen to Target on Saturday to pick up a few things. She wanted to push the shopping cart, and like an idiot, I let her try. Of course, she can't push the cart holding the handle and reach the floor, so she got very frustrated. So we tried to put her into the cart, and she started just screaming. And I mean screaming. So Jada took her out of the store, and I went and paid for the laundry detergent. She said that some woman actually walked by holding her ears and looking very disapprovingly. We probably should have followed her around...but Ellen didn't calm down until after we got home. It was so much fun.
Sunday, Ellen had her first real cold since June. Her nose was all runny, and she was all sneezy. It was very sad. She seemed better today, but we're still keeping an eye on her.
That's all for now.
Journal entry: November 4, 2002