Monday, August 6, 2012

Ellie's first vacation


My work on the high school math textbook gave us all an opportunity to spend four days in Columbus at a Hilton (a rarity for us, given my propensity for couchsurfing). On three of the four days, my family members came down to spend the day with Ellie, Ellie's mom, and JooYeon's mom (a little bit of direct translation from Korean there).


We even managed to further break our family tradition by going out to eat a couple times, at Whole Foods and at Aladdin's.


Ellie was incredibly patient with us as we zipped her all around town.


Of course, she wasn't the only one wearing strange glasses. Back at my workshops, there was a focus on spatial reasoning, so we broke out the 3-D glasses.


The anticipation among the textbook team climaxed as we met every night, preparing to finish up our first of four parts and distribute it to a handful of teachers who will field test the curriculum.




Late nights then were back at the hotel to watch the Olympics and get some time with my beloveds.




When the week ended, Ellie had no intentions of going back to Athens, so she led the charge up to my parents' house for the weekend.




Heather and Bob joined us for some quality time in their last weeks as Ohio residents. With their baby now avocado size, Bob prepared for his life as a daddy by changing his first diaper. It was one of the more hilarious moments actually, because it followed an interview with my dad.

Dad: Ellie, do you want Bob to change your diaper?

(Ellie gets a big grin on her face.)

Dad: Now, Ellie, let's be nice because this is Bob's first time. No more poos...

(Ellie promptly deposits a loud number two in her diaper.)



Heather and Bob had prepared a song for Ellie and performed it to her delight.



The long week eventually wore on Ellie and she started crying hard one evening; none of us could stop her. Changmonim came to the rescue with an ancient Korean tradition of back-swaddling (it was what she had used with her three kids, because it allowed her to continue working while holding the baby). Ellie fell asleep instantly every time.





Heather had given Bob a birthday present of a zip-line tour at the course behind our house - I had the pleasure of stepping in for Heather because she hadn't anticipated being four months pregnant during the zipping.



It was a completely different experience from the Costa Rica zipline that spanned hilltops; this one was mostly fun for me because of getting some one-on-one time with Bob.


After her rough night, Ellie returned to her normal peaceful self, sleeping through the nights. During the  day time, she started cooing more than ever before in response to the constant love and attention. Bob had fixed a glow-worm from Heather and my childhood, and Ellie seemed to enjoy that!



So it was a wonderful week for our little traveler!


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