Picnic

Eleanor and I had a nice picnic in the yard the other day to celebrate the warm weather.

(The real purpose of this post is to practice posting a picture from my phone. Let's see if this works!)

My growing girl

This might be the cutest thing I've ever seen:

I accidentally disturbed her after the last photo so she rolled onto her back.  Umm, I think she might outgrow a crib by age 2!

Eleanor got to help cut out sugar cookies.  There is a very similar picture of me like this, somewhere.

This kid loves to read ALL the time.  Really.

Am I crazy for being so easily amused by the way that Eleanor arranges her toys?

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the tree top..."

 

Everybody is on the school bus, ready to go...except for Jesus back there in the background.  I guess they hadn't heard of "No Child Left Behind."

Eleanor's chili is all gone.


Dancing to her favorite song from Music Together


First peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Weight loss

I decided it was time for a weight loss post.  I haven't really written about this for a couple of reasons, mainly that I'm a bit embarrassed that I had this much weight to lose.  But I've been working pretty hard at it since late June (well, off and on) and this morning I weighed myself and I have officially lost 25 lbs.  Of course, some of that is baby weight - mainly from Ada since I lost all of my Eleanor weight thanks to breastfeeding - but I now weigh 13 lbs less than I did before I ever got pregnant in the first place.

I am still definitely not at my goal weight, but for once I actually feel like it's possible.  This is all thanks to Weight Watchers, by the way.  I realize I'm about to sound like a commercial for them, but I highly recommend them.  I don't go to their meetings or anything, but I track everything I eat online.  From about late October until early December I got lazy and took a break, and that was the only time since late June that I didn't really lose weight.  WW encourages you to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, lean meat, and whole grains...basically everything we should be eating in the first place.  It's actually a lot of food, and you get some extra weekly points that you can use whenever you want so you can "splurge" a couple of times a week.  Also, you can earn points by exercising.  Okay, end of commercial!  :)

Rockets & Pigails

Yesterday we went outside to watch the Falcon 9 rocket launch.  Eleanor needed to see the history of commercial space flight in the making, after all.  Afterwards she didn't want to come inside, so I figured I may as well get some pictures of my baby with her new hairdo.

Pointing to the rocket

The launch

"Cone.  Cone.  Cone."

Notice that the cat came out to join us, much to Eleanor's delight.

"Where's the rocket, Eleanor?"

She looks a little guilty of something here.

Fudge bar

Somebody got a taste of Mama's fudge bar...

She came up to me and said, "Bat. Bat. Bat." (Bite) How could I resist?

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

Eleanor has looked just like Hunter since birth, so I got a little excited when my sister pointed out that the picture in the top right corner looks like me.  I looked through the pictures of me as a kid that I have scanned and came across this one.  What do you think?

I definitely still think she looks more like her daddy, but it's nice to see a little bit of me in there too every once a while.  Oh, and I still have that book that I'm holding in that picture - Eleanor loves it!

Cats and Toddlers

I've decided that cats and toddlers have a lot in common, or at least the ones around here do.  Here are just a few things I came up with - feel free to add to the list in the comments.  I have offered photographic evidence when available.

1. They are both constantly underfoot in the kitchen.
2. If you leave the room for a minute, both will follow you.
3. They both always want to be on the other side of a closed door.
4. They both occasionally wake you up at 5 AM.
5. They both sleep a lot, though not necessarily at the most convenient hours.  (see #4)
6. If you leave something lying out for a second that you don't want them to touch or lay on, you can rest assured they will.  Immediately.
7. They both seem to be hungry all the time.
8. Neither one makes a good companion on a long car ride.
9. When you're lucky, both will sometimes crawl into your lap and sit there sweetly.
10. They both like climbing into baskets.
    
    
11. They both like climbing into suitcases.
    
    (Sadly I don't have a picture of Penny in a suitcase, but she climbs inside every time we get it out.)
12. They both love being in the yard.
    
    
13. Both make it a bit difficult to have a Christmas tree.
14. They both enjoy climbing on coffee tables.
    
    
    (That's Lincoln, our cat who's no longer with us.)
15. They both excel at and enjoy making messes.
    
    
    
16. They both like to eat cheese.
17. They both like to eat chicken.
18. They both like to eat cat food.