Day 264

Ellie is 37 weeks and five days old today! She has now spent more time in the world than time in gestation -- what surprises me is that it is almost even. It did not feel this way at the time, but now pregnancy feels so brief compared to the rich time we have spent with Ellie.  In 101 days, Ellie will be a year old, and it will be Thanksgiving.

Ellie is so enthusiastic -- eager to stand, to grab noses and chunks of hair, to squirm and rotate while getting her diaper changes or being held.  She makes a beeline for outlets and fireplaces and fluffy puppy tails.  Her squeals of delight and raucous laughter are so contagious -- I love being on the receiving end of a sweet smile that lets me know we are both in on the joke.

She has become an accomplished crawler and a third tooth, the first on top, had emerged.  We went on our first summer vacation was a family, to upstate New York, during which Ellie had her first cold and Ellie visited her first foreign country -- Canada.

Here are a few photos of the past few weeks...

We stopped in Princeton en route to NY and on the way back.  We snapped all of these photos on our first visit -- during which Ellie had her first cold.  We slept in the basement on a couch, to minimize disruption, and Ellie slept on my chest all night, in fits and starts.  That night was the worst of her cold, though the fever hung around for days.

This picture was taken at the top of Star Ridge, a short walk from the cabin we stayed in.  The view was beautiful and Ellie was all smiles.

Ellie spent many hours in her car seat, most of them sleeping or being entertained by music or a mommy who had frantically crawled into the backseat to feed her a bottle or play peekaboo.

The cottage we stayed at was lovely, and Ellie took all of her baths in the kitchen sink.  So long as ducky is along for the ride, about is well!

We took this photo on the wraparound deck at the cottage.  We spent much of our time at the cottage, cooking all of our meals at home and hanging out.  It was magical to spend so much uninterrupted time as a family.

Nitin lobbied for us to climb to the peak of Whiteface mountain after driving nearly to the top -- all four of us lumbered up a steep stone staircase, but I successfully pleaded for us to stop when the stairs turned to slabs of rock leaving to the summit!

We ventured up to Montreal for the day and grabbed lunch at a fancy vegetarian restaurant, walked an old stone pedestrian thoroughfare and stopped at a market for fresh vegetables.  We had to promise the customs official at the border that we would eat them for dinner that night!

I am surprised that we did not take more pictures!  When we returned, Ellie had another swimming lesson and we visited a vineyard and brewery over the weekend with friends.  It was difficult to return to work today for a number of reasons.  Most of all, after spending all of my time with Ellie for ten days, I missed my little girl so much, and the office did not seem to offer compelling reasons to be away from her.  I want to be present for all of the moments of her life.  I am so fortunate to have as much balance as I have, but I am still working on being at peace with the bargains I have made. They are required of all of us in some measure.