Books, Pets, and Pictures

My children tend be a little obsessive. And if you've ever met me, you can probably guess who they got that from...although Peter's weirdness doesn't really help the gene pool either...

Eleanor currently has three big obsessions: books, animals, and family photos.

Little Ellie is a girl after my own heart--books are her favorite toys. She loves to read them and turn the pages over and over. Jude always liked books at this age, but not in the same way as Eleanor. She cries for me to read them over and over again. She does this funny little squeal/screech with delight when she recognizes something or gets excited about something on the page. Trips to the library are a weekly activity now. And Ellie gets so excited, she does her loud screechy squeal and pulls every book off the shelf. I try to keep her quiet, but she just can't contain her happiness! (Yeah...one time I totally got scolded by a 5 year old about how my baby was too loud for him and his best friend to read...) Even though reading books over and over again is a little annoying, it's also super cute and I'm really glad she loves to read. I seriously cannot wait to read her the old American Girl books! (Future history nerd children...look out)

(Ellie's gotten really good at taking selfies somehow... this one was taken in sunday school. and yes, we wear mardi gras beads to church.)

Eleanor is also obsessed with animals...so she's not that much like me, I guess (sorry, I'm not a big animal person...no plans for pets here). Okay, all kids love seeing dogs and birds and everything, but Ellie is like crazy about it. When she sees a dog coming down the street, it's like Christmas has come early. The other day we went on a walk down the Iron Horse Trail and there was a cat out mouse hunting. Ellie refused to let us go by until we stopped and saw the cat (which she did her excited screech at the whole time). When we walked away, she went into full meltdown. Don't come between this little girl and her animals! Petsmart may be a regular form of entertainment for us... (I sometimes buy cheap toys for pets we don't have out of guilt for using their store like a zoo.)

And lastly, Eleanor LOVES family photos. A few months ago, I made the kids a little photo book of pictures of everyone in our extended family. Jude likes to look at it and name everyone, but Ellie has lately gotten really into it too. She squeals in excitement when she recognizes someone's picture. I made the mistake of taking that book to church today and she screamed through most of sacrament meeting! Also, I (finally) put some decent, recent pictures up on our photo wall in the dining room. EVERY time I put her in her high chair to eat, Ellie at some point, points at the wall and screeches in recognition and happiness. Her new thing is making me take her on a "tour" of the house photos (and mirrors). She demands to be picked up so I can walk her around to each photo around the house and she cries "OH!" at each one. It's really cute! And really exhausting. Yes, child, I see that picture of you on the wall you pointed out 34587348975 times this morning!

But can you really ever resist this face?!