20 months

I feel like Eleanor is an adult now. Ok, not really, but maybe a mini adult. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what she wants to be. Just like us.

Our mornings start out around 7:00am with a big hug(Spencer always jumps out of bed when she wakes up, then brings her to me in bed). We'll usually lay on my bed and watch videos of herself on my phone for a good 15 minutes while I try to wake up. Then she walks(while dragging her blanket, and maybe holding her bear) straight to the living room to watch some cartoons. Her favorites are Mickey Mouse, Backyardigans, and movies are Finding Nemo, Cinderella, and Toy Story.

She'll then go to the fridge and try her very hardest to open it. Once she gives up, she starts whining(more like a mild scream) for me to come open it for her. She'll open up the fruit drawer and pull out whatever looks good to her that day. She loves just standing there, picking individual grapes or blueberries out one at at time. Other times she'll pull out an apple and carry on her way.

She usually tries to get me out for a walk, but most of the time I'm too tired or not quite 'appropriate' to be outside.

At some point I take her to the bathroom, because apparently we are potty training already. I don't know how it happened, really. I put her on the toilet a few times, and she peed. And then she was doing it every single time I put her on(about 3-4x a day). She knows exactly what to do, now the trick is getting her to tell me when she needs to go. I wasn't planning on training her this early on, but I guess if she's interested, I might as well go for it.

Her best friends are her little animal toys. Her absolute favorite of all favorites is her dog that has a string attached, and walks when you pull him. He eats with her, takes baths with her, and can entertain her for hours. She also loves her teddy bear. I love the way she holds him under her arm. In the above pictures, I had put Eleanor's shoes on the teddy bear, and she thought it was the funniest thing ever. So I pull out my camera to take pictures of her, but to her, the camera means she gets to look at the LCD display of the other pictures. When she found out she couldn't, well, you can see how she reacted. Not too happy. I blame it on the terrible twos.

At some point we'll get ready and leave the house. Every time we walk outside, I have to tell her over and over "we're getting in the car. we're getting in the car", but every time, without fail, the second I turn my back, she is taking off to the sidewalk. This girl cannot be tamed. She just wants to run away. We've already gotten in trouble from one of our neighbors for trespassing(Eleanor liked to walk up their tiny hill, then carefully walk down by herself. It was a fun challenge for her). I have to chase after her and buckle her in. The only thing that keeps her happy in the car is hearing her music. I tried to avoid doing the kids music in the car, but I have to say, I am immune to it now. Sometimes when I'm driving by myself, I won't realize 'til 10 minutes in that I am listening to her music. Her favorites are Old MacDonald's Farm, Apples and Bananas, and I've Been Workin' on the Railroad(she sings the OOOOO in Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-OOOOO right on cue. It is literally the cutest thing my ears have ever heard).

She is talking more and more, but most of it is still not easy to understand. She says 'boooo' for 'moooo', 'soosh' for shoes, 'eeee' for pig, just for examples.

She knows the entire alphabet and numbers 1-9. She can only clearly pronounce about 1/4-1/2 of them, but she'll point them out or sign a lot of them. Her favorite number is 2, and her favorite letter is R. One time, when she was able to sign R by herself, she got so excited and left her fingers crossed like that for about 20 minutes. Every time she looked down to see it, she'd giggle in excitement.

Most of our time at home consists of coloring, legos, puzzles, and books. She loves her block puzzles, and one of her favorite books right now is an I Spy book. I love seeing her concentrate and almost always successfully finding the items.

About a week ago, we were at a friends condo watching a bball game. We rented out the movie room, so we had our own leather seats while watching the projection screen. Eleanor was quite content climbing up and down the stairs. Happy as could be. Then she fell down one small step. She cried a bit louder than she usually does, but I thought maybe it's because she got scared. Every time she falls(even on her bum), she'll immediately get up and check her knees to see if they are bleeding/hurt. It's cute and sad all at the same time. Anyways, this particular fall didn't seem like a big deal. The floor was soft, and it really was just a stumble. I got her calm, then we went on with the night. As we were walking back to the car, I noticed that she was walking funny. I thought maybe her shoe wasn't on quite right. Then the next day I noticed her limping when she wasn't wearing shoes. And the next. We didn't see any swelling(at first), and she didn't seem too bothered by us touching her foot, so we couldn't figure out what was wrong. I finally decided to take her to the doctor, and of course, right before I leave the house, I look harder, and yes, her foot is very swollen(esp compared to the other foot). The doctor thought she might have fractured her 5th metatarsal, and she said that's usually really painful, even if just a hairline fracture. So here I am feeling guilty that I waited this long to take her in, and she's been hobbling around like a little gimp this whole time. To get to the end of this story, we went in for an xray, results came back that it was not fractured, and that maybe just bruised badly. However, they did tell us to buddy tape her 4th and 5th toes together. Something about something being rotated or something. Obviously, I have no idea why, or I wouldn't have written so many 'somethings'. We have to go back for a follow up xray in a couple weeks.

She is a perfectionist and very strong willed. Anytime Spencer or I play piano, she always hops on our laps and tries to play. I think she gets frustrated that she doesn't sound like we do when she plays, because after she plays some notes, she starts getting really mad. I'll help her play a song, but she doesn't like it when I help her, and just wants to do it herself. It's a lose-lose for me. I can't help her, and I can't not help her.

She hates for her hair to be done, so that's why it's a mess most of the time. I can put it up if I can get her still for a minute, but most of the time she tugs it out in a matter of minutes. Spencer likes it when her hair is down and in her face, and she does this backhanded swipe to clear it out of her eyes.

She is very opinionated about everything. At times it can be very frustrating, but at least she knows what she wants.

The above picture of her eating with her horse on her tray is her trying to sign 'I love you'.

She loves prayer time. For meals, she'll usually fold her arms and close her eyes, and then once someone starts praying, she'll sneak a bite of food or a quick drink with her eyes still closed. Before bedtime, when she gets on her knees and folds her arms and closes her eyes, she'll start laughing. I realize she doesn't really get what's going on, but it makes my heart so happy to see her love prayer time so much.

Any time she gives a hug, she always accompanies it with an "ahhhhh", and if you ask for a big kiss, she'll smoosh her face up to yours really hard for a good 3 seconds.

Spencer has been putting her to bed every night for the last 3+ weeks. If I tried to do it, she would cry the second I put her down. No crying when Spencer does it. Not ever. So, not only does he put her to bed every night, but he's also the one who goes in if she ever wakes up in the middle of the night. One night, I heard her get up, so I went in there. I was with her for at least 30 minutes, maybe even an hour, trying to get her to go back in her crib calmly, and without crying. It didn't work. I was frustrated and tired. So I let her cry for a little bit, then Spencer goes to her room, opens the door, and says "Eleanor, go to sleep. Lay down and go to sleep", and guess what happened? She did just that. Without making a peep. Not sure what magic spell he cast on her, but it's working!