Hanging out with the cousins

It’s so cool that Ella’s going to grow up with cousins her age. This weekend she saw a lot of London, who’s 3, and Finn, who’s just 7 weeks older than Ella – so he’s about 15 months. I had a lot of cousins that weren’t too distant in age, but I also had siblings who were closer to their age than me, so I think they bonded a little more with them. But it was cool having some older kids to watch. Ella’s got the best of both worlds.

Sunday we ended up taking a drive out to my grandma’s nursing home. Afterward we stopped by my mom’s house, since it was nearby and we knew the cousins were there. We visited. Finn was napping during our whole visit though so we missed him. Ella just followed London around, did whatever she was doing. London also repeatedly kissed Ella on the head. It was very sweet.

The next day we also met with the cousins. My mom was watching them since my sister was on a business trip. We met them at McDonalds then went to the park. Ella has just discovered the joy of ketchup, so she would have been happy with any food, as long as she could dip it in ketchup. In fact, at times she just dipped her fingers in it and licked her fingers.

Lunch went well, besides half of it ending up on the floor, but you know, that’s part of eating with kids. Next we went to Bixler park. It was really nice. I hadn’t been there in a long time, and the new Kendallville library next to it is beautiful.

They had quite a few things for toddlers, so Finn and Ella went down a slide a bunch, sat in swings, played on a teeter totter. Finn was a pro at the slide. He was kinda doing laps around Ella and he loved going down on his stomach. Ella’s still pretty wobbly on a slide. She can’t really do many slides yet. She seems to tip over or fall back so you really have to watch her. Also, she’ll just be at the top and try to just walk down or turn around and go back. She’s still learning the slide routine …

She has learned some other things lately that I’m really happy about:

1. Blowing her nose. She lets me hold a kleenex to her nose – which is a big improvement over running and screaming – and then she actually blows her nose! At first she would only inhale, but now she’s doing it right. Awesome! I never thought I’d be so happy about someone blowing their nose.

2. To smell things. This is really cute. The other day my husband goes, “Honey I taught Ella to smell!” And he showed me that he holds different things – like potporri – under her nose and she sniffs them. It’s so funny.

3. She, occasionally, when I ask where her nose is – or my nose – will point to my nose. She won’t always do it and doesn’t always point to the right person, but she’s definitely starting to make that connection between the word nose and a real nose. I guess we’re really learning a lot about our noses in general lately … smelling, blowing, pointing to them.

Anyway, we went to the library too. Very fun. They had some really fun toys and a train table, and of course we read some books. Ella kept trying to take Finn’s sippy cup though, even though she had her own in her hand. She always wants want he has. She’s always yanked his pacifier right out of his mouth in the past too. Poor Finn. Guess having cousins can’t be perfect all the time.