Sunday, September 30, 2007

Your honest opinion

So, today we tried out a new hairstyle for Eleanor. Her dad and I have differing opinions on whether or not it works for her.

Before I tell you what I think, tell me what you think. Is the Pebbles 'do too cute or too silly on Eleanor? Let's try to use those two phrases only, please, as I would hate to have to un-invite anyone (or kick them in the kneecaps) for a rude comment about my adorable little girl. Thanks for your input!

Give me a litte smile...

And now your serious look...

And a random picture of Little Missy trying so hard to be big...

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Eleanor is 13 months old!






Here's what she's up to:


  • Making us laugh outloud with all of her cute, new words. She knows she's funny too. We'll be totally crackin' up, and she just keeps the straightest, little face the whole time, and keeps making us laugh.

  • Still crawling everywhere, but getting faster and faster everyday. In the past couple of days, she has moved to a bear crawl (on her hands and toes).

  • Still being very choosy about what and how she'll eat. If she doesn't want what I give her, she shakes her head, says "Uh-uh", and places the food in the cup holder of her high chair tray. (It's SO hard not to laugh about that!) She has also apparently inherited my food texture issues, as she sometimes gags when she just touches slimy food with one finger.

  • Learning to obey when we tell her no. If she's about to do something she knows she's not supposed to, she turns around, looks at me, and says, "Uh-uh." (Which doesn't always mean she won't do it.)

  • Having 2AM parties in her crib at which she runs laps around the inside of the crib, plays "Toss the Pacie" ('uh-oh'), and talks to her stuffed animals. (Hilarious to watch on the video monitor!) Then, after as long as an hour, she lies back down and goes to sleep.

We are so in love that baby girl! God is SO good!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Another new word

I know, I know. I keep telling myself that I'm not going to post a video every time Eleanor says a new word. And then I do. I just think it's so darn cute and amazing when she surprises me by knowing what things are called. It's not like I'm sitting around trying to make her say words all day. She just does it, and it's funny. At the very least, Eleanor's relatives are getting a kick out of the abundance of videos. It's been a while since I mailed out DVDs. Sorry guys!

A few notes about this video...
  1. Her room is messy.
  2. The boxes in the background are in her closet, which has no doors at this time. We bought new doors, but haven't put them up yet. (See previous post concerning month-long toilet saga.)
  3. I didn't mean to hit her in the head with the shoe. It's sort of hard to hold the camera, and pick up other objects at the same time. Well, it is for me anyway.



Sunday, September 23, 2007

More pictures of my house

So, the big around-the-clock-working-like-maniacs-push-to-get-our-house-redone has been over for some time. We got tired after six weeks or so. And we went broke. But we have been doing little projects here and there on the weekends whenever Eleanor will cooperate and watch her Baby Einstein videos like a good little girl. (We sound like awesome parents, huh?) Seriously, though, home improvement was much easier before she became so proficient at crawling/standing/getting into everything that looks like it could possibly be dangerous.

Anyway, after much sweat and many tears (no, really), we have finally finished one bathroom. (One down, two to go.) The toilet in this bathroom has caused us more heartache and trips to Lowe's/Home Depot than any other single project in the whole house. Here's the short version of the toilet saga...took the toilet out to tile the floor (which hubbie did an AMAZING job on), tried to put it back, bolts wouldn't work/kept getting lost down the stinky hole that is hiding under everyone's toilet that I hope you never get to see, bought forty-five of these wax ring thingies that go under the toilet, got the toilet in- wouldn't flush, (cried), poured every kind of chemical that is made to go in or around a toilet in the toilet, still didn't work, went to Home Depot for the forty-seven thousandth time, bought a new toilet, put it in, FLUSH!!! (cried again, but happy tears this time)

And here is the finished bathroom. Jared gets most of the credit. I was just the designer and apprentice on this one. He did most of the hard stuff. He's so stinkin' handy (and cute)! I think I'll keep him.

