Cerin Amroth

This morning, without any prior warning, Ella started referring to me as “Daddy” instead of “Da.” She’s been doing it all day. Who knows if it’s going to stick. But I kind of like it.

Ella’s wearing tights today. This morning, as I was putting on my socks, she pointed at them and said “Tights.”

“Nope,” I replied, “These are socks.”

“_Tights_.”

“Socks.”

She sighed in mock exasperation and said: “Dad, I TOLD you. You have _tights_ on.” (more like “Daaaaa. I TOL you. You ha TIGH ohn.”)

Two things going on here: first, an insistence that I share in her pretending. And second, a spot-on imitation of me every time I say “I told you” — as in, “Ella, I TOLD you not to climb on the toy box,” “Ella, I TOLD you not to put Pooh in the toilet,” “Ella, I TOLD you to keep your shirt on,” etcetera ad infinitum.

It’s always a little haunting when they give your words back to you. Also in that vein, she’s starting saying “Cool!” when she comes across something that she thinks is, well, cool. I didn’t even realize that I said “cool” all that much, but ever since she started saying it I’ve been more aware of it, and sure enough, I say it all the time.

Cool.

We’ve decided to start giving Ella vitamins because her eating habits are not great. This morning I approached her with a dropper full of vitamins and she refused to open her mouth. Mind you, I couldn’t blame her. Not only are the vitamins this blah brown liquid, but they smell like fish food. So I took the manufacturer’s advice and put them in a cup of water. Ella can drink from a regular cup — with supervision — so I put them in water in her little mug. She took one look at the brown liquid, gave me a big grin, and pronounced “iced tea.” I decided to go along with her notion. I felt a bit guilty … but, then again, she drank it all up ….

After she finished her banana, I asked if she wanted some Cheerios. (In reality, they’re Oats & Os from Giant grocery store, but I didn’t make the distinction.) I poured some on her tray and proceeded to close the box. She pointed to the box and asked for some strawberries. I was perplexed until I looked at the box to see a bowl with O & Os and strawberries. A first taste of what is sure to be a life full of disappoints from false advertising. … I didn’t try to explain that to her!

On Saturday afternoon, I was really upset about something that I unintentionally did that morning. When I was relaying it to Nate, I started crying. Ella was sitting right there and immediately became concerned. It was likely the first time she had seen me cry. I could instantly relate to that troubled feeling I would get whenever I saw my parents cry. Something felt terribly upside-down in the world, and I wanted to do whatever I needed to to make it right. I saw the same concern in Ella’s eyes.

She immediately started patting me on the shoulder and telling me that it would be “all righ” (no T in her pronounciation) in that sing-songy voice. In the next instant, she left my side and ran into the bathroom. She came back with a tissue for my running eyes and nose. It was so amazing to see her react that way.

Ella’s favorite activity lately has been changing the “diapers” of her stuffed animals. None of them wear diapers, mind you, but she insists that they need a diaper change. She runs to her diaper bag and gets out the portable changing pad. At first, she was okay with pretending the diaper part, but now she always asks to have a diaper ready at hand. She hasn’t gone so far as to fasten a diaper on one of her animals, but that will probably come next.

Now that I think about it, for the most part she is okay with pretending. She pretends that there is tea in her teapot. She also likes making the noise of tea pouring into the cup. She also pretends to talk with people on the phone and to put things into her shopping cart. At first, I wasn’t sure that she would be able to grasp the fact that sometimes we pretend and sometimes we play with actual things. Pretending must be something that doesn’t require teaching or explanation. If that’s the case, it’s a very good thing.

Where to begin?

I honestly thought that my starting comment this month would be that Ella was, at long last, switching over to one nap a day. Over the past week she hasn’t been seeming as tired in the morning, and the time change threw her off her schedule a bit. Then this weekend she only took one nap each day. But then this morning, right around 8:30, she was right there with the eye rubbing and the crabbiness. Conked out for a good old-fashioned short morning nap, 9 – 10:30, just like always. Maybe today’s the aberration and tomorrow will be different. Who knows?

At some point in the past couple months Ella has crossed the line from being a Babbler to a Talker. The process was so gradual that it happened without my noting very many milestones, or even noticing it was happening, to a large extent. The next step — Talker Who Is Universally Understood — still lies ahead of us. A lot of the time I have to translate what she’s saying for other people, and sometimes even I have no idea what she’s talking about. But as far as putting together complete sentences, using vocabulary I had no idea she possessed, all that — she’s there.

Her favorite phrase lately is “All By Myself.” The things she wants to do all by herself include but are not limited to:

* Taking off her jacket. Easy.
* Maneuvering the toy shopping cart that Nana brought for her between the pieces of furniture and out into the hallway. Usually successful, but sometimes only after some screeches for aid.
* Putting on her socks and shoes. She can’t do this yet, really, but not for lack of trying.
* Exploring the plaza area with the fountain and playground in front of the bookstore. In this case she’ll say “You stay there” to me, very firmly, and then start to amble away along the path. Near the driveway or the street, of course, so I can’t very well let her get too far out of lurching range. So we end up playing this game of red light / green light where I move closer to her when she’s not looking but stop when she turns around to make sure that I’m letting her explore freely.

My favorite thing about Ella’s new language skills is that allows us a window into her imagination. And it can be a pretty freaky place (he says, beaming with pride). Ever since reading a couple of Halloween-themed books, for example, Ella has been talking off and on about the witch that is just outside our window. She doesn’t ever _see_ the witch, but once the sun goes down, if the windows open, she’ll walk up to me with wide eyes and her hand over her mouth, and then say (translated from Ella-ese) “Daaa! Did you hear that? I hear a WITCH outside!”

At the bookstore last week she saw a dragon. I don’t know if she saw some actual dragon stuffed animal or poster or book cover first, but whatever the case, it was imperative that we _follow_ the dragon all around the whole bookstore. It was a merry chase, but the dragon always seemed to be one step ahead of us, until finally Ella had to agree with me that “it got away.”

I find all of this linguistic & mental development a heck of a lot more interesting than diet and poop schedules, needless to say. But for the record, she’s still as picky and as light an eater as ever. It’s a wonder that she’s putting on pounds at all, though she has gained a few, and has definitely gained more height. We’re at the early stages of potty training, I guess, consisting thus far only of us talking to her about using the toilet and gauging her reactions. So far she definitely gets the idea but doesn’t seem to be particularly interested.

Hard to believe that her second birthday is scant weeks away! Perks: numerous storytimes at the library. Not having to refer to her age by month. Downside: Paying for airfare.

Pictures later this week.