happybuela

Sit up!

 

Sit up and take notice, look what Ella started to do while she was in Austin last weekend! It looks like magic... and it is...
:-)

(Sorry about the bad music edit, I just wanted something other than the stupid TV blaring in the background.)

Love Celebrated

Every day is a day for love, every season is a season for love, but on this day that is so celebrated for love, I bring you some of the people/things that I love:

My family, and friends who are family, with a special celebration this year of our newest love, Ella. Happy Valentines day, family! Happy Valentines day, Ella!! Buela loves you!

My kitties, who keep me company, cuddle and snuggle with me, try to sit all up in my face, chew the cable of my favorite pair of circular knitting needles, try to eat my yarn, and take up all the space on the bed at night. And who appreciate and enjoy the garden as much as I do. Happy Valentines day, Jinx and Schroedinger!

My garden, always changing, often challenging (in a good way), filled with many of God's fascinating little critters, a source of both exercise and relaxation, delight and sorrow, color and "greyness", and a source for dreams. Happy Valentines day, garden! I'll be spending much more time with you very soon (I can hardly wait!)

My ever-growing yarn stash for knitting and crocheting (a recent discovery for me), with so many colors, textures, lusciousness, and unlimited potential. I especially love knitting hats for Ella, who makes everything look like a masterpeice (even when it is not.) Happy Valentines day, stash!

To you and yours, may every day be a day of love celebrated. Happy Valentines day!

Baby Talk

One of my co-workers told me about a woman she saw on Oprah the other day. She says she has "unlocked the secret language" of babies. Check out the video on the second page of this article, it's fascinating! I'll definitely be listening to Ella with a little more discernment next time!!

Things I Wish For Ella - Part 1

I've been playing with this post for a good while now, and see that I will never stop thinking of things that I wish for Ella. Therefore, I've decided to make this a continuing series throughout my blog. These are some of my own memories of experiences with nature - mostly as a child -  that I hope Ella will also have the chance to enjoy. I'll only post a few things in each post, and I've pretty much excluded garden/plant/flower experiences, as they will have a post all their own. And so, without further adieu...
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Things I Wish For Ella - Part 1

A yard full of Autumn leaves that swish underfoot as she walks through them. Great big giant piles of those leaves to run, and squeal, and jump into.  Raking the leaves to form whatever she wants- an outline of a house to play in, pathways or streets to walk or ride through.....

Sweet breezes that caress her face...

Safe woods to walk through...

At least one great climbing tree. The experience of "floating" in the tree when her back is against one branch, and each of her legs & arms are resting on their own branches, and a breeze moves each of the branches in slightly different directions...

I hope Ella can find a spot where there are no traffic noises, no engines running, no shouting or talking, and no music playing other than the wind through the tree canopies... and I hope she will savor the sound.....

Beauty

Katie's  post on happykiddo has prompted me to finally complete this post and publish it. I completely agree with Katie, "hoochie-mamma" (my words) clothing for little girls is simply unacceptable. And now, for my post:

Ella lay sleeping so sweetly in my arms, I couldn't help but ooh and ahh over her, and whisper to her that she's the most beautiful child on Earth.

It struck me that I've gone on and on about her appearance. While it's true (not just a proud grandma talking) that she's an exceptionally stunning creature, I realized that I don't do her any service to constantly compliment her appearance. Appearance is fleeting, and even the most "beautiful" people will eventually wrinkle and sag with age - or end up looking totally ghastly due to overdone plastic surgery. I want Ella to know that our love isn't about her looks.

Even our accolades about her obviously superior intelligence aren't doing her any favors, because our love has nothing to do with her IQ, or her future accomplishments. Our love is about her- no matter her height, weight, hair color, skin color, how early she talks and walks, what she decides her favorite color is or her favorite food, or any of the rest of it. She is a precious gift straight from God, and we mustn't lose sight of that.

