Journal Excerpt

She’s in a friendly, generous mood these days. She waves frantically whenever she can: to the cats when she first sees them every morning. To me if I’m in the kitchen while she’s eating in her high chair. To people walking down the street two blocks away, and to every dog she can find.

And she’s always giving me things, which I find particularly endearing. She figured out today that if she can manage to get me a book, I’ll read it to her, so she’ll grab a page and drag it along, sometimes scooting it in front of her if it’s a big book, and attempt to lift it and thrust it into my hands. In this manner we read through every single book in her collection this morning, starting with her favorite ones first. I’m always on the look-out for new, cheap books, more because I get bored than because she does.

One Year

Journal Excerpt

E's stamina outlasted mine today. She only slept for one three-hour nap that passed all too quickly and was extremely vivacious the rest of the day. She seemed louder than usual. I think she just shouts when she's bored. D says I need to get her out more during these types of days and he's probably right. Instead I dozed on the floor while she played around me for most of the afternoon.

I've been trying to teach her to give things to me, as a way of instilling kindness, and now she likes to bring me plastic coffee cup lids, hair-balls and lint she picks up from the carpet, and empty wrappers. She takes it very personally if I don't actively hold these things in my hand while thanking her profusely. If I happen to drop one of them she will go after it and push it back in my hand. I used to thank her by clapping, so now when my hands are full she just sits there and applauds herself.

Journal Excerpt

I’m pretty sure someone is feeding her large quantities of sugar on the sly. It might be Chloe. She’s always slinky around with a slightly guilty air.