Visiting Matt & Sarah Jones and Ellie

Thursday night I was able to take my mom's car down to visit Matt & Sarah Jones in Brooklyn for the night. It had been well over a year since I'd seen them last and it was really great to be able to catch up with them. Matt and I had several bottles of wine before Sarah got home from her long rotation at the hospital working with children. Matt told me she works ridiculous hours and is often burnt out. She got up at 4am to head back to the hospital after coming home at 10:30pm that night. I don't know how she is handling all the work. Matt himself lost his job at SeaBass because of downsizing but was able to find another job with better pay and benefits the day after his last day at SeaBass so good for him.
Friday morning I got up early and headed over to Greenwich to see my little girl. Nicolette had been at a company party overnight at a swank hotel so Ellie had stayed the night with her aunt Amanda before being dropped off to daycare the next morning. So, I went straight to Daycare and after showing some ID was allowed to go play with Ellie and her teachers. There were about 8 kids in Ellie's class and all were walking around just fine. Some were working on their words and they all seemed to like bouncy balls. I brought in a stuffed dog for Ellie to play with which instantly became the new toy of all the children. At first Ellie was shy and didn't really want to come visit me but after a while she did and gave her doggy a big kiss (mashing her forhead to the animal is her "kisses" now). After a couple hours Nicolette and her close friend Joe showed up to pick Ellie up and bring her home for the afternoon. After a quick check-up for Ellie about her persistant cough and nebulizer at her pediatrician's we stopped at a Greek place for some salads that we brought back to her apartment. I was able to meet Nicolette's new roommate Kim who is simply fantastic with Ellie. I spent the afternoon with Ellie and gave her a "busy zoo" toy for Christmas which she seemed to really like. After a very short while Ellie warmed up to me and sat in my lap as I read her stories and then played with her new toys with her and watched Baby Einstein which she seemed to love when the hand puppets would come on the screen. Her laugh is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard and thankfully I can get a smile and a chuckle out of her with very little effort. Unfortunately, I had to leave around 7:30pm to get my mom's car back to her for taking my father to dialysis the next morning. Before I left we gave Ellie a bath and she bonked her head pretty good on the side of the tub on a freak slip (tub is lined with slip proof maps... not sure how it happened) and her upper lip was cut and bleeding a bit. Nicolette took control of the situation as the wonderful mother she is and I ran upstairs to get a freeze pop to cheer her up and numb her bleeding lip. After a short while and some hand puppets she was smiling again and ready for bed. I plan on coming down again in a week to visit her with my mom and after this too-short visit I can't wait to see my beautiful daughter again.