550 Days

Five hundred fifty days, or eighteen months, or one and one-half years.  Those are all ways of saying that next week my baby will be leaving for college.

How can it really be that she has been here with us for that long?  Is someone playing a trick on me?  Wasn't I just in the hospital yesterday holding her perfectly round-faced, wet, little newborn body? 

In order to document the day-18 months is a big deal, no?-I tried to use my exceptional photography skills and capture "her" at this particular moment in the history of her life.  Here are the results, for your viewing pleasure.  Or much to your chagrin.  (I think the cuteness factor will make up for my lack of picture-taking ability.)

I'm sorry, but I can't get enough of her toes.  They are almost edible.

"It's my 1 1/2 birthday!"

I think she needs some sugar, don't you?

Um, this is what happens when you tape a sheet to the wall in order to get a white background and then stick a toddler in front of it and tell her to sit and smile.  Highly effective.

Now, here's a funny story.  I ordered pizza tonight.  (At 6:15 Papa John's was my hero, my knight in shining armour.)  Eliana loves pizza; it's one of the few things she consistently eats.  So I cut her piece up into bites, put it on a plate, and set it in front of her on her high chair tray.  She looked at my plate, and pushed hers away and said,"Pizza?"  (It comes out like "peas-uh".)  It was definitely a question.  I was a little panicky.  What if she didn't want the pizza?  I had been so excited, because she was chanting,"Peas-uh, peas-uh."  I really thought she was going to eat it!  I looked at her and replied,"That is pizza."  She held her plate up and repeated,"Peas-uh?"  She did not agree-what was on her plate was not pizza.  I was perplexed.

I looked again at my plate; she could not possibly want my pizza; it had pineapples, green peppers, pepperoni, and a little sausage on it (By the way, what is up with that?  I never eat meat on pizza.  But tonight it sounded GOOD.)  I told her again that she had pizza and again she lifted her plate to me with her eyebrows raised.

Suddenly it dawned on me...she wanted a slice of pizza.  Duh!  Cut up bites would not do...I said,"Do you want it big?"

That made her happy.  When I handed her this slice she nodded her head and smiled,"Peas-uh!"  Silly mommy, you finally got it right.

After dinner I tried to get some more pictures.  I was really hoping for a magical, wonderful shot.  I don't think I got any "great" ones, but they are cute.  I made them close-ups; I like to show her pretty eyes.

And those cheeks!

She was being kind of a goose.  She would smile, but not at the camera.  Only when she was running toward me.  Here is one more sweet one, though.

And finally, to say,"I'm done."

She was through.

Over and out.