Congestion and Toothy Pegs

 

Not a lot of this last night.

She walks!

In the presence of her grandparents and great-granddad, Ena went from a stagger to a genuine walk. Each attempt, a step or two more. Now she's a walker - but only when she must, there's no willy-nilly walking for no reason! It's still a special event, and what hugs, kisses, and claps she earns each time. Lovely.

"Hot" she's saying now. As in, the oven, when she tries to put her hands on the front, but also maybe other things she shouldn't touch. They're "hot".

"Hat" (often sounds exactly like "hot") when she takes mine off while we're walking, her in the front carrier.

"Mama" is getting a good run these past few days, a sort of mantra when she's looking around for M. Last night she had been doing this, and when M returned to the room and I left (we now take turns at nearly everthing - breakfast, bathroom, dressing, etc.) I heard Ena switch to "Dada" over and over. :) I think she's right, we should both get to stay home with her all the time.

Here's a two photos of Ena with her Nanny and her Granddad on the way to Powell River last week.

TIckle, Up, and Some Staggering Steps

For about a week, M's tickle game has had Ena tickling us back (clawing and twisting at our skin - we know it's tickling by her grin!) sometimes with "klklklkle" sound (for 'tickle,' but if you heard her you'd have to take our word for it). Now she's tickling several times a day, on walks, in the playroom, while I'm trying to put her down for a nap. We always giggle, when we realize what she's doing, but I was stoic when she tried it at naptime. After (the nap never did happen), I felt mean and so made sure to initiate the exchange of extra giggling tickles: I wanted her to know it still worked, and not to give up on (tickling) me.
"Where's the Captain?" and questions about the location of other favourite toys has had Ena looking for and proudly producing it (usually from in her ship's hold). Now she'll show her belly ("Where's your belly?") and try to lift our shirts to show ours (the original demonstration bellies). This is always with lots of shoulder-raising bashfulness and grinning. With "nose" questions, however, it's always other people's noses she points to, in turn, but never her own. Hmm.

"Up" clear as a bell today. Then over and over. I never realized how many opportunities there are to use it. She surprised me at my work (I popped in to the school with her) as I climbed the stairs, her in the front carrier. "Up!" she said. It took me a moment. :) I think she's quite pleased with herself. It's almost like when we first saw her raspberry.

I'm out of time for this blog, but we had some staggering steps tonight worth writing about. Very exciting stuff!

Here she is with a chocolate ice cream mustache. Dolly must have given it to her because I swear we'd never let her have that.

Lovely through the sun and the rain

There she is in the sun a few days ago: new favourite yellow cup in the background, beautiful alien eyes glowing.

Ena is eating obscene quantities of blueberries (we buy them in 3lbs quantities and I swear we get hardly any ourselves), near-walking still, responding to all sorts of words, from "bye" to "curtains" (!?), saying a few words when she feels like it ("dada," "mama," "uppppp,") generally sleeping better (with notable exceptions), and all in all active, demanding, growing, and lovely.

I compose blog-posts in my mind while I hold and sing to her darkened nursery over her crib, white-noise fan whirring, monitor glowing, (up to twice a day a sometimes a few times at night), but M and I are in serious get-it-done mode preparing for the end of summer, and so that's my excuse for not writing here as often. We went to her fall caregiver's house today - a very child-loving woman who seems much more competent than us (!) - but it's very difficult for us to accept neither of us will be with her for several hours a day, soon.

Here's Ena and us bracing for today's (Aug23!) the wind and rain. Oh, and while she looks sort of miserable (impatient for us to start walking, I think), she hooted and laughed the whole way, all the more when the she could feel the rain on her upturned palms and the wind made us lean.

Da's Time with Ena & Weekend Lounging

This is Ena and I in the garden over the (sunny) weekend. M, Ena, and I enjoyed three days of lounging and playing outside: just heaven. Ena and I have also had picnics, walking adventures, and even joyously simple playtime in the mornings when M is working that we won't have the rest of the year (when I am working every weekday). Rather than focus on how sad this makes me, I'd like to think about how lovely its been and how fortunate I am to have had this.

Ena Gets Visited

Last week Ena got visited by Auntie L and her family. She happily climbed over her twin twelve-year-old cousins, O & L, grabbed her Uncle W's nose, and thoroughly enjoyed the company and attention. (Her parents enjoyed the company too, and the help!)

Here she is loving a surprise kiss from her Auntie.

Ena's Guitar