Reading stories

Reading stories
Originally uploaded by nicole_gt.

Here is a photo that I snapped the other night of my two youngest sisters with Ella and her cousin when we were at my sister's house for my nephew's birthday party. It really reminds me how much we miss out on living so far away.

I am still suffering from jetlag although I've managed to keep Ella in bed til atleast 8 am for the last 2 mornings. She really messes with me around 4 and I end up lying awake for an hour or two, waiting for her to wake up again. Need to sneak off to bed in a few secs.

Tomorrow will go to stay with my mom at my Grandpa's house. Should have gone this morning with her but I had to get a few things sorted out. My dad and I are working on another craft-y project for my mom (did he not get the memo about my depleted levels of artsy-ness?!!) plus I had to go through my brother's and sisters' Christmas lists for my mom and order the things off the Internet that they asked for before we ended up paying priority shipping charges on everything, like we do most years. My mom talks a pretty good game and sounds like she has got everything sorted. Then December 23rd roles around and it is total chaos around here. Well, I've done my bit to help avert disaster. We'll have to see if that makes any difference. As a sign of my efficiency, Mastercard actually called my dad about the amount of activity on his card and asked if it hadn't been stolen. He must be so happy to have me home.

I took Ella with me to lunch in a cafe today. She was a doll! I was completely stunned by how well she behaved. First she ran into the restaurant, by herself, and climbed up on a chair at an empty table and played with the salt and pepper shakers while I ordered at the desk in the front. When it started taking too long, she started calling "Maman! Maaaah-Maaaan!" It was so cute- albeit a bit noisy. When I finally arrived at the table, she settled down with a bread stick and her plate of vegetables and ate like an angel while I had my soup. As soon as she was done eating, she was off but all through the meal she was perfect. Of course, as I tried to gather up our stuff and leave a tip she ran around to all the tables and waved bye-bye, then blew kisses to the woman next to us who had been making faces at her all through the meal. I would take this as a sign that she is nearly big enough to be taken out to dinner with B and I, but I fear it is merely a tactic to wreak even more havoc if I do attempt anything as rash as that.

Like I said, as soon as she finished eating, she turned into an itty bitty hurricane blowing through the shop attached to the resto. I was trying to buy some yarn (to make a scarf for B. I know, I know. I'm mad. But he will be so surprised!) and it took about a half hour as I had to dash after her about every 30 seconds.

Took things down a notch for our next stop- Payless. I wanted to get Ella some little boots so she could go out and play. Not because there is snow. There is hardly a flake. No. Its December in Wisconsin and it is raining so much that there is mud every where. This fills me with rage- 90% of the reason that I come home in December is because it is so pretty when everything is covered with snow. Haven't hardly snapped any photos yet because there are no photo ops. Hence, the Christmas card is going no where, which is starting to get me a teeny bit nervous....