Life on the Space Coast: 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Final Eleanor-isms of 2011

The other night Eleanor woke up at 2 AM crying, apparently from a bad dream. Through her tears all I could get out of her was something about a pumpkin pie and that Daddy ate the pie and did not give Eleanor a piece. I told him about that in the morning, and guess who decided to go to the store to get everything he needed to make a pumpkin pie? :) It wasn't on the original Christmas menu, but Hunter decided Eleanor must really want some. Plus, I think he wanted some for himself. ;)
Another pie related quote... Eleanor: "Eleanor likes to eat pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Penny [the cat] likes to eat squirrels with whipped cream." Apparently whipped cream goes well with everything, even squirrel meat.
"Eleanor is a piglet and Daddy is the Big Bad Wolf. Daddy wants to fatten Eleanor up for more meat." This all comes from books that she reads, with her own spin on it of course. Sometimes I wonder if she really understands what she's saying.
Along those same lines, Hunter was pretending to be the Big Bad Wolf and was hiding in our closet. He was making funny growling sounds and Eleanor was laughing really hard and running to the closet to find him. She got about 3 feet from the closet door when she suddenly stopped, got very serious and said, "I am too frightened!" and came running back to me. It was hilarious!
A friend made really cute rag quilts for both Eleanor and Arthur for Christmas. Eleanor looked at them and said, "Arthur can do tummy time on his blanket. Eleanor can do tummy time on Eleanor's blanket." Since then we've spread out her blanket on the living room floor and she does "tummy time" by lying on her stomach and reading a book. Hunter made the mistake of setting Arthur down on Eleanor's blanket once. "Mama wants to scoop Arthur up and put him on Arthur's blanket."
This isn't a funny one, but it's exciting around here - the other day she said, "I need to poop in the potty" and then actually DID it! And then she did this another time! Of course, there have been 2 days of no success since then, but I think we're making progress. She now wears pull-ups only (yes, disposables, because we were afraid to invest in good cloth ones if she potty trains quickly) and on average she goes to the potty about 3 times/day, sometimes more. We're getting there!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I recently heard a great idea of making a photo book with pictures of all of your child's crafts. This way you will always be able to look back at them, but you don't have to store boxes of things made out of construction paper, glue, pipe cleaners, etc. Today I sat down and took pictures of everything I've kept so far, and just thought I'd share since some of them are pretty cute. She made some at the zoo, some at the library, some at home, and some at school.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Just an update

Here are some of the little things that have been going on around our house this week:

Arthur had his 2-month checkup and he's doing great! He's a little chunk at 13.6 lbs and 23.75" long. He's in the 75th percentile for weight, length, and head circumference, so he's proportional. But man, he sure does seem chunky! He's meeting all of his milestones and the pediatrician had no concerns.
MY concern is that he still spits up. A LOT. (The doctor's not worried since Arthur's gaining weight so well and it doesn't seem to bother him, but he doesn't have to do my laundry!) I seriously go though 3-4 shirts a day. I went so far as to give up everything with the milk protein in it, because apparently that's a common cause. This means not only no milk, cheese, ice cream, etc., but also nothing with milk in it whatsoever. Microwave popcorn with light butter? Out. Arnold whole wheat bread? Nope. Honey Bunches of Oats cereal? Can't have that either. Even my calcium chews have milk in them! After a few days of this, I really couldn't tell any difference, so I gave up. Then yesterday I had a theory and tried something new - I know I have a strong letdown, so I tried leaning way back while I'm feeding Arthur. WOW that made a difference! This is way easier than major dietary changes! Again he still spits up some, but nothing like before.
Eleanor is now out of diapers and only wears pull ups. We knew it was time when she started telling us she needed her diaper changed immediately after she went every time. We're not making a huge deal out of potty training, but we do put her on the potty several times a day and whenever she asks. Yesterday was our best day yet - she peed in the potty 5 times!
Eleanor loves all of the Christmas excitement. She especially loves playing with her Little People Nativity Set (a GREAT Christmas gift that she got from some good friends on her first Christmas), and she cracks me up every time she plays with them. Once she was playing with Mary and a sheep and started singing "Mary had a little lamb." Yesterday she talked about how the shepherds wanted to eat pancakes at the dinner table and then lined everybody up to go eat pancakes.

