Cerin Amroth

I took a break from chopping veggies for supper to poke my head into the bedrooms and see what Ella was up to. I found her sitting in the computer chair, hands on the keyboard. She looked at me with the utmost seriousness.

“Daddy. You’re Big Girl,” she said. When assigning roles, she never tells anyone else “You’re Ella.” “Big Girl” is her stand-in.

“Okaaay,” I said. “What are we going to do?”

“BIg Girl, go play with your toys,” she said.

“Are you going to play with me?”

“Big Girl, I need to send an e-mail. You have to play by yourself for a _few minutes_.”

Then she turned back to the computer and clattered away on the keys for a bit. Ouch!

At the kids’ section of the bookstore, Ella was playing with Humpty Dumpty, and had handed me Lilly the Mouse and Curious George. Humpty Dumpty (who was actually a disturbing character named Captain Underpants, but anybody that shape is Humpty to Ella) bobbled up to the other two and said “Hey guys! What are you doing?”

“Ummm . . .” I searched for a reply. “We’re just hanging out.”

“Oh!”

A pause.

“What are you hanging out of?”

“1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . . 11 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . . 12 . . . TWENTY . . . FIFTY!”

It’s that seven-eleven thing that always seems to throw her off-track. She belted out this particular sequence this morning while jumping back and forth on our bed. Over me. While I was still trying to sleep.

We have news! Suanna is pregnant. Here’s the FAQ:

Q: Seriously?

A: Yep.

Q: Wow . . . I mean, like, I didn’t know if you were gonna have another one or not.

A: Neither did we. But then we decided to give it a shot.

Q: Now you’re gonna end up with like four or five, right?

A: The plan is to stop at two.

Q: So, when’s Suanna due?

A: December 16, which means she’s early in the second trimester right now.

Q: Are you gonna find out the gender, and if so are you gonna tell us?

A: Yes and yes.

Q: So do you know right now?!

A: Nope. The technician wasn’t able to hazard a guess at the ultrasound. But you are more than welcome to engage in your own speculation; here’s a picture:

http://www.polytropos.org/sonogram.jpg

Q: Do you guys want a boy now, for balance or whatever?

A: Not necessarily. In fact, when we were at the ultrasound and the technician was trying to figure it out, I realized that, in my gut, I wanted it to be another girl.

Q: Maybe on the theory that another girl might be as wonderful, easygoing, and non-troublesome as Ella?

A: Hey, it was a gut feeling. But that may have had something to do with it.

Q: You realize, though, that after Ella you guys are totally fated to get a screaming terror of a child that will have you in a constant state of frazzlement for the next 18 years?

A: The cards are stacked against us, it’s true.

Q: So what does Ella think of the prospect of having a sibling?

A: We haven’t told her yet. That is to say, we haven’t sat down with her and explained everything in language we know she can understand. We have talked about it with each other in her presence pretty liberally, so she’s got to have an inkling that Something Is Going On.

Q: So how much of it do you think she gets already?

A: If history is any judge, way more than we’d guess.

Q: This is all very exciting. Who’s allowed to know? May I spread the word?

A: You certainly may.

Ella is playing with her toy, a Play-Doh roller with detachable ends — a present from Suanna, who has just returned from her trip. Ella is flingng it around, pretending it’s a tennis racket, and the loose end tends to disconnect and go flying across the room. After several such flings, she loses track of the thrown piece and spends a couple minutes looking for it in the corner.

But she can’t find it. So what does she do? She sidles up to my laptop, which is open near the couch, and puts her fingers on the keys, all business. “Daddy,” she says, “I need to use the computer to find it.”

Last night we dug out her box of Legos for probably the first time in a couple weeks, and all day today she’s been on a total Lego kick. I’ve noticed quite a bit more interest in actually _building_ things with them, though, as opposed to just setting up the table and chairs and putting the Lego people in them. We made an extremely high tower which she loudly proclaimed as her own when I suggested reclaiming some of its pieces for another construction project. So I let her keep the tower and made myself a little boat. This prompted her to say, in the sweetest, most treacly voice she could muster, “Daddy, I’ll share my tower with you. Here ya go. And do think I could play with your _boat_?!”

“388″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella388.jpg

Health update: Ella has the tiniest hint of a runny nose, nothing to cramp her style. Mine is considerably runnier and causing me to resort to cold medication, but I’m still functional. These pictures were taken while watering the vegetables out back, thus simultaneously giving Suanna a chance to see Ella and reassuring her that I am, in fact, remembering to do the watering. (I’m afraid the tomatoes still aren’t looking that great, though.)

“385″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella385.jpg
“386″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella386.jpg
“387″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella387.jpg

Day Two was a pretty typical Friday for us, but with a dash of foreboding — both Ella and I both have what may or may not be the beginning of colds. I’m mainlining zinc and she seems to be dealing with only a little runny nose, so hopefully it gets better before it gets worse. House arrest for the next four days wouldn’t be very fun for either of us.

For tonight’s pictures we decided to use the delay timer:

“383″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella383.jpg — Our first attempt involved me dashing over to the chair and then beckoning Ella over, which she hesitated to do at first, causing me to flail my arms and raise my voice until she finally came over in the nick of time. Hence the shellshocked expression on her face.
“384″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella384.jpg — After that she got seriously into it, though, and insisted we play the game way too many times. All the shots involve truly hideous cheese smiles on her part, though, except for this one. Trust me.

Suanna’s off to Atlanta for her annual meeting, and so once again I find myself looking forward to a near-week of 6 AM wakeup calls and uninterrupted childcare. But all things considered I think it’s going to be easier going than last year. Earlier today Ella and I were discussing the differences between a dragon and a pegasus. When you can do stuff like that with your kid, it’s hard to get sick of spending time with them.

In any case, for those of you who are fans of Ella pictures, Suanna’s absence is your gain! I’m gonna try to have daily pics of Ella up here for the next several days. There’s also a backlog of pictures since the last update that I’ll have to sort through soon too.

“380″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella380.jpg — Ella and mama from a couple nights ago. The occasion of the picture was Ella brushing Suanna’s hair, but none of those shots turned out particularly well. This one did.
“381″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella381.jpg — When I told Ella that we were going to be taking some pictures for mama to see, she immediately grasped the fact that this was an occasion for a silly hat. Hence, the frisbee.
“382″:http://www.polytropos.org/mt-static/ella/ella382.jpg — Ella is fastening the cushion from the rocking chair around her waist here. Even more inexplicably, she is pretending that it is her “exercise bag.” I have no explanation.