Well, there can be some irritability.
This is what she is normally like.
But mood issues are not unexpected when she’s expecting.
She needs a break though, when she yells at the kids.
The guys don’t get they need to let her sleep.
She’s even testy with her female friends.
Jim was cautious with these hordes of attitudinal pregnant mamas.
I felt right at home. 😉
Cheers to you from the glorious, if occasionally moody, nothern elephant seals.
.
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Remember it well. 🙂 Too well. 🙁
Laughing, me two!! 😉
I felt the exact same way! 🙂
I fully relate!
Hi Cindy, it seems Eli the elephant has taken a lot of your time.
Labor of love, but I will refrain from more posts for awhile! 😉
Now that would make me cranky — I so love these photos.
Ellie is gorgeous. I’m not surprised she’s irritable, looking at the size of her in an expectant state. Funnily enough, mood-wise, I was more placid than usual when pregnant but more physically energetic. I remember winning an egg-and-spoon race on sports day at my daughter’s school when I was 7 months pregnant with my son. I must have looked such a sight trundling along dressed in dungarees and certainly didn’t look nearly as pretty as Ellie!
Yes, I was the same way, a happy pregnant person, but the ellies? They are a tad touchier. I don’t blame them considering what is going to happen to them about four weeks after giving birth. The mating is pretty brutal.
Ouch! So soon D:
They are so cute. All the photos are wonderful, but I really like the second shot of Ellie practicing her ballet.
My husband liked this one too and you’re right she is doing a piorette! 😉
Oh wow. Love them all
So glad, we need to protect the ellies!
They are just so funny. And I love the title…I guess we can expect grouchiness! lol
They are a tad techy….. 😉
Cindy, glad you are having fun. Must be interesting to watch them. Hugs! Veraiconica
Happy Holidays Veraiconica~
Cindy, I am wishing you also a Merry Christmas! Hugs! Veraiconica
Oh, Cindy, wonderful! Great pictures, and your story really personalized the photos.
Of course I’m making a lot of inferences…….laughing! 😉
It seems so real! 🙂
Maybe it is!!!!
I love them! Grouchy mood swings and all. How did you know they are pregnant?
They come here to give birth in mid-December. They nurse for four weeks without eating. Then there is a rather brutal coercive mating experience before they head out to open ocean for 7 or more months. I get their grouchiness!
Aww, they are so cute!
Be Bettr, Stay Bettr! 🙂
Swetank.
So glad you enjoyed!
for sure they are really adorable!! thanks for sharing it! 🙂
Sounds as though they are almost human
There might have been a little projection on my part. Ya think???? 😉
Loving the narrative you have added with these gorgeous photos!
Just having fun with the ellies. So glad you enjoyed~
So beautiful animals. Loved the yoga on the beach picture 🙂
Love it! It does look like yoga!
She is expecting! I love the photo with the tail up, and you even captured when she was yelling at the kids (I really like this one)! I see Jim was way out there… 😀 Having so much fun watching these great photos. Thank you, Cindy!
They were so expressive and emotive that it was fun to make up a story for them. Such personality! 😉
Aw……….. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images! If it were a pregnant human friend, I would say, “Just a little while longer, just a little while longer!”
Laughing, yes, or swim to your own island!!!! 😉
Sometimes, though, women are cruelest to themselves. We’ve never had it easy. Our great-grandmothers till fields with their large bellies. We trot around the boardroom in high heels to keep up our professional image, lug heavy luggage to overseas conferences and pull off all-nighters to rush through an endless stream of projects, right until the very final stage of pregnancy. Yet, we indulge in merciless parodies of ourselves, perpetuating the stereotype of the emotional career woman who cannot be trusted in leadership positions.
Some men, in contrast, place women on such a high pedestal for their childbearing sacrifices that your face reddens when you stand next to them, listening to all those praises they sing of women (“Women’s wombs are sacred temples.” “Women play magical roles.”).
Nobody ever told me my womb was a ‘sacred temple’ or that I play a ‘magical role.’ I feel robbed! 😉 Amazing that men said this to you. I probably would burst out laughing…..In terms of the elephant seals, I think the males have it really rough too, all that fighting and competition and injury, with only the most aggressive few getting to mate. Of course mating for the females ellies is pretty horrendous with much force and violence and well, rape. Biologist have a term for it that I forget, but if you have ever wittnessed it, is rape, sometimes by multiple males. About 1 in 1000 female ellies are killed during mating.
As a therapist for thirty years, I see the damage of rigid gender roles harming both sexes. Female humans though face disproportianate sexual abuse from early ages and this is the most heinous aspect of gender politics to me.
You have no idea how “mushy” the complete version of the speech was!
Just like Humans, aren’t they? 😉
Yes, the days of denying animals have emotions similar to humans I hope are gone~
Ahhh the seals are adorable!!! They look huggable! Hugz Lisa and Bear
They are darn cute!
I so sympathize with Ellie! Great pictures! Thanks for sharing, Cindy.
I do too and I am glad you do! Cheers & thanks~
Oh Ellie, we all ladies are the same 🙂
I enjoyed the pictures. Great photography. Thank you so much! I didn’t know what moodswings were and then I hit menopause LOL
Yes, sudden unwanted insight!! 😉 😉
As Mothers I think we can all relate to the girls!!!! Fascinating images Cindy.
Poor dears, we’ve been there haven’t we? 😉
Sure have!!!!!!!!!!
