My Aunt Paige, by Ella Kate

Mommy's best friend, Paige, came to see me last week. She lives in Arkansas and came to Atlanta for a meeting. Mommy says that we can go visit her in Arkansas when I'm older and I can play on her huge indoor play gym at her Chick-Fil-A restaurant. How fun! I hear I might even get nuggets and a milkshake!

Aunt Paige flew in an airplane a whole day early and came to see me! She came to playschool with Mommy to pick me up and go to lunch. This was me when I saw her.


I really liked her, even though she kept taking pictures of me! Mommy had to work so she watched me for a few hours. She sure is a good surrogate mommy - she even changed diapers. And, I had saved a very special diaper prize for her. She's a great diaper changer. I'll bet she's had lots of practice with her baby, Will.

She has excellent fashion sense. She sent my favorite elephant longalls when I was born and brought gifts again! A new ladybug bubble suit and a lamb romper. Mom's already put me in the lamb romper twice in two weeks. Will someone please tell her that we need to rotate my wardrobe a bit more?!?!

Since Aunt Paige's restaurant is on the University of Arkansas campus, she brought me a stuffed Arkansas Razorback doll. It sure is tasty:



She also tried to show me how to "call the hogs," but Mommy says that we aren't allowed to that at our Alabama house. Will can't do it at their house, either.

Aunt Paige is great! She made me so happy that I jumped extra hard in my jumperoo for an hour. I slept really, really well that night!




Love to all,
Ella Kate

Tuesday Trivia

The great state of Alabama walks the fine line between being proud of its southern heritage and being obsessed with it.

The DOT places small speed bumps on roads leading to a dangerous intersection, new traffic signal, or hidden curve. This is a normal practice among other states, too.

What's different about Alabama?

When you drive over the speed bumps, it plays the drum roll of the confederate army when it marched into battle. Ta-Da-Da (pause) Ta-Da-Da (pause) Ta-Da-Da Ta-Da-Da Ta-Da-Da.

Seriously - I learned this in a Trivia Pursuit game. Notice it next time you are on a country road. :)

You've Gotta Be Kidding Me...

Allison was a very common name in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I graduated with FOUR other Allisons. I like my name, but dislike the commonality of it.

When choosing our daughter's name, I purposely chose family names that were not on the Social Security Administration's top 50 names of 2007. Ella is after my grandmother and Katherine was a great aunt. I wanted something original. I even took an extra step to call my child by TWO NAMES to make her name unique. I didn't even think that "Ella" and "Kate" went together well.

HMPH.

I learned today that the infant room at daycare will have THREE Ella Kates in July. To give you an idea of why this is such a big deal, there are only EIGHT babies in the room.

~40% of the babies in the infant room will be named Ella Kate.

In one of the cases, I truly believe that the mom saw Ella Kate's name on the wall and liked it - and snatched it up. The other mom used family names, too. I can't blame her for that.

Maybe the crazy celebs have the right idea. There probably won't be another Apple, Tallulah, Scout or Pilot Inspektor in the infant room.

Ella Kate Cackled

And it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. Tears streamed down my face for at least five minutes.

We were practicing animal sounds and when we reached quack, she burst out in laughter, over and over, until she got hiccups.

Richard was out walking Piper and Penelope, but my parents and sister got to hear it. We all needed laughter this week. Maybe she could sense it and had been holding the belly laughs for just the right moment. I love this baby.

These pictures were taken at my cousin's wedding shower on Sunday. Nothing to do with the cackling, but they were taken the same day:

Ella Kate with Aunt Sara:


Trying to nap before the shower:


Her cutaway dress and bloomers - too cute:

Cancer Update

Because so many family friends read our little blog, I'm adding an update on Dad's cancer surgery yesterday. I'm still a bit raw, but this sure beats answering an ever-ringing phone.

First of all, Dad is so very blessed to have such a strong network of friends and family. He had friends waiting on him when he got to the hospital at 5:15am. By the time of surgery, our crew had outgrown his hospital room. By 9:30, we packed his room AND the surgery waiting room. Seriously, I kept a ledger to record his visitors. And, I spent all last night and this morning answering phone calls. Literally, at least four calls an hour. Dad is loved.

The surgery itself, meaning the slicing and dicing, went well. Dad breezed through it and is doing great. There was a minor injury during the procedure that will keep in the hospital through the weekend. He is NOT happy about that - or that he can't eat anything at all for another few days.

