The Way [She] Do The Things [She] Do (Alright!)

The next post on my series of things about Elenore would have to be about all the fun little things that are not necessarily milestones or appearances, but that make her that special little person that she is. Of course, these things are constantly changing and fluctuating, and I have forgotten many of them, but here are some of the sweet and amusing things "she do" that will tell you a little more about her personality (and let me tell you, does she have one!):

Elenore is one of those babies who always has something in her mouth, or is searching for objects to put there. That is just her favorite way to explore and learn about things. When we got a bigger stash of binkies, three different sizes, she would be happy for a long time sitting in front of the box of them, switching them in and out of her mouth, trying the different sizes and colors. Besides her beloved binkie, she likes to just wander around with something in her mouth. When she was just crawling, her favorite thing was a paper towel. She would stuff a corner in her mouth and crawl around shaking it and pulling at it like a little puppy. Now she looks for things make noise or whistle (see noise section of post). She loves whistling, and can make random objects whistle, like her thermometer case, or the plastic toy screw. Her recent find is a little plastic slinkie that she fits the whole thing into her mouth (yes, she was blessed - or cursed - with her mother's large mouth) and walks around stretching it in and out. She also loves to push things, like toys with wheels, laundry baskets, shopping carts, her high chair, her cousin while he is in her high chair... it is pretty cute.

Elenore loves playing with her hands and doing things with them. When she was just learning how to manipulate objects, she would pick things up in her little fists and rotate her wrists up and down like revving a motorcycle. She also does it a lot without anything in her hands when she is excited about something (which is most of the time), and we call it her "Soulja Boy" dance (some silly nonsense on YouTube that became popular... don't worry about it if you don't know about it). She loves actual dancing too, bouncing up and down on her knees and waving her arms. Her favorite spot to dance is holding onto the stand-up fan in our room, shaking it back and forth, usually naked - hence the dubbing "stripper pole" of the fan... She also likes clapping, clasping her hands over and over (super cute!), waving, patting people when she hugs them (so sweet!), and just plain shaking things she really likes, which can cause problems as that includes little people...
She LOVES little people, and gets so excited, and grabs them and shakes them while growling or giving her signature "Eh! Eh!" which means, "I LIKE you!" but it is very loud, and shakes her whole body, consequently frightening many a child much bigger than her...  I used to apologize and warn parents that she was a bit aggressive, but then a family friend commented when she was doing this to her 7-ish year old daughter that she was very precocious, and I think that is nicer and more fitting. She is definitely my precocious little daughter! She just wants to desperately to be like the bigger people and do everything they do, and though she is more advanced in many ways physically, she is not quite there yet in other ways, and gets very frustrated sometimes. Now that she is walking, she is much happier, and even more unnerving to the bigger kids that she wants to desperately to play with. Being able to walk has also ramped up her delight in doing things she knows she is not supposed to, running faster to do whatever it is, laughing gleefully, when I start coming after her... She also likes to assert her will by shaking her head "no" vehemently like when I am trying to feed her, or with a huge grin just for the dizzying fun of it. Another thing she does if she is not sure she is allowed to do something but really wants to is to suck in her little potbelly and raise her chest to her chin and her shoulders to her ears, and then drop it down and stick her belly out really far, over and over. It looks hilarious.

Her other constant source of entertainment (for her and us) is all the noises she learns to make. I cannot keep up with them, or even do some of them myself. The first noise she learned is some crazy tongue-twirling thing inside her cheek that I cannot do nor figure out how she does it. it is awesome though. She learned how to blow the raspberries with her tongue sticking out and spit going everywhere, and likes to blow them on people, on our faces and shoulders, arms, knees, anywhere she can get to. She thinks it is hilarious. She also recently started to do the kind where it is the lip-buzzing kind like in vocal warm-ups, without all the spit, which is nice. She now does that one all the time, mostly when she is happy. She does the spitty kind, with plenty of extra spit, when she is tired and mad. Kinda funny. Another noise she learned when she was little was the scream that is so high it barely makes noise. That was her noise of excitement until she decided it was more fun to make screams with actual noise... Another thing she does when she is excited or mad is suck air in and out super fast so that her bottom lip goes in and out. It cracks me up! I think this might have lead her to learn how to whistle. Yep, she can whistle! She just goes around when she is happy and interested in things with her eyes wide, lips puckered, drawing air in and out in a little whistle. She has quite a few notes in her range. This is my favorite thing she does, I think! I just adore it. Oh, and of course her smile she gives when she thinks she is funny or when she wants attention is to scrunch up her nose and grin really wide while baring her teeth... Delightful!

But after all this, you just gotta see her to believe how incredibly amazing she is! I am honored (and a little nervous) to be her mother.