Ella at 3 Years, 4 Months

Lately I find myself amazed at our little girl - amazed at the things she says, does and the little person she is revealing to us as she grows and develops.  I can't help but say things like, "Oh my gosh, she just is so great!"  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with love for her and a desire to smother her with hugs and kisses.  I remind myself how at some point I will have to respect her space and hold back on expressing my emotions in that way but for now she lets me for a few seconds anyway.

This morning when I was holding her during Sunday morning worship I remembered the feeling of desiring so badly to hold a child in my arms. She is quite heavy these days, a good 14 kilos. My arms may ache and I may at times complain but all I have to do is pause for a moment and think about the years of waiting and longing for her to realize how special it is to have her in our family, in our lives, stitched tightly into our hearts. 

Ella is doing exceptionally well these days.  She is generally very cooperative and happy and fun to be around.  She is full of energy and demands much time and attention while at home but that's normal for a 3-year-old who's an only child.  Anytime we are at home her mantra is, Play Ella? and does her best to pull me away from any task I might be trying to work on.

She is soaking up lots of extra attention these days as Andrey's parents have been here the past several weeks. It is so wonderful to see how much Ella loves them and enjoys spending time with them. And just as great is how much they enjoy spending time with her. Andrey and I have gotten two dates in over the past two weeks and I've been able to leave Ella at home with them a few times. They even took Ella out on a date all morning one day last week. Yay for Grandparents!

So what is Ella into these days?

- She has pretty well caught up in her language abilities.  It is amazing to me how quickly she learns and picks up new words and concepts.  She loves to be read to and is able to recite stories from books. She loves to talk about what she sees on the pages and ask questions.  Her imagination is developing and she is quite good at pretending. She can become very animated when talking about frogs and crabs and other animals she is imagining.

- Some cute things she says:

• Careful Mommy, sharp!
• Be patient, Daddy.
• No Pat no! Don't sit on that! (from Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.)
• What's dat Momma? 
• Wait sa ha! (Cebuano expression meaning, hold on just a second, okay?)
• Mommy pas pas oi! (Cebuano for Hurry up Mommy!) 
• Ta ta for now! Gotta lot of bouncin' to do! (Quoting Tigger from Winnie the Pooh)
• Wait, Ella check something! (when asked to do something and she attempts to buy time)
• Look (at) me! 
• Ta da!!!

- She loves to sing. She spontaneously sings Happy Birthday, the ABC song, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Jesus Loves Me, Angels We Have Heard on High, and some of her own made up songs. The other day she sang a song using only these four words - Mommy, Daddy, Ella, Love - in random order to the tune of Frere Jacques.  Hello!?  Total cuteness!  She has such a sweet voice and can sing in tune. 

- She is beginning to be helpful in the kitchen.  She can crack a raw egg, peel and chop a hard-boiled egg, use the electric mixer, measure, mix, pour, and is especially good at licking up any last dregs of anything chocolate.  She loves to wear an apron and help mommy in the kitchen.

- She started calling me Momma a few weeks ago and I love it.

- She is very particular about what she wears.  What is up with three-year-olds taking way too long to decide what they want to wear!?  I try to let her choose as I want her to learn good decision-making skills and feel confident in her choices but when she insists on wearing long sleeves and fleece jackets, I can't help but protest. I've finally decided that long-sleeves are fine and it's probably just a stage so I'm just trying to go along with it.  She has a few beloved items that she wants to wear nearly every day if she can.  She loves to be the one to do the picking of clothes and can take a painfully long time making a choice. "Ummm, maybe, uhhhh" while she searches the closet for her beloved items (I had to hide some of them). And then she'll want to change her outfit at least twice a day.  One minute we're playing, the next minute she's all, "Not this one, Momma" and starts to take off her shirt.  Oh here we go again!  This is frustrating when it happens several times a day.  She loves her PJs and insists on wearing the fleece striped blanket sleeper kitty cat PJs as often as possible.  At least she sleeps in the aircon. But seriously, our average temperature here is 30C and I'm not sure why but the whole clothes things just annoys me. She has all these really cute shorts and t-shirts that are just taking up space in her closet.  I may just give them away.  Maybe she is meant to live in Canada someday.

- She carries her "babies" around all day in a baby carrier, calls them Baby Gabe or Roo

- She loves to run, ride her "big girl bike" and is swimming like a school-aged kid.

- She is very affectionate and still loves lots of cuddles in the morning, after a nap and before bedtime.

What a beautiful child, she is.  I am so thankful.

I really want another.

Quick Update

I'm not really sure what I've been up to over the past week that has kept me from blogging but I want to  give a quick update before we head off to the beach today.

The Grandparents are here! Andrey's parents arrived late Wednesday night and will be here for nearly 3 weeks. Yay!! We are taking them to our favorite beach spot tomorrow in Moalboal just a few hours away. It's Sinulog in Cebu this weekend, which is a massive parade that venerates the Santo Niño, a small Spanish-looking infant Jesus figure. The whole city shuts down. We've learned it's best to get out of town and avoid the road closures and noise.

Ella really loves her Grandma and Grandpa. She warmed up to them right away and showed us her apparent attachment to them. Their first morning here Ella knocked on their door to wake them up. When I got up a few minutes later I heard giggling, laughing and squeals coming from their room where they were playing and clearly having a fantastic time together. She has reached for both of them and wants to be carried by them. It's so sweet to see. We are just delighted they are here.

