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Fall fun

October 13, 2006

Ella is learning to read.  Cliché time again—I can't believe I have a girl old enough to be sounding out words and figuring out what they spell all by herself.  To be sure, she generally isn't doing it all by herself and still need a lot of prompting and a lot of guidance, but she is definitely making progress.  We have been working on this together for about a month or so.  Well, for a very long time I have done sounds with her and showed her how sounds can make words but recently we have really been spending some time heads crowded together over a book painfully working out the words.  Now slowly, ever so gradually, I am starting to see real results.  Not only can she make her way through the words faster, but if she is guessing I can tell she is doing so based at least partially on the letters.  It is so fun—so fulfilling—to see this amazing progression.   Yesterday she did a color by numbers picture and didn't need my help (only my encouragement) with reading any of the puzzle's key.

I have to say, I really must give the girl (and all of us) a LOT of credit.  The English language is a tough one to learn to read. (I don't know any other language enough to know if this is the case for all languages).  Especially the vowels.  Not being an English teacher or the such, I really have trouble teaching Ella rules as to when and how to figure out the sound a vowel makes.  Usually I just end up telling her rather then having her get frustrated over and over again.  Hopefully eventually she will come to recognize words and patterns in familiar words but right now just about every other word has some sort of trick or exception to a rule that makes it hard for her to just 'sound it out' as we are trying to do.

In other news I have joined weight watchers.  This was a big step for me as I have been unhappy with my weight for a LONG time but unwilling/scared to do anything about it.  When I got pregnant it gave me a great excuse to stop worrying and it was fun to watch my weight plummet following Lore's birth, but unfortunately the plummeting stopped significantly faster then I hoped it would, and now I can only (comfortably) fit in two of my old pants.  Ug.  To some extent, I have always encouraged people to look beyond a scale for happiness and tried to live this way as well.  At this point, however, I am looking at having to buy myself a whole new wardrobe if I can't slim down, and that is a VERY depressing thought to me.  In the past, when I have tried to lose weight I get discouraged and give up easily, but I have done WW in the past (before my wedding) and found it to make a lot of sense, not to mention keep one committed with the weekly meetings and the financial commitment. The biggest problem with this is that I fear that dieting--even slow, steady, and taking nursing into account--is going to affect my milk supply, which is already in peril.  Thing is, if I thought this was the sole reason my milk was going to be inadequate for Lore, I probably wouldn't do it.  But, as previously discussed, I think it's eventually going to be a lost cause anyway, or at least a big enough hassle that I'm not willing to jump through the hoops it would take to possibly correct things.  Am I dooming my milk to a self fulfilling prophesy?  Maybe, or maybe not.  Time will tell, I guess. 

We celebrated a wonderful Columbus Day.  The weather was just amazing, with warm sunshine along with beautiful fall foliage.  The kind of day you really MUST go outside or else you just can't concentrate.  To have Jamie off of work and Ella's school closed clinched the deal.  Anyway, we scooped up the family and set out for a happy day of letterboxing.  I know I have discussed my new past time in a previous entry but I have to repeat, this is seriously fun (Letterboxing.org for more info).  Jamie loves it for the exercise, I love finding new haunts that we never would have stumbled across elsewise, and Ella loves the treasure finding aspect of it all.  Right now Lore fits in nicely, snoozing in the Bjorn the whole while, although I guess a toddler could slow us up.  Columbus day we went to the Mt. Auburn Cemetary which is one of the oldest and most famous cemetaries in the nation.  It was SO PRETTY.  The art and the landscaping are really something to behold and we had a perfect day for climbing to the top of the tower so we could view the whole area for miles and miles around.  Later in the week Ella, Lore and I went Letterboxing again in Lexington and found a series of boxes all related to Paul Revere and the start of the Revolutionary war.  So letterboxing is educational too!

Finally, I will admit that I am just shallow enough to jump on the latest baby fad, which seems to be those strange colored blobs coming out of South Africa, the Bumbos.  I don't even think they made these rubbery sitty things when Ella was a baby, but now they seem to be everywhere (on all the 'cool' babies) yet nowhere when it comes to procuring one.  Clearly, I had to have one, and I set out as only my determined, yet frugal nature could, and within a week Lorelei's cute little bum was securely planted in a 'gently used' sea of lilac rubber.  Thing is, she seems to really like it and so do I.  It takes up so much less space then a bouncy seat or swinging chair, is easy to move around, and she can sit happily in it for minutes!  Minutes I say!  What fun for us!  Seriously, though, my smugness is only slightly lesser then my superficiality.  Plus I love to say Bumbo.  Bumbo.  Bumbo. 

Oh!   I almost forgot! (Lots of exclamation points today!) I got a Flicker account!  I have been meaning to get another Babiesonline account going but obviously procrastination is pretty prevalent here.  Anyway, when I really started looking around realized not only is Flicker easier, but can store more and organize them better.  I only have a few pictures up but, without further ado, feel free to take a look:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/83724108@N00/  If you go, though, you have to leave a comment to tell me how cute we all are!  J

Well, I guess that's all for now. If I don't post before Halloween enjoy the holiday.  Ella is going as a princess for the third year in a row (Sighs and roles eyes). This year the addition of wings makes her a fairy princess.... Lore has a plethora of baby costumes to choose from including a pumpkin, a witch, Eeyore, and an M&M.  There are so many various festivals and Halloween parties going on, I'll probably end up cycling her through all of them.  I'm too corny, I know...

Thanks for reading,

Bonnie