Seattle Day 2

Ellie woke up early...4:30...which is her normal 7:30 Raleigh time. Luckily she was tired enough to have some Cheerios and go back to bed for a couple more hours. We went down to breakfast around 7:30 and had waffles, sausage and really yummy Washington yogurt. It is so creamy. Ellie loves it too so luckily we have something to feed her for breakfast in the hotel!

After breakfast we walked out to Seattle center where the Space Needle and many ot

her attractions are. It was a little rainy but we came prepared with rain jackets and the stroller rain cover. We stopped by Starbucks for a drink and called Jack to figure out t

he plan. We took the Monorail to Westlake Mall...kinda funny they only have two stops but convenient for us! The Monorail zipped through downtown and dropped us off on the

third story of the mall and we looked around for a little while and then walked down to Pike Place Market. It is quite the place. Pretty different

from any thing I have ever been to. I don't know how many stores there are there but I'm pretty sure you could spend days looking at things. We hit the highlights...Daily Dozen Donuts (we got the mixed bag of mini donuts: hot plain, cinnamon, powdered and chocolate frosted, sprinkles!) So yummy! We got to see the fishing fly at the fish market and even made it to the wind-up toy shop. Then we met up with

Jack and Paula and had apple cider at a little shop where you could sit at the window and see the boats out on the sound. We walked around a little more and then found the elevator down to the street level.

We spent a few hours at the Seattle Aquarium which was lots of fun. They have a huge tank when you first walk in that has all local species so we got to see the different salmon that are common their in the Puget Sound.

There was a diver in the tank who played peek-a-boo with Ellie!

Ellie really like seeing all the fish. After the aquarium we headed over to Ivar's which is a local seafood place right on the waterfront.

Grandpa Lorin recommended we try the clam chowder so we ordered up our same fish/shrimp and chips and a cup of chowder. It was really good. Afterwards Jason and Jack fed the seagulls...I wasn't brave enough!!!

On the way back up to the Monorail we stopped by Beecher's Cheese Shop (where you can watch them making cheese in the window) and the original Starbucks...it was way to packed to buy anything but maybe we'll go back. We picked up a smoothie at the mall and fed Ellie her lunch and then hopped back on the monorail to the Seattle Center.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Pacific Science Center. It was pretty cool. Among our favorite exhibits were the Naked Mole Rats, the 1/2 of the toilet working mode

l, the dinosaurs (we bought "Ellie" a $3 wax mold dino in one of those cool machines), and the giant guitars. We also went to the Beatles laser show. It was fun and Ellie loved it. She laid back in my lap and tapped her hands to the beat. She was very content for the entire 30 min show...looking at the crazy lights and listening to good music.

After the science center we walked over to the Space Needle (which is also in Seattle Center) so we took the trip up 520 feet to the top. Luckily they have an elevator! The view was pretty awesome from the top. It was after dark so we got to see the lights of the city. At night the top is dim and quite the romantic attraction...

they have little bar tables and sell wine and beer. We were tired so we quickly stepped outside and took a few pictures and went back to the hotel. Our ticket allows for two visits up the Space Needle so we are going to go again tomorrow during the daylight.

We had leftover pizza for dinner which was great even the second time! Vacation is nice because we can actually go to bed at a decent hour without all the house stuff to worry about!

Seattle Day 1

We left Raleigh at the crack of dawn (thanks dad for the ride!) on our adventure to Seattle. We arrived in Seattle around 11:20 AM...the 3 hour time difference helps a lot! The flights were good although the second 4 1/2 hour flight was pretty long with a 10-month old playful baby. Ellie did really well though. She slept the entire first flight and then slept for a few minutes of the second flight and played the rest of the time. We were glad that we brought her some good snacks and toys. We were extra lucky because we had a seat in between us on both flights. We tried the trick of picking the window and aisle seats and hoping no one would pick the middle...and it worked!

When we arrived in Seattle we picked up our bag and rented a car. The coerced us into upgrading to a bigger car which left us a little bitter but it was probably good to have the extra room for all the baby equipment. We plugged in our GPS and headed out to Jack and Paula's house. The took us out to lunch at Anthony's where we tried our first clams, dipped in butter---yummy!

Jason had fish and chips and I had prawns and chips. They call shrimp prawns around here.... Lunch was very good--- thanks Jack and Paula!

