Eleanor is very very busy these days! First and foremost, she's crawling like a champ now. She started sort of crawling/sort of scooting a couple weeks ago, but as of last week she can crawl pretty quickly to get from one place to another. Carpet is easier for her to crawl on than the laminate we have downstairs, but she can manage that too when she really wants to. Anything is fair game these days and our cats have very quickly learned to get out of the way before Eleanor crawls to them and then tries to pull up on them :)
Because, oh yes, Eleanor is pulling up too. When she isn't crawling she's trying to pull up to a stand. She even managed to pull herself up to standing in her crib at daycare last week! Needless to say, her crib is now on the lowest setting for when she tries that at home :) And last night she started cruising, just barely. I thought it was fluke, but today at daycare she took just a few steps while holding onto the window. I'm so not ready for all this! To go from crawling to pulling up to starting to cruise all in two weeks...baby girl needs to slow down :)
Oh, and in other big news, we have a tooth! Matt and I had no idea Eleanor was teething until I decided to check for teeth about a week and a half ago. Imagine my surprise when I felt something sharp! The tooth was already through Eleanor's gum and she'd given no indication that was going on at all. It would be great if that keeps up through all the rest of her teeth. I haven't been able to get a picture of her tooth yet, but it's definitely there and you can now actually see it when she opens her mouth wide enough :)
Speaking of opening up, Eleanor is doing an awesome job with food. She still loves broccoli and peaches, but she's also found a love for using a spoon. We tried applesauce with her about a month ago and after a few tries she insisted on taking the spoon and feeding herself. She does a pretty decent job of getting it to her mouth. Because she loves using the spoon so much we've been exploring other things we can put on a spoon. We're not quite ready for yogurt yet so we've been giving Eleanor some of those food pouches. Oh my! She makes a mess, but she gets a good amount in her mouth! Just load up the spoon and let her have at it. Here are some photos Matt took from dinner tonight.
Eleanor is really enjoying paper lately. She loves tearing it and pulling on it. My mom got out some tissue paper for her when we were down for my high school reunion. Eleanor clearly had a ball :)
Little Miss is also talking a ton. Well, she is certain that she's talking. She's gotten really good at the "k" sound. We think it's because she loves our cats (seriously, adores them) and whenever she sees a cat she makes the "k" sound. This has turned into her general excited noise, so we hear it a lot whenever she's really happy. She's also been playing around with "g,", "m," "b," and "d," sounds. She's really chatty in the car and during diaper changes especially.
We have also discovered that Eleanor apparently enjoys shopping now. She likes to try to grab things off the shelves :) We went grocery shopping last night and I got her out of the cart while we were waiting to pay. She decided that she wanted a snack, apparently.
And I just love this photo of Eleanor. I hope she keeps this love of books as she grows older.
Eleanor had a big trip earlier this month. We spent Labor Day weekend in northern Wisconsin with our small group from church. This is the third year we've gone up and, as always, we had an amazing weekend. Eleanor was a trooper in the car, especially since we left after work on Friday and it's a
long drive. We were on the road by 4:00 and made it up the cabin by about 1:00 our time (midnight Wisconsin time). We spent a great 2.5 days hanging out and relaxing. There were 12 adults and 11 kids up there, and while it was semi-chaotic at times, it really was great. We are already looking forward to next year :) When Matt gets finished editing some of the photos he took while we were up there I'll do a post about the trip. In the meantime, here's a picture of Eleanor on the front porch and a photo of the view from our room. Talk about peaceful.
And because it's too cute not to post, here's Eleanor one morning before church :)
