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.

9 Months Old!

Eleanor is 9 months old. Wow! She is super busy which is keeping us active (and tired!). This month has been fun. Ellie has enjoyed rolling herself around and is very inquisitive about pretty much everything. She smiles, laughs, and waves all the time. Ellie loves music, singing and dancing and especially loves to look and play with anything new.

Some highlights of this past month:
- Teeth! It took a while for the first one to appear but Ellie has teeth (not a tooth!) Her two bottom teeth have poked through and there is at least one on the top that has as well! It's crazy, it looks like the poor girl is getting all of her teeth at once. She has been pretty tough about it though. Lots of drool and chomping on teething toys and a little less sleep for all of us.
-Pinchers- Ellie has mastered the pointer/thumb pincher. She pretty much developed this skill after Cheerios became a major part of her life but it is pretty cool. It is amazing how fast babies learn and develop fine motor skills. The jury is still out on whether she uses her left hand more than her right (her Grandpa Tom is still hopeful!)
-Speaking of Cheerios...Ellie loves Cheerios! The other day she was a little fussy in the car so I gave her a little plastic tupperware container of cheerios to play with. It was closed but she thought it was pretty cool to shake around and play with. Pretty soon I looked back and she had somehow gotten the container open and spilled Cheerios all over her lap. She loved it! She grabbed handfuls at a time and tried stuffed them in her mouth. Silly girl! Luckily we were close to home.
-Rollie Pollie- this month Eleanor has developed a mode of transportation-the roll. She can scoot and roll to her toys and loves to flip over onto her belly when we are trying to change her diaper. She isn't crawling yet but she seems to be pretty close. We aren't quite ready to have a completely mobile baby!!!
-Standing- Ellie can hold onto things and stay standing up. She loves to stand at her little activity table and beat on the piano. She pulled up for the first time a few days ago but she was sitting in the laundry basket (helping me do laundry) so she had a little help with the clothes under her bum.
-Go Wolfpack! Ellie went to 2 Wolfpack football games! She loves it! We figure since she was born on the day of their bowlgame last year it is appropriate for her to be a Wolfpack fan. The first game was nice weather but a boring game (Murray State) and the second game it rained the whole time but it was a great game (Pitt). Oh well! She really loved being under the poncho with me but we eventually went under the stands and watched from there.


-Wash your face! My mom started giving Ellie a wipe to entertain her when she washed off her face after eating. Ellie is a great helper! She'll wash her highchair tray and will even wipe your face if you let her. Too cute!
-Eye Doctor-Ellie had her first visit to the eye doctor. They wanted her to participate in the Infant See program since her daddy's eyes are so bad. She did just fine. They had her look at a bunch of different pictures with stripes, and smiley faces and they watched how her eyes worked together. Then they dilated her eyes and looked at her retinas. She even got to wear 3D glasses and try to grab a fly! It was pretty cool and we're glad to report that she seems just fine.

Ellie has a message for you...

That's right! She has a pesky little tooth (bottom left) that has finally broken through. The poor thing....teething is not fun!