Banana Republic

While Dad is out of Dodge, you know now that I’ve been brought in to be the “stand in” goat-ee. Ellie has quickly let me know that there’s no substitute for Nathan. It’s easy for this grandpa to know his place when those big brown eyes turn completely away and around like an owl when I enter the room. She has no sense of time and can only imagine that Nathan has turned into me -- which is a fate she doesn’t understand and Nathan hopes never happens.

We had some great experiences today in watching her change and develop almost with the turn of every hour. One exciting feature posted on today’s script was the new toy in which she has fallen madly in love. We discovered it in another room in the orphanage and brought it to her attention. She is a girl who knows her values and she’s placed them in a similar toy that her mother played with 30 years ago. Fischer-Price should be so proud for the same exact toy is in Cydil’s childhood home. The features of this toy have been magnetic to Ellie’s little fingers. She loves to spin the doggies and roll the rattling wheel while dialing the rotary phone. It would be great to have side-by-side pictures of Cydil and Ellie with focused attention on a mirror and bell, except on this one they’re broken.

Today was another venture to the great outdoors, made to acclimate Ellie to sunlight and open spaces. She is still very cautious and shy of anything with color and proportion. But she is getting better and time will alleviate these problems. The picture is of Ellie on a teeter-totter. I’m on the other end. So you might say the playing field wasn’t level. She seems to only see me on the other end of a lens anyway.

When watching suppertime this evening, I learned that she has a complete array of passionate feelings. Supper consisted of a mixture of cookies, milk, and bananas. And she could not get enough. She was hunger personified. When the workers bring in the food, she, along with all of her roommates, go into a collective whimper and dance to be noticed. It does them good because they’re not forgotten if they make noise. I’m sure it’s an old orphan trick passed down to each other at class reunions. Anyway, Ellie was dining on ground bananas and cookies when all of a sudden her cup ran dry and out came the loudest wail that the little girl has ever provided in my presence. We waffled on the idea of showing this photo to the grandmothers, but decided that it’s better to see the complete Ellie than a hyped-up media version. This is Ellie without her food. Ironically, Ellie's dad can't tolerate bananas (deadly allergic), while Ellie can't tolerate to be without them (obviously).

Tonight a full moon will brighten our path to the internet and it will light up the harbor outside Ellie’s window overlooking the Adriatic. It’s her last full moon as an Albanian since hopefully in about 3 weeks she should be on her way to the States. – Ellie’s Grandpa Van (gpv)