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The Elvrums Invade Sweetwater

On our last day in NoDak we went out to the farm where my grandma grew up, which is right on Sweetwater Lake….home to a million and a half HUGE mosquitoes. We survived the bugs, enjoyed a ride in a boat/8-Wheeler and had a wonderful meal. The house that my grandma grew up in is still standing, but no longer used and a new house is on the property and used by some of my dad’s cousins from time to time. The last time I was there was in 1989 and I mostly remember it being very windy.

My dad’s cousin, Mary and her husband, Jack, live nearby and were able to host us at the farm. They were such gracious hosts and I was a bit sad not to join the rest of the family the next day at their house to see Jack’s farming operation, but it was time for us to head back to the PNW. What follows are the photos that I snapped out at the farm, none of which include the little red house that my grandma grew up in or the mosquitoes.

I also have to say that I saw my brothers, Chaya, and dad take off on a 4-Wheeler down a trail and then suddenly they were floating in the lake, I was shocked.  I thought to myself that OF COURSE my brothers would try to take an 8 wheeler in the water, then I discovered that is exactly what it is for.  I felt a tiny bit bad for thinking my brothers would break something….then I got over it.

Enjoy the pictures.

If you make it to the end, there may or may not be one Maggie looking ultra cheesy in her anti-mosquito jumpsuit and her Webster School fresh forehead bruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Communicating With the Wee One

Maggie’s ability to communicate with us has become more and more apparent with each passing day and most recently she has picked up on a few snippets of sign language that we’ve used. The first time she signed ‘more’ to me I almost fell off of my chair.  Now, she is signing with emotion mixed in and we’re pretty amazed. We hadn’t planned on using sign language with her, but now that she seems to be catching on I almost want to jog down to the corner store and pick up an ASL manual. I won’t, of course.

One of her favorite games to play with lately is Night-Night. Basically, she’ll put her head down for a moment, act like she’s sleeping and pop up with a huge smile on her face, expecting us to greet her with a hearty, “Good Morning!!”. Which we do, of course. This gets repeated over and over with her big smile growing with each round. Without fail, we end the game laughing because Maggie is such a cheese-ball and her being able to ham-it-up is pretty hilarious.

Just last night I was rubbing her back as she fell asleep in her bed, and I leaned down to kiss her cheek (because it was just SO kissable!) and right after I did it, her eyes popped open! For a split second I regretted kissing her kissable cheek, but then Maggie flashed one of her full-faced grins, happy to be kissed apparently, and dozed off for the final time. I almost had to bite my tongue from letting out a horrible cackle-laugh, which would have for sure woken the sleeping babe. She is so full of happiness, which in turn makes our whole entire family happy.

Aside from the Night Night game and new words showing up with high frequency, Maggie has also discovered the power behind her words, trying on many words for size, favoring words that get results. Just this morning she convinced Barry that she needed MORE cookie….a daughter after her daddy’s heart. He gave it to her, of course.

We had somebody comment to us once about waiting until Maggie is 18 months old, when her personality would ‘really’ show up.  Barry put it perfectly when he said that he was a little bit scared of what life will be like at 18 months – because The Littlest Morsel is definitely not lacking in the personality department these days.

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Webster School is Dead To Me

On one of our last days in North Dakota, we went to the old country school that my grandmother attended for a few years and the old building was beautiful, if not gorgeous. My grandma’s sister was also her first grade teacher, can you imagine that?  The school is now privately owned by a family and we were lucky enough to get to  wander through the beautifully restored building. Maggie got to enjoy some toys that belonged to a baby that sometimes lives there.  But for all it’s glory, Webster School is dead to me.

We got to sift through some old school records that held many names that my grandma recognized, it was pretty amazing. Eventually Phil scooped Maggie up and took her outside to point at things…and that was all fine and dandy. At that point I still loved the school like a distant family member.

And then we posed for pictures…..

Then Maggie posed for some pictures alone, a few steps up from the bottom of the stairs and took a nosedive onto cement, thus making the worst sound in the history of heads hitting cement.

And that, my friends, is why Webster School is dead to me.