So, the not-so-great news: the cancer has spread outside of his prostate. The surgeon removed anything that was visibly cancerous or looked suspicious. He sent everything to pathology to get a better sense of what we're dealing with. We won't know exactly how far until the pathology report comes back in 6-9 days. The bottom line is, no matter what the report says, he is scheduled for aggressive chemotherapy. Yuck.

From the minute they rolled him out of recovery, he was cracking jokes. Granted, he was still under anesthesia, so he made them several times. Still, he had been thinking about them for a while and they were quite funny and timely... even the third time.

This wasn't the news I was hoping for - or expecting. I truly thought the doctor would tell us that the cancer was still deep inside the prostate and that once it was gone, the risk of it spreading was zero. That's not how it happened, so we have to take a deep breath, accept the new reality, and develop a strong plan of attack.

Cancer will not win!

Sweet Baby Love

My cousin's little man, Baby Gage, was born a week after Ella Kate. They have known each other since they were in utero.

They played this weekend at our "after decoration day" lunch.

Here's Ella Kate starting to fuss right before a sleepytime meltdown. Please notice at how sweet and happy Gage is:



So, what does sweet Gage do? He reaches over and grabs Ella Kate's hand, which calms her down instantly. They held hands for at least a minute:




Does it get any cuter than this? I think not.

Sweet Home Alabama

We are headed to Alabama this weekend for Mother's Day. The second Sunday in May, which happens to be Mother's Day, is Decoration Day at my family's community church in Grassy, Alabama. Don't know where that is? It's a suburb of Lexington, which is a suburb of Florence. Yes, it really is just that small.

It is the epitome of a sweet southern one-room church house. White wood siding outside, stained glass windows, 100+-year-old oak floors and pews. And, it's only open for Decoration, wedding and funerals. My family has been going to church there since God himself was a child. It's a tradition I'm looking forward to passing down to Ella Kate. Especially since her grandmother, who she was named after, is buried there.

The sad part is that we, all 40+ of us, no longer have a place to eat dinner and socialize after the service. My family sold my grandparents' house last fall. It's going to be so strange driving past Mutt and Mimmie's house. I haven't been back since they sold it. I'll probably still hop the fence and take pictures of Ella Kate with Mimmie's buttercup field.

Oh, and while I'm talking about family and traditions: WE'RE MOVING BACK TO ALABAMA! Like how I threw that in? Yep, it looks like we're headed to the great city of Huntsville. We'll have to wait until Richard finishes his MBA, but it never hurts to get excited early, right?!!?

Sweet Home Alabama, indeed.

HIVES!

I got the call around lunchtime today. "Mrs. Pullen, Ella Kate is splotchy and broken out and we can't get her to stop crying."

"Great," I thought, "she's being a sassafrass again, has herself overstimulated and can't calm down." I assume that her face is red from screaming. Not. So. Much

Her poor little face looked like something out of a movie. Red and swollen from her scalp down her cheeks to her chin. She was so miserable and couldn't stop rubbing her eyes because they burned so much.

We rushed to the doctor, who I stopped as she was leaving for lunch. She peeked at my little red-faced monster and decided she needed Benadryl, stat. (We have a GREAT doctor - if you are in the market, come talk to me!)

The Benadryl worked, but we still don't know what caused it. My side of the family is notorious for allergic reactions, and it looks like she's a Hammond through and through.

Southern Sassafrass Club

I'll admit it, I'm a sassy gal. According to stories, the sassiness started from birth. How can an infant be sassy? Believe me, it's possible.

My daughter is precious. 100%, grade A adorable. I may be biased, but she's extremely smart. The problem is that her little mind wants to do more than her 4-month-old body will allow her to. Enevitably, this ends in frustration and s-a-s-s-i-n-e-s-s.

She learned how to squeal last week. Blood-curling screaming when she's happy, sad, angry, or frustrated. We hear squeals all day long. She wants to eat, but I'm still getting it ready? Scream-squeals. She rolls over and wants to crawl but can't yet? Scream-squels. She doesn't want to lay down so that I can change her diapers or change her clothes? Scream-squeals. Making her unhappiness known - loudly.

I'm seriously worried and dreading the toddler/teenage years. Lord help us.