Instead, I've been praying for the attributes that God would like to see in her, those qualities He longs to see in us all. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but some of the first things that come to mind as I pray for Ella:

Father God, I pray that our precious Ella would be kind and generous. Help her to see people and their situations from Your point of view. May she have the gift of forgiveness, and the ability to let go of anger. Grant her understanding and wisdom. May she not only recognize, but give thanks for Your many  blessings. May she be willing to stand courageous for what is right, yet speak the Truth in love. I pray that she will be filled with faith, hope, and unconditional love. Thank you for loving Ella, even more than we do (one of Your greatest mysteries.)      Amen

Ella Eyes

It's amazing- a travesty, actually- that somehow I haven't managed to post a single picture of an open-eyed Ella on this blog. Ella's eyes are truly remarkable - really, people remark about them every time I show them her pictures! You can just get lost in her gaze.... I wonder what she's thinking? I wonder how we look to her, how this world looks to her?

A friend read my post about the people at Jamba Juice giving us a free drink when I showed them Ella's picture on my digital camera. She said that she's going to download some Ella pics onto her own camera before she goes shopping next. Hmmm....    

The Ella phenomenon

Looking at my most recent photos of Ella, I noticed something. At first I thought it was just this picture, Ella with her first Ugly Doll. But I looked through my growing collection of Ella photos and noticed that this same phenomenon happens in every picture where Ella is shown with someone/something else: whoever or whatever else is in the picture with Ella, always looks better just for being in her general vicinity! They can never eclipse her (of course), but she apparently shares some of her beauty with her surroundings. What a generous little girl!

Wow, I can't wait to see her in my Spring garden!

Expert Breather

Those who know me - and are around me when noon hits - know that I have a daily alarm on my cell phone to remind me to breathe. It sounds kind of silly to some, but there came a time at work when I realized I was so stressed out and focused on a task that I was barely breathing. I was only breathing very shallowly, hardly getting any oxygen in my lungs at all.

"Gee, that can't be good!" I thought. Shortly afterword I heard something about the fact that many people don't breathe correctly, don't really get the good exchange of oxygen that they need for good health. This happens a lot when we're stressed, and in turn it makes it harder for us to deal with stress.

I was watching Ella at rest in my arms, and noticed how her tummy looked as she breathed in and out. She does it exactly the way adults are having to be taught  to breathe! Her stomach - not her chest - moves up and down, pulling air deeply into her lungs. She allows her diaphragm to do the work. She is an expert breather.

I knew I would be learning a lot from my little grandgirl.

Little Sweetpea

I love sweetpeas in my garden in the very early Spring. I told someone earlier this year that sweetpeas are the girly-girls of the garden, with their soft colors, curlicues like tendrils of hair, daintily nodding buds, and sweet fragrance. Ella is a little sweetpea. She doesn't have curling tendrils of hair yet, and her fragrance is not exactly like the sweetpea, but she already looks very much the girly-girl. It doesn't have anything to do with what she's wearing, either. She is just a girly-girl. No apologies. And just like those sweetpeas climbing up the trellis in my Spring garden, I can't get enough of her.

OGA (Obnoxious Grandmothers Anonymous)

hi. (ahem.) my name is buela, and i'm.... i'm an obnoxious grandmother. (The room responds, "Hi, Buela.")

It's one of the hardest things I've ever encountered, this unbidden urge to tell anyone and everyone about my new granddaughter. Everything about her. How sweetly she breathes in, how cute she is when she breathes out, how she brings a whole new dimension to napping. I haven't seen one yet, but I'm certain her dirty diapers are works of art.

Bragging about Ella actually paid off mere hours after her grand entrance on Monday. Mike (grandpa) and I made a quick trip to the nearest Jamba Juice to get Katie a well-deserved Orange Dream Machine with a Femme Boost. I was going on and on (and on and on) about Ella, even showed the clerks pictures on my digital camera. They hire exceptionally intelligent and perceptive people at that place. I know, because they all agreed that she is the most beautiful child they have ever seen, and even gave us a free drink as a love offering to the new princess. :-)

Some of my co-workers are beginning to avoid me, they're afraid I'll start telling them all about Ella - again. But the people who really count still ask me about her, hope to see another picture...

Okay, Adam and Katie. I know you guys need some Ella time just to yourselves, and I'm trying (really trying) not to insinuate myself on you... too much. But don't neglect little Ella's grandmothers, because she needs us just as much as we need her. Okay, I know you won't neglect us.

Come to think of it, I don't think that any kind of devotion inspired by that cute little bundle could be called obnoxious. I mean, how could anything associated with Ella be obnoxious? I feel better already. No need for these OGA meetings any more.

Thanks Ella! Buela loves you!