The Number Field

On Thursday, to commemorate the end of Elena's fourth month, we took her out to Mayfield Park for a photo shoot. Before we got married, Jenny and I had some of our photos taken there, including the one that went out in our wedding announcement (taken by Jenny's dad). The most notable thing about Mayfield Park is the ostentation of peacocks that lives there. We thought that the park would provide a nice, different background for new pictures of Elena. Also, we wanted to do something different and relaxing on one night that Jenny hadn't brought work home.

We must have tried to use some time that Elena usually associates with sleeping or eating, because she did not want to cooperate with our picture-taking plans. She slept before we left and while we were in the car, and didn't seem to have a problem when we woke her up. However, when we started to take pictures, she decided that she wanted to show her inner diva instead of her smiles. Even so, some of the pictures turned out pretty well. We were sharing the park with other people--a group with a fancy camera setup was taking pictures of a girl in a kimono, while another lady took pictures of a bride and groom. Although the bride was wearing a wedding dress, the groom had on jeans and a black shirt, which we couldn't quite figure out. In any case, we didn't want Elena to fuss so much that we disturbed the others, so we abandoned our photo shoot and started chasing the peacocks. Jenny did keep the camera out just in case an opportunity developed.

Even though Elena didn't enjoy our trip to the park, she did have a great time with Christine all week. According to Christine, she was almost always a very good girl. Elena told me that Christine (and Martin) were very good babysitters, and always gave her lots of love and attention. We are extremely grateful for their help! Now we're preparing for the next stage of this experience by cleaning up and rearranging the apartment for my mother, who gets into town tonight and will be taking care of Elena next week. She leads such a hectic life at home that I hope that her time with us will be a good chance for her to relax. I hope that Elena is just as good for her as she has been this past week, but I think that she will be.