Ellie's Great Big Week(end)

Paul Learns a Lesson:
On Wednesday afternoon, I picked up Ellie from school and took her to Paul's office before heading out to the airport. As we were transferring Ellie from my car to Paul's, he said, "Say goodbye to Mommy because she's never coming home!"

I know!

Apparently, he thought that she wouldn't understand. Oh, but 2-year-olds understand so much more than they can communicate verbally. She communicated her understanding to him in this case by crying. Then having a very hard time going to sleep that night. Then being up from 3:00-4:30 am. Both Paul and Ellie were very glad to see me when I got home.

Baths Are More Fun With Friends:
A friend's husband has been working and playing long hours, and she was going a bit stir-crazy at home with the baby. So she came over for dinner on Friday, then she and I left the toddlers with Paul and went to a movie.

The evening was great fun, at least for the women and children. I enjoyed seeing The Family Stone - OK, I would have enjoyed seeing just about any movie in a theater - and the kids enjoyed each other. I liked the way the writers handled the sibling relationships (so real) and really enjoyed how one of the characters (and actors) was deaf but it was no big deal. For once there was a character with a disability in a role that wasn't all about the disability.


Riding the Rails:
On Saturday, among many other things, we removed the crib rail from Ellie's bed and replaced it with a small toddler bed rail. Everybody was very excited by this development, and Ellie and I practiced having her climb up into bed to "go night night," then wake up and come wake up mommy. I went out after Ellie went to sleep (more on that later) and checked on her when I got in around 3:00 am. She was curled up, fast asleep, on the heating vent on the floor. She'd rolled out of bed and off the pillows we'd piled up to prevent just such an occurrence. Getting her back to sleep in the bed was a bit of a chore.


Tonight she went down much more easily. I went in to check on her around 11:30 pm, before I made the weekly grocery run. I heard her breathing, but didn't see her anywhere. She was fast asleep under her bed!



Theater is Art!
There were so many other things this weekend, but I'm too exhausted to type them. We did go see Dora the Explorer Live!: Dora's Pirate Adventure this afternoon. We got off to a rough start, since I made a mistake and bought tickets for yesterday's show instead of today's. We did get seats at the last minute, but were up a bit higher than I would have preferred. Ellie loved the show, regardless, so I should probably quit beating myself up about it. I'm beginning to suspect that I need more than 3-4 hours of sleep a night. Alas.

An Apology:
Finally, I want to apologize to Jessica. She kindly invited me to a "Girls' Night" at her house on Saturday night, and I was unspeakably rude. I showed up very late. I invited another friend to come along with me. I didn't bring any food. I talked way too much. And at one point, with a growing sense of horror, I realized that it was 2:30 am and I was still sitting in her living room talking! I kept her up all night! I should be fined. Jessica, if you ever invite me out again, I promise to behave slightly less like someone who never gets out of the house. I am so sorry.