insomni-yay

The baby and the cat unwittingly conspired to thoroughly wake me up about half an hour ago, so I thought I'd take advantage of this quiet 4 a.m. to share a little story from yesterday afternoon.

One of the great things about working part-time is that I still get to spend a lot of time with Ellie during her first year. It's been unseasonably warm lately, although yesterday was a bit cooler, so late in the afternoon it was gorgeous and sunny and I took the teensy one out into the backyard for some fresh air and time in nature.

I sat in the large chair we got in memory of Abigail - thanks to a garden-center gift certificate from my uncle and aunt - and put Ellie between my feet in the grass. I'm not sure if she's ever sat directly in grass before while under the supervision of her dad or babysitter - the other times we've hung out outside together, she's been on a blanket on the grass. Now that she's sitting up so well, I went ahead and plunked her down on the lawn, which proved fascinating to her. She kept ripping up the grass with her strong little hands and closely examined a few different fallen leaves that I handed to her.

Eventually she did a slow-topple-over and was doing her almost-crawling-wiggle-worm thing. Finally she turned over on her back, her right hand still firmly gripping the grass, her arms and legs fully splayed out, and a huge smile on her face as she looked up at the tree above us and then at me.

Naturally, I didn't have my camera on hand. I wonder if this description has reached a thousand words yet.

Although I don't have a picture of the incident in question, I do have plenty of other recent pictures. Don't tell me you're surprised.

Yes, those are remnants of her dinner of peaches stuck to her face.
She's saving those for later.