Daddy’s home

We’re glad daddy’s home from his trip.

Ella’s looking extremely good in her shorts.

What? An Earthquake in Indiana?

At about 5 a.m. or so this morning I heard some strange noises. Almost sounded like our cat was gagging, but I could hear it through the monitor. So, I raced to the baby’s room and saw her sound asleep. I went back to bed. A short time later the bed started shaking. What is that? At first I though the cat had gotten sick and is now rustling the bed trying to get my attention. I also was a little nervous someone could be in the house – how that would be related to my bed shaking, I don’t know. When my husband’s out of town I have a big imagination. My last thought was that my house is really haunted. I hear such strange noises all the time in my house. And I am not one of those people who believe in houses being haunted — sorry if you are. But seriously, there are a lot of noises. So this morning I thought, geez, something is really trying to get my attention now.

So, I finally arose out of bed. I was running a little late so I just quickly carried on as usual. Got Ella up, fed her then sat with her a while on the couch. She was unusually cuddly. I assumed it was because she stayed up really late the night before. She had so much energy last night, she was running around until almost 9 p.m. Maybe Daddy being gone has left her with energy to burn.

Anyway, she just wanted me to hold her all morning. I could barely set her down for a minute to gather my things. I started to worry she was coming down with something.

Then I hopped in the car and just barely heard a DJ saying “And in honor of the earthquake, here’s Shake It Up,” and started to play that song from the ’80s.

What? An earthquake? In Indiana?

I changed the station to find out more and sure enough, there was a 5.4 earthquake just north of Evansville, Indiana! Crazy. That’s a sizable one too. I’ve been through a few in California that size and they really shook.

Anyway, it was kinda exciting. And I needed something to get me going this morning … I was thinking of an extra latte, but I guess this will work.

Fun in the sun

Loving the weather

Finally, I know I shouldn’t say it or the Indiana weather Gods will punish us, but it seems like warm weather is here. I’m loving it.
On Monday I popped Ella in her push car she got for her birthday and walked her to the park across the street. It was a little chilly (50) that day, but perfect with our warm coats on. Funny, when I lived in California, I think I would have stayed inside all day if it was 50 degrees.
We had a lot of fun. Our neighbor and her twin boys were there and a few other couples came and went with their kids.
Ella was very shy at first. I’m realizing now that she’s a shy girl. She’s around other kids a lot, but I think she just takes a while to warm up around new people.
With dogs, however, she has no fear. There was one at the park she kept going after saying “Da, da.” I noticed my husband pointing to the logo of a dog on his shirt the other day and saying “dog” repeatedly. I guess she learned it!
Her vocabulary now consists of
1. Ball – which she uses to identify balls and books
2. Mama – which means she wants something
3. Da – dog
Anyway, we had a lot of fun. And Ella even got to ride home in a wagon with one of our neighbor boys — one of the twins who are 18 months old. The other boy, Conner, rode in Ella’s car. Ella and Carson seemed like they were flirting a little bit, smiling across the wagon at each other.
Again yesterday I returned home from work and saw my neighbor outside with her boys. We invited them over to play in the house. And after a round of goldfish and waters we went back out to play. Ella already loves the outdoors. I just figured she wouldn’t be really keen on it until she was big enough to really play on our playset. But she stands at the door reaching for the knob, grunting, saying “mama.”
Which is so great, because I really love the outdoors. But a lot of times, I just felt like I didn’t have anything to do out there. If my husband will take a walk with me, great. But a walk by myself is kinda boring. Reading a magazine is OK, but if you’re going to sit and do that, the couch starts to sound more appealing then a wooden patio chair. I would plant something, but my record of killing things usually hampers those thoughts. Although I am going to try again this season with some vegetables. Afterall, Ella’s doing well. I think I can do it.
So anyway, I’m really excited about this whole new outside world of parks and bubbles and wagons … and did I mention I have a laptop now? I can blog outdoors!