Week 49 – Fun to be One (almost)

We had been in the car for less than 30 minutes when the traffic on 95 came to a complete standstill. Sensing that something was different, our sleeping baby began stirring. Sensing that something bad was on the horizon, we also began stirring. It wasn’t until the ambulances and police cars roared by with sirens blaring that the inevitable happened. She was awake. Wide awake. She did not want to be awake, (we did not want her to be awake) nor did she want to be confined to that car seat, (nor did we want to be confined to the car.) As she is unable to verbalize these wants quite yet, she conveyed her displeasure the only way she knows how: hysterical crying. Our verbalization came in the form of constant cursing of the ambulances and sirens that awoke our cranky baby. We still had more than 90 miles to go. Needless to say, the weekend did not get off on a good note.

Riley Keohane, Ellie and Regan Sumy
We staggered into Marietta battered and bruised, but it was a lovely day and Ellie perked up right away. I think she sensed that she would be able to play with others, have attention showered on her and be the belle of the balls. (All the kids got a chance to play in a large inflatable ball pit that the Sumy's brought over.) This is a fantastic toy for all you parents out there. It had this magnetic pull on all the children to run into it at full speed, diving in head first. It kept them all mesmerized for hours - which is no easy task. That is except for Ellie, who has the attention span of a gnat. She was wandering here and there, running into the ball gym and then running to play with something else after a few minutes. There's Daddy, asking every few minutes 'has anyone seen my daughter - oh over there, wait no, over there...'

Great Grandmom and Pop Meredith
The picnic was a celebration for many exciting family occasions, including two 40th wedding anniversaries, about tons of birthdays, including Ellie's (albeit a few weeks early.) It was great to be able to celebrate Ellie’s first year of life with so many our family and friends, and frankly, our little limelight junkie wouldn't have it any other way. She took all of the people and attention in stride, never showing any signs of being overwhelmed by it all - unless you count crying when we sang "Happy Birthday". We really hope that is not a trend throughout her life. Actually, it's quite possible that she was crying, not because of the attention, but more from the bad singing. Whatever it was, she got over it quickly. I made a dairy-free cake for the occasion and she happily gobbled it up, loving every second of her first taste of refined sugar (big shock!) Overall, she had a great day running around the lawn (where her parents got married nearly six years ago!) playing with her older cousins Emma and Cory, and older pals Riley and Regan, much like at daycare trying to hang with the "big" girls. But she also had fun showing her younger pals Brandon and Lauren the ropes.

On a side note, we feel it is important to pass on this little tidbit: while feeding your little one any one food she loves, it is important to limit the amount to several hundred not thousand. Turns out, Elise will never stop eating blueberries if you give her the chance. Seriously, she also ate so many blueberries over the course of the day, that she was pooping whole berries into Monday. I know that's too much information, but it was seriously gross especially since her poop smells of blueberries even still. And there are few things that smell worse than blueberry poop. We have certainly learned a very important lesson about limits!


Elise crashed out that night from pure exhaustion from the crazy day. She even slept in the same room as her parents that night and had no problems, even though she is usually a very light sleeper. She still got up at her regular time (6:00am every day like clockwork) even though she really needed some extra shut eye to rest up after her hectic, virtually nap-free Saturday. Oma took Ellie to church to show her off to all of her friends, which meant more car time. That is, more car time and then confining Ellie into a pew for an hour. There is no way she could do this. She can't even sit still for five minutes when she is well rested. We started off with a repeat of the day before (though much shorter!) as she refused to sleep in the car and screamed the whole 30 minute trip. There is no way she could do this. But, even as busy and active as she is, and as tired as she was, she was actually really great in church (She did it!). She sat still, taking in the music and watching the ceiling fans for most of the service. I can't believe she did it!
Brandon Blum with Ellie and Meredith
After church (a sleepy ride home, thank God.) came family picture time at a portrait studio, and we were pretty positive that she had reached the end of her rope and would melt down the second we got in front of the camera. But it seems we underestimated Ellie's ability to rise to the occasion when people are once again showering her with attention. So it was quite a pleasant surprise that Ellie smiled and hammed it up for the camera in all of the family pictures and in her own shots. It makes us wish we'd tried the professional picture thing sooner!

All in all, it was a long hard weekend for our little girl, but we are so proud of her for how well she handled it all. If we can just get her to deal with that car seat, we'd be all set.