Bizarro Eleanor

We had the strangest experience yesterday. We went to the beach and Eleanor had fun. She refused to wear her hat and she played. She didn't bury her head in my shoulder and look miserable, she giggled! She ate sandy Goldfish crackers and squealed in delight! She even crawled around a bit! It was the strangest thing. She seems to be...happy. I don't even know who this child is. She's had brief periods of happiness before, but girlfriend has been consistently happy since we got home last week. It's amazing.

We are hoping this happiness continues over the weekend for my big brother's wedding. They are having a quiet, at-home service, so hopefully Eleanor will be on her best behavior. With only 20 people in attendance, it will be really hard to shift the blame! I've been having a mini-fashion show all week trying to determine what is the cutest possible dress. I even bought her clips for her hair(!), but those have been strongly vetoed by her lady ship. It doesn't really matter what she wears, I know, but I stumbled across some photos from her birthday and Christmas and wow-wee. Those are some rough photos. Alabaster white with no eyelashes or eyebrows and big circles around her eyes. Poor little bear. It doesn't seem that long ago, but she is SO FAR from that sick little girl. Even with all her hiccups and health scares, she is still not as sick as that chemo baby. So I like to dress her up and take smiley photos of her when she is looking and feeling good. It's like if I keep filling my phone/camera with good photos, it will erase all the bad. And this weekend's nuptials will be the perfect venue for sweet photos. Facebook, you have been warned!

Here's a little preview. This is her happy place - half standing, half lying down. Perfect.