fresh squeezed eleanor

Eleanor is 17 months old now. She is amazing. She is the loudest person I have ever met. She can scream so loud and so high it will silence a whole room of talking, do damage to our ears, make you think there is a screecher firework or a fan belt going off in your skull. We named her after a song with a lyric that says "You are the brightest gem you are the loudest yell." I always thought it was metaphorical, then she emerged.

Eleanor is fast. She can climb anything. Lift things most babies wouldn't attempt. We keep all the kitchen cupboards rubber banded together and if we accidentally leave one undone it will only be a matter of minutes (sometimes seconds) and she's there to open it and pillage what she can. We have to double bar our stairs with a gate inside a gate, as she can scale or go under a single one.

Eleanor likes to pretend she is going on trips with bags. She yells "BA!" (bye!) and will blow you kisses when she leaves the room. She pretends to have naps and does a hilarious pretend sleeping face, very serious. She says Mummy, Daddy, Cracker, baby, teddy, Matt, "Uh OH!" and adds more every day. Speaking of cheese. she will hold up a toy phone, point it at you and say "Cheese!" because phones take pictures now, didn't you know? She loves to talk on the phone. She just now took my phone and pretended to call Dora the Explorer ("Huh-oo? Da-doo?" then "Miaow!" and made the sign for Kitty, because Baby Jaguar was there too.) On Saturday she was holding a domino like a phone and was taking a call.

She really loves our friends Stu and Jacqui (who got engaged at our house last month) and likes to call their names, but was really confused when I got her to put on a jacket yesterday and was saying "Jacqui?" and I said "Jacket." and she said "Jacqui. Stu. Stu. Jacqui." but didn't seem to equate why they weren't there or why she had to wear her rain jacket.

As an aside, I love her rain jacket. I got it at superstore, the Joe Fresh line. I recently inquired with them as to their human rights practices and I was thrilled to get an answer that said:

"Our Joe Fresh Clothing is made in state-of-the-art factories around the world which are all ISO certified. We respect all local laws and ensure that factories are socially compliant. We have a zero-tolerance policy for child labor and forced labor and hold the highest standards for health and safety, and environmental compliance. We also employ third party firms to audit manufacturing facilities to ensure compliance."

How sweet is that? At least as sweet as this organic juicy peach we traded some soap for at the Farmer's Market.


That's some fresh squeezed sweet life right there.