Reunited...and it feels so good

Title disclaimer: That is the song I kept singing in my head when Jared came back on Saturday. Only when I googled the lyrics did I find that the song was a little bit...um...well... here, you can read it if you want.

Now, on with the post...

Because my blog is private now, my hottie husband has agreed to let me post pictures of him. Yea! You finally get to see Eleanor's handsome daddy! He came back on Saturday after being away for five weeks, which was excruciating (not the coming back- the being away, obviously). I was SO happy, and, of course, cried at the airport when he came through the terminal door. Eleanor kept staring at him like she couldn't believe her little eyes. She literally wouldn't let him out of her sight, but didn't know how to react. Once we got home, though, she was ecstatic! I think it took a little while for her to really get that he was back. Here are some pictures that I absolutely adore of my loves loving each other...

Here are some pictures of Eleanor wearing the gifts that Daddy brought home for her. She refused to keep the hat on, which cracked me up because she'd never taken a hat off before!

Eleanor is 8 months old!

So, now we will continue with our regularly-scheduled blog...

Eleanor is 8 months old! Actually, she was 8 months old yesterday, but because of aforementioned creepy photo-stealer people, this post was delayed. Without further ado...here is our precious girl...

Here are some of the things she's up to:

• Babbling like crazy. She comes up with new sounds everyday! She has said 'Mama' three times, which totally melts my heart even if she doesn't know what she's saying.
• Banging everything! (Toys on toys, toys on the floor, toys on Mommy's chest, etc.)
• Rolling. Finally! I think she has become utterly frustrated with crawling and resigned herself to rolling to get what she wants.
• Going from a sitting position to lying on her tummy to get a toy that's out of reach.
• Giving lots and lots of sweet hugs and slobbery kisses to Mommy and Daddy.
• Laughing more and more about things that are less and less funny. (Or at least she's not telling me what's so funny about them!)
• Doing this thing with her hand that is either signing 'milk' or waving. (Or just discovering that she can open and close her hand, but that's not as impressive- now is it?)
• Laughing at and having long conversations with her adorable friend that lives in the mirror.
• Grabbing everything that is even remotely within her chubby, little arm's reach.

As I'm sure all of you mommies know, this is such a fun age!! She's really starting to be so aware of her surroundings, and is interested in everything that's going on. She finds humor in things that are funny, which I love! And she has, for the most part, outgrown a lot of fussiness. (She says that's baby stuff!) We are having so much fun!

Is that Baby Don King?

Now, this story has only very recently become funny to me. This kind of thing can seriously traumatize a first time mommy. Here goes...

It was the day before my mother-in-law was coming to meet her precious new granddaughter for the first time. I, of course, wanted Eleanor to look perfect. Well, I had noticed for a couple of days that her scalp was a little dry and flaky. I thought, "Why, that will never do. She must be a true vision of beauty when her grandmother lays eyes on her for the first time." So, there I am (sleep-deprived and delirious) trying to think of how to moisturize my baby's scalp back to perfection in just a few short hours. Aha...I had just read in Parent's magazine that should your newborn's scalp become dry, you should rub petroleum jelly on it. In hindsight, I can tell you that I either didn't read that article properly, the article wasn't intended for babies with hair, or (more likely the case) I made the whole thing up in my crazy, little new mommy head. But, at the time, I thought the petroleum jelly was just the ticket to give my little girl that special look she needed to impress her adoring Mimi. Boy, special look was right! Here it is....drum roll, please...the result of putting petroleum jelly on your newborn's head...I can't believe I'm showing you this...

Okay, if you're not laughing, close my blog right now because we can't be friends. Seriously, that's one of the top ten funniest things I've ever seen.

So, as luck would have it, my friend Laura was on her way over to visit me. I called and told her that I would leave the door unlocked for her, and that I would probably be a little busy when she arrived. When she opened the door, I was in the kitchen scrubbing Eleanor's head in the sink, and I said in a very calm voice, "Laura, something bad happened." When she saw what I had done, she tried to be a good friend and not bust out laughing since I was obviously upset. She did, however, encourage me to let her take a couple of pictures, which I will be forever grateful for. I kept asking her in this really panicked voice, "What am I gonna do? I ruined my baby's head." To which she replied (and I will never, ever forget this), "It'll come out. My grandpa always used to put petroleum jelly in his hair."

