Ellie Update

Some pics from a few weeks ago when Els was helping me test my lights for a prayer card photo shoot

In my spare time I've been working on Ellie's 2009 book and attempting to make it more than just photos by including some text this time. The blog has been a handy reference tool for finding material to include on the pages. It's made me keenely aware that I wish I had shared a bit more often, or went into greater detail at times to record some of her Ellie-isms as she does change so quickly.

This month has seen Ellie living her day-to-day life with much joy and contentedness. The notes and phone calls from school are diminishing (though Thursday night the parent of one of her busmates told Nathan that her daughter said she was sad that Ellie missed her mommy and daddy because Ellie sometimes cried when she got on the bus -- gulp -- I hope that's an old story and not a new one!).

I've been especially proud of her this week as I noticed that she is (finally) getting what she wants when it's in another part of the house. Usually, if Ellie would want something, she would whine and cry and refuse to go find it on her own -- while yes, it may have partly been laziness, it was also a fear of being away from us. We've seen that's she is growing more confident and secure in not having one or the other of us right by her side all the time. Intead, when she suggests something she'd like, she'll answer herself by saying cheerfully, "I'll go get it!"

Her imaginative play continues to expand. In the photo above, you see her leg wrapped in a 'cast' of sheets of dot-matrix printer labels. She names everything with an onomatopoeiatic nomenclature. For example, the cups in her bathtub are named "Mr. Hahm". That's because (according to her) when you hinge them together and make chomping motions, they go "Hahm, Hahm!" (it helps if you make a gutteral sound in the back of your throat while you say it). Likewise she has similar names for her balloons and other bath toys.

Her favorite story repetoire has expanded beyond just the story of when Ellie goes to the doctor to "when Ellie went to Albania" (her adoption story). It's fun to share the highlights of that story with her, though I think she likes it primarily for when we get to the part of her refusal of our attempts at feeding her with a spoon. She clamps her mouth shut at that point and shakes her head back and forth saying"m,m,m,m,m!" Then she says, "Silly baby Ellie!" We're trying to use it to prepare her for our trip to pick up her brother or sister, whenever that day comes. I'm afraid she's going to think all babies come from Albania, but for now, that's fine with me. What I think she does understand from the story is that her parents loved her very much and couldn't wait to hold her in their arms -- at which point she just grins and snuggles in closer.