Before I realized "strawberry" apple sauce meant Red 40.

On being Eleanor.

Poor old girl is so very accident prone. Of course, there are other children like this - ahem...Jonas. Not clumsy, per se. But fearless, spunky, and energetic. And, just plain old dangerous.

Adding to the laundry list of Eleanor's injuries was a serious tangle today with the slide in the tot lot behind my house. Because we just inadvertently wandered up there, I didn't have my camera, not that I could have caught this moment. So enjoy these drawings I decided to do with "Paint."

Update: Now that I've spent an hour doing this with paint, I feel like a total fool. What on Earth have I become?

Everyday...

...Eleanor says new words. Really, at least a few.

You might have seen this on Facebook...

...but here is the full length version.

Eleanor and I baked molasses cookies today. I know, you are shocked - me? Bake cookies? For the fourth day out of the last seven. Haha.

Anyway, the minute I say, "Eleanor, would you like to ba - " she is already dragging a chair from the kitchen table to the counter. It's adorable and a lot of fun. We have a whole routine. I use the margarine. She eats it straight. I add the sugar. She eats that, too. She pours in the egg replacer. When we turn on the mixer, she is required to put both hands up in the air, like a caught bandit. That means I know she won't sneak a greedy paw into the mixer and, say, lose a finger. And you know she would. Anyway, so we are pretty safe, with the exception of one fall from the chair with minimal damage done.

But, when the cookies are on the tray in the oven, the moment has come to end Eleanor's special time on the chair. And that is always a trial. I ask her to get down. She says "No." I tell her I will be getting her down. She says "No." I take her down and she kicks her kamikaze legs and throws herself around limbs akimbo like the floor is covered with snakes and razors.

So this time I decided to avoid the whole scene and gave her her favorite blue scraper with molasses cookie dough on it, told her it was time to get down and plucked her off the chair. Needless to say, she did not notice I had set her on the floor because she was so enchanted by her 12th helping of batter.

While she was so engaged, I thought I'd put the finishing touches on the cookies (aka, try to smooth the tiny finger prints off of them), and straighten up the counter. All the while, Josephine was "maxing and relaxing" in her baby seat and Eleanor was eating dough (or so I thought). After a few moments, I turned around and saw what was at first a horrifying sight...my newborn baby eating cookie dough. And it was no hallucination, Eleanor fed Josephine her first taste of solid food and it was molasses cookie dough. And not a shabby portion I might add. Josephine took to cookie dough like any intelligent person - with fervor. She was licking and biting the scraper like she'd been waiting for this moment since birth. Eleanor was thrilled with herself, needless to say.

I did swoop in and snatch the scraper no longer so full of dough. And of course this is not how I imagined Josephine's first taste of solids. But here are some mitigating factors:

Molasses cookie dough is very smooth. There was no need to finger sweep or take any action at all.

Eleanor was quite nice to share.

Josephine was delighted.

This is a great story to tell the girls as they grow up.

PS. My "diet" (as in eating like a normal person starts right now). I need to get myself under control. I do not need 9 cookies. Not joking.

Josephine.

Josephine is stretched out on my lap. She really is getting to be quite a sprawling little baby. I would guess she's close to 15 lbs now. She has some prime real estate on her second chin. She is just delightfully chubby and is a total momma's girl. Sometimes, I am snuggling her and I just can't believe that she is that baby I carried for the better part of 2008. She is just more beautiful and amazing than I ever could have imagined.

Here are some things about Josephine so far:

She has brown hair that looks red in just the right light.
She loves to coo and gurgle - really fantastic noises.
She is beginning to laugh.
She already does a great "silent" laugh complete with the double fist pump.
She is pooping (in her diaper) in my lap right now - gross.
She poops like a mad woman, speaking of poop.
She loves to smile - and that smile is infectious.
She craves routine.
She loves the bath.
She does not like sudden loud noises at all.
She has an ear tag.
She needs snuggle time often.
She likes eye contact - it can soothe almost any woe.
She has a really great fan in Eleanor.
She loves to sit up like a big girl, especially on Daddy's lap.
She really likes mommy.

PS - Click her picture on my sidebar to hear "Josephine," if you're so inclined.