Week 33 - The Hostess With the Mostest

Wow, what a weekend! Ellie hosted her first weekend guests and it was quite a houseful. We had Riley Keohane (almost 2 years old) and her mom Heidi (from VA), and Ryan and Meredith Thomas (from CA) staying with us for the weekend. In addition, we had Jim and Kathleen (from MD) join us on Sunday. We were so excited that Ellie could finally meet Meredith, Ryan and Riley, and that she was in a happier state then when Heidi met her last (which was at the height of her eczema/allergy madness at 5-6 weeks). Throughout the weekend, Elise was pleasant and very well behaved. She also seemed to love having a playmate around, and of course she loved having an audience (as she is still quite the performer). She also continued her recent trend of sleeping through the night, even with all the people and chaos. That’s really all we ask, especially when we are staying up late playing Taboo. (Side note: never play with Heidi for money. She is a ringer.)

We all had a blast hanging out with our friends and once again, we got the chance to see if we could handle more than one child at a time. A few times througout the weekend, Heidi left Riley with us while she was getting ready or something and we observed 1) that an almost two year old and an almost eight month old can definitely get along well 2) that when one of the children has entered a stage in life where they can bring things to you, it is immensely helpful. Meredith particularly noted this, since oftentimes she’ll ask me for something and I get very easily distracted. Ellie had fun throwing things onto the floor and Riley had fun picking them up and giving them back to Ellie, so it was a win-win for everyone!

The main thing is that we have entered a whole new developmental stage… Meredith and I that is, not Ellie. Sure she crawling all over and playing hostess by letting people pick her up and hold her, but more importantly, her mommy and daddy used a babysitter for the first time. This is a major step forward for us. Granted, we only went to a restaurant that we could walk to down the street for about 3.5 hours, but it’s all about baby steps isn’t it?

Actually, the almost literal strides that Ellie takes every week are staggering. She has mastered crawling. This, mind you, is no small feat when you have hardwood floors all over the joint. When she ventures off the rugs to the hardwood, she struggles to get where she’s going as she slides all over the floor, more pulling herself forward with her hands than using her knees to propel her. She’s not going to be crawling for too long however, since she much prefers to be on her feet. She stumbles along holding on to whomever’s hands will assist her get to where she’s going in a bi-ped fashion.

One last observation from this week is that she is mommy’s little girl. Previously, it didn’t really matter much to her whether I held her or Meredith. But after I was gone for four days, there was a noticeable difference whenever Mommy left the room. I’m okay with that since I’m noticeably different when Meredith’s not in the room too! But I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a little hurt… but then I thought about it from Ellie’s standpoint – I wasn’t around. I had to work a little harder to get back into those good graces. I had to earn it.

I’m happy to report that as of this writing, I seem to have earned it back. The lesson learned is simply that the next business trip it’s Meredith who will have to earn it back.
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