I don't think I have to worry about her picking up the habit again.

Eleanor stopped taking a soother when she was about 9 months old, and I wasn't ready for it because she wasn't the adorable thumb-sucker she is now, and I kept trying to stick her soother in her mouth all, YOU LIKE THIS, IT IS SOOTHING TO YOU but she was like, Nyyyyyyyyygh, those are for babies.

They're still around, and she found one the other day and was like, I remember these, these are fun.

So she's sucking on it but we're chatting and she realizes that she can SHOW me where her hair is, but she can't TELL me.

And if there's one thing Eleanor hates, it's not being able to TELL you something.

Like where her ears are.

Or where her NOSE is.

Doggone it, my nose is HERE.

Lousy mouth-plug.

Six and going

Six years ago today, Joel and I, looking impossibly young, ate an astronomical amount of pie.

Like, really a lot.

This time last year, we were living with my parents and trying to figure out what you do with a baby.

(You do a lot of this.)

(But also a lot of this.)

Joel graduated and became a Real Doctor

and we acquired ourselves our first human-niece (our other nieces are puppies, as are all our nephews).

We left Tiny Baby Eleanor with my folks for two days and went to a wedding on a beach like fancy grown-ups

but we brought her with us when we went camping, and it was sunny for the half-hour depicted here.

We went to Seattle and Portland and saw the sights

Gotcher nose, Troll Under the Bridge.

and visited the zoos

and ate at the food trucks.

And then we moved to Calgary and went to the Stampede

It was 1000 degrees in the shade that day

and did rather a lot of hiking

Come on, sign.

and went to every food festival we could find.

There were many.

And then it became winter and we were like, I don't understand this mess.

So we went to Mexico, for warms.

And BC visited us and we visited BC and one time we even DROVE

but we try not to pine for it. We've found lots of indoorsy things to do in this City of Actual Winter, and we spend a lot of time in the Africa exhibit at the zoo.

We've done a round of the holidays with a baby now, and it's been every bit as good as I imagined. Joel's pegging away at residency and I'm hanging out with Eleanor and working on the internet, writing about my twin loves of books and food. Birds keep getting in our house and there's still snow on the ground in APRIL, but today we taught Eleanor what indoor picnics are

and what ice cream is.

So many more things to learn.

Fun times in Quiltlandia

Eleanor has this quilt from her Gigi that she loves, and every time I spread it out for her she spins in puppy circles to find all her friends.

And here is the meow and here is the girl

And here is a peep peep, and HERE is a peep peep, and HERE ARE MORE PEEP PEEPS

And then the other day she discovered the border squares, which are covered in little kids playing and kitties and MOST IMPORTANTLY tiny puppies. Now she does laps around the edge going Pup? Pup? Owwowwowwww. Pup?

The other day, I spread out a few books for her on the quilt.

She was like, I will read these two?

I will read all of them?

I need more hands.

She does not, in fact, kiss her mother with that mouth.

I've been teaching Eleanor to give kisses, because it's about time she learned to do something useful. She is equally profligate and stingy with them.

Susan gets kisses.

Mirror baby gets kisses.

The tiny baby Shrek doll at the optometrist gets kisses.

This piece of toast gets kisses.

The dinosaur and the sheep kiss each other.

But if either Joel or I wants a kiss, we have to go through a whole complicated rigamarole of kissing whatever she's holding, and then maybe she'll kiss it, and then maybe we kiss it again, and then MAYBE we get a kiss from the baby.

Worth it, though. BABY KISSIES!

T-Rex trying to put on sunglasses

Don't be daft, mum, they go...

you put them...

they don't...

dang arms...

there.

Now somebody fetch me some M&Ms and a spoon.

She's the rowdiest sick baby.

Eleanor has the croup, and for about 10% of every day she is an extremely sad sack. When she's not sick, she only ever cries when she's MAD about something, so it is a MAD CRY and kind of hard to take seriously. But right now she cries like Mahhhhhhhhhhhhmamamamamama and I swear, I will cuddle her all day if I have to.

But the other 90% of the day she is either sleeping, or she is like, I WILL SCALE THIS LEATHER MOUNTAIN TO ACQUIRE THE FORBIDDEN JEWELS.

Or she is like:

She doesn't have a drinking problem; she's very good at it.

When she has drunk nearly all her milk, I unscrew the sippy top and give her just the cup part to drink like a grown-up people, and sometimes she just throws it down immediately, and sometimes she gazes reverently upon it

and then peers down into it

and then picks it up with caution and smirking

and then throws it down.