I got to do a postpartum check up yesterday on a friend of mine who had a cute little baby boy on Wednesday. I'll share more about that and a photo next week. I have gotten to do a few bits of midwifery-related work over the past few months and I am loving every bit of it. I miss being around pregnant and birthing women and newborns so much.

I've run out of time and must get going.  I'll catch things up next week.  I want to do a post on what Ella is into these days. She's changing and growing so fast!

Have a great weekend!

A little bit about food on a fertile island in the Tropics

I'm glad we reached the end of the leftover holiday treats. Me pants are a bit tight, ya know?

I'm feeling quite happy about being back into the regular routine as far as eating goes. Somehow we got out of the habit of our meatless Mondays. We do often have meatless meals but sometimes we can forget to make dinner a meatless meal. I like the weekly reminder to cut the meat and find some new and fun veggie recipes. Some of my very favorite cookbooks are the Moosewood Restaurant series. They are probably my most used cook books, especially the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, Moosewood Low-Fat Favorites, and Moosewood Celebrates. So good.

So I stocked up on a few days worth of produce at the local market this morning. I am amazed at how much I can get for 300 pesos ($7 USD). All of this is grown (save the apples and mandarin oranges) on Cebu Island. I can point to the mountain where these mangoes were grown. I love that if we need to save money on the food budget, all we need to do is eat simply using more stuff available at the market. I often buy fish there as well (if I can get there in the morning since the fish is not on ice) and can get 8 small fish (enough for two lunches for me and Ella) for about 20 pesos.

For 7 bucks I got 1.5 kilos of some of the most delicious mangoes in the world, 6 mandarin oranges, 6 Fuji apples, 2 carrots, long beans, 2 eggplants, some pumpkin-like squash, tomatoes, a handful of chili peppers, 1/2 kilo of water spinach, kamote tops (greens of the local sweet potato), plum tomatoes and the shredded meat of one small coconut, which I used to make fresh coconut milk for our dinner tonight. 

What's on the menu? (From Moosewood Celebrates)

Red lentils & brown rice

Mango chutney

Curried greens with cashews

Ella and I went outside for a bit and I noticed the papaya tree we had cut down in November is back in full-force. These papaya trees grow like weeds here! It's nice to have fresh papaya but I have a hard time keeping up with it all and much of it ends up falling to the ground and rotting in the hot sun. Not a nice smell. Maybe I should sell some at the market down the street. Unfortunately it's not the best papaya. My neighbors like to make achara (pickled papaya) with the unripe papaya but I don't enjoy it much. My favorite is the red lady papaya that I can find at the supermarket for about 20 pesos. It's oh so sweet and Ella loves it.

A little fun in the sand box before lunch

Today's lunch: Crispy fried fish, rice, bananas and mangoes.

 

What are some of your most used and loved cookbooks?

2011 in Pictures (and a bit more)

2011 was a fantastic and memorable year and I am so thankful for what we've experienced and learned.

Much has changed in our first full year together as a family.  Our girl has made huge strides in her level of confidence and security.  Andrey has grown as a Dad.  His relationship with Ella went from guarded and distant (on her part) to a moment on New Year's Eve when I tried to take her from him so he could drive some people home and she clung to him and cried, "Neeeeeeed Dadddy!"

Andrey and I have gotten better at caring for our relationship now that we are parents.  After eight years of just us, we know we have to work at it now and we're getting better at it.  I've changed a lot too.  I started the year feeling unconfident in my abilities as a new mom and struggled with anger and control.  I received some prayer and have worked hard to walk out the healing I experienced.  Today I feel more free and more like my true self than ever before. Thank you, Jesus!

Now to recap the year... with all its travel and firsts.

Malapascua in January with friends

Ella met Mimi for the first time in February when she came to Cebu

Back to our favorite beach spot in Moalboal in February

First international flight to the US in March

First road trip in the RV with Grandma and Grandpa

First time meeting Papa

Finalization of the adoption in April

 

Family time in North Carolina in May

Ella and her cousin Annika started a lifelong friendship

My first Mother's Day

Ella discovered a love for pecans and PJs at Mimi and Papa's house

Family Reunion Easter weekend in Alabama

Ella's first baseball game (and NY Yankees hat, thanks to my dad)

Back in Cebu: Andrey's first Father's Day

 Ella got LOTS of pool time throughout the year

First tricycle

Another beach trip in July

First tennis game in a very long time with good buddy Charlotte
(I won, but not by much; Charlotte made we work for it)

Ella's third birthday family dinner in September.  And yes, we always give her beer.

My first Scuba dive during a retreat with the organization my husband works for

Ella's first trip to Canada in October and first experience with snow

First family photo shoot

Fun times with Annika during our time in Canada

 

First horsey ride

First time meeting Grandma GG (and all our other wonderful relatives in Canada)

 

Ella and I began spending lots of time with new friends Hanna, Tessi and baby Gabe in October

Ella loves baby Gabe, like seriously loves him. Talks about him all the time. Cares for her baby dolls who she pretends are baby Gabe. Will pick him up like she does our cat if you turn your back for even a second with baby Gabe within reach. Having said that, she is very gentle and sweet with him.

 

A few of Hanna's shots from a trip to Crocolandia (who knew Cebu has the Philippine's largest crocodile? That was a little freaky)

 

Trip to Bantayan Island for Andrey's birthday

It was this trip when we realized that Ella really knows how to swim

 

During the last days of the year we took one last beach trip to our favorite spot in Moalboal with some great friends. We took a boat trip and spent many hours playing on the beach and in the pool.

Look at that starfish Ella!

Sweet daddy-daughter times

We have such great friends!!

 Happy New Year!