After lunch we stopped by their house for a little bit and said hi to the cats. After that we decided to head out to the hotel to get ch

ecked in and unload. After a busy day of traveling we were tired so we ordered pizza delivery to the room (Pagliacci's...a local chain around here) and went right to bed.

Happy Halloween!

Eleanor has had a busy first Halloween. Last year she was the filling for mommy's pumpkin shirt, but this year has been a bit more involved. Katy was a scientist (a big stretch, I know) and Eleanor was her lab rat.













We also took a trip to the pumpkin patch for a few pictures with Eleanor. She seemed to love it.

10 Months Old!

Eleanor Claire is 10 months old. It is just crazy... She is a little bundle of energy and smiles. She shrieks with joy and giggles uncontrollably. She is starting to toddle around which we are definitely not ready for! We are really enjoying seeing her personality come out. Her happiness from day 1 continues and is pretty much noticed by everyone we come in contact with. It is pretty funny when we take her to the grocery store or to a restaurant how many people comment on "how happy she is!" We sure are glad she is our happy girl!

Highlights of this month:- The army crawl! Ellie sort of crawls---she more drags her self around but she can move quickly. She uses her arms and legs but doesn't pick up her belly. She just drags it along. I've been talking to her about how this is probably pretty difficult to do as she is almost 20 pounds but I'm pretty sure she is working on her arm strength.
-Pulling up- Ellie can pull herself up and loves this new "view" of life. Her favorite places to pull up are at her activity table or on people's legs. She can stand for a pretty long time and then usually plops down on her bottom.
-Visitors, visitors!!!- October was the month for visitors. Grandma Lois came first. We had a nice time working on making some invitations with her, going to the NCSU Football game and celebrating her birthday! Then came Lori and Bob to help out at the NC State Fair. Grandma and Grandpa Arlene and Lorin came at the end of October during the fair and stayed with us and Jesse, Mike and Vera came when they were here. It was great to see everyone and Ellie sure enjoyed all the attention. Ellie especially enjoys seeing her cousin!

-State Fair- We took Ellie to her very first state fair. Our family has a booth at the North Carolina and Iowa State Fair so she will probably get to spend many hours at the fair! She had a fun time riding around in her stroller. We put some pig ears on her which she didn't like too much but she did enjoy people watching and of course all the music and lights. We didn't even make her try the Chocolate Covered Bacon.
-6 Teethers...Ellie is a pro at cutting teeth. She went from 0 to 6 in about 2 weeks and didn't really even fuss about it too much. Poor girl. It doesn't look like fun.

-Zoo! We took our first trip to the zoo with Eleanor. She enjoyed the outdoors and walking around. Not sure if she saw many of the animals but we tried to point them out to her. Jason got some really awesome pictures that we are planning to hang up in her room.-Raggedy Ann- Ellie's Great Grandma Fleming made her (and Vera) a beautiful Raggedy Ann doll. It is so perfect and she loves it. It will be treasured forever....thanks Grandma!

Being a 10 month old is tiring...both for Ellie and for us!

The Army Crawl

Clapping, Clapping, Clapping's so much fun!

Ellie claps with just about the most gusto a 9-month old has. It is adorable.



We've been working on the clapping concept and it finally clicked after Baby Time at the library this morning. Cuteness is abundant in this house! So far her #1 clapping song is with a little counting turtle that she has. You push a button and it sings "Counting Counting Counting's so much fun"...then it goes through the numbers. I guess it is pretty catchy and clappable!

9 Month Check-up

Ellie had her 9 month check-up today and she was 18 pounds and 6 ounces! She has made it up to the 40th percentile which is pretty good considering she was barely on the chart for the first couple of months. She was 35th % for height and 70th% for head circumference! We're thinking that big head means big brains! She only had to have two shots (Hep B and Flu) and overall did pretty well. It was kind of funny because she for the first time was very clingy to me while the doctor was there. She was pretty skeptical. It's really neat to see the differences from one appointment to the next just in how she handles the experience. She was super wiggly which made it interesting and she loves the mirror that they have beside the table. The doctor was super good with her and let her look at his light and stethoscope and tried to be pretty respectful of her need to be with her mommy. He is super fast at giving shots but Ellie was not happy with him afterward! I picked her up and she stopped crying but gave him the meanest glare in the "I thought we were friends" kind of way. We've tried a bunch of different doctors at this practice and really we like almost all of them but he is for sure the kindest and most "understanding" of babies. He takes extra time to try to make them comfortable instead of just coming in and doing his thing.