(The format here was that she’d say what word she wanted to type, then she’d try to help guess the letters in the word by listening to the way that we were sounding it out, then she’d type each letter herself.  I have no idea if this is age-appropriate, but I’m kind of stunned that she understands how to use the <delete> key to get rid of characters that she didn’t mean to type.)—————–ppppppppppppppp

feet bubby

zaide

rabbit

rabbit

towel

apple

         sd                                    diooo

mommy

daddy

ellery

0pen

mommy

table

daddy

avocado

……………………….dot

This was a week after her second birthday.

We were at REI getting her a winter coat.  At REI they have a long, low rock that you can use as a bench.  I was sitting on it with my legs stretched out.

E. saw me and said something like “You do it!”  (Pronouns still reversed.)  Then she sat on the rock next to me, looked at the way that I was sitting, made sure that she was sitting the same way, and then made her voice really low and said:  “It’s okay…it’s okay.”

It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on…my daughter was just a few days over 2 years old, and already she was doing an impression of me.  And nailing it.

—-

Some other quick images:

- We now know that a “bunnya” (previously established as the preferred food for inflated alligators that want to keep from floating away, available in stores all throughout the city) consists of bunnies and salt.  Also, snow eats bunnies.

-  One of the first verbal “words” that E. was able to repeat was a raspberry-noise.  It’s what elephants said.  One night, when E. was ~10 months old, we drove to Whole Foods.  When we got there it was dark, and E. had been quiet for a while, and we realized that she might be asleep.  So I whispered “Hey baby, what noise does an elephant make?”…and from the back seat came the sleepiest, quietest “Ppppbbbbbbt.”

New Year’s Resolution:  Use this blog or drop it.So, in the category of “adorable things that Ellery says,” this tiny big of dialog from getting her from her crib yesterday morning:

Me:  Good morning, baby!  What would you like to do today?
Her:  Eat.
Me:  Awesome.  What else?
Her: Play!
Me:  That’s also awesome.  What else do you want to do today?
Her:  Eat…dinner?

Now that Faye and I have been married for more than six months, I’m pretty sure that we’re experts at it. Here’s the conversation from today that proves it:

Faye: I like John Malkovich

Me: I liked him in Being John Malkovich.

Faye: I saw him in something else that I liked…it began with a ‘v.’

Me: Dangerous Liaisons?

Faye: Yeah, that.

What I love is, in 6 years, our version of this conversation will be:

Faye: You know who….

Me: Dangerous Liaisons.

In 60 years, we’ll just raise our eyebrows in a certain way and we’ll both know what we mean.

In 600 years, we will walk the savage Earth as gods.

I just hope that we’ll be able to use this power to communicate about things other than John Malkovich.

Honestly, at this point I’ve pretty much said everything that I wanted to say here.

I consider this exercise in public journaling to have been a great success, and I’d like to thank all of you for participating. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it this far. You’re the real heroes.

(Special thanks to my editor, Faye.)