We went to the beach. The Santa Monica Pier was quite fun. Eleanor really wanted to ride the roller coaster, but she was 14 inches too short. So instead she found fun in hiding her feet in the sand and making us look for them.
Jason practiced looking like a movie star, since they were filming something there that day.
We ate lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company. It was...Forest Gumpy. Before we left the area, Matt had to find this clown ballerina that he had seen once before so he could get its picture. I just have to wonder what kind of pharmacy that is.
Tonight Eleanor was eating a chip. She showed it to me and catagorized it as a triange. A few seconds later, she showed it to me again and declared it a hexagon. I didn't believe her at first. Then I realized that she had bitten off all the corners, leaving it with six sides. So, I asked her if she wanted to make a movie of it. She agreed, but you can tell that she's more interested in eating the chip, hexagon or no.
Logically, I would think that Eleanor would confuse hexagons with pentagons since she counts "1,2,3,4,6..." most of the time.
In other Eleanor news, she is enjoying books and music more than ever. She asks for both on a regular basis. Today we were at the playground with a lot of her friends when she came over to me and said, "Read me book." I had to explain that their weren't any books at the playground.
She is also enjoying jumping, hopping, and bouncing. She loves jumping off of things (curbs, steps, step stools).
We are hearing a lot of "Why?" these days. Sometimes we turn the tables on Eleanor and ask her why: "Why did you take all your clothes out of your dresser?" "Why did you pee in the floor?" "Why did you wipe mustard all over your sweater?" Her answer is always the same: "Because I like to."
I've recently taken advantage of my friend, Matthew Geddert, and his negative scanner to make digital copies of my favorite film photos from my past eight years of film photography. Some of the best I've put on Picasa for all to see.
Most of them are centered around major travel as one might expect, but the "Woods" and "Misc" albums hold a few surprises.
You can select by album from the links below and don't be afraid to comment!
Appologies to die-hard fans of Eleanor who only bother to stop by this blog to get your baby-fix, as she wasn't really around when most of these were taken. Better luck next post!
We are constantly having moments when we realize that Southern California is a different culture from the South. For example, when I went to vote a woman behind me had her fully clothed dog with her. Animals are treated as children- pushed in strollers, taken to day care, given therapy, etc. Another example, it's not uncommon for someone to pay hundreds of dollars for an outfit of jeans, t-shirt and flip flops. Being a parent is different out here too. I realized this when I was flipping through a LA Parent free magazine and saw this:
Yesterday Eleanor drew a self portrait. While it is not perfect, it does have many aspects of her face. The circle is her head, the dark scribbles at the top are hair. The straight horizontal line right under the hair is a mouth. The thick dot is the nose. The two smaller dots are eyes and the two vertical lines at the bottom are feet.
Last week we took a trip to the aquarium in Long Beach. It was way too crowded, but pretty neat otherwise.
Eleanor's love for books has blossomed in the last couple of months. She has become quite forceful in her requests for reading. Several times a day, I feel little hands force a book into my hands (as in remove anything from my hands and place the book in its stead). Matt has a rule that he will not read the same book more than once in a day.
One night as Matt was making dinner, Eleanor ran into the kitchen and exclaimed, "I made you, Daddy!". When Matt went to investigate, he found that she had somehow opened his email account, started an email to one of his friends, and then clicked on his profile so his picture came up.
In other news, Eleanor favorite toys this week include her Brio train set, Hot Wheels, and the Little People. She has a little stroller for her babies. She likes to stack all three of them in there together and push them around. She's a funny kid.
