No crucifixes needed; dear Eliza could ward off vampires tonight on the strength of her breath alone.

We ate lunch at the Cheesecake Factory today and Eliza had one heck of a good time. First she had some sourdough bread and some dark brown bread that was possibly pumpernickel. Then the appetizers came and she sampled Robert's calamari. Nothing major; just a few tentacles. Next the salads were delivered and Eliza helped herself to Robert's Caesar. Lettuce doesn't gum up well so she sucked off all the dressing and ejected the greens. Then Robert gave her one of the giant croutons from the salad and she went to town on that for the longest time, sucking all the dressing out of it and whittling it away to half its former size.

I got broccoli cheese soup with my lunch. It had some sort of peppers in it, as the cheese tasted Mexican. I offered her some and she loved it. She insisted on taking the spoon and wouldn't be parted with it, objecting vociferously when I tried to remove it. Since she was still wearing her silk dress (it was after we'd had her picture taken) I didn't want to let her spoon feed herself so I dipped some bread in the soup and she was happy with that, and allowed me to take back the spoon. And, okay, in the interest of full disclosure I will admit that she also had some pumpkin cheesecake. Her reaction to that was priceless. I think if she could've gotten up and danced a jig on the table, she would have.

When we got home I kept catching whiffs of garlic breath and thought it was Robert exhaling in my direction. After a while I realized it was coming from my child, which is not exactly something you'd expect from an eight-month-old. That's Eliza for you, though. She doesn't want any of that bland, pureed crap, She'll take an order of seafood with its limbs still attached and a salad that would make Dracula quail in fear, and put some stank on it. And what will be worse than her breath tonight? Why, her diaper tomorrow, of course! Too bad I'll be in the city picking up my new laptop and will miss all the fun!