New Friends

So, today I ventured out of my shell to meet new people. If you've known me for a long time, this isn't a surprise; however, in the last few years I've kept to my established friendships a bit more and I'm a little less open with who I am. Today, I met two moms off of RichmondMommies.com (where I'm an active member after lurking for months) at Cartwheels & Coffee. I got in line and immediately one mom in line in front of me said, "Evelyn and Ella?" It was Amy, the mom who had organized the playdate, and her little guy Jackson (who will be 1 on 10/10). After a few pleasantries she went to put Jackson in the play area and I was waiting to order. The mom in line in front of me got to talking to me, too. Her name was Melissa. She has two kids - Lucas, called Luke, and a little girl around a year old whose name I cannot remember right now. Ugh. Anyway, they were not there for the playdate and were actually on their way out, but we had a nice conversation and I'm hoping to run into her again sometime. She's a regular there so I don't think it will be a problem to find her. After placing my order and paying I went over to the baby area and met another RM mom named Whitney who has a little girl, Becca, who will be 1 on Halloween. So all three kiddies were within one month of each other. We had a great time! I learned that most of the things Ella is going through, all kids her age have/will go through. Yes, I knew this mentally, but it is so reassuring to have someone confirm it for you. Ella played HARD for two hours before we packed up and came home. She slept all the way home and for about 30 minutes after getting home. After feeding her and a bit of playing she was definitely still tired (and I was too) so we laid down on the sofa together to nap. I've already been in touch with Amy via messaging and we're hoping to get together again soon. She is a member of the Y (yay) and they don't do the Romp-n-Roll or other expensive classes either so we'll have time to get together and play. It felt great to make a friend with a little one Ella's age. After looking at her signature in her message to me, we also got married one month apart. So crazy! It was a good day... Now, if Jeff didn't have to work WAY LATE tonight, it would also be a good night. It is very, very rare that he and Ella don't get one-on-one time together in the evening and she was a wreck when we got to her night time bottle and he wasn't home. She knew, and she wasn't happy. Hopefully she'll be up a bit early tomorrow and able to play before he leaves for work. Life is good...GOD is good! I am BLESSED!

We're home for a bit...

So, we've had quite a busy summer. When Ella & I have been home we have taken time to visit with friends. We've also been gone three different weeks! The first was in June. This was our first time traveling with Ella for more than 3 days, so it was quite an undertaking. I had no clue what to take with us so I just took most everything. We took a box of toys, her bathtub, lots of clothes, lots of pampers swimmers...you get the idea. We also decided it was way easier to buy diapers, wipes and food once in the OBX. This was true. We never did use her bathtub, so that was nixed for future trips where both Jeff and I will be. It was vacation with my side of the family. That consisted of: Jeff, Evelyn & Ella; Ken (Pop) & Sandy (GrannyMac); (Uncle) Warren & (Aunt) Rachie; Louise (Granny, GG) & Aunt Evelyn (now EE); Aunt Carla & Uncle Mike; Davey, Debbie, Zachary, and friend whats-his-name; Brad, Patty, Eric, and Patrick; Corey, Angela, Rosella, & Sammy; Carl & some friend another whats-his-name. Count it up people: 26 people! Wonderfully we were divided into three locations. Mom & Dad stayed in their trailer...Granny, Aunt Evie, the three of us and Warren & Rach in an older house...and the rest of that clan (my aunt & uncle, their 4 boys and their families) in the "big" house which had a pool. It was great fun, though we never did make it onto the beach to play. It was just so easy to play at the pool where we had the indoors right there. We did take Ella for walks on the beach, but no playtime in the sand. It was busy and great to spend time sitting up playing games with Warren & Rach. I (Ev) even won at putt-putt against Jeff, Warren, Rach, & DADDY! Of course, we didn't start play until around 9 p.m. which is past dad's bedtime, but that is just a small detail. It was a great week and really made us wish Warren & Rach lived closer. Then in July I had Music & Drama week at Oak Hill. Jeff had taken a week off for the vacation in June and another week for vacation in August (more to come), so he couldn't take the whole week in July off. That meant that Ella became the M&D mascot for about 5 days. She had fun watching the teens sing and dance, but didn't enjoy that mommy was nearby, but not always available. Luckily, my mom is a dean of this week, too, so she had mommy & grannymac alternating. I was worried about her staying in the cabin and I'm sure she cramped the style of our cohabitants, Christie, Mom, & Carol, since we couldn't just stay up talking and laughing at night, but we made it through and now she's officially stayed at Oak Hill. That was special to me. She got picked up Wednesday at lunch by Jeff and taken home for daddy time Wednesday - Sunday. Talk about breaking a daddy in! I don't know many other dads who have stepped up to fly solo when their first child is 8 months old. Yay, honey! She didn't even act like she'd missed me when they arrived on Sunday...she barely came to me! My feelings weren't hurt, I just thought it was funny. In August (last week), we went on vacation with Jeff's side of the family. This time we were all in one big house. It was 14 people: Jeff, Ev, & Ella; Jerry (PaPa) & Mary (Nana); (Uncle) Jerry & (Aunt) Krissy; (Uncle) Gabe; Nanny; Aunt Margaret & Kenny; Ian, Lydia & Noelle. It was a great house with a beautiful pool. Ella is most definitely a water-bug. She also enjoyed playing with Noelle who will be 5 at Christmas. We had big breakfasts & dinners and even got a visit from GrannyMac, Aunt Carla, & Michelle Mende who were all at mom's trailer for the week. I'm pretty sure that climbing the 3 stories of steps just wasn't enough to work off all the food we put in. On Wednesday night of the week, the "youngins" - Ian, Lydia & Gabe - convinced (Uncle) Jerry, Jeff & me to go with them to karaoke down the street. I made it until 11:30 before I was nearly falling asleep. At least we got to see Jerry sing "Home Sweet Home" and Ian & Gabe sing "When You Were Young". The house was on Rt. 12 right at the sound. It was a 10 minute walk to the beach so (yep, you guessed it) we didn't go play in the sand this week either. Ella did get her feet in the sand a couple of times, but we didn't spend any real time over there with her. Jeff went a couple afternoons to play in the waves with the boys, though. On the last night of that trip Nanny took us all out to eat at The Black Pelican. The food was taking a while to come so we took Ella outside walking and went over on the beach. Jeff was walking her along the shoreline and I managed to tell them to move in plenty of time the first time the waves got close...not so the second time. Jeff and Ella had their feet washed over by a wave - now, this was no big deal for barefooted Ella, but Jeff was in tennis shoes and socks. I felt so bad that he had to eat dinner with wet feet. Ella barely reacted to the water, so we're thinking she'll take to the beach like a pro next year. And now we're home...at least for a spell. Ella & I will be traveling to Tennessee in October to see Warren & Rachel. I'm excited because it will be 2 weeks before her 1st birthday. It will be great that they aren't missing out on everything! Maybe she'll be walking by then - or maybe she'll walk on that trip. She is really trying! Hope all is well with you, too! Keep in touch!