Time is swooshing past

Eloise wriggles, explores, eats, crawls, talks, and sleeps through every single day. Busier than the hungry little caterpillar. On top of all of her activities, we've been visiting with my sister and her kids, my brother and his wife, and Brian's parents all at various times. In between all the visiting, I'm teaching an Educational Psychology class at Bethany on the weekends. It's enjoyable to be keeping my teaching skills in practice and to be meeting new interesting upcoming teachers. My favorite book these days is Smart Moves: why learning is not all in your head by Carla Hannaford. I've incorporated all sorts of ideas from that book into my Psych class, passed ideas on to my father-in-law, and applied certain concepts to Eloise activities. It's fun to learn things that apply to my real life.

Brian has been busily teaching 4 days a week in Salinas, working one day a week in San Jose, selling eucalyptus firewood, and rebuilding a deck on a house in his after hours. It will be nice to have him back when we get to New Zealand!
Here are some pictures of fun times with family.

Santa Cruz

Eloise is over her jet lag. A few nights of wanting to be awake from 10pm to midnight made the adjustment a little rough for us but so did her complete disinterest in food for the entire airplane journey and the following two days. It made her a needy nurser and her mommy a bit concerned. All's well, however, she greedily is consuming the carrots and oatmeal and squashes I concoct for her. I bought beets at the farmer's market to prepare for her but luckily came to my senses before preparing it for her. Beet juice stains all over my clothes and hers doesn't sound fun.

Eloise remembers her Grandma and happily plays with her and asks her to pick her up. This makes me happy. I want my baby to know that her family loves her.
She contracted a brief case of stranger anxiety for about a week at the beginning of February. I was sure we were in for some tough times when we got home to a slew of new people for Eloise to meet. However, she recovered quickly and already reaches to have people hold her after only short interactions.

In fact, on the airplane, Eloise was making quite a scene at one point. We were just getting settled into our seats and I was holding her and standing until the last moment, I realized Eloise was looking around at the sea of faces behind us. A few people were smiling at her. She selected a couple and started flapping her arms, squeaking and crowing with her wide open mouthed smile. This delighted the row of people behind us and even a few further back. All of a sudden Eloise had captured a crowd of admirers. Her flapping and crowing increased. She was so excited, I had a hard time holding her and rested her on the back of my seat facing backwards. This exacerbated the delightful interactions. It was my favorite part of our trip home, watching the array of cultures represented by the people around us, all with smiles and shiny eyes, just because of my friendly child.

The family that plays in the rain together.....

Courgette Cake yesterday, Tomato Relish today

Tomato Relish

3 lbs Tomatoes
1/2 lb. sugar
2 Tbsp curry
1 lb. onions
2 heaped Tbsp cornflour
1 dessert tsp. mustard

Cut tomatoes and onions into separate dishes and sprinkle with salt. Leave overnight. Pour off the brine. Barely cover with vinegar. Bring to a boil and add sugar and boil for 1/2 hour. Thicken with cornflour and a little more vinegar. Add curry and mustard



The day is fast approaching when I will not be able to sit Ello on a blanket with a selection of toys while I cook. She is mobile to about 2 feet radius, getting ready to run. In the last week she learned to pull herself to standing. A few days later, she figured out how to sit up on her own.....New things every single day. To top it all off, there are new smiles every hour.

30 degrees in the shade (Celsius)

Well, summer here in New Zealand isn't exactly like summer in Santa Cruz. No fog here; bit more humid; 3 more tropical storms coming through than ever I've seen in a Santa Cruz summer. Cyclone Wilma hit us last weekend. Six inches of rain landed on us in a 12 hour period. We put on our foul weather gear that afternoon and went for a hike. We outfitted Tiffany, our Santa Cruz boat guest, with some foulies as well and insisted she come too. It's much less grumpifying to take hikes in the rain than to sit cooped up on a boat in the rain. Of course, the weather never stays around long. The next day was sunny again.

This past week, Brian has worked with few breaks on Eloise's bedroom. It's in the back of the boat next to our aft cabin, where the head used to be. It's got a pint sized bed that's cozy with a bright purple cordurouy lee cloth that I made for it. A fellow yachtswoman helped us give an appropriate name to this baby room aboard: The After Berth.

So much time aboard has not only skewed our humor but was keeping Brian away from surf. This week we're off to Ahipara for a camping/surfing trip. Then, only one week more and we return to Santa Cruz for six whole weeks. Hurray!

Progress

I've learned that progress cannot always be dictated or forced to happen. This lesson was taught to my by Eloise. A couple of months ago I was concerned that her sleeping pattern wasn't right. Now I look back and wonder what "right" might have been. I thought I was doing something wrong because I wasn't getting the product I wanted. With 3 months more of being Eloise's mama under my belt, I realize nothing was wrong at all. She was progressing and developing at her own pace and it just so happened that that snapshop of her progress didn't match what the sleep book said. Fortunately for her, I continued to be consisted in how I put her to sleep. We have a short routine and some predictable times. I sing the same sleepy time songs three times per day and avoid singing them during waking hours.

Now, she has a sleep pattern that fits what I like and fits the sleep book. But I've realized that doesn't mean she's more successful than three months ago. It means that's where she's progressed to this far and next week it quite possibly will change. If I'm consistent and stay tuned to her cues, with God's mercy, I'll be able to provide her with what she needs to contine to progress and develop. As it is, she just slept through the delivery of a very large load of gravel deposited outside of her door, large truck brakes and everything. Much to my shock!

It's good for me to be reminded of these things because my tendency in all of my life is to see that things aren't how I want them to be and immediately begin casting my eyes around for what I need to do differently because surely I can force circumstances, myself, others to be different if I just do the right thing. I wonder how much personal growth and progress (in myself and others) I've shortchanged by not accepting a certain stage of development. Perhaps, in concern, I've changed healthy patterns and situations because I didn't like how things looked at the moment. Sometimes growth takes place without manipulation.

I know this principle in gardening. If I plant a seed and nothing has popped up in the first few days, I don't dig up the seeds to see what is wrong. Instead I consistenly water and remove weeds. I do that at every stage of growth. From seed to flower. But I forget that the universe is wired that way when it comes to other things in my life. I'm grateful for Eloise's reminder. I'm also grateful for her two two-hour naps per day!

Baby Cuteness

Eloise plays peekaboo with herself! She covers her face with her blankie, then kicks and wiggles until the blanket comes off. She then repeats the procedure over and over.

When sitting, she has learned to scooch an inch at a time towards desired objects. And she still smiles like crazy when she meets new people or daddy makes silly noises.