Little EC likes a song—this one—that goes through the somewhat interminable process of reciting each letter, a word that begins with that letter, and the sound the letter makes. I’ve played it for her during the last year or two, just to see if she picked up on anything in it or any of the other “educational” songs on the album. This particular one strikes her fancy.

The other day, she left the kitchen while it was playing, went to her play area, and came back with a book that I had found in someone’s trash—a handwriting practice book for first graders. In the front of the book is a chart with all of the letters and pictures of objects that start with those letters. She wanted to follow along. So we sat for awhile while I pointed to each letter as the song said it. But she was hugely frustrated that the pictures in this chart were not the same as the words being used in the song…and no amount of explaining that many words start with each letter could make her feel better. I promised I’d make her a chart with pictures that correspond to the song.

Three times this happened. Finally, I got around to making a chart—this one—and I printed it out for her. Today at lunch we sat with it and listened to the song, pointing to all the right pictures and letters. At dinner, she sat by herself and did all the pointing on her own…and would even reference the chart to answer my questions about what word starts with what letter. All in all, a pretty clever performance on her part, and maybe on mine.

In other news, a neighbor loaned me a baby seat to install on my bike. After a few trial runs around our neighborhood this past week, the two of us took off on the 8-mile, almost entirely cycle-path, trip to the airport. (Because that’s where the cycle path goes…) Like a little princess, she sat behind me, eating snacks and watching the world go by while I burned off 900 calories of my body weight getting her there. We saw airplanes landing right above us from the path, and we even parked and wandered through the airport, looking for planes and riding on luggage carts. I stopped to ask an attendant where I could find a bathroom. She then asked the attendant for money. (Where does this stuff come from?)

And of course, she had wet underwear once we found the bathroom. So what to do? I was at a loss as I undressed her, until I heard someone drying their hands…with the air blower. So in about 15 minutes, I had rinsed and blow-dried her underwear amidst the airport bathroom foot traffic, while she ran around in just shirt and socks. Then it was back onto the bike, a coffee-shop muffin in hand, for the 8-mile trek home.

Some other time, I’m going to write about her obsession with volcanoes.

With too much crazy going on every day, it’s been impossible to sit and make notes on my observations of little EC. Even now, I’m sacrificing some sleep to do it…but every day there’s something new to observe and, not wanting to lose track of it all, I’m going to get it out.

• A few weeks ago, she was sitting at breakfast, contemplating her feet. (At some point in February, after loaning her seat to a neighboring baby, we just never put it back…so she sits cross-legged on a regular chair now.) After awhile, she started saying, “It’s eye!” Again and again, “It’s eye!” We questioned her what it meant, and got nowhere for awhile, until she turned and said, “I want milk!” Since then, the use of “I” has been infiltrating her speech more and more, and now it’s equivalent in frequency, if not slightly more used, than “you” when referring to herself. Also making an appearance are “mine”, “me”, and so forth. So despite the fact that we gave up long ago on trying to correct her, she figured it out from herself, by staring at her feet.
• Yesterday she walked up to me and said, “If you eat all your enchiladas, you can have ice cream!” Confused? Yes, me too. I didn’t remember ever discussing enchiladas with her. But after awhile, I remembered that we took her to a specialty enchilada place in Mexico City in January, where she refused to each the enchiladas. So when we stopped for ice cream later that evening, we didn’t let her have any. And the lesson appears—much later—to have stuck. I should note that she is always good natured about those things…once we explained why she wasn’t having ice cream, she didn’t complain one bit. But what should happen if next time we have enchiladas, there’s no ice cream??
• She has, in the last two weeks, learned to pretend, and she does it in a big way. Her most favorite thing to pretend is “taking a trip”, where we sit somewhere that she designates to be an airplane or a bus, and we pretend to hear the captain tell us to put on our seat belts, and we make engine noises, and we eat pretend snacks and take pretend naps, and then pretend to arrive. Where are we *always* going? New Mexico. I think that girl really just wants to go back to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house. After all, when I told her that the movers would be coming in a few months because we were leaving our house, she immediately declared that we would be moving to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house. Watch out, Grandma and Grandpa.
• When we returned from our vacation at the end of January, jet lag was as bad as it’s ever been. Oh well, I guess there’s no getting around it. The problem, I think, is that our flights leave in the morning from America. She therefore doesn’t get around to sleeping until just before we get back home…and it’s bedtime when we land. On the other hand, when we went to Australia (also heading east) in September, the flight left at night, she slept almost immediately, and she had very little jet lag problem. Make a note for future trips: try to leave at night.
• Who knew that a stuffy nose could back up into a baby’s small sinuses, and cause an infection that swells the eye shut? I didn’t. But I have witnessed it myself. Now going on day three of the seven-day antibiotic regimen. Oh, and toddlers don’t like eyedrops.

There’s definitely more, but I can’t steal any more sleep from myself to get it out right now. I have too many other things willing to steal my sleep instead!