My Lovely Little Weirdo...

And I use that term affectionately.

There isn't a day that goes by that Elaina's authentic, little personality fails to comes shining through in ordinary tasks. That's what I love about her; expect the unexpected.

Eric has been out of town for the weekend and Elaina and I have stayed indoors all weekend enjoying each other's company and trying to get over our germs. Yesterday, I felt the absolute worst and Elaina was an absolute doll. She woke around 7:30 and was happy to come into mommy's bed to snuggle and watch Noggin. In the meantime, I had managed to get downstairs to let Keegan out and prepared her snacktrap with dry cereal and a sippy cup of milk before taking refuge back in the warmth of my shared bed. Elaina was thrilled about having snacks in bed and quietly cuddled in her nest beside me and watched Noggin until 11:00. Did you hear that? 11:00!!! Apparently she wasn't feeling quite herself either to laze around for so long, not wanting to get up and run around. As miserable as I felt, I was thanking my lucky stars that she was content laying at my side. Once the cold medicine began to kick in for both of us, our day evolved into fun and playtime before a 3 hour mid-afternoon nap. Seriously, when it comes to not feeling well, misery loves company and we were best friends. God I love that girl!

Words can't express what a good girl Elaina was all of yesterday. It's important to recall specifically that she was the best- girl- ever yesterday, because today was a different story. We were vertical and moving before 9:00 this morning as we're both beginning to feel better. Her nap got interrupted today and her refusal to go back to sleep brought out the worst in the same sweet girl I was praising only 24 hours ago. All of the sudden, she thought that throwing things was a much better way to play with her toys and when mommy attempted to interact and join her play, she ruined it with brat behavior. Too many long hours later, she asked for medicine and wanted to go to sleep. Why couldn't we have come up with that idea before the 7 times I wanted to tie her to a chair ? Okay, so I am over-exaggerating, she just wasn't particularly pleasant until after the rest of her nap.

Throughout her day of split-personalities, she brought light to her own little weirdo within. For instance:

** At dinnertime, I made yet another effort to introduce her to a peanut buttter sandwich. She wasn't all that into it until I dipped her binky into the peanut butter and let her have a taste. That was met with a "Mmm, yummy!" and she began to dig within the bread for more "yummy." She wouldn't, of course, eat the bread and peanut butter together until I smashed it all up in a ball and asked her if she wanted to eat a "peanutbutterball." Of course. That's all it took. Flat bread and peanut butter --no way-- not when there are peanutbutterballs to be eaten.

** Elaina has taken great interest in a tennis ball as of late. It's the first thing she looks for when she comes into her room. (Said tennis ball does not come downstairs as our ball-dog Keegan is fanatic over tennis balls.) Upstairs, Elaina and I enjoyed a nice game of rolling the ball back and forth until she began giving it kisses and hugged against her face with more kisses. Looks like we have two fanatics in the house. I'll begin to worry if Elaina begins to carry it in her mouth too.

*** Finally, out of all of the delicious food that she will flat out deny, my child tries to drink her bath water and eats soap bubbles from her bath. All the while, she has a smile on her face saying "Mmm, yummy!"

**** This afternoon found me trying to suit up Elaina in some of her lighter summer clothes, anticipating warmer vacation weather. As I put on the cutest short sleeved sweater-vest shirt on her, she began to tug and pull down on the length of the sleeve. This child absolutely has issues wth her sleeves being above her elbows. I hope amongst hope that she gets this out of her system when the temperature begins to soar above 80 degrees this summer!

Oh yes I love my little weirdo. She keeps me guessing and is always full of surprises. And this is just the beginning...