Yesterday and Today

Yesterday: Ellie and I took a nice stroll through the neighborhood collecting the fallen leaves on the ground. Our mission was to collect as many different types of leaves as possible. Ellie, in particular, was on the hunt for a "blue" leaf...interesting girl, she is. I, on the other hand, sought out purple leaves, but we could not find any. We did find a Ginko leaf which was odd because there were no Ginko trees in the area. We liked to think it made a wonderful journey on our path just for us. The leaves we collected are now being pressed between pages in heavy books, which were probably once their great great great grandfathers. How ironic. Once the leaves are flattened out, we will assemble them together with these pictures in a big photo frame to remember the day we went on a hunt for the mysterious blue leaf.






Today: Jae and I sort of have an inkling as to what to expect from Ellie once Kate arrives. We went to visit Jack and company this morning and as we spent time together. Ellie was so good with Jack...she stared at him for what seemed like hours, showed him how to play on his playmat, and made wonderful observations about him..."he looks tired, he's awake now, he's hungry, he's saying, 'I love you'."
But I can also see the conflict within Ellie...stirring madly. She loves loves loves babies and as you can see from the pictures below, she adores Jack. He truly is someone to be squeezed and treasured. At the same time, Ellie made it very clear as not to forget her as well by running around in hysterics and climbing into his playmat. As Koreans say, she has become cold rice...or at least that's how she feels and that makes me feel sad.
As much as we will fear for Kate's life when she's next to Ellie (I'm not sure Ellie knows what "gentle" means...tee hee hee) , we will also have to make doubly sure Ellie knows and feels she has not been forgotten, less loved, or replaced. Those thoughts alone are enough of a threat that she'd act out on her sister, which I've heard is very common. But we will get through it somehow and I know Ellie is going to be a big help and an awesome big sister...she is going to be so proud the day Kate arrives.



Look at that tummy!!!