Before


After

It cracks me up when I label these pictures...like you would get them confused.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

How to take away a pacifier

Or not. I tried. And failed. I totally caved at bedtime, and I'm pretty sure anyone would have if they'd heard the screaming coming from that precious baby's room. She has never screamed like that before, and I hope she never does again. It didn't even sound like her. It sounded like, well, it sounded like if someone stepped on ten cats' tails at once while wearing a dog costume and squirting them with a waterhose. Not pretty.

My first strategy was the ol' cut-the-tip-off plan. That really ticked her off. She threw her pacies at me (quite an arm for a twelve-month-old) more than once. She also went the whole day with no nap. So, by bedtime we were both very tired and very grouchy. This time, I took the pacies out of her crib. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong-o. She launched into that whole screaming thing again. This is a kid who usually lies right down without a peep. Even if she's not tired, she'll play in her bed for up to an hour. So, you can imagine my dismay at this evening's events. After a quick phone call to my friend Laura (who told me exactly what I wanted to hear) for a little reassurance, I marched right into her room and gave her a pacie. Good thing I saved one, and only one, for an emergency such as this. If I hadn't, I'd be at the store right now toting a screaming baby in her puppy dog PJ's under one arm while searching frantically for a Gerber Nuk Size 2 with a latex nipple. Instead, I am typing this little post as my baby sleeps oh-so peacefully away in her comfy crib.

My new strategy- wait until she's two. Or three. Or seven. Or eighteen. Wait...there's no way she'd use it at college, right?

And to deter you from making any unkind comment about my kid still using a pacie to go to sleep, I went looking for pictures of Eleanor looking super cute with one in her mouth. All I could find were these...the first one is the day after she came home from the hospital (that's a preemie hat and a preemie pacie) and the second one is her with my dad (her Pop) when she was two and a half months old.



Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Itty bitty butterfly

Today, I put some pieces of Eleanor's Halloween costume on her and took a few (ha!) pictures. I wanted to take some now so that she wouldn't be wearing the sweatshirt, tights, boots, and parka that she's sure to need here by Halloween. I thought she looked totally adorable (as is quite obvious by the plethora of photos I am about to impose upon you.) She is supposed to be a butterfly, but we all know little hands have to have something to keep them busy, so she had a wand. I guess that makes her a fairy. Whatever. Now, on with the show...








Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Duckies and kitties and cars, oh my!

I know I've been posting a lot of videos lately, but I just can't get over all the new things Eleanor is learning! Isn't it amazing how God made little baby brains like sponges that soak up everything they see and hear?!




Oops...I cut off the end where she waves. Oh, well. We've already covered waving anyway. Boy, does it seem like that was only yesterday. Where is that chubby, little baby?!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

I scream, you scream...

Now, WHAT could possibly have Eleanor Macy so intrigued?...

...ice cream, of course. Alas, she really is my child.
And who could resist that face?? Certainly not her daddy...
We'll just call this a little lesson in sharing.

And we'll skip the picture of what happened when there was no more ice cream. Yikes! Eleanor brings whole new meaning to that song about screaming for ice cream!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Pant-napping

Here's Eleanor just after she awoke from a nap...Wait...something's missing...

Oh, there they are!

That crazy little squirt took off her pants while she was in her bed! What in the world?!

I'm just glad the diaper didn't come off too! I've heard horror stories involving a certain icky substance usually found in diapers smeared all over bedroom walls. Phew...at least we dodged that bullet...for today.

Isn't 'pant-napping' the best title ever? It's like the pants got kidnapped, but it also happened while she was napping. Man, I could use an adult conversation.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

'nana

So, Eleanor has had some eating issues in the past month (i.e. she doesn't want to eat anything I want her to eat), but we have run across a few sure-bet food. This week's sure bet is a banana. She'll eat the whole thing right up. That makes me very happy, as her other go-to foods have been less healthy (Nutrigrain bars, Goldfish, pancakes, etc.)

