Up, up, up!

It's amazing the things that pass for toys considering what we spend our money on. $50 for a new tent/tunnel structure? No problem and she does like it. She has spent just as much time, however, on my shoeboxes that came with 2 new pairs of shoes. Her latest and greatest big fun time is spent with...wait for it...a fork. 'Tab, tab' is what we hear all day long and it's not her asking for that retro cola drink (do they still make it?), it's Elianna saying 'stab'. She will eat anything as long as she can stab it with a fork. She even tries to eat things I'd normally say called for a spoon but she makes it work.

Her latest thing is 'okay'. Not, yes but, okay. Elianna, do you want to go outside? Okay. Do you want to eat? Okay. Sigh, so much for not teaching her slang. But I guess I know what we say a lot. Only ourselves to blame...

She's starting to make sentences. Short ones and Mike, the stickler, would call them two word utterances but there're there. Mama up. Eat hungry. Dada work. Dada car work. It's so cool to watch her put thing together. She even knows words we haven't taught her: away, office, truck...she just picks them up.

So after being Elianna's mom for 18 months, here are some observations. I wonder if they'll hold true as she grows up.

She's an independent little soul. If she gets hurt, her first reaction is to go off, by herself and lick her wounds. She's not the type who wants to be comforted, to have mommy make it all better. She seems almost angry that she's been hurt.

That being said, she does seem to know who her people are. In the most recent plane trip in the midst of flirting with fellow passengers she was always quick to let them know who Momma and Dada were. She also loves being carried although I'm not sure if it's because she's interested in being with Mom and Dad or she likes the view. Either way she comes over and demands, "up up up!" and unless we're cooking or doing something else she usually gets her way.

She wants things to be easy. She'll try something once and ask for help instead of trying to figure it out herself. But, if we guide her to figuring it out she gets this big smile on her face like she's so proud. I have to remember this when she's asking for help with her multiplication tables.

She has no fear. She'll stand on her little rocking chair, stand up, start rocking, all the while admonishing us, 'Careful!' Upside down baby is a favorite game and she's still a climber.