Week 27 - Leading Lady

I suppose I knew the time would come, I just didn’t realize it would come so soon. My daughter LOVES being the center of attention. It’s true: she is a limelight junkie – and it’s only getting worse! Ellie loves it when all eyes are on her, and she makes sure you know it. She is never happier, more talkative or more animated than when your face is in her face, giving her your 100% undivided attention.

She can play independently just fine, but while she is playing, you’d better be watching her! She can sit in her Baby Einstein exersaucer/jumper for hours playing with all of the attached toys. But the second you try to leave her to her fun to prepare dinner, go to the bathroom, write checks, read something, etc… she starts to cry. While she is playing, she inevitably takes short breaks to make sure that you are intently watching her every move. Head is down for a second? CRY! It’s not just when she’s playing that she wants your attention. It’s constant! The best part is, if you want to make Elise start smiling immediately, all you have to do is applaud her and say, ‘yay, Baby!’ It’s the cutest thing.

While she is nursing, if I try to do anything other than stare at her (eat, read, talk) she will stop eating and stare up at me until I give her my undivided attention once again. Sometimes if I am talking while she’s nursing, she actually reaches up and grabs my lips! She doesn’t like it when other people are drawing my attention away either – if Marty starts talking to me while she’s nursing, so stops and cranes her neck around and stares at him as if to say “Shut Up! She is busy paying attention to me!” Actually the stare down of Daddy is hilarious. She is so stern.

Maybe this is why daycare is so good for her. We took Elise back to daycare after the eternity of seven days without daycare. This is seven days of constant, in fact, overwhelming attention heaped on Princess Ellie. She was not pleased to say the least. Wednesday, Marty and I walk in the door and there she is, crying her eyes out because God forbid the daycare staff is paying attention to another little baby at that moment. Needless to say, she had a bad day. No sleep, eating sporadically and generally wreaking havoc at the school. The next day, Ellie was a bit better and when we arrived she was being carried by one of the workers after having just thrown a mild fit. By Friday, Ellie had completely given up and was docile and resigned the whole day. Slept well, ate well – it was as if to say, okay, I get it, there are others in this world who also need attention. As of the writing of this blog, Elise seems to have adjusted back to center of attention status fine and we will repeat the cycle at daycare again – we just hope I gets a little milder.


While we're at it, a couple of notes on daycare; the Director of the daycare told us on Friday that in the 17 years she has been doing this, she has never in her memory known a child who did not stop moving as much as Ellie. Perhaps that is why she is so skinny – she just burns calories non-stop. Also, another worker there was joking that Ellie out eats every other child at the daycare and that only a porterhouse steak could satisfy her. The steak part was the joke, she does eat more than all the other kids there. Please take a moment to feel sorry for my milk producers.