Yesterday, while I was putting the banana on her tray, she said, 'Nana.' I thought I must have imagined it, so I said, 'What, Eleanor? What is this?', and she pointed her little finger and said, 'Nana.' That kid cracks me up!

In the video, it's sort of hard to understand her because her mouth is full of 'nana, but you get the idea...

(Please note that she is eating with clothes on. She prefers to spread the 'nana on her face and hair.)



UPDATE to this post:
Okay, so when my husband saw this post, he laughed at me. He said it didn't sound like she was saying "nana" at all. Whatever. I was there. She said it. Two days in a row.

And I know I can count on my blogger friends to back me up. Wink, wink.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

CBS

Today, Eleanor and I started our Community Bible Study group. CBS is an organization that my friend Laura has been involved in for a while, and she asked me to join this year. So, I signed up.
I was a little worried because it meets every Wednesday from 9:30-11:30, and Eleanor is still a morning (and afternoon) napper. I just knew she was going to fall to pieces right when I dropped her off at her Baby CBS class because her nap is usually at 9:00. She's one of those babies whose nap you DON'T want to mess with. Anyway, she did fine. They quickly took her from me, and shooed me away, so there was no tearful (for either of us) goodbye.
When I picked her up, I asked how she did, and they said she only cried once- when another kid fell on top of her. They said she played by herself pretty much the whole time, and didn't even come over when all the other kids were catching bubbles. That's very typical of Eleanor. If I could use one word to describe her personality, it would be "cautious." I guess she participated in the Bible lesson- I think they make everyone sit together for that. Her friend Jordan will be there next week, and I'm sure she'll make sure 'Nel-nor' has a good time!
Here is Eleanor all dressed up for her big first day. This is an adorable dress that came with all of those awesome clothes Wendy sent a few months ago. Thanks, Wendy!!


On Friday, we start MOPS. I hope it goes as well as today did!

Monday, September 10, 2007

All done

So, I gave up on teaching Eleanor to sign when she was about 7 or 8 months old. I got really impatient, and thought she wasn't ever really going to consistently sign to me anyway. We've sort of picked it back up now because the alternative is her screaming at the top of her lungs until I figure out what she wants.

And success! We've finally got one concrete, consistent sign (and a bonus kiss because it's cute)...

PS- I almost always feed Eleanor with no clothes on because she insists on feeding herself and loves anything with spaghetti sauce. She really does have clothes, I promise.



Now, I'm trying to teach her a few others to make all of our lives a little bit calmer. We're working on milk, more, and please. When she was really little, she would copy me when I would sign "milk", but I don't think she ever really made the connection.

I think what she really wants to say most of the time is, "HURRY UP, MOMMY! Can't you see I'm starving/thirsty/bored/have a poopie diaper?!"

Saturday, September 8, 2007

A million dollar view

So, now that Eleanor is the big 0-1, she gets to ride in her brand new car seat AND face the front. This is a very big deal, people. It's like a whole new world has been opened up right before her curious little eyes. I think she's really enjoying the new view. I'm sure glad to be able to see her precious little face while we cruise along on our daily adventures. (Yes, I know I'm supposed to be looking at the road, but she's so much cuter.) I found it difficult to narrate our travels when she couldn't ever see what I was looking at.


Oh, and she can feel the air conditioner a little better too...



Now, that's funny.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

My little Ashlee Simpson

For those of you who don't keep up with the useless happenings of pop culture, Ashlee Simpson got caught lip synching when she was "performing" on Saturday Night Live last year.

Anyway, Eleanor has taken up lip synching. And it's hilarious. Whenever she hears music, she opens and closes her little mouth as if she's singing. Just watch...



That little peanut is doing so many new (and adorable) things everyday. Her newest word is "Wow!" It started out as a very enthusiastic "Woooooooooooooooooooow!", but she has since toned it down to a much more respectable and concise, "Wow." Everything that she doesn't know how to say is called, "Da-do." She has also started petting her baby dolls while saying, "Oooooh", and giving them big, wet kisses.