Chatterbox

Lately Ellie has become much more vocal. Of course, it is never when we are trying to get her to talk, like on the phone or during video chats with family. But sometimes she will go on and on, sometimes really loud. I sometimes wonder if she thinks she's really talking the way we are. It makes as much sense to us as we probably do to her. I know babies don't have much self-awareness, but sometimes I wonder if she realizes she's a baby, if she wonders why we don't use pacifiers, wear bibs, or cry when someone leaves the room. Or why we don't think it's as fun as she does to just lean back and kick our feet for hours on end. Although I think she assumes we do like all the same music and books she does since we listen to and read them over and over. And it appears to her that we get as much of a thrill out of peek-a-boo as she does. So maybe she does think we're all the same.

But I digress. This is a small sampling of Ellie's chatter. This is her quiet, just woke-up-when-she-wasn't-supposed-to-yet talk. Sometimes she does this in her sleep. If she does it when she's awake, I know I have little chance of getting her back to sleep. It's a trick she likes to whip out twenty minutes into a nap or around bedtime. I think she knows it's hard to resist. The best is when she's half-awake and sort of delirious. She'll go on and on like this, but seems almost a little drunk or something. We know we should be putting her to bed, but she's too entertaining, chattering and singing.



I think the wakeful pattern has resulted from being fed in her sleep--we've had to resort to that again since she's having so much trouble eating still. (We're taking her to a specialist on Monday, so hopefully things will improve there.) It's been a lot of work keeping this baby fed and getting her enough sleep, but then we get times like this and it just makes our day.