9 months - things I don't want to forget

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.

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.

Taking herself on in to her classroom at daycare

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?

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 :)

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:

At the doctor for a bad rash and a tummy bug.  Some good antibiotic ointment and a probiotic got things back to normal.

Go Bucks!  (and thanks Grandma for the adorable outfit)

Helping make sandwiches for homeless men downtown (our small group does this the first Sunday of every month)

Eleanor loves drinking out of a real glass/cup

Into everything these days :)

39 weeks/9 months

So yesterday Matt took kind of a fun photo of me and Eleanor.  The last pregnancy photo I have is from 39 weeks (I went into labor at 39w2d and Eleanor was born at 39w3d).  Yesterday marked 39 weeks since Eleanor's birth...so we took a photo in the same spot we took most of my pregnancy photos and Matt made this little "39 weeks in/39 weeks out" collage.  Crazy what a difference 39 weeks makes, isn't it?

Also, Eleanor turned 9 months old today!  It's getting harder and harder to get photos of her sitting still because she is on the go all.the.time.  During this 5 minute photo session she kept pulling up on the bear, rubbing her face on the bear, and bouncing up and down on her bottom.  Seriously, the girl is a little ball of energy :)

Teeth!

Matt got a great picture of Eleanor's teeth tonight at dinner.  Yep, that's right, I said teeth, not tooth.  We found a second tooth poking through her gum yesterday evening.  Again, we had no idea she was teething (am I naive in hoping the rest of her teeth come in with no issues?).  But she's got that tooth on the right and then just barely has her other bottom tooth to the left of the bigger one.  If you zoom in closely you can see it a little easier :)

Things I Don't Want to Forget - 8 months

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 :)

8 months

Happy (belated) 8 months to our sweet girl!  We took this photo on Monday night, after a long day of traveling in the car, but Matt just had time to edit it and get it ready to go tonight.  She looks to be in a pretty good mood after being in her carseat for 8+ hours, doesn't she?

I'll have an update posted soon about what Eleanor is up to these days, but I'll leave you with this little tidbit of information...we now officially have a mobile baby!  I'm shopping for baby gates this weekend... :)

Carseat and Extended Rear-Facing

I mentioned in the 7 month update that I would do a post soon about the convertible carseat we chose and why.  Well, here it is.  And I'll be honest, I'm probably going to get on a (small) soap box here :)

Choosing a carseat is hard.  It's such an important decision since that seat could someday be the reason your child lives in a car accident.  All seats made and sold in the US have to meet the same basic safety standards, though some brands have better safety track records than others and some brands do more extensive/higher levels of testing than others.  But the fact remains that the same basic safety standards are met with any carseat that is purchased.  People base their carseat decisions on brand name, price, fabric pattern/color, ease of use, recommendations from others, what fits in their vehicle, what features the seat offers, and all sorts of other things.

We based our convertible carseat decision on two things: safety track record and which one would allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing the longest.  Yes, her seat is a really pretty purple color, but that's just an added bonus :)

Did you know that the AAP now recommends that children remain rear-facing in carseats until at least the age of 2?  This is recently changed from the "age 1 and at least 20 pounds" criteria.  Did you know that many other countries recommend children remain rear-facing until age 3 or 4?

Know why?  Because rear-facing is the safest for a child in the event of an accident.  There's no magic switch that goes on at a kid's first or second birthday that says they're able to turn forward-facing and be safe.  Because small children's heads are so big in proportion to their bodies, in an accident their bodies and heads are thrown forward.  The five-point-harness restrains their bodies, but their heads are thrown even further forward before coming back against the seat.  This can cause serious head and neck injuries - including internal decapitation.

Check this out:

And this video has some really powerful crash test videos with forward-facing and rear-facing child-sized dummies in carseats.  If you don't want to watch the whole video, please just watch the first two minutes.

There was a great article about extended rear-facing in the New York Times.  Here's a powerful and to-the-point quote from it:

“Our recommendations are meant to help parents move away from gospel-held notions that are based on a child’s age,” Dr. Durbin said. “We want them to recognize that with each transition they make, from rear-facing to forward-facing, to booster seats, there is a decline in the safety of their child. That’s why we are urging parents to delay these transitions for as long as possible." (emphasis mine)

Common reasons people say they turn their children forward-facing before they reach the maximum height and weight limits for rear-facing on their carseats?  Their kids look uncomfortable or their legs are against the backseat or crossed.  Guess what?  Broken legs can be fixed.  Broken necks/spines are much harder to fix.

And when parents do finally turn kids forward facing, it is safest for them to be in a five-point harness as long as possible.  This helps restrain the child's body much better than the car's seat belt, not to mention that most car seat belts do not fit children properly until they are older.

More info about extended rear-facing:
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
http://www.kyledavidmiller.org (this is the website for a little boy who was killed in a booster seat at the age of 3; there is a short video at the top of the page)

So what carseat did we choose?  The Diono RadianRXT.  It has the absolute highest height and weight limits for rear-facing of any carseat sold in the US.  With this seat we should be able to keep Eleanor rear-facing well past her second birthday.  We will not be turning her forward facing until she reaches the maximum weight limit on her carseat.  This carseat lets a child stay rear-facing until 45 pounds!  And when we do have to turn her, the Radian can be used forward-facing with a five-point harness until 80 pounds (10-15 pounds more than most other carseats and 40 pounds more than some), at which point the Radian turns into a booster seat until 120 pounds.  Because the frame of the carseat is steel alloy instead of plastic, this carseat has a longer expiration date than most carseats (yes, carseats do expire; the plastic starts to break down, rendering it less safe.  Check the side/back of your carseat for the manufacture and/or expiration date).  It will literally be the only other carseat we will purchase for Eleanor, aside from her infant carrier.  