She also loves all of her Christmas books (I put them away 11 months of the year) and looking at the ornaments on the tree. I put wrapped presents under the tree and she hasn't even tried to touch them. I don't think she gets that there are fun things for HER in some of those boxes!
Eleanor has also recently gotten really into her Legos. The other day she wanted us to build a Christmas tree out of Legos...I thought that was rather creative.
Arthur is sleeping better and better each night - the night before last he only got up to eat one time! When I woke up and realized what time it was, I nearly had a heart attack and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Of course, he was sound asleep but I couldn't go back to sleep. There was no repeat performance last night (still, only up twice), but I'm hopeful it will happen again soon!
A few Eleanor quotes... While on a walk: "Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the Eleanor!" Singing: "Rudolph the red-nosed banana had a very shiny nose, all of the other bananas used to even say it glows..."

I guess that's about it around here! I'll leave you with some more pictures!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

2 months!

(That is a 3-6 month outfit, by the way!)

Arthur is a very smiley baby! He is so sweet, and his face often lights up whenever he sees us. Of course, he also smiles at the ceiling fan...
Naps are still quite difficult if we leave the house, but he loves his swing. We finally put it in his room so I don't have to keep telling Eleanor to be quiet as he is falling asleep - this was never a problem when Eleanor was a baby because our house was quiet! This has really helped make my life a lot easier, and I also get plenty of exercise going up and down the stairs 10+ times/day.
Arthur sort of naturally shifted his bedtime much earlier to 6:30, which I actually like. This way I can easily go out in the evening without having to pump, and now we can eat dinner together as a family (well, 3 of us) after Arthur is in bed. It's tricky to have something that can be ready to eat at 6:30 that I don't have to mess with for the preceding 45 minutes while I bathe and feed him, but I finally got a Crock Pot on Black Friday and it has been great for this! And of course, sometimes Hunter just ends up with cooking duty.
Bedtime and night sleep have gotten much better! Shifting to an earlier bedtime made Arthur much less cranky at night, and he goes down pretty easily. Once he goes to sleep at 6:30, he generally makes it until 1:00 and then sleeps again until 5:00ish. He can get pretty grumpy after that 5 AM feeding (I'm not sure why...), but eventually goes back to sleep until 7:00 or so.
After about 3 weeks of experimenting, I've given up dairy completely and Arthur is on Zantac. He spits up very little now and burping him doesn't seem to hurt him anymore - yay! I was originally against medication, but it definitely helps him feel comfortable, and the lack of dairy helps him not spit up so much. I've also given up caffeine and pretty much all chocolate....yeah, this baby better thank me one day! ;) Hopefully in a couple of months I can go back to a regular diet as his system matures.
Arthur is getting very good at tummy time! One time about a week ago I put him down, turned around, and when I turned back he was lying on his back! I don't really count that as rolling over though, because I think I put him down with his arms under him in a way that it was super easy to roll. He hasn't done it again so I do think it was an accident.
Arthur loves his sister! Any time she is talking, he tuns his head in her direction and follows whatever she is doing. Eleanor is starting to interact with him more too. The other day she said, "I am going to read to Arthur!" and grabbed a book, laid down next to him, and "read" it to him. When she finished she said, "I am going to talk to Arthur" and started saying things like "Hi Arthur, how are you?" I love these children!!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

New camera!

I have been wanting a DSLR camera for about 2 years now, and Hunter got me one for my birthday/Christmas! I didn't get anything on my birthday, but the wait was totally worth it! Hunter found a great Black Friday deal and let me go ahead and have the camera now so I can take pictures with it on Christmas. It arrived yesterday, and I got to experiment this morning as Eleanor and I decorated the tree.