It's been quite a while since I have written an update about Ella, who is changing so much lately, it's difficult to keep track of it all. I really can't document it fast enough, not that I have that kind of time anyway. But let's see, the best of late is her singing. She has learned several of the standard little kid songs, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Yankee Doodle, the ABC song (did you ever notice it's the same melody as Twinkle?), and so on. So she sings these regularly, and asks me to sing them too, but sometimes, often first thing in the morning, after we descend from the loft, she will play by herself, and sing these wonderful, inventive songs about whatever is on her mind. Like this morning, she sang, in between words from Baa Baa Black Sheep and Yankee Doodle, "When I eat candy, I feel kind of nervous." Whoa! I mean, this kid hasn't ever eaten any true candy! So funny.
I also recently told her the "Do you know what?" schtick (you know, "chicken butt") and she likes to ask me the question. But sometimes, she will retort random things like, "Soap!" instead of the real punchline. Of course it gets a laugh, so she thinks it's funny.
We also discovered, while we were waking up a few days ago, that Ella refers to her left foot as "doughy" and her right foot as "toe-y". Not sure at all where that came from, but we think it's hilarious. She talks to them as though they are embodied friends.
Other than her joking skills and what not, I am enjoying finding new ways to engage Ella in my grown up activities, since all of our childcare has vanished. We plant garden seeds, water things, move stuff around, hang deer fences, and visit our house-to-be, and talk about where all the rooms are. The whole time, she is a continuous stream of words, describing what is happening then, or what happened "last-day" (yesterday), or last week, or whenever. She's become quite the story teller, stretching some words (usually "biiiiiiig"), pausing for effect, whispering, gesturing wildly with her hands, or dancing around to illustrate her yarn.
We're beginning to lose some of the really fun and cool Ella pronounciation words. Like music used to be "oomick" and the other day it came out as "moo-sic". Ok, still cute, but we LOVE oomick, and will miss it terribly.
Wind
It's unbelievably windy. I have to stop saying to myself, "We're all done with wind for the year" which is exactly what I said three days ago as I was working in the garden. I kid you not, that very afternoon, we had the crazy winds nearly rip our sheets off the clothesline, and we are all losing sleep. Looks like at least another day, maybe two, until it calms down. Ugh.
Tomato Recipe
Today, I picked all ripe tomatoes again, which included a lot of giant, beautiful, luscious red brandywine tomatoes. Ah, I suddenly remembered a recipe I have long wanted to try, Tomatoes Provencal (excuse the lack of the hook on the "c"). Here's the recipe. Easy and yummy.
Tomatoes Provencal
2 large tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsely
salt and pepper
olive oil
chopped basil for garnish
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the garlic, bread crumbs, thyme, parsely, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Slice the tomatoes in half and place in a lightly oiled pan. Top with the crumbly stuff, drizzle with olive oil, and bake for 15-20 minutes.
Simple and delicious!
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