11 Months

Eleanor is 11 months old today!

Most of you already know this since I posted about it on Facebook, but Eleanor has started saying a few words. First were "mama" and "dada," followed by "tickle," "baby," and "kitty" (ti-ty). She loves to talk and seems so anxious to communicate. Countless times a day she says "Mama?" with inflection as if she wants to ask me a question. I always answer with something like "What, baby?" and she will reply with one of her words or a string of babble. Sometimes we go back and forth just saying "Mama?" "What, baby?" "Mama?" "What, baby?" She loves getting any sort of response to her spoken words.

She is also starting to communicate with the few signs we have taught her. She picked up the sign for "nurse" the fastest (of course). She also knows the signs for "eat," "all done," and "more." She sort of made up a sign of her own too. When she wants something and I tell her "Say please" (of course I know she can't actually say it yet, but as Julie Andrews says, "Manners matter!" and you can't start too young), she will put out her hand with the palm up. Since she is doing so well with signing I'm working on adding more to her vocabulary, starting with "diaper," "water," and "again."

The "again" sign will come in handy because this girl LOVES books, and of course just reading a book once is never enough, so we always end up reading the same book to her over and over and over and over and over again. She will go over to the book case (I cleared out one of the lower shelves for her board books), pick out a book, bring it over to us, and hold it up for us to read to her. She loves turning the pages and stares so diligently at the pictures. When we read the end and close the book she immediately picks it up and hands it to us again. It can get very tedious, but if reading Barnyard Dance to her for the twentieth time in a row will help her develop a love of learning and reading, then I am more than glad to do it.

A few weeks ago we celebrated her first Easter. I wasn’t planning on doing anything for her since she is still so young, but Andrew called me on Friday before Easter and said he wanted to go to Target on his lunch break and get her an Easter basket. How sweet is that? He picked her out a baby doll, a few books, a stuffed lamb, a ball, and a squirt gun (which is a little advanced for her yet, but he wants it to be an Easter tradition). He also got her plastic eggs, which we filled with cheerios and hid in obvious places for her to find. She didn’t quite get the egg hunting process. We’ll have to try again next year. The doll, however, was a big hit. It is her new go-to toy, and what inspired her to say "baby." She is such a lovebug, always giving her doll (along with her stuffed animals and her very grateful parents) plenty of hugs and kisses.

In just one short month she will be one year old. It’s hard to believe. You know how when someone asks how old your baby is as the month goes on you stop saying simply “6 months” and start to say “almost 7 months”? I do that a lot, always looking toward the future rather than staying in the moment. I’ve been saying she was “almost 11 months” for half of the time she was 10 months. I’m not going to do that this time. I’m going to try really hard to make this month, the last month of my baby’s first year of life, go by as slowly as possible. When people ask, I will say she is simply 11 months old, not almost 12 months, not almost one. I want to cherish every single day of her being just 11 months old, I won’t rush her on.

10 Months

Eleanor is 10 months old today!

Her favorite things are currently clapping and waving. The first thing she does when she wakes up in the morning is wave at me, then wave at the kitty. She always waves at the kitty even though the kitty never waves back. She waves at strangers, when she hears the words "Hi" and "Bye," and when Andrew walks in the door after work. She claps whenever she hears music, wants to express approval, or simply wants to hear me say "Yay!"

She is picking up new tricks left and right. If I hold out my hand and say “Please!” she will put whatever she has at the moment in my hand. At first it was just a fun pass-back-and-forth game, but it’s started to really come in handy when she gets ahold of something I don’t want her to have. Instead of taking it from her and making her cry, I just say “Please!” and she hands it right over. I wonder how long it will take her to figure out she doesn’t always have to hand me something when I ask for it.

She learned how to take toys out of containers and put them back in. At first she was just doing it with a blue plastic Solo cup that she picked up at a party over a month ago that has been a constant source of fun, but last week we went to a toy store and got her a little dog house with small plush dogs to put in and take out of. She loves it.

She’s also learned how to lay on her belly and fish dust bunnies out from under the furniture. Mommy is not a fan of this last one. But luckily she hands them over to me if I ask nicely and say “Please.” That is if I notice before she puts it in her mouth. Yuck.

She has started reliably saying "Mama" and "Dada" now. Any time she wants me she starts on with her “mamamamamamaaa.” Heaven forbid I ever leave the room, because she immediately yells out for me. A lot of her "Mama" talk happens in the midst of whining, but my favorite times are when she is playing on the floor and crawls to me with a crystal clear “Mama” and a smile on her sweet face. A few days after she really got "Mama" down and she learned "Dada" as well. She is also repeating a lot of sounds and even words, but I don't think she is connecting them with anything yet, so I don't want to point to anything as her first real word. She has repeated "yes," "shoes," and "that" so far, but only sporadically. We love hearing her sweet little voice.

One last thing, she has eight teeth!

Here are some photos from the last few weeks:

9 Months

Eleanor is 9 months old today!

Wow. She has been out as long as she was in. While those first 9 months went by painfully slowly, these last 9 months have flown by. It's hard to believe it was even the same amount of time.

