Cerin Amroth

Quiet time or nap. … Quiet time or nap. …

Today it was a last minute decision resulting in a nap on the floor in the corner where she had been playing. I thought the grumpy mood after lunch signified something.

An odd title, I know, but the stories are somewhat related. At the very least, they reveal some of Ella’s perceptions of my job. For 2 more weeks, I’m working part-time and taking advantage of my last few days of maternity leave. Ella has been taking it in stride, but the last couple of weeks, she has been complaining on the mornings I leave for work. She usually tries to convince me that I don’t have to go to work. The other day, she said I shouldn’t go to work because no one else would be there.  For the back story on that … A few weeks ago, we went into my office on a Saturday to drop some things off. She was very puzzled by the fact that all the offices and cubicles were empty. That’s when I had to explain the concept of work days and weekend days.

So when she tried to convince me that no one was going to be at work on a Monday, I told her that we might wish for that, but it was a work day. I gave her a kiss and hug at our apartment door and proceeded down the steps to the outside door. Before I stepped outside, she opened the apartment door again and said, “Mama. If there’s no one at your work, you’ll come home, right?” I assured her that I definitely would.

That night when I got home, we had friends over to play games. I hadn’t gotten a chance to pump breastmilk at work, so I needed to do it right away. I usually pump in the living room (and Ella loves trying to sit on my lap while I do it). Since one of our friends had already arrived, I went into the bedroom to pump. Ella followed me in and said, “Mom, why are you pumping in the bedroom?” — as if it was the oddest thing she had ever heard of.

I explained that I have to lift my shirt up, and I don’t want to do that infront of other people. She then asked why I was pumping, and I told her that I didn’t have a chance to do it earlier because I was in meetings all day at work. She said, “Mom, why didn’t the people let you pump during the meetings?” … I was at a loss for how to explain modesty to a 3 year-old who loves being a Naked Baby, or at least leaving her pants off.

Dominic has already made an important distinction between the three main people in his life.  He understands that Suanna and I are the ones who will see to his needs and, as such, are the ones that it’s appropriate to Complain To.  Ella, by contrast, does not, and consequently he doesn’t complain to her about anything.  Indeed, she exists in his life as a factor of Pure Entertainment, which probably helps to explain why he is content to watch her doing just about anything, and is ready to smile at her at the drop of a hat.

At some point, Ella will be able to help with his needs — give him a bottle, for instance.  I’ll be curious to see when, if ever, she’ll start being on the receiving end of Complaints.

Ella and I went out this morning to buy summer shoes. Okay, it isn’t exactly summer, but the spring weather has made me very excited to get my sandles out. Ella has outgrown her sandles from last summer, so we were determined to find some new ones today. We went to REI on the quest for a pair of Crocs — those crazy plastic gardening clogs that every child in the US seems to have on. (We actually went to find an off-brand at Target first, but those were only Pepto-bismol pink and some other unpalatable color.)

Unfortunately, REI was all out of Ella’s size. We had decided to come back another time when I saw a cute pair of purple thong sandles. She wasn’t at all interested in trying them on, but I insisted. Once she had them, she was prancing around the foot section and climbing the rock pile in glee. She LOVED the sandles. As I was asking if she wanted to wear them home, an employee stopped and offered to cut off the tags. He did so, and I stuffed her socks in her shoes and tucked them under my arm.

On the way out to the car, Ella asked me, “Did that man buy my shoes?”

I didn’t understand her question at first, so I replied, “No, I bought your new sandles.”

She insisted, “No, no. What about my other shoes?”

It would only make sense, wouldn’t it, that we would buy the new shoes, and he would buy the old shoes. I think she’s onto something, there!

This Just In …

A brief report from the world of the truly bizarre – Ella just told me she was ready for quiet time in her room. I walked her to her bedroom, and she immediately started playing in the corner. I walked out. Amazingly enough, she continued to play quietly in the corner … until 10 minutes later. She yelled out an inquiry about Pooh’s location. I went into the bedroom and found her on her bed. Pooh was in the shopping cart, so I handed him to her.

Five minutes later, she called me back to her room. When I got to the door, she held up her magnetic drawing board to show me her list of things she was going to do after nap. Then she rolled over and went to sleep. … I’m still in shock. And to top that off, Dominic is asleep, as well. Now to get some work done on his baptismal sweater!

Not only has it been a while since an update, but we’ve also had a Nana & Papa visit and the arrival of spring in the interim. Enjoy!

On a walk through the neighborhood the other night, Ella and I came across a gaggle of kids outside a local eatery. They were all 5-7 years of age and having a great time playing with an inflatable beach ball. Ella and I were walking by on our way to drop some clothes off at the dry cleaner. She asked if we could stop and play with the kids after we were done. I agreed.

