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!