I'm not knocking other brands of carseats and in fact had narrowed it down to the Diono Radian and one or two other seats.  But the final draw of the Radian was the ability to allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing as long as possible, and forward-facing with a five-point harness as long as possible before finally moving her to a booster with the car seatbelt.  (Though the Radian does have other awesome features, like being able to fit three across the backseat of a regular car and folding up to be carried like a backpack - handy if you're traveling in an airport.)

This isn't a sales pitch for the Radian (though we do love it).  In researching carseats I came across so many articles/videos/people talking about the importance of keeping children rear-facing as long as possible that I just wanted to share some of that information.  Because really, it's all about helping each other keep our kids as safe as possible, right?  There are many carseats on the market now with height and weight limits that will allow many children to remain rear-facing past the age of 2.  Please, please, please keep your child rear-facing until they reach the maximum height/weight limits for their carseat.  It could literally save their life.

Things I Don't Want to Forget - 7 months

-Eleanor is so active these days!  She's not crawling yet, though she desperately wants to.  She gets her feet kicking and her arms moving, but she just hasn't quite figured it out yet.  She has gotten onto all fours and started rocking several times though, which is a start!  She's also pushing herself backward, which is the first step in figuring out crawling.  She'll get there.  In the meantime, Eleanor has discovered that she can simply roll across a room to get what she wants - toys, cell phones, whatever catches her eye.  And putting her down for a nap often turns into her playing around and attempting to crawl.  I have a newfound appreciation for all the slats around her crib!  Check her out:

-She is talking up a storm.  Of course by talking I really mean babbling, but Eleanor thinks she is talking.  She has so much to say.  She has discovered the "b" sound and has been making that quite frequently, with some "m" and "d" sounds thrown in there.  We've been trying to get her to mimic us when we say "mama" or "dada" but anytime we do that she just laughs.  Apparently those are funny words that are better laughed at than repeated.  Recently she's been saying the "d" sound after Matt does it, but not with consistency.  Mostly she just smiles.

-Eleanor loves banging things together to make noise.  I bought her some stacking cups to play with and she likes hitting them against each other.  This past week she also discovered that she can hold her pacifier by the nub that goes in her mouth and bang the back of it against her crib in order to make a really fun sound :)

-Eleanor also really likes being "chased."  If Matt holds her and I walk behind she thinks I'm coming to get her and just starts grinning and kicking her legs and flapping her arms.  It's adorable.  Today walking into church Matt was carrying her and she looked at me and started grinning her huge grins, thinking I was chasing her (really the sidewalk wasn't wide enough for me to walk next to them).  I got to "chase" her all the way into church and she loved it.  It's one of our favorite games to play together as a family now; we've made lots of trips across our upstairs hallway and in and out of bedrooms :)

-Little Miss loves.loves.loves mirrors.  She grins and squeals and kicks her legs when she sees herself.  Each day we take a tour of the mirrors upstairs in our house.  She has a ball.  We have one full length mirror in our guest room that Eleanor loves to sit in front of.  She just grins, hits the mirror, tries to pull on it (don't worry, I hold it so she can't pull it over, since it's just propped against the wall), and generally has a blast.

-Eleanor also loves closing things.  She loves closing the computer-type thing on her activity table and I found this toy at a consignment store.  I just open all of the things and let her go to town, then rinse and repeat!

-Solid foods are going really, really well.  She loves carrots and peaches, but really I'm pretty sure she'd eat anything we give her.  She's getting pretty good and gnawing off chunks of whatever she's eating and then mashing them around enough to swallow them.  She still gags a bit, but not nearly as much as she did when we started BLW.  I'm trying to branch out in the vegetables and fruits I'm giving her.  She's trying cauliflower this week.

-Eleanor has (just this weekend) discovered that she can hold on to something and stand up.  She's not quite pulling herself up yet, but she tries when she holds on to someone's fingers.  But if we stand her next to an ottoman or a toy she thinks she's pretty awesome. 

-Today we moved Eleanor to her convertible carseat.  The infant seat was getting a little cramped, though she is still well within the height and weight limits for it.  But to be honest the only places we have carried her carseat in and out of in the last couple months are the house and daycare.  She's getting so big that it's really heavy carrying her and the carseat.  She seems so much more comfortable with more room.  I'm planning to do a post soon-ish about the carseat we chose and why (I'm becoming a big fan of extended rear facing).

-Eleanor had her first trip to the state fair.  She had lots of fun people and animal watching.  She even got to pet a llama (with her foot, since her hands are always in her mouth) and thought it was pretty amazing.  We went through some of the things set up for kids, including an exhibit where kids work on a "farm" and have to collect different things to put in their basket.  Check out Eleanor's cool hat and her basket of goods, which we "sold" and got $1 (in fake money) to exchange for a treat (we got applesauce, as it was all Eleanor can eat that was being offered).  I think we had more fun with it than Eleanor did, though she liked posing with the giant pigs :)

-We spent last Saturday in Louisville celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary with mass and dinner.  How pretty does Eleanor look in her dress?  

This is such a fun age.  Matt and I enjoy the time we get to spend together as a family and realize we are so blessed by the amount of joy Eleanor brings to our family.