The Number Field

We did our best to stretch out Mother's Day into an entire weekend. On Saturday morning I watched Elena while Jenny went for a run and then to some yard sales. In the afternoon Elena and I went out and let Jenny have some time alone at home. We went to the flowers shop for tulips, the grocery store for last-minute dinner items, and the pharmacy for Elena's gift to Jenny: a photo collage of their best together pictures over the past year.

We enjoyed a dinner of shrimp cocktail, pork chops, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. Jenny was happy that I made it, and even more happy that I cleaned up afterwards. I followed it up on Sunday morning with a pancake breakfast. In addition to syrup, we had whipped cream and blackberries as special Mother's Day toppings.

I had front-loaded our festivities because we knew that we were going to spend Sunday evening with Jeremy, Amy, Jean, Ben and their families, and Jeremy was planning to fire up the grill for dinner. As usual, the dinner was excellent. I had one last present to give Jenny: when they asked if we wanted to stay and play a game, we said yes and I suggested Yahtzee . It's Jenny's favorite game, but I'm not a fan. In the end, we kept Elena up long past her bedtime, but she was a happy little girl all night long.

I made one observation of Elena's behavior that I'm not quite sure how to interpret. Jeremy and Amy had lots of rose petals around, and two of the big girls (Hailey and Emily) were playing with them. They noticed that when they threw them up in the air, Elena would laugh hysterically. Of course this made them repeat the process so much that Elena turned bright red, but after a few minutes they moved on to something else.

Some time later Elena was walking and playing on her own, unaware even that I had my eye on her. She picked a few of the leftover petals off the floor, then waved her hands up and down as if she was throwing them. She didn't laugh out loud this time, but she did seem amused. Was she remembering and reenacting the earlier scenario? I could be misinterpreting it, but it seemed to signal a level of cognitive development that I hadn't noticed yet. On this Mother's Day, thanks to Jenny for all that she does to raise our happy, active Elena.