The past 2 months, in bullet points

-Keeping up with blogging, on top of work and home, is hard.  I'm thinking of having one set day each week to do a short blog post so we don't go a LONG time without updates again.  It's a shame there aren't any days of the week that start with a B, because the alliteration of "blog B____" has a nice ring to it.  As it is, I'm thinking maybe Wednesdays might make a good blog night.

-Learning how to use eating utensils

When spearing doesn't work, just stick the food on by hand!

Eating chicken and rice soup

-Eleanor continues to talk up a storm.  In addition to the words she had last time, she has added a ton of new ones.  Matt and I made a list in preparation for her 15 month well visit last week.  Girlfriend is up to over 40 words.  Did I mention the average for 15 months is 5-15 words?  Some new words lately:

-basketball (pronounced bah-ball)
-bubbles
-milk
-shoe
-yay
-uh oh
-baby
-banana
-swing (we just put one up on our swingset for her)
-walk
-Nonna (my mom)
-Nana (my grandma)
-Papaw, Pawpaw, Poppa (all sound similar; these are my grandfathers and my stepdad)

-Phrases!  My 15 month old is starting to (every now and then) talk in phrases, people!  So far we've heard "Hi Lola!" and "Bye bye baby."

-Eleanor can follow spoken directions like a champ!  She knows what "Sit down," means (usually so we can put her shoes on or if she's trying to stand in the bathtub).  If I hand her something and say, "Go give that to Daddy," she'll carry it over and hand it to Matt (or vice versa).  "Go get your jacket."  "Let's put on your shoes."  "Go get your milk."  "Go upstairs."  "Get a book."  "Give a hug."  "Can I have a kiss?"  "Can I have hugs?"  "High five!"  "Hold ______'s hand."  "Clap your hands."  She's got all of those down.  Such a smart girl!

vanilla extract, Eleanor's new BFF.  She makes a beeline for it in the pantry.

-Games are fun.  Eleanor's current favorites include shutting bedroom doors, then saying "Hi!" when you open it.  Then telling you "bye bye" as she closes it.  She claps her hands once the door closes, then waits for you to open the door again.  Rinse and repeat.  We've also taught her to say "knock knock knock" while knocking on the door.

(As a side note, I was pulling a pan out of a cabinet the other night, and Eleanor tried to shut the cabinet on my head, saying "bye bye.")

She also loves running in circles around the island in our kitchen.  Over and over and over.  Wiping the floor with a towel and "helping" with the dishwasher are also apparently great fun when you're 15 months old.

take dishes, leave cat

Bet you can't guess how the salt got there huh?

Wiping the floor.  She now shakes her water cup to try to get drops on the floor so she can grab a towel and clean it.

-Eleanor may or may not have a slight obsession with shoes.  And really, I think she's obsessed with shoes because shoes = going bye bye.  She frequently goes into the pantry/laundry room/mud room, gets her shoes, and brings them to you.  If you don't immediately put them on her, she will sit down and try to put the shoes on herself.  Or she may try to put her shoes on your foot.  She will also grab her jacket, stand by the door going out to the garage, and say "bye bye!  Bye bye!" over and over again.  It's hilarious.

Bye bye!

-Books are still a huge hit in our house!  I love that at 15 months old Eleanor already has favorite books that she can identify on the shelf, pull off, and bring to us to read.  Current favorites include From Head to Toe by Eric Carle (and she will also do some of the motions with it), The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle, Hop! (the pictures move when you move the pages; Eleanor is a pro at doing this by herself), and anything with animals.

I absolutely love when Eleanor gets a book, hands it to you, then turns around and backs up until she plops down in your lap.  Love it.

-Animal sounds are fun to make!  Eleanor loves looking at pictures of animals and imitating sounds.  She knows that ducks say "quack quack," dogs say "woof woof," cows say "moo," sheep say "baa baa," lions say "roar," and cats say "meow."  She will also imitate us with other animal sounds.

-Cutest.thing.ever.  When you ask Eleanor where something is, she gets a quizzical look on her face and throws her arms out to the side.

-Eleanor finally has more teeth!  She cut two more bottom teeth a few weeks ago, and then one of her top teeth decided to join the party.  I'm pretty sure her other top tooth is almost through the gum as well. I'm definitely going to miss her gummy grins, but I'm glad we're not going to have a toothless wonder on our hands :)

-Girlfriend had surgery to put tubes in her ears on March 25.  She'd had a double ear infection on and off (mostly on) since before Christmas).  After 5 rounds of antibiotics and fluid still on both of her ears, the pediatrician and ENT both agreed that tubes were her best option.  The good news is, her hearing test showed that her hearing still seems to be normal and her speech development is a little ahead (according to the pediatrician), so the ear infections haven't seem to have affected those two areas much, if at all.  The surgery went well and the ENT said Eleanor had a ton of fluid on her ears and it was some of the thickest fluid she's ever seen.  She likened it to rubber cement.  Poor Eleanor!  Thankfully, she was back to her happy self by that afternoon and even went back to daycare the next day.

At the surgery center waiting for the anesthesiologist.  She was in a pretty good mood for not being allowed to have anything to eat or drink.

"helping" put ear drops in

-Eleanor also had her first nights without her mommy and daddy.  My spring break was last week and Matt and I took a few days to go down to the resort in Mexico where we spent our honeymoon.  It was hard leaving Eleanor, but it was also really good to have some time just the two of us.  Eleanor did great with my mom and we were able to video chat with her every day!

pretty much how we spent Sunday-Wednesday of last week

not bad, huh?  Definitely much needed relaxation

View from lunch

candlelight dinner on the beach - celebrating our 5 year anniversary a few months early :)

-The new swing on our playset is a big hit with Little Miss.  Whenever we are outside and she sees it, she takes off running for it yelling "swing swing!" or "whee!  whee!" depending on her mood.

-Toddler tantrums are in full force.  Except she hasn't really figured out the tantrum part and just mostly sits or lays down and refuses to move.

I don't want to hold your hand so you can stop me from running into the street.  So I'm just going to sit here with my basket.

"Tantrum" because she couldn't walk around with an open container of baking powder.

-Chalk, bubbles, nice weather - we are spending lots of time outside

-At her 15 month appointment last Friday Eleanor weighed 26 pounds 6 oz and was 30.75 inches long. She's still wearing 18 month clothes and size 5 shoes.

Snow is cold! She laughed hysterically every time she touched it!

Eleanor and Matt surprised me at lunch the day after she got tubes. He picked her up from daycare mid-morning, took her home to get her dressed up, and they brought me flowers.  Just because.  Matt also got Eleanor her own small bouquet of flowers.  Yep, he's a keeper :)

Visiting Papaw (my mom's dad)

Going on a walk with Pawpaw (my dad's dad)