Wednesday, August 29, 2012

It keeps the days from being so, so long.

What we called, in my ECE days, 'sensory play,' but what is referred to in less pretentious circles as 'messing about with things you found in the house':

Kidney beans

Whipping cream


You have to use one hand to help if you want to really get the other hand in there.


Monday, August 27, 2012

She has to get the hang of this EVENTUALLY. Right?

Eleanor has finally gotten the hang of daytime sleeps and her nighttime sleeps have been aces since we moved to Calgary and she got her own room (I MEAN, I ASSUME. Own room, after all) but her traveling sleeps continue to be So Terrible.

So we drove an hour to go camping because Banff and Kananaskis and etc is all right there and we found a little campsite and set up our tent and drove 10 minutes to Canmore and hiked the Grassi Lakes Trail to find THIS LAKE

and also THIS ONE


and through it all, Eleanor was like, Yes I will nap here while you climb dangerous steps


yes I will eat this rock


yes I will play in the stream


yes I will lick daddy's ear


and then I fed her and put her in her playpen in the tent and she went to sleep almost IMMEDIATELY and I was Very Relieved but also expected her to wake up in a few hours when we went to bed but HA HA SHE WOKE UP HALF AN HOUR LATER.

And cried and cried and cried, and I can let her cry at home but I felt weird doing it at a campsite, you know? So we let her go for a bit and then brought her out and she was in A State.


So she hung out with us by our fire until WE were ready for bed, and I put her back in her playpen and she cried and cried so I took her into my sleeping bag and fed her for an hour and it was, like, 10 pm by this point and she'd been up for AGES but every time I looked down to see if she was nodding off, there she was, giving me these eyes:


You remember those eyes. Those are not sleepy eyes. And I was like UGH and Joel's like, Are you going to be ok? And I am like, SO ANGRY WITH THIS BABY and he was like, We can always pack up and go home. And I wanted to stick it out but in my head I could picture her NOT SLEEPING AT ALL THE WHOLE NIGHT and me also not sleeping and she just sucks at travel-sleeping SO MUCH. So we packed up and came home and it was probably the right decision because we had a great Sunday instead of a shitty, unslept one.

And then today we schmeared ourselves with whipped cream because LOL.


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Eleanor rocks. She also, if you give her a nudge, rolls.

We went camping yesterday, which I will blog about maybe tomorrow because OMG CHILD, I AM GOING TO MAYBE SELL YOU ON EBAY A LITTLE BIT.

But. Tonight I wish to discuss the first-worldiest of problems: WHICH PHOTO OF ELEANOR GNAWING A ROCK DO I POST ON MY INTERNETBLOGTHING.

Pensive Eleanor With Rock?


Hey Guys, Come Check Out This Rock?


Eleanor Chewing A Rock, Also Those Arm-Rolls?


Seriously, How Is Your Aim That Bad, It Is A Rock?


Smug Eleanor With Rock?


Gollumeanor With (Precious) Rock?


Ahhhh, perhaps I will keep her.

Friday, August 24, 2012

You never can tell.

Sometimes she wakes up all wrong from a nap and I am like, Play with me? And she is like *grouch* and I am like, Play by yourself? And she is like *weeps* and I'm like, Well I don't know.

And today, because she was already mad and wasn't going to get any madder, I was like SOCKS ON YOUR HANDS. What do you think of THAT.

*thinks on it*

*...likes it?*

Let there ALWAYS be socks on the hands!


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

She can stop whenever she wants.

When she thinks no one is watching...


Let's go in for a closer look.


I think we've been spotted.


'Oh, ha ha. How long have you been there?'


(several minutes later)



Friday, August 17, 2012

I am good at cooking and also at eating.

Potato patties.

Onions, peppers, and garlic.


Bacon.


Cheese. Something not right about that cheese.


Ah. There.


Eggs.



Malibu Sunrise.

Eleanor got broccoli and chicken. She didn't seem to notice she was being ripped off.


It's like, every month, whole new baby.

She has these little habits that come and go, like when she was always making this face



and now she doesn't anymore. I can't remember if I blogged about how she would always gently place her hand on things, like she was blessing them. Mum said it was like having our own tiny Pope. I bless this ear of corn, I bless this pillow, I bless your face.

bless you, baby chicken

Now she's discovered her pincer grasp, and MAN IS SHE GOOD AT PINCHING. Whenever I am feeding her or holding her and walking around, she's always working my skins between her finger and thumb, as though she was checking my thread count.


Thursday, August 16, 2012

The park (redux)

Remember that time Eleanor went to the park and was like, Ugh?


Many (many) practice-swings later, and she is finally getting the hang of enjoying it.


Going down the slide she could take or leave (I'm not sure she notices what's going on. I think that for her, the whole WORLD is a slide still), but then yesterday we set her down in a hill of rocks.


ROCKS!


Guys, I cannot talk to you right now, I have to organize these rocks.


In a very un-Eleanor-like fashion, she didn't even really try to eat the rocks (although she DID slip a bunch down the back of her shirt, possibly for secret eating).

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A play in three parts.

Oh look, a basket of toys.


I wonder if...


You've seen enough Eleanor to know where this is going.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Enemies on all sides.

Eleanor went swimming today and she was SO GOOD AT IT. Such splashing. Such cheerful noise-making! Such being held by a lifeguard!

But because I was in the pool with her, there are no photos. Alas. So you will have to content yourselves with this photo of her plotty feet.


And this photo of her trying to lick the camera.


And this photo of her playing her spoon-flute.


So sometimes when I'm feeding her, while I'm switching sides her thumb will make it's sneaky way into her mouth, and she'll suck on it for a second accidentally and then pull it out and look at it like, You traitor.

And then today, in her bath, she had just swirled her washcloth through the water and then brought it to her mouth and then took an enormous breath in through her nose and got water ERRRRWHERE up in her sinuses and was SO MAD, and so I gave her her washcloth (wrung out) to hold while I lotioned her up and she gave it the sternest talking-to.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Passing the time.

Joel is at work all day today and well into the evening, so Eleanor and I have been blowing raspberries at each other since dinner.



Pffffffbbbbbbbtttt.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

It all evens out anyway.

So we went for a 'hike,' which, I mean, it's Calgary. It's basically a prairie. So we went for a woodsy wander, and imagine our surprise when we came upon a View!


How does that happen. And then we came upon Mosquito Country.


There was nothing we could do except run like loons.

And then on the way home I am like, We are such healthy people, going for hikes. We are totally eating SALADS for dinner. But the radio, that trickster, is like, CHINESE FESTIVAL GOING ON IN CHINATOWN and we are like, Chinatown = foods.

also Hello Kitties in what I can only assume is life-size

But the foods on offer at the festival itself were surprisingly sparse, so we had ourselves a good old-fashioned sit-down. Eleanor was golden, unlike that baby over there.


I won't bore you with the details of what we ate.