The girls are much prettier! Oh, I see a few children … pups? Adorable is the word!
the juveniles are what interest me most.
i’m in a quandary, I was gonna do my next post on “kids will be kids” about the juvenile seals, you can’t BELIEVE what i found, they stole a boogey board and hoarded it, from a far away human, but I’m afraid people might get bored of ellies! I have other stuff to post, but I am not bored of the ellies! 😉
i think i have to go with the juvenile surfing boogey board-stealing elepant seals, what do you think?
plus in the photos you could see them reeling from the continual parental reprimands, they were just so california….except they spent the first 8 months of their lives swimming in mid-ocean.
my God they fascinate me!!!
Mother to be needs good care and understanding 🙂
Oh thank you yes! You rock my friend. <3 <3
Cindy – great shots! They do seem to bicker a lot. I’m assuming you are using a very big zoom lens, I wouldn’t want you to risk your safety just to bring us these awesome photos – that first one looks like she is warning you!
I risk nothing.
I have so much fun with wild animals, it is ridiculous.
I seek them out.
She was warning me.
And you are so smart to know.
I heeded her warning, with joy.
I used to work with people more complicated than her.
They were much more dangerous.
This is cake.
Joy.
🙂 Pure Love!
Marvelous Cindy. Made me go back and check my blog on the Elephant Seals. http://wandering-through-time-and-place.me/2011/12/11/the-marvelous-creatures-of-piedras-blancas/
You get it my friend. You always do, Usually before me.
Oh my they do have the same attitude as we human females do when we are expecting don”t they.
Great shots.
Just a tech cranky! 😉
Einen friedvollen 3. Advent wünsche …
Frohe Feiertage und frohe Weihnachten!
Great photos and captions Cindy! I’m not sure where you were but I took my kids to Año Nuevo State Park. I’m afraid that was a few years ago… 🙂
You need to make reservations to go there now and go with a tour guide……
There was a ‘guide’ who walked out there with us but we had no reservations. It was a few years back as I said… 🙂
It is great you were able to bring your kids~
That was the whole reason for going. I thought they would enjoy the experience not to mention a long weekend at the beach…
What beautiful creatures, despite the fact, that they are lying there like a pyle of corpses. They only seem to be clumsy on the land, but if you could only see them in the water you would never think that way.
Wonderful, amazing, adjectives (words!) don’t/can’t do this series justice 🙂 🙂
Warm wishes,
Takami
Oh big Yay because I want to do one more post on ellie pups and I was concerned people might not like the ellies as much as I do! Great to know you do too….
Poor Jim…., a petunia among all these roses !!!!! Hahaha ! 🙂
laughing…….. 😉 😉
Superb :))))))
Awwww, thank you~
Clever commentary to go along with your gorgeous photos, Cindy. I’ve seen those beauties up close before. Nothing like it. Thanks for the smiles.
So happy you enjoyed!
Thank you. It’s a real thrill to see these creatures. I used to see them regularly at Ano Nuevo in Northern California but then they introduced the mandatory guided tour 🙁
Yes, I know the tour is for a good reason, but it does reduce the enjoyment of just viewing colonies on your own with no other people around. The seals are much more interactive with you when you are the only people there. So happy you enjoyed~
Great shots, Cindy. I feel so sorry for these pregnant seals. They look so ungainly and almost unable to move anywhere. No wonder they’re irritable. 🙂
Yes, remembering the last few uncomfortable weeks!
Nice photos, it’s nice to see these future moms and their little baby seals! Thanks for sharing with us, Cindy 🙂
Thank you more for appreciating them!
These are great images, so much character… Thanks!
They did have tons of personality which is why I found them so amazing!
These are fearful, but pretty.
You can take a picture close up.
I got a surprise.
I hope not a fright, they were just bluster, telling me “don’t come too close!”
I see! I see!
🙂
I was there earlier this year – but only the guys were around.
Yes, the ladies arrive in early December and start giving birth in mid December, then four weeks lating the mating debacle begins. It’s like Antarctica on our doorstep!
It’s a female thing.:)
It is isn’t it!!! 😉
🙂
I’d be cranky, too. Poor Ellie. But the pictures you’ve shared of her are gorgeous, Cindy!
Just truly fascinating and wonderful creatures! So happy you enjoyed them and cheers to you my friend~ <3 <3
I liked the way you were so playful in your comments and appreciated the fun shown in the photos, too. The yelling at the kids and testy with friends, all within my own memories of being pregnant, once right through the hottest part of summer (baby son born in September!)
I had August and October babies so I am right there with you!! 😉 😉
Well it is a very difficult and trying time!! lol 😉 Not that I’ve had the experience personally but I did have a pregnant cat to take care of lol and that was definitely an irritable time for her, and as to giving birth!! Clearly didn’t sit well with her as she yowled and howled at the top of her voice and firmly grabbed my hand in clawed paws when I tried to retreat from the situation, sinking her teeth into my hand at the birthing moment in no uncertain terms!!
Wow that sounds completely traumatic……..for YOU!!! 😉
For humans they have something very magic called an epidural!!!! Laughing……..
Hi Cindy, wow you have a great blog…love it.. wishing you a wonderful Christmas..
Sherri 🙂
Reblogged this on Sherri's Sharing and commented:
how cute love them..love the mom that is expecting…how sweet it is
have a great evening.
Sherri
re-blog…on http://sherrissharing.wordpress.com
And you too, stay cool in Palm Springs!
Happy Holidays and I am entranced by you blog! Cheers to to you~
I like her. And its a beautiful site!
She is assertive! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Sheri! <3
Merry christmas Cindy! 🎄
Hugs to you my beautiful Sheri & only the best for 2015~
I love this photo