“Playing with the kids” turned out to be standing on the sidelines watching very carefully. After a while, she turned and said, “Come on, Mom, let’s go play.” I told her that I preferred to stand on the side (like daugher, like mother), but that she could go play. She turned back and watched some more. Then she yelled back over her shoulder, “Mom, say: ‘Ella, run out on the soccer field.’”

I obediently said, “Ella, run out on the soccer field.” She pretended to be jogging out, and then stopped again to watch the kids. She was so eager to play with them, but found it much easier to write the script for her own story and play the role of the omniscient narrator.

It’s both amazing and frightening to see myself reflected in Ella. At least I know I’ll have no problem putting myself in her shoes.

And speaking of being similar, yesterday Ella showed Nate that she could curl her tongue in a U-shape. She asked him to do it and was amazed to discover that he could not. She gets that from me, as well.

If Dominic was a supervillain, he might say something like:

“Beware, do-gooders!  I shall use all my cunning and and my athletic prowess to put everything in the whole world In!  To!  My!  MOUTH!  Bwahahahahahaaa!”

Fortunately for us, Dominic’s cunning and athletic prowess are, to put it charitably, under development.  The best he can generally manage is putting some portion of his fist into his mouth, or getting a good mouthful of his bib, if he’s wearing one.  He’s had only occasional success in swatting the lion that dangles from his new play mat, or getting the Book with Chewy Corners or the Ring of Myriad Circles and Orbs up to his mouth.  But despite all this, putting X into his mouth, where X = Whatever, remains his number one priority.

Other common activities include eating, sleeping, pooping, and charming the socks off people.  He accomplishes the latter through an easy smile that he doesn’t just reserve for immediate family, but will happily bestow on guests, visiting grandparents, even (most recently) a friendly-looking beer bottle.  Dominic loves to have someone looking at him and talking to him, and doesn’t seem to get tired of listening.

Some raw data:

Growth:  He seems way bigger than he was, like, yesterday.

Intake: He stills eats often; every two hours still isn’t uncommon for certain stretches.  When Suanna’s away he sucks down a 5 oz bottle without missing a beat.  Still needs a good solid burp to avoid future messes, but in general isn’t quite the spitup factory that he was.

Outtake: Has started spacing out a little, but still seems to happen fairly often, and always loudly — though often it’s the quiet ones that turn out to be the messiest and most prone to leakage.  A sort of precursor to Silent But Deadly, I suppose.

Sleep:  11pm to 4ish is now standard, and he’ll occasionally go longer.  So the ol’ wee-hours feeding cutting off my REM is still the norm, but the end is in sight.  I look forward to the opportunity to ramp down my caffeine intake to only mildly unhealthy levels.  His naps are now a little longer and a little more spaced out, but still number five or six in a day.  He’s been prone to take a longish one in the late afternoon right around when Ella is also taking a nap — an activity that she is slowly but surely giving up.  I’m sure I will look back at this period of time as a golden age, when an hour and a half to myself midday was still a shining possibility.

I posted some new pictures. If you’ve seen the other ones, you can start here.

Here are the latest hallmarks of Dominic’s development:

• Moving up a clothing size – We’re weeding out most of his 0-3 month clothing in favor of the 3-6 month size. Seeing as he’s getting all of his nourishment from me, it’s pretty satisfying to see how much he is growing – even if I do miss those chicken legs.
• Playing “So Big” – Nate and Ella started playing So Big with him last week. He likes it a lot. After doing it once, he’ll even slightly raise his arms and smile to indicate he wants to do it again. Ella has now started trying out Peekaboo, but it’s still a bit early for that one.
• Laughing – Not only will he break out a smile to get attention, he’ll also laugh when he’s happy to see someone. The other day, he smiled and laughed when Ella said hello.
• Playing with a toy - He has started focusing on a cloth book that has crinkly pages, rubber corners, and a mirror. We gave it to him initially to give him something to lick, since he’s started licking his fingers and clothing. He likes looking at himself in the mirror, so much that he started to fuss when I stopped holding it infront of him the other night. He will move his arms around in an attempt to manipulate or hold the book, then he reaches out with his tongue to make contact. It’s quite impressive for someone who still has very limited control of his arm and leg movements.

I may lack all perspective in saying this, but he’s so darn cute!

Ella is an a terrible tizzy right now because she just learned that her cousins are not just her cousins, but also Dominic’s cousins.

“Daddy!  They’re just my cousins!”

“No, Ella.  They’re also Dominic’s cousins.  Dominic has the same cousins as you.”

“That’s not right!  Dominic has different cousins!”

“No, he has the same cousins . . .”

“Dominic doesn’t have anybody!  Those are my cousins!”

I was eventually able to talk her down, by pretending with her that her cousins were about to ring the doorbell at any moment.  Now she wants to pick up all her toys because they’re about to get here.  If I play along long enough for all the picking up to get done, is that wrong?