She's like a tiny Ancient Mariner.

She does this thing now where you give her a spoon and she turns into Old Man Withers.

Spoon-pipe!

And it wasn't just that one time, either.

Now you kids see here.

Four things! Four!

1. One of things I wanted mum and boo's help with was decorating Eleanor's room. I'd made an alphabet for her, but all that modge-podging done wore me out and I had nothing left for the hanging thereof.

Eleanor supervised us from her chair like a tiny overlord.

Nine of the letters have since fallen down, but that's less than half so I'm counting it a win.

2. We went on our third quest last weekend to find Jelly Modern Donuts (the previous two quests ended in food trucks and festivals).

The peach crisp and maple bacon were edible but not transcendent.

On the other hand, behold: the tiniest cowpoke.

3. Standing, right? It's just a thing she does now. She's pretty smug about it.

4. We're still pretty keen on broccoli.

Best not to turn your back on this one.

What, this thigh? I was just looking at it, I wasn't going to *SHHHHOMP*

Costco will make suckers of us all.

They are gone. I am sad. Eleanor looks around for them when she comes up from her nap, and I cry a little bit. Let us remember happier times, yes?

Ok so remember how Eleanor is a dragon? A refresher:



So we're at Costco, buying me a Dyson (sidebar: *purrrrrrrr*) and we see a rack of Halloween costumes and we are all scornful like, HALLOWEEN COSTUMES? Pffffft. It is August.

But then my sister is like, But how cute is this little ladybug? And then we start combing through the racks and we're like, Look at this little tiger? And a lion, rawwwwr. And then my mum gets to the end of the rack and lo.

She is a dragon indeed.

Still visiting!

Still having a whale of a time, thanks.

Boo and I are working on our belly donuts, Eleanor is working on her poise.

The only thing missing is Pop-Pop-in-real-life.

Pop-Pop-in-a-box, though, so funny, you guys.

A most delighted Eleanor, she is.

Gigi and Aunty Boo are here. Eleanor is so pleased. They have been feeding her

and snorgling her

and dressing her in finery.

She is getting ALL the love.

Many things, because I will probably forget to blog now for a week.

If you take a baby to a football game, that baby will chirrup through the first quarter

and then sleep through the second

and then be GOOD TO GO FOR A FEW HOURS.

What.

I think we broke her.



In other news, I ran 20 K today. In a tank dress and flip flops.

HAHAHA no I did not. We were looking for a food truck and accidentally found ourselves watching the end of an Ironman ('looking for a food truck' is also how we found ourselves at last week's salsa competition). So while dozens of people staggered sweatily by, we sat sweatily in the shade and ate reubens.

Yarrrm.

In other, other news, my mom and sister are coming tomorrow! In honor of their impending visit, I removed all most of the rust from the bathroom! See? Ick.

Hey!

Ew.

Ping!

And so on. And then this afternoon, because it was so, so hot, we sat in the sink and smoked our spoon-pipes.

You only wish.

Photo dump.

Did I ever tell you about the video monitor my dad got us? You can check it from your phone. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE. Aside from letting me know whether she is screeching because she is an angry beast who has been put unwillingly to bed, or because she has GOTTEN HER LEG CAUGHT BETWEEN HER CRIB BARS (egads), the video monitor informs me that she sleeps directly on her face.

Just like her dad.

I got her a sippy cup so she can start drinking water like a person, and it was hilariously disastrous.

She is like, *bite bite bite* and I am like, SIPPY CUPS ARE FOR SIPPING and she is like, *dumps* but eventually she is like *sips.*

This is my favorite thing she does, where she gets so excited she can hardly stand it and she makes tiny fists and straightens her legs hard and SHRIEKS.

You can get her worked up like this by standing over her and talking to her. She is excitable.

For anyone who is wondering, her forehead is still very, very dented. See?

Also, carrot-beard.

So I had lunch twice.

We went looking for Fries and Dolls because poutine, and accidentally ended up at a salsa competition (the chopped up bits of tomato, not the sexy dance) because that's where Fries and Dolls' twitter feed said they were, but then we couldn't FIND THEM and were finally like, Whatever, fine, I will eat this butter chicken pizza and drink this limeade.

So we did and then found Fries and Dolls almost immediately.

Of course. And so to scratch that itch where you set out to do a something, we had a zesty poutine with chipotle and other shit.

And if Eleanor did not have any, it was not for want of trying.

Just wait til you are a TEENAGER. Your annoyance will know no bounds.

Sometimes we are, say, feeding her strawberries, and the strawberry carnage makes her look like a tiny vampire, and I whip out the camera and Joel gets behind me and makes silly faces so that the tiny vampire will SMILE for the camera, and she is like, Come on, guys.

Can we not do this right now?

Can I just have some more berries?

You guys are the worst.

This is what comes of jogging.

DID I MENTION THAT I CRASHED MY STROLLER? I crashed it. Ass over tea kettle (over stroller handle over baby).

She has a dent in her forehead now, which I have given her, and because she has cowlicks where her bangs will be which I also have given her (VIA GENETICS, NOT VIA LICKING), she will never be able to wear bangs to cover the dent.

Cooperative EVENTUALLY.

So I have this dress that was Eleanor's Tante Tina's, and I wanted to do a little photo shoot of E in the dress before I sent it back so that her cousin Hazel (who will be big enough for it in about three days) can wear it, so I get her out on a blanket on the grass and she's all like, Urk?

and I'm like, Of course. You are facing the sun. Let me turn you around. But then she is like, H'naaaang

and I am like, Get your thumb out of your mouth, and then she is like, Bfffffbpt

and I am like, Fingers too, and then she is like, Ffffffpt!

and I am like, COME ON. And then she is like, *harp sounds*

so.

Whatever I am re-posting this here.

I posted this to the wrong blog at first but I AM GOING TO REPOST IT OVER HERE because I like things to all be in one place.

 Eleanor turned six months old while I was internetless. I only mention it because I feel that her thighs have really come into their own in the past month.

pixi stix

FEEL THE THUNDER

And remember the other day when I was like, HA HA, if this is feeding her strawberries then FEEDING HER LEMONS IS GOING TO BE GREAT? Ok well it was hilarious in that she went to town on half a lemon, but wasn't hilarious in the way that feeding a baby a lemon is SUPPOSED to be hilarious.


Way to keep us all on our toes, E.