I had already washed my poor, tiny baby's head ten times with regular baby shampoo, so I started trying to think of another solution. Well, petroleum jelly is greasy, and what cuts through grease? Dish soap. So, I washed Eleanor's head eight more times...this time using Palmolive. Still nothing. Come to think of it, I ought to write those people a letter.

Anyway, the end of the story comes after about 40 more washes and rinses, using an entire bottle of baby shampoo. And there was my precious baby, looking more like her sweet self, and less like Don King.

Help me....pease!

Okay, so what better way to keep creepy people away from my blog than to post something so random and silly that no one will want to come back here anyway...

Today, I was making Eleanor green pea puree (I know...yum) when I saw the funniest thing. There was this one little pea peering out from the food processor bowl as if to say, "Somebody, help me!" I cracked up, and of course ran to get my camera. Eleanor didn't see the humor...I guess she's not there yet. So, here it is...

Okay, come back tomorrow for another very silly post, and I promise you will laugh so hard that you'll cry or tinkle or maybe both. It involves my 8-week-old baby and my...ummm...unique solution to cure her dry scalp. I'm getting it ready right now (as I will be busy tomorrow with MY HUBBIE!!!), and I promise these pictures will have you crackin' up. (I feel safe posting them while CP31 is still public because no one's gonna wanna copy these bad boys!)

To blog or not to blog

I read this post on Erin's Princess Pig Bear blog, and frankly it scares me. Apparently, people steal photos of babies and kids from blogs. I don't want some freak stealing (or even looking at) pictures of my precious baby girl. The watermark is a good idea, but that doesn't stop them from doing it. It really gives me the heebie-jeebies to think about it, so....

I'm either going to take my blog down or make it private. That will mean that only people who I invite can look at it. I'll let you know if I decide to go that route, so that I can get a list together of people to invite.

UPDATE************
I have decided that I will make my blog private. I just don't think I can sleep tonight now that I have been informed of what could be happening to my baby's pictures. So, blogger friends, if you would like to continue reading this blog, please send me an e-mail, so that I can add you to my list. (I'll be sending the invitation to all family members and friends that I know personally, so you guys don't have to e-mail me.) Here's my e-mail address: meg_jar@yahoo.com I'll officially go private on Monday. I'm not a paranoid person, and it's not that I think my photos are that good, but let's face it, Eleanor is one cute baby, which I'm sure makes her a target for these freaky photo stealers. :)

Arlington National Cemetery

Today was the most gorgeous day we've had all year, and my mom and I went to see some sights. We ended up at Arlington National Cemetery, where we saw some of the most beautiful tulips and cherry blossom trees. We were at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier just in time to see the Changing of the Guard Ceremony. Well, I saw the first part of it. Eleanor got a little too excited about it, and started squealing, so we made a quick exit to avoid ruining the mood for everyone.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful this weekend, so I can finally show my mom around. I think she's seen quite enough of the inside of our apartment!

Here are some pictures from today's outing. I took the last one especially for you, Robin.

PS- Jared will be home one week from tomorrow!!!

Self-esteem

Don't we all we wish we were that happy when we looked in the mirror?! I hope she ALWAYS loves herself this much!

And here's another picture- just because I think it's adorable...What is it with all the baby bunny stuff?!?

Mama's girl

I really hate the fact that Eleanor's daddy is out of town. I can tell that she is completely puzzled by the sudden disappearance of the other one third of our family. When he talks to her on the phone, her little face lights up, she smiles (with that scrunchy nose smile), and kicks those chubby little legs 100 mph. It's adorable! We'll be so glad when he gets back in NINE days!!!

But, in the meantime, I am enjoying the fact that she has become a total mama's girl. She is constantly doing mommy-checks to make sure I haven't somehow gotten away (like Daddy-who she apparently let out of her sight a little too long!) She sometimes clings to me for no reason at all and plants a big, slobbery kiss on my face. It's good to be the mommy!!

A whole new woman!

