September Journal
We had another wedding to go to in September for our friends Erin and Craig. We weren't able to bring Phoebe with us this time, so Phoebe's Godmother volunteered to watch the kids that night. She was kind enough to bring them to us out at the location of the wedding so Jada could feed Phoebe, and we could stay a little later...but not too much later. The next morning was the first day of Cycle Oregon, and I needed to get across the state for the start the next morning at 6am for registration.
I had to leave the girls again for Cycle Oregon 16. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to leave them this time. Especially since I had to leave in the middle of the night. At least Jada's mom came to stay with Jada for the week, so that helped her.
Pete and I drove back the afternoon of the last day. I got back to our house before Jada and the girls got back from a friend's house. I heard them pull up, so I went out to greet them. Ellen was very excited. She was jumping up and down in the car. (They had come back from a birthday party, and Ellen had chocolate all over her face from the Tootsie Roll she had eaten) When she got out I picked her up, and she wouldn't let me put her down until bed time. It was such a happy evening. Phoebe smiled at me to let me know she remembered me. It was just so good to be home.
The next day was busy. On top of it being Jada's birthday, we helped Jada's mom move into her new apartment in the morning. I helped move in the big stuff, and then I took the girls over to swing at the nearby park. Phoebe really enjoys swinging. She was smiling and laughing the whole time. Ellen likes going higher now. She's learning how to pump her legs too, so soon she may be able to go over to the big girl swing. However, that won't happen until she's better at holding on. That afternoon, someone from Jada's high school graduating class organized a small reunion for the group she used to hang out with. It was her 13 year reunion. Even though we only were able to be there for an hour after the girls woke up from their naps, Jada was glad she went to see her old friends. That night, we went to Olive Garden for Jada's birthday dinner. We don't even have to get a booster seat for Ellen any more. We've found that she can reach the table just fine in a chair, and we can also prop Phoebe up in a high chair pretty well.
Speaking of Phoebe's eating habits. She's now on to more kinds of food: oatmeal, potatoes, prunes, squash, and pears. The best thing is that she is finally taking a bottle. Her daycare provider had been continuing to work with her since she started going back. Now she drinks so much, we had to buy bigger bottles, and she can hold it herself. We've been working on her with sitting upright. She's getting there. She can sit up for a whole minute or more sometimes all by herself. She has started her interest in playing with the tags on her toys phase. Ellen was the same way. I'm not sure what the allure is, but they always really enjoy it. Finally in the most amazing thing (to me, anyway), we were driving home after taking Jada's mom out for her birthday dinner when Phoebe lifted her blanket over her head. I said, "where's Phoebe?", and she dropped the blanket and smiled her huge toothless grin. She did it 4 more times after that. It was quite possibly one of the cutest things I've ever seen. She's very mobile too. She pushes herself backwards, and she can roll on the floor to just about anywhere she needs. And the best thing is she has such a big smile. She's such a happy baby.
Ellen is in the 2nd level of the "terrible two/three's". (As far as I can tell, there will be 7 total.) Sometimes, though it is just really hard to be mad at her because what she's doing is so funny. Laurie her daycare provider told us a story about what she was doing instead of napping today. Apparently, instead of napping, she decided to take off her socks, put them on her hands, and use them as puppets. It's really funny to listen to her talk after we just put her to bed but before she actually falls asleep. She talks to her bear and puppy. Sometimes, they talk to each other. She tells them that they need to take a good nap (which is what we always tell her), and other things that we talked about during the day. She sings little songs to the same tunes of other songs that she knows. It's very cute.
For the final weekend of the month, Jada had to go away for her political action committee for Friday night. So on the way out of town, she dropped Ellen off at work with me. I took her up to my cube so she could see where I work. We stopped by Carrie and Dave's offices. Mike was on the phone, and he looked like he was actually talking, so we didn't stop by his office. We grabbed my stuff, and then we went back to the front door. I didn't want her to go through the revolving door, but it started spinning when she walked by so she darted in. I couldn't get in the same part with her because of the bags I was carrying so I tried to tell her to keep going, but she stopped, and tried to come back which resulted in her foot getting stuck. However those doors don't stop for anything, so I used my body to keep the door from revolving while the security office stopped the door and allowed it move backwards freeing her. She was upset, but no damage was done. So we headed off to Red Robin for dinner.
They sat us at a 2 person booth so Ellen sat on one side of the table, and I sat on the other. Ellen was playing with the condiments and salt and pepper. At one point, I turned to get her diaper changing things out of the bag. As I was doing that, she sprinkle pepper from the shaker into my water glass. One of the waiters was walking by just as she was doing it laughing and saying, "she got you". Other than that, she did a wonderful job sitting on her own. She ate her entire mac and cheese dish and even nibbled some of the cantaloupe that came with it.
Saturday morning was the first day of Ellen's swimming class. Since it was such a nice day, and Phoebe couldn't come to her first day of swimming since she was out of town, we decided to ride our bike to the pool. It's not very far away from our house, and I always feel bad driving there. We got ready and took off. It only took about 10 minutes to ride there. Ellen had fun after she got used to the whole thing again. The class was full as it always is on the first day (I counted 18 kids). It was more moms than dads this time, but that's ok since my locker room was less crowded than normal. Then we rode back home and had lunch. She took a nice nap, and Jada came home shortly after, just in time for dinner.
Tomorrow we go to the orchard again. Yea! Apple season. Ellen loves the honey crisps.
I think that's about it for now. I will try to be better about getting these done in a more timely matter.
Journal entry: September 27, 2003