New stuff

She is changing so fast I have stopped writing it all down in favor of just keeping up with her! She is waving bye-by and Hello and HI at everything. Her friend Emma gave her one of those little baby blanket with the stuffed animal at the top yesterday and we have not taken it out of the car, she is totally occupied with it. She holds it up with one hand and waves "Hey" at it constantly. And chews on its ears. :)Which brings me to the next milestone.

Her first word(s) is "Hey!!!" or "Hi!" She grabbed my cell and put it up to her ear and started babling away last week. Then she did it with the remote control. Imitation! How fun!! She waves and says this to everything and she tries to add Bella's name when she is waving at her. She now points at pictures and trees b/c we are always pointing at these things. And I was so excited this morning b/c she pointed at Mike in a picture and said "DADA" and I was about to call him and she pointed the bird on a bird watching book on the same shelf and said "DADA." She is also walking with assistance and just starting to decide that maybe going from one thing to the next without assistance would be fun. We do drills where we pass her back and forth at night. She thinks it is hilarious.She is also expanding her diet. Broccoli, homemade peanut butter, basmati rice, eggs, cottage cheese, baked potatoes, yogurt, and cheez-its are the current leaders. She ate half my salmon at Long Horn the other night and we gave her out leftover grouper from last night for lunch today. She mowed through it. I'm trying to get her to eat cooked apples but she wants to hold the whole raw one and gnaw on it. She also likes pears and bananas. We tried some ravioli last night but it was not a hit. In other news I am finding my feet as a trainer. It is getting easier but no less overwhelming. Keeping up with many different aspects of many different people’s lives in disjointed 10-12 hours a week is hectic. I need to establish a system so I don’t feel so all over the place. But I am trying to be patient about that. I have to just grown and learn as things come. And it’s coming.

We are all geared up thinking about the holidays around here. Ellen got an early Christmas present so we could enjoy it before it gets too cold. She seemed to think it was worth her time for sure...


And last but not least I am feeling thoughtful. I listen to his guy Ed Young on the elliptical sometimes and today in one of his talks he said we are born asking a 3 word question…3 words resonate over and over in a child’s mind. We are born asking “Do I MATTER? Do I Matter? Do I matter?” He said that the first mirrors that we look into are the mirrors of our parent’s eyes. If reflected back are words of affirmation, dignity, value…then chances are we have a healthy mental state. If reflected back is that you are too fat too skinny you can’t make it you aren’t what I wanted you to be, then chances are you believe those things and live them. It dawned on me that my responsibility to Ellen is so much bigger than keeping her clean, dry, fed and rested…although it’s kind of too easy to get caught up in that. I want to think I’d reflect affirmation dignity and value but I guess we all would. But thinking of it in those terms, she is constantly figuring out “do I matter?” I am going to spend a little time letting that knock around my noggin this afternoon.