Mountz Memoirs: Ellie Wears a Big Bow

Last night was daylight savings and we had an hour extra to sleep. After going to bed around 10:30 I felt very rested when I woke up around 7:30 even with waking up every 3 hours or so with Ellie. With the extra hour I slept 10 hours - just subtract three or four times I got up for Ellie. I was still feeling a bit sluggish on Saturday after our busy party day so the extra sleep was wonderful! Ellie fortunately is young enough that the hour time change doesn't impact her in the least. I was a bit lazy this morning and for the first time in her life Ellie did not wear a dress to church. To make up for it I put a big bow on her head. Jon was less than impressed (I thought it was cute). He told me that the bow was too big. Too bad!
Today we were on time for church. It was a wonderful thing! I arrived at Sunday School and I was the fifth person there! By the time class was over there were probably close to two dozen women in the room. Aunt Carol Stoltzfus sat next to me so I was able to hear how Luke proposed to Marianne (he took her to Philadelphia, they walked around and went into shops, they stopped at some park and sat down, he proposed). I left briefly to nurse Ellie since she was getting a bit fussy. In between services Jon and I met up and we picked our spot at the end of the last row. When I pick where we sit for the service I always feel very optimistic and sit 10 rows up or so. Jon is more realistic and clings to the back so that when Ellie becomes noisy I can make a quick exit. Mark Shyer led worship and Uncle Steve preached. The message was great - I just wish I would have heard the entire thing! I left around 11:30 to nurse Ellie since she really needed to fall asleep but couldn't seem to. She still didn't fall asleep after nursing so I held her in the lobby for a bit. Mimi was waiting to walk into the service to play the last hymn so she held baby for a bit. When she went in during Uncle Steve's prayer I also snuck in next to Jon.
For lunch Jon and I went home and had grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was a perfect day for that meal since it was chilly out. Lately it has definitely been feeling like fall! Ellie was so tired that she fell asleep while Jon was holding her during my lunch preparations. We all laid around after lunch until Jon left to check out an electrical job for Ryan Frey and do some secret preparations for tomorrow night. More on that tomorrow. When he came home he spent some time making Ellie smile and "laugh" - if you want to call it that. She makes a cackle type of sound when she's smiling really hard. As soon as I pulled out the video camera she stopped. I should probably get a lesson exciting case for my cell phone, too, because she always is distracted by the bright red.
We had some crackers and cheese (left over from the party) to hold us over during evening church and headed to Elverson. We were early to church (believe it or not!) which was definitely a first for the evening service. Since we were early, though, Jon got roped into being the timer for the elder question and answer session. Ellie was a stinker and once again stayed awake the entire time despite her tired state. Pops did a good job answering the questions and even cracked a joke. He had mom in stitches! The question was "What would your wife change about you" or something to that end and Dad said something like, "After being married over 30 years I knew exactly what Diane would change. She cannot stand when I make a whistling sound when I breathe because there's something in my nose." or something to that end. It was pretty funny! I suppose you should have been there.
I mentioned a few weeks back how babies bring the most random people to you because they just like babies so much. Well there is a high schooler - I think he's 16 - who's named Benjamin Green. Well last Sunday, this morning, and this evening he came up to say hi to Ellie. Next time I'm going to hand her over to him and let him hold her because I really think he wants to! He hasn't asked yet, but he comes and talks to me and looks at her and asks me questions about her. Before we left his mother said that they would love to watch her sometime if I ever need a sitter! I might just have to take them up on that when the relatives get sick of her.
We came home from church and ate some leftover chili. The rest of it is in the freezer now so we're able to get a break from it. Jon is now fiddling with the furnace because our heater guy was supposed to come Tuesday but didn't because of Hurricane Sandy. He then rescheduled for Friday but never showed up. Now we are basically out of oil and it's supposed to get down to 29 tonight. I wouldn't really be concerned but our house dropped one degree an hour after we lost power with Hurricane Sandy and I wouldn't want it to get below 60 in the house with baby Ellie. I told Jon that it'd be fine if he would just let Ellie sleep with me. It didn't work - he's now working harder than ever to figure out if we have enough oil or if he needs to run out for a heater. Ooh he just told me he's going to borrow an electric heater from Peter. Thanks, Peter!