Frances and Baby Eloise

I could never have predicted in October how much Frances would come to love her new doll. As I type this, she is walking around her playroom, hugging her tight.

Frances takes good care of her Baby Eloise. Already this morning she has shared her own apple juice with her, asking me to hold Eloise so she could hold the empty cup to her lips. "Want to have some?" she said. She pulled the cup back and noted, "There's none there." But this is no impediment to drinking when one is a plastic doll, so the cup went back to the pursed lips and she asked again, "Want to have some?"

After Baby Eloise had her fill of imaginary apple juice, Frances carried her around the playroom in a tight hug, saying, "I ready to go home." She brought Baby Eloise's hat to me and asked me to put the hat on her head because, you know, it's cold outside and it's important for Baby Eloise to wear her hat. "I go in car," she said.

After Mommy Frances had successfully brought Baby Eloise home, it was time for a nap on the pillow. Baby Eloise was tucked in under her green fleece blanket, and Mommy Frances expressed her need for a snack.

"Should we go upstairs?" asked Erik.

"Yeah."

"OK, come here."

"I bring Baby Eloise."

"No, Baby Eloise is having her nap. You can bring her up later."

She is a good caretaker to all of her toys, ensuring that even the toy trains get their naps and have sips of milk and apple juice; but not even Baby Dorego (so named by me because it was given to her as a Dora, and Frances believes it is Dora, but it is clearly Diego) has as big a space in Frances's heart as Baby Eloise.

We often find Baby Eloise sitting up in the chair opposite Frances at her play table, or in the small lion chair beside Frances's Dora chair while watching TV. Sometimes Baby Eloise sleeps in Frances's toddler chair in Frances's room while Frances naps in her crib. Most often Baby Eloise is securely tucked into Frances's arms as she plays with one toy or another. Leave Baby Eloise behind? But she might get bored, or lonely!

I will admit (quietly and only once) that it is immensely gratifying to see her being such a good parent to her little doll since I believe it is a sign that this is the care she largely receives from others--loving, attentive, insistent on the consumption of appropriate calories, and so forth. Of course there are moments where I purse my lips while Frances sternly lectures Baby Eloise: "Sleeptime now! Sleep! Sleep!"

I wonder where she got that from?

She is into full-on mimic mode now, often repeating back the very words I say as I say them. Which is entertaining all the time, and sometimes embarassing, as yesterday when I heard her repeating at least a dozen times after me, "Oh my God, Oh my God." I'm not sure what I had originally tossed off the blasphemy regarding, but I think, Frances, that I didn't need to hear it quite twelve times in order to get the point. I need to clean up my language. Thank you.

It's better than the phrase Frances has picked up from Erik. When the other day I shooed Roxie off the kitchen table, and Erik noted taht she once again had not eaten her medicated food, and Frances rejoined with "that fucking cat," we knew the moment was finally upon us: We have the child who will teach the other children at daycare and kindergarten all the interesting words that their parents won't let them say. Fabulous! Either that, or we need to watch ourselves a bit more closely.

At least if she is going to pick up from us all of our bad habits and reflect them back a thousand-fold, she also has the good sense and decency to reassure us on our parenting through the care she takes of Baby Eloise. She may swear, she may sometimes be frustrated with Baby Eloise's refusal to nap (a point I can fully empathize on), but she also loves her baby girl and takes the best care of her that her limited attention span will allow.

Thank goodness.

Posted by Andrea at January 2, 2006 10:00 AM under Beanie Baby Brags

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