Okay, so Eleanor hasn't slept the entire night since last Thursday when she came down with this cold. I was totally fine with getting up with her when she was sick and needed her mommy. But since about Tuesday, she's been mostly fine, but still refused to sleep all night.

She would do this really cute thing where she would wake up at midnight (give or take five minutes), and shout for two to three hours. No matter what I did, she would not go back to sleep- warm milk, rocking, bouncing, rubbing various parts of her body to soothe her- nope, nothing, it wasn't happening. Yesterday, I had truly reached the low point of my sleep deprivation. I didn't feel anything like myself.

I kept telling my mom that I was the walking dead. We even discussed the possibility that I had some mental illness that is only evident when I am sleep deprived. Seriously, I'm a total nut job with no sleep, which my mom also got to witness last time she was here when Eleanor was ten days old.

I think sleep deprivation is so much worse when you're used to your little bundle sleeping a good 12-13 hours at night. I mean, in the beginning you know what to expect. Okay, I can't say that I was totally prepared for the nighttime marathons, but it didn't take long to come to the realization that sleep was a thing of the past. But when Eleanor was 14 weeks old, there was that magical night when she didn't get up. I awarded myself with the Mom-of-the-Year Award and knew that from then on, I had this parenting business in the bag. WRONG!

But last night, we did it. Eleanor did the usual midnight wake-up, but only lasted 45 minutes before she was happily back in Snoozeville. I didn't hear a peep from her until 6:50 this morning. Woohoo! I'm so the Mom-of-the-Year again. (Anyone who has accomplished a good night's rest with a small child is the MOTY in my book.)

So, I decided that in celebration of our restful night, I will post some of my favorite pictures of my little punkin' sleeping.

Not-so-happy Easter

So, my sister and I had this great idea to take pictures of our girls in bunny ears. They LOVED it! And here are the pictures to prove it...
And here are a couple more of my favorites just to show off how darn cute these babies are...

Of course, I couldn't forget my precious nephew...He's playing in his "boat."

PS- WE'RE HOME! It's great to be in our own place, but Eleanor and I miss everyone TONS already! And Little Missy is feeling quite under-the-weather with a bad cold. Her sniffly nose and scratchy cough are so pitiful. Nana came back with us, which is great because she can help take care of the sick little punkin', and hopefully she'll make a speedy recovery so that we can show Nana the sights around here.

Fun at Chloe's house

Eleanor and I have been spending lots and lots of time at my sister's house this week. I love it because we get to spend time together, watch our babies interact, and play with all the coolest toys. Because my sister is the most awesome mommy around, she bought Chloe this soft play mini-playground (in the pictures above), which she has set up in the living room behind her couch. (I'm telling you- seriously awesome mommy!) Chloe loves climbing on it, and it even has a slide! What kid wouldn't love having a slide in their living room?! Eleanor loves it (obviously). I really think as she gains mobility, she will love it even more. So, if I lived here, I would be at my sister's house everyday (for more reasons than just the soft play, of course), but I live a billion states away, which is going to make playdates a little difficult. (A whole other sad topic I do not wish to discuss at this time.) I'm thinking about getting Eleanor her own little soft play gym, but they're kind of pricey. I already asked my husband who, of course, said she could have whatever she wants, but I just don't know if we have the room.

Here's another picture of my beautiful niece, who is such a little sweetie! (The one picture I posted of the girls together is the best we've managed with both of them so far.) I have to keep reminding myself that she's almost two months older than Eleanor because I get worried about how much stuff this girl can do!

And here's my nephew, Ryder, who is the smartest 20-month-old in the world. I was proud of myself for getting a photo of him where he wasn't a blur. Boy, is he busy!! I got one other picture of him with Eleanor, but he had his finger in her ear. So curious!

What's wrong with these eggs?!

Family and friends

Hey, friends...sorry I haven't posted in a while. We are so busy visiting with our family and friends down here, and are having so much fun! Here are a few more photos of our visit. (Some of our family members are camera-shy, but we love them just the same!)


Eleanor's first wagon ride

Eleanor's friend Gabriel

Uncle Shane and soon-to-be Aunt Casey (Congrats on your engagement last night!)

Mimi

PaPaw
Great Granny

Eleanor's cousin Chloe (9 months)