Sorry for the lack of updates! Between work and Eleanor being constantly on the move, the time for sitting down and writing a blog post has drastically dwindled. Here are some things Eleanor is up to these days.
-She is on the move. All.the.time. When she's not crawling she's pulling up and sometimes attempting to cruise (hold on to furniture and walk). She loves walking with her push walker toy or by holding your hands.
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| On the move after a bath. Notice the red blur in her right hand? That's the mallet to her xylophone - she loves to take it with her everywhere around the house. |
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| Taking herself on in to her classroom at daycare |
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| Loving the push walker! She used to need us to hold the wheels so she didn't push the walker out too far in front of her. Now she's a pro and can handle it all on her own. We're just working on steering instead of running into walls :) |
-Eleanor loves books. Loves them. She makes a beeline for her bookshelf daily. Once she gets there she pulls books off the shelf, looks at them, "reads" them, then tosses them to the side so she can pull out more books. It's hilarious and oh so cute. She has started pointing at things and when she reads she points to either the picture or the words. I'm one proud mama that she's starting some early book skills all on her own just from being read to here and at daycare :)
-She talks a ton. It's so fun to hear her babbling away! Sometimes I wonder what she's saying. Eleanor does have two consistent words: "kuh" is "cat" and "guh" is "book." I know the sounds don't quite match up but she very consistently says them for each object. And if we're in her bedroom and say "cat" she immediately looks toward the door in expectation of a cat walking in the room. Smart girl!
-Eleanor still loves the cats and, surprisingly enough, they both tolerate her pretty well. Both Lola and Sadie will let Eleanor crawl close and bury her face in their side (she loves to feel their fur on her face). They also let Eleanor pet them. However, Lola and Sadie do draw the line and get up and leave when Eleanor tries to pull up to a stand using a cat as support :)
-Little Miss can clap her hands, wave (though it's still not consistent), and give high fives. It's pretty cute.
-Eleanor is eating 6 ounces in her bottles roughly every 3.5-4 hours. She's eating lunch and dinner every day (except for the days when she sleeps through dinner since she refuses to nap well at daycare). So far Eleanor will eat pretty much anything, with the exception of plain yogurt. I bought some when she had a stomach thing going on a couple weeks ago and she was literally trying to get it off her tongue while pushing Matt's hand with the spoon away from her face. She liked the banana yogurt I got the next day much better :) We're planning to start breakfast this week. It's been tricky since I already get up so early and get Eleanor up so early during the week. With already waking her up at 6:15am I didn't want to have to start waking her up at 5:45 in order to have time for a bottle and for her to eat breakfast before we leave the house for daycare. Matt talked with Eleanor's daycare teachers about it on Friday and they said we could just bring breakfast with her in the mornings and they could give it to her. That makes it so much easier, especially because we can also then space out bottles and table food instead of eating breakfast right after having a bottle. I just need to figure out some quick and easy things I can take with her in the mornings. Right now I'm thinking yogurt, fruit, and maybe oatmeal or bagels. Any other ideas/suggestions?
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| Girlfriend loves pasta. Loves it. She yelled at us when her tray was empty. |
-Eleanor's favorite toy right now is her baby doll. We picked it up at Tar.get last weekend and girlfriend has barely put it down since then. Her face lit up when she held it in the store and she gives the doll huge hugs when she picks it up or when we hand it to her. She crawls around dragging the doll behind her and has a lot to say either to or about the doll. Matt and I decided the doll needed a name, so we are now calling her Jane :)
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| Asleep in the car with Jane the doll :) |
-Eleanor is now wearing 9-12 month clothes. She made that switch a couple weeks ago, so right around the time she turned 9 months. We went to the doctor today for her 9 month appointment (yes, almost a month late, but I'm on fall break so I didn't have to take time off work). Eleanor weighed 21 pounds (76th percentile) and was 28.25 inches long (63 percentile). The nurse practitioner was really pleased with where Eleanor is developmentally, both physically and cognitively. We go back in January for her one year (!) appointment, though we have a short appointment next month to get the second dose of her flu vaccine. (I debated about getting it or not, but with the amount that Eleanor is around other people and kids decided it was probably safer to do so.)
-We carved our first pumpkin as a family last weekend. Eleanor had a ball! We let her reach in and pull out the inside of the pumpkin. She also kept pulling up on the pumpkin and trying to eat the edges of it. By the time we were finished she had pumpkin all over, even in her hair! Look for another blog post in the next few days all about fall activities! :)
Here are some other random pictures of Eleanor:
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| At the doctor for a bad rash and a tummy bug. Some good antibiotic ointment and a probiotic got things back to normal. |
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| Go Bucks! (and thanks Grandma for the adorable outfit) |
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| Helping make sandwiches for homeless men downtown (our small group does this the first Sunday of every month) |
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| Eleanor loves drinking out of a real glass/cup |
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| Into everything these days :) |
