Eleanor took her first steps on Thursday, December 6. For the next week or so she would only take a few steps before falling or sitting down on purpose. We caught this video the Sunday after she started walking. (side note: apparently hair ties are super interesting and make provide awesome motivation to walk)
Then here she is just 2 weeks later, walking like a pro! She's still a little wobbly, but she's definitely walking! This was yesterday at church.
Eleanor loves walking. She still prefers to be near something she can pull up on, but once she's up, she's good to go. We were out running a few errands this morning and we let her walk a bit. She kept letting go of both our hands, insisting on walking by herself! She is too funny and thinks she's a big kid now that she's in with the big kids in the toddler room at daycare instead of in the infant room :)
Our sweet girl turned 11 months old yesterday! It's so hard to believe that the next photo we take like this will be when she turns 1.
The weather was exceptionally nice yesterday, so we celebrated Eleanor turning 11 months old by taking a walk outside with Little Miss in her new shoes! She's not walking by herself yet, but she's soooo close.
Since Eleanor will be 11 months old tomorrow (!) I figured I should probably get a post up about what she's up to these days. I didn't get to it closer to 10 months, so I'm just going to do a combined post about 10 and 11 months. Brace yourself - Eleanor is very busy these days so we have a lot to update on! :)
-Eleanor loves to walk with her push toy. Loves it. That's all she wants to do. And nowadays she can even steer herself, so she's completely self-sufficient with the walker. The daycare director talked with me last week about moving up to the one year old room a little early (starting to transition the week of December 10) because "Eleanor is getting a little overbearing with the walker." Seriously, the girl can book it!
Last Friday Eleanor crawled over to a push toy when I sat her down to fill out paperwork at daycare dropoff. She walked herself on out of the room and down the hallway! Girlfriend is on the move.
What does a smart girl do when the church nursery doesn't have a push walker? Make her own using the toy bucket of course!
-She is starting to stand on her own for anywhere from a few seconds to close to a minute. This lasts longer if she has something in her hands. I think this is because then she doesn't realize she is standing independently :) We are trying to encourage her to stand independently and take steps, but she still prefers crawling, cruising, and using her push toy.
Helping with diaper laundry - and standing independently!
Boxes are fun to stand in too
-Eleanor has been giving high fives for a while now, but now she will also wave and blow kisses - sometimes even with an "Mmmm" sound accompanying them! One day last week when I walked in the room to pick her up from daycare she crawled over to me. Once I picked her up she turned to look at one of her teachers, grinned, waved, blew a kiss, then looked at me as if to say, "okay Mommy, let's go!" It was adorable. Here is a video of her making a "blub" sound with her finger over her lips (also a new trick) and then blowing kisses. (She's in a disposable diaper because we've been battling a yeast rash - again. She's on her second round of oral medication, so hopefully it goes away for good this time!)
-The cats are still a huge hit with Eleanor. She absolutely adores them and crawls all over trying to pet them. Lola is more tolerant of her than Sadie is, but they're both good with her. We spent a couple days at my mom and stepdad's during Thanksgiving and Eleanor was in heaven since there are a ton of cats running around everywhere. We arrived late Wednesday night and the minute we walked in the door, before we had even seen a cat, Eleanor started smiling and making a "k" sound (how she says "cat").
Lola loves Eleanor...Eleanor still loves books
-Eleanor is doing a great job with table foods. She's eating three meals a day (usually yogurt and cheerios for breakfast at daycare, lunch, and then dinner with us). Some days she gets a snack, though we're still figuring out what snacks at daycare we're okay with her having and which ones we aren't (some of them have a ton of sugar, which we're not big fans of). I think we're going to send in some foods Eleanor can have for snack on the days we don't want her having the daycare snack. In the past month or so we've started ordering a kids meal, or at least an entree, when we go out to eat. She won't eat all of it, but she's eating enough that it's starting to affect what Matt and I eat. Eleanor is a great eater and really loves vegetables and fruit. She is also a big fan of anything pasta.
Turkey and green beans on Thanksgiving
She loves pasta. I'm not kidding - she will yell at you if her tray is empty and she is still hungry.
She's also gotten pretty good at looking for dropped food chunks in her bib :)
She's also doing a great job with water. We got a couple new sippy cups that have a rim like a regular cup or glass. While she was doing fine with the straw sippy cups, she absolutely loves these new cups and drinks a ton of water using them.
-Eleanor still loves reading books. She is also very into pointing at things these days. She points to pictures in books she's reading, things around her, photos...pretty much anything. She really likes walking around and looking at the photos we have in the house. We point to the people and say their names. Well, Matt and I say the names and Eleanor does her best :)
Reading with Daddy
-The weather lately has had some unseasonably warm days. We've been taking advantage of the weather and getting outside as much as we can. A couple weeks ago we went for a walk at a nearby state park. Here is Eleanor with Matt on our walk.
Just some other fun photos!
Girlfriend will not sit facing you in the cart. She turns every which way trying to look around :)
Hanging out with Nana on Thanksgiving (my grandma)
Eleanor and Grandpa (my dad)
Playing with the toy kitchen at Crack.er Barr.el. Good thing we're planning to get her one next year! She loved it!
Go Bucks!
Trying to go through the cat door at Nonna and Papa's house
We've also starting planning Eleanor's first birthday party (a winter "one"derland) and decorating for Christmas. Eleanor loves the tree and has done a great job of gently touching the tree but not trying to pull anything off of it.
Birthday invitation photo out take :)
Christmas decorations! The nutcrackers (and these aren't nearly all of them) started when Matt was a kid. He wanted a nutcracker for Christmas so his grandmother got him a real wooden, nicely made nutcracker from Germany each year. Aren't they fun?
