Time to start watching what we say.

She really thinks she's talking now. Her gibberish has variety and inflection and sounds more like Bulgarian than just yammering. And she repeats what you say really intelligibly sometimes so it's hard to say whether she knows that's a bus or just heard you say 'bus.'

Even when it's nonsense, though, she's convinced she's doing just like you do. She'll point at the plant and be like, Beedle durrr? And I'm like, Plant. And she's like, Poot. And I'm like, Plant. And she's like, Beet. And each time she's looking at me like, What? I'm saying exactly what you're saying.

And then, ok, sometimes she tries to make things happen, like, I've started doing this thing where I'm microwaving her food and she's like *more, more, more* and I'm like, Waiiiiiiit, waiiiiiiiit, and then when there's like five seconds left on the microwave I point to my ear and I'm like, Lissssten, because I'm trying to teach her that when the thing beeps, then food is done.

But a couple of times I've tossed some food in there and right away, she points to her ear and is like, Werrrrrrn, because she thinks that is what makes the microwave beep, which in turn makes food be done.

Evenings are wacky times.

So it's evening and Joel's on his way home and I need to get dinner started and I'm like, Look, Eleanor, I made you a tent! Why don't you mess about in here for a bit, read your books by flashlight or something.

And she's like, That's neat and good job on that one but also, your recycling bin is full.

Oh hey, fancy crackers, these look good.

And then I put her mittens on her (AT HER REQUEST) and she spent the next ten minutes trying to pick puzzle pieces up with her mouth.

She is exceedingly good at it.

Snack time is, like, three hours long now.

I've been teaching Eleanor to take bites of things and then chew them, and it turns out that this is a skill you can demonstrate and they can learn and they improve at it and become less, like, *stuffs whole banana in mouth*

I take a zillion pictures of her eating like this, because she's so weird about it. She takes super exaggerated bites

and is always talking around her mouthfuls of food

and thinks it's the funniest joke to eat like this, where you hold the food and then pinch it with your mouth-fingers

and every time I offer her a new slice of something, she's like, OoooOOOOoooo

and seriously, it's the funniest joke.

The funniest.

But soft! What light through yonder meatball breaks?

She is, on the whole, less jovial about red pepper than about pear.

If we had a puppy, she'd smother it WITH LOVE.

Eleanor is a human love machine. She loves to burrow her face into your neck while she sucks her thumb, and her other arm either snakes around your neck to hug you tightly (which is adorable), or slips under your arm to scrabble around in your armpit (which is not).

We've been trying to teach her to give kisses, but she always comes at you with an open mouth.

It is both charming and disgusting, and DAMP on account of she drools like a St Bernard. 

I have lots of friends whose babies won't snuggle, and they should just come hang out here for a bit. Eleanor needs to touch everyone in the room every ten minutes. If you lay down on the carpet, she WILL flop down and try to logroll you.

And if you're going to feed her you'd best be prepared to have feet on your knees at all times.

I look at her sometimes and I'm like, You are going to hate me when you are 15, and I will tell you how I used to RUB MY FACE AGAINST YOUR FACE and you LOVED it.

She may not look like me, but she books like me.

Remember when books were confusing and hard?

Now they are a DELIGHT.

Organizing her bookshelf is her important baby work, and also her good time of choice.

Why you mess with me like this, weather?

So on Friday Eleanor and I went to the store, and it was a balmy four degrees and I am like, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WEAR A SNOWSUIT and so she did not, for the first time since October.

And here I am all like, We are so springily dressed! And by the time we got off the bus, we were even MORE indecent.

I was wearing a short-sleeved dress! Eleanor had no coat! Or shoes! Those were optimistic times.

The very next day (the next!) we bought a baby-pack and took it for a spin around the zoo and, seduced by the previous day's weather, I was woefully underdressed. It was, like, minus five, and I had on a light jacket and flimsy mittens. Ankle boots. We spent a lot of time in the Africa exhibit.

But also, ALPACA.

(Also, Eleanor loves her new ride. She can see things, and can pat the back of my head. Everybody wins.)

I have been feeding her, or something.

Remember that time I had a baby shower and I laughed at a particular pair of pajamas because ho ho, children do not grow to such a size?

I stand very much corrected.

Is this for a doll?

Or like maybe you put it on your head? For warms?

She is both in and of the elements.

We've had snow on the ground since October, and after a week of warmish weather it was maybe half gone, but then last night (and this morning, and all this afternoon) it snowed another two feet and, well, here we are.

It's a snow!

I eat it?

It is cold.

I eat it with hands?

It tastes like mitten.

I try it again with face?

It is still cold.

Let us cuddle, snow. I am good at cuddles.

(No but she is, really. She has learned how to hug and she does it forcefully.)

So insubordinate.

She knows how to say 'hi' (obviously) and she gets 'bye-bye' down pretty well sometimes (WITH LITTLE HAND-SCRINCHY WAVE) and now she's picked up all these animal sounds, but you can't get her to do them unless she's doing something else and not really paying attention to you.

Like, the other night we're all hanging out and she's casually leafing through some books and I'm like, Hey Eleanor, what does a bee say? And we ran through all her animals: cow, sheep, dragon, snake, and she didn't even hesitate and she never looked up from her book.

But you try to catch that shit on camera, all you get is INSOLENCE.


Little scamp. I'll catch her unawares yet.

Her newest trick.

Where's Eleanor?

Wherrrrre's Eleanor?

For real, Eleanor, where are you.

I HAVE BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME.