Pierced: Take Me By the Hand

I think Ellie has a persuasive personality. Maybe that's because as her mother I just can't resist her charm. If she isn't successful in persuading you to follow her with just her sweet excitement she will not be shy about taking you by the hand and leading you to what she wants you to see. She has learned that this tactic has a very high success rate with mommy and daddy-- we just can't say 'no' when she's tugging our hand saying our name over and over in an encouraging way, not a whine-until-I get-what-I-want way. Her tone says "Come on! You HAVE to see this, you'll love it!"

I can't exactly remember when she began leading us to stuff around the house-- which is exactly why I wanted to do this blog, so these cute things wouldn't be forgotten-- but I definitely began to notice that she had a purpose for leading us around the house and that it wasn't just for attention or company. At some point Ellie mentally noted that I follow her around the house and take pictures of her and the cute things she does. Well, our little opportunist began to stage things around the house for me to see, not only see but take a picture of too. How do I know she was purposefully placing things around the house for me to see and capture? I know this was her intention because one day I left my phone on the kitchen table as she lead me to her most recent silly staging. When we got to her creation she looked at me with disappointed eyes and ran back to the kitchen, got my phone, and delivered my phone to me with a thrust and the silent demand of a point to her construction and a look as if to say "Mom, this is funny. Take a picture!" so I snapped the picture and she immediately said "me see!" as if to confirm that I had completed the task. What a trip!

You can see some of the things she did around the house in the pictures below. While she doesn't lead us to silly things around the house anymore she still has a knack for persuading us, for example her incredibly endearing "Come on, mommy, come on!" You can insert any one's name where "mommy" is, she won't discriminate if she wants your attention!

Necklace on the ball.

A sock in the vase cabinet she knows she's not allowed to go in.

Ball in a basket.

Pretzels in the dip in the back of her bouncy turtle.

Cereal in her kitchen sink.

Krispy Kreme hat on a baby doll.

Rearranged kitchen mats.

Tea set spoons in the plastic bags.

Necklace on the bouncy turtle.

Babydoll stuck in her zoo slide.

Jewelry in the stroller (this is the one where she brought me my phone because I had left it in the kitchen). You can sort of see the satisfaction on her face :)