Busy, busy, busy

There is only one word for living with a one year old! Busy!

Eleanor is so busy. So far walking is constrained to the limits of holding on to a finger or couch/table/baby gate/wall/(insert item here) but she can get around! We had to take down her "office" yesterday because she is totally done with being enclosed in a little area! She would pull herself up shake the gate and demand out. So we have taken down the gates and put her toys in baskets on the diaper table shelves. We moved her new garden activity center over to the other side of the room. The coffee table has a couple of book and toy bins as well as her drum full of musical instruments.

Elle's favorite activities this week: taking her animal magnets off of the fridge (Thanks Mike, Jesse, and Vera!!!) and putting them back on. When she gets them to stick she says one of her new words Yeeaay! and often claps.

It is too cute. Don't you think? She is also loving "discovering" toys in boxes. We can put anything into any box and it keeps her entertained for a good long while. She finds the toy, hides the toy, finds the toy, hides it, lets us find it, etc. So fun!

Sorry for the mass upload of posts tonight...I've had a bunch almost done that needed to be posted so happy to finally get it done. I also updated the links to the pictures on the upper left hand corner so you can check out life as a one year old!

Doctor's Visits...

We've had a little bit of a rough start to 2010. Ellie came down with an ear infection the day after her first birthday. She woke up in the middle of the night absolutely screaming (which is very out of character!) and we knew something was wrong. We took the doctor who confirmed she had a nasty double ear infection and prescribed 10 days of the pink stuff. Luckily for us, Ellie loved the antibiotics and seemed to get better pretty fast.

Ellie went for her one year check-up on January 8th. She was 20 pounds 12 ounces (40th percentile) and 28 inches (20th percentile) and her head circumference was 75th percentile! She did pretty well although she was super shy and very mad that she had to have 2 shots. She didn't mind the finger prick so much and I think was more upset with the whole "stranger anxiety" thing than the actual needles. The doctor was sweet though and warned me that the 15 month appointment is usually the hardest on all parties involved and so to mentally prepare myself :) He did check her ears again and said that the right one still had some fluid in it and to watch in case it didn't clear up and got infected again. Other than that he said she looked great and gave us the OK to start whole milk!

Over MLK weekend Elle started acting like she didn't feel good again. She was just super clingy, not willing to sleep in her crib, and overall really fussy. She started pulling on her ear again and we knew the evil ear infection was back. We took her back into the doctor today and they gave her another round of stronger antibiotics with hopes that this will clear it up. We'll go back to the doctor at the end of this round to see how the ears look.

Ear infections are a real bummer. Must be super painful because Elle is a tough cookie and this has just completely knocked her off her feet. Unfortunately the worst time seems to be night because I guess it hurts more when she lays down. Lets just say...we've watched a lot of late-night cartoons together.

Eleanor's First Birthday Party

Ellie had a fun filled fish-themed first birthday party! She did get a cute little goldfish for her birthday (we're taking name suggestions...)

I was super proud of my cake decorating skills (thanks to help from my mom and my time at good old BRDD) We made a big fish cake and a little fishy for Ellie to go with it.

We also had Swedish Fish cupcakes and gummy worms and goldfish crackers served in goldfish bowls. I really wanted to use a net to serve them but Jason vetoed my idea, deeming it to gross.

Ellie had a great time, showing off her new cruising skills (she is still holding on to cruise) and playing with her friends. She loved her happy birthday song and it was so cool to have so many people singing to her! Thanks so much to everyone for making it her special day. She also got a ton of new toys, clothes, and books. She is one lucky girl!

One Year Old!

Ellie is one!

The day started out with Ellie's favorite breakfast, banana yogurt and little cereal puffs. While daddy ran some errands Ellie and I played and I made her a birthday shirt. (check out the picture...I'm very proud of myself for actually sewing something cute!) Then Jason, Ellie and I stopped for lunch at Pei Wei (Ellie sampled the lettuce wrap filling and some brown rice) and we went headed out to Marbles Museum. Ellie is a little bit young for most of the exhibits but they do have a baby area that she enjoyed. She stood up at the fish tank wall and smashed her face on the glass, stood at the bead table, shook up a wide variety of plastic tubes with all kinds of things inside of them, and checked out pretty much every kid in the place.


On the way home we stopped for Goodberry's Custard! She loved the vanilla and didn't want to stop eating it. After a busy afternoon she took a long nap.

After she woke up we skyped with Vera (too cute! and super fun). Then for dinner we had hamburgers, green beans and sweet potatoes (some of Ellie's faves) with Nana and Grumps and then Ellie got to taste a cute little cake that Nana brought for her.

She opened some great gifts and we played for awhile. Here she is busy with one of her favorites, it is a drum filled with all kinds of musical instruments. We think she may be a musician!

After Nana and Grumps left we gave Ellie round 2 of cake!

I made some sweet little funfetti cupcakes for her and Jason and I sang happy birthday to her. She especially enjoyed the candle and the lights being off!

It was a good birthday and she was super tired and super full of sugar by the end of the day. We are so excited to have a one year old! It is fun and crazy and exhausting all at the same time!

1 year ago...

We had just arrived at the hospital, a month earlier than we thought we would. We were scared and excited and had no idea how good life could be with a little one.

It has been weird and fun to think back on that night. We are dogsitting and catsitting again which is kind of strange. My family is out of town and we took down the Christmas tree today. We even took a trip to Target tonight just like we did last year. But this year we had a smiling, giggling little girl with us.

I can't help to think back on every little detail of her being born....I can't believe that I had just arrived at the hospital by now and we had a baby in our arms at 4:20 in the morning.

Well I better get to bed. Although I won't be working so hard tonight we do have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow. We both took the day off of work and we are going to take Ellie to Marbles Museum. Of course we'll let her taste her first cake too.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you did too!


On Christmas Eve we celebrated Christmas with Jason's mom's family. Ellie enjoyed her very first taste of lasagna and spread it all over herself (luckily she was eating shirtless!) and everything around her. She got a ton of great new toys and clothes (Thanks everyone!) and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

On Christmas morning Ellie woke up early and was super excited to see that Santa Claus had delivered! Ellie got a bright new wagon, a Little Tykes Garden, and her favorite of all a toy that pops balls up in the air over and over again as they cycle down a little tube/funnel thing. She was super cute. Unfortunately she got a little too excited about her new ball toy and tried to stand up holding onto the flimsy toy and took a spill. It really was her first bad spill....she got a pretty bad bruise on her noggin and a scratch on her cheek, poor girl! After a bit we went over to Grandma Sue's and Grandpa Tom's where we did the Christmas morning thing with all of my family. It was so nice to see everyone and Ellie and Vera had an especially good time. Glenn, Elizabeth and Kathy stopped by and it was great to see them. Again Ellie was thrilled with too many toys.

It was a good day but exhausting! Ellie fell asleep at 6:30! Unfortunately she thought it was just a second nap and woke back up but we had a nice evening. Ellie and I put on our matching jammers (a gift from Jason) and we went to this awesome light display up off Creedmoor Rd. The guy has a radio station and a bazillion lights in his yard that are synchronized to the music. Ellie loved it!

A Day at the Park!

We had a super fun afternoon at Pullen Park. Elle got to swing for the first time and she loved it. She squealed and giggled with joy! She also rode on the carousel and the train for the first time. She waved at all the people on the train as it passed by. We had a great time...so cool to go to a place that each of us remember from our childhood with our child! Fun times! We're sad that Pullen Park will be closed for 15 months but excited to see what changes they'll make.