amigas

Now that Eliana is officially weaned, she seems practically grown-up. She's exhibiting more and more signs of independence and developing a repetoire of loves that extend beyond mom and dad. At the heart of all that love are her little friends. She has taken to saying their names completely out of the blue. The other day the fixation was on Moana. She would wander around the house saying, "Moahna, Moahna." She then took Moana's picture down off the fridge, snuggled it, and proceeded to carry it around the house the way she would her baby.

Friday night we driving to Margot's house for her first birthday party. I explained that lots of her friends would be there. She began to exclaim from the backseat, "JiyJiy?" "Moanie?" "JiyJiy?" "Moanie?" I told her that JiyJiy wouldn't be there but Moana would, as well as Hayley and Soraya and, of course, Margot whose birthday we were celebrating. I was just stating all of this information, pretty matter of factly. She then said, "Moanie" with the assurance that she would see Moana. And then, "Jiyjiy??? No," with the disappointment of not seeing Jiah in her tone. She then carried on with, "Hayley? Soraya?" and I said, "Yes, like I said, they'll both be there." We kind of went on like this all the way to Nici's house. It was pretty darn sweet, albeit mildly redundant. I think my favorite part is the way that she's already given Moana a nickname. This is so much like her mama who is the queen of shortening and changing people's given names.

Which brings me to how my girl is so much like her parents. Jeff and I are extremely social creatures. While Jeff likes to pretend that I'm more social than he, ask anyone who knows us well who has our cell phone most of the time. We're kinda in the stone age in that we share a cell phone. Share a cell phone that I hardly see because my husband's always yammering away on it.

So there you go. You model things - the importance of friendship - and you see it in your child. Nothing like having a little one sponging up your words and actions to put you on your best behavior and really make you see where your values lie.