At 9 months Eleanor is crawling all over the place, curiously exploring our apartment. She loves to head toward something she knows I don't want her to touch and then turn around a smile at me, as if to say "Are you gonna come get me now?" She started really crawling a week ago and is now a seasoned pro. She is a good eater and likes to try new foods, making use of her six teeth. She can drink out of a sippy cup by herself (as long as it's the kind with a straw). She usually only take two naps a day and is a great sleeper at night. She is really easy going and does great out and about, at restaurants, and at our friends' houses. She likes her stroller and of course being in the Ergo carrier. She loves to laugh and give kisses. She is unspeakably wonderful.

Eleanor and I will be back in Phoenix later this week to celebrate Atlas's first Birthday. We're going to try to get in as many visits as possible. We're looking forward to seeing everybody!

38 weeks:

39 weeks:

36 & 37 Weeks

Our girl is getting closer and closer to crawling. She can get into the hands and knees position really quickly now and has crawled backwards a few times, but she's still learning how to coordinate her arms and legs to get her to move forward. She also figured out how to maneuver from her belly into a sitting position.

She constantly surprises us with her brightness. Last week we were sitting on the floor playing and the second Andrew walked through the door after work she waved at him! He hadn’t even had time to wave to her first. She put it together that waving is something you do when you first see someone. I've also been half-heartedly teaching her a few signs and today she mimicked the "all done" sign.

I inadvertently taught Eleanor the best trick ever this week. Sometimes if she is feeling particularly cuddly she will put her head against my chest just for a second, then look up at me and smile. When she started doing that, I started squeezing her close and saying “Oh, soooooo sweet!” which she found hilarious. Now if I ask her, “Eleanor, are you so sweet?” she’ll put her head down on my chest and I will respond with a drawn out sing-songy “soooo sweet!” So I basically conditioned her to cuddle on cue.

She is so stinkin cute I can hardly handle it. I was sad when she started teething because I knew I’d miss her gummy smile, but now I couldn’t possibly imagine my life without her wide bunny-toothed grin. She has the best smile I have ever seen, an ear-to-ear beam where she shows off all 6 of her pearly whites that just melts your heart.

37 weeks:

36 weeks:

8 Months

Eleanor is 8 months (or 35 weeks) old today!

Here are just a few things that I love about our 8 month old baby girl:

• She has started initiating smiles. Nothing warms my heart more than when I look at her and she smiles at me. Throughout the day she gives me these sweet smiles all on her own, and it feels like she' reminding me to enjoy the present moment and smile too.
  
  
• She is either really friendly or really afraid of strangers, depending on the day. Sometimes she is all smiles and make friends with everyone around her. Other times she gives people blank, serious stares and puts her head down on my shoulder.
  
  
• She likes to sit on the floor and play with her toys, but only if I sit on the floor with her. If I stand up, she immediately whines at me until I sit back down.
  
  
• She loves to blow zerberts on any bit of exposed skin she can find. Arms, shoulders, bellies, legs. All skin is fair zerbert game for her! She also likes to receive zerberts. After blowing on her belly since she was a newborn, it finally makes her laugh!
  
  
• Books are becoming some of her favorite toys. She loves to open them up and attempt to turn the pages, but she isn't very good at it yet.
  
  
• When she gets excited or is being silly, she yells and straightens both of her arms out in front of her, with her hands curled into little fists. It's hilarious! It's like her little body just can't contain all of her energy.
  
  
• She loves going to the park and swinging. She starts to laugh as soon as I put her in the swing, and giggles and squeals the entire time.

34 Weeks

Eleanor is 34 weeks old!

She is so good at waving now! I mentioned before that she learned how to do it, but she really has it down and will even initiate waving herself and wave if we say "Hi!". I was telling Andrew last night that it seems so incredible because it's the first thing she has done that we have really taught her. It's making us want to give baby sign language a try.

Look, all four teeth!

33 Weeks

Eleanor is 33 weeks old!

She wasn’t really in the mood to be my model when I took these pictures, and she really didn’t like it when I took away the fun lens cap she had just found, but I have to admit, I kind of love pictures of her crying. So much emotion! So much drama! But everything turned out alright in the end.

This week Eleanor really developed mastery over the pincher grip. She is now a puffs eating machine, working that little thumb and forefinger like a pro. Because of doing Baby Led Weaning she learned to pick up food, hold it, and take little bites off of it rather than putting the entire thing in her mouth, and she tries to do this with puffs even though they are so tiny. It’s pretty much the cutest thing ever to watch her gingerly pick up a little star-shaped puff, bring it to her mouth, and then nibble off one of the points.

This week she also started learning how to wave. We can only get her to wave back about half the time, but it seems like when she is doing it there is that little glimmer of recognition in her eyes. It’s really amazing to watch her learning and making connections.

She is starting to seem so big to us. Some mornings when she wakes up it looks like she's grown a few inches just overnight. And look at that last picture. Our baldy is finally growing some hair!