Happy birthday, Eleanor!

Wow, what a difference a year makes!

Remembering Ada

Two years ago from today, after 32 hours of labor, I gave birth to my first daughter.  She was born in a hospital with healthy babies being born all around her.  (Eleanor was born in the room next door 1 year and 6 days later.)  She was a real little person who weighed 1 lb, 10 oz.  Hunter and I both held her and marveled at her perfect little body through our tears.  It was so hard to let her go.  A few weeks later, we let her go again - this time we let her ashes slip through our fingers into the ocean at sunrise.  This morning we took Eleanor to see her first sunrise in the same spot.

We went out to breakfast afterward at one of our favorite little spots. This baby can EAT!  We actually ordered her a separate meal!

July 14

July 14, 2008 was the worst day of my life. It was the day that my fear was confirmed:  for a reason we'll never know for sure, Ada's heart had stopped beating. I was 23 weeks and 5 days along.

In spite of this loss, I have so much to be thankful for! Yesterday I decided to take lots of pictures of Eleanor as a way of reminding myself of this.

Mmm, breakfast!  Blueberries, toast, and a scrambled egg on the way

Playtime while Mommy cleans up from breakfast

Ready to go on our morning walk!  She was telling me she wanted to get on on her new swing set.  She cried when we started our walk instead of swinging.

Swing time!

(She cried again when we went back into the house)

Waking up from her morning nap.

(Whew, it's not even 10 AM yet!)

We had quite the trip to the zoo.  We happened to run into a teacher friend of mine that I met at a conference in Atlanta 2 years ago.  She lives in the Virgin Islands.  And I ran into her at my local zoo!  How crazy is that?

Somebody is learning to like whole milk!  For the past few days she's been trying it once a day since I plan to wean her when she turns one.  She seems to like it, but we have to change her outfit every time!

Skip over an afternoon nap, a shopping trip, more swing time (and protesting when it was over), dinner, a bath...

Time for some bedtime reading

This means, "Mommy read this book to me!"

And finally, Ada's candle was burning last night.  She is dearly loved and missed.

Smartest baby in the world

I know every parent thinks their baby is the smartest in the world, but they're all wrong.  I have the smartest baby!  ;)  Here are just a few pieces of evidence to support such a bold (and maybe slightly biased) claim:

• The other day Eleanor was eating in her high chair when she said, "Eeeeeeeat.  Kitty."  I've heard her say kitty before, but I've never heard her say eat.  I looked over at Penny's food and sure enough she was over there, eating.
• Hunter was out of town for a couple of days this week.  He talked to Eleanor on the phone and after listening intently for about 10 seconds she exclaimed, "Dah-dee!"
• We have a book from the library with pictures of animals that we have read about a hundred times over the past week.  It has a picture of a snake that she really likes and ALWAYS points to.  (That's probably because every time she points to it I pretend like my hand is a snake and tickle her belly with it.  She loves it!)  Yesterday Eleanor and I were reading a different book and I pointed out a snake in it to her.  She climbed out of my lap and went over to get the library book with the snake.

Yup, she's the smartest baby in the world!   ;)

Correction: Eleanor's second birthday present!

[This title was edited after my sister reminded me that she had already given Eleanor her birthday gift last month - oops!  Not sure how I forgot!]

Eleanor got her first second birthday present last night, and she immediately crawled over to check out the shiny paper! I think she knew it was for her!

(Excuse our annoying coughs - it's been a long week of sickness around here.)

Thanks again, Jen! Eleanor loves her new outfit and book!

Best moment of the day

(so far, at least)

Eleanor and I were reading a Spanish book and looking at the pictures.

Me:  "Donde esta el perrito?"

Eleanor pointed to the dog!

It was amazing!  I really don't speak to her in Spanish that much, and this very well may have been a coincidence, but it reminded me of how much she is capable of.  I think it encouraged me to spend more time in Spanish with her every day.  So exciting!

[Forgive my lack of Spanish punctuation and accent marks.  I have no idea how to write those on here.]

Almost a year old!

Eleanor is going to be a year old in just over 2 weeks!  I can't believe it!  She has been doing so many new things lately, so I just wanted to write them down before I forget.

• She has learned how to pull up on pretty much anything.  It used to be that she could only do it on really low objects and she would push herself up, but now she can actually pull up on things like the sofa.  I've tried getting her to walk behind her little car and push it for balance, but she has no interest in that.
• She is quite musical!  We've been going to Music Together classes (similar to Kindermusik if you're familiar with that) and she seems to really enjoy it.  Her face LIGHTS UP when I play those cd's - or any other Eleanor-approved music - in the car.  Sometimes she dances along to the music and other times she claps her hands.  She has two little maracas that she absolutely loves to play with and she really likes it when I sing while she plays them.
• She can EAT.  I mean, this child can seriously put away some food.  Multiple people have told me that they've never seen a baby who eats like her.  A typical breakfast is a piece of toast, a scrambled egg, and some fruit.  Lunch is usually half a grilled cheese sandwich (whole wheat bread and cheese...nothing else added), vegetables, avocado, and some other fruit.  Dinner might be whatever we're having or some vegetables, whole wheat macaroni with cheddar cheese melted on it (again, no processed stuff), chicken, and more fruit.  And of course there are snacks between meals!  Sometimes I worry that she eats TOO much, but she still weighs about 19 lbs and looks pretty long and lean.  She hasn't really gained much weight over the past couple of months, but she has definitely gotten taller.
• Eleanor really tries to talk.  She babbles to herself all the time, and she repeats words after us.  I'm not claiming that she knows what all of these words mean, but she has clearly said mama, daddy, cat, book, picture, yes, desert (we have several paintings of the desert), and thank you.  I think she actually knows what the first four of those mean, and she has started to say "yes" a lot when I ask her yes or no questions so I think she might understand it...?  The other day when Hunter walked in the room she said, "DAH-deeee!"  SO cute.
• She still loves to read and turn pages, but now she also likes to point to things.  She uses her pointer finger and points to all kinds of little details.  She seems to know what "moon" and "nose" mean and can point them out in a picture if I ask.
• She gives kisses!  Sometimes it's more like biting your nose, but it's still super sweet.
• Finally, this isn't really anything she's doing but just a funny observation yesterday.  She took a REALLY long nap so I went into her room to check on her.  She was sound asleep but the door hit the wall and made a noise.  Her eyes flew open and she immediately sat up with her back to me.  She didn't know I was there.  She grabbed her little blanket and stuck her thumb in her mouth.  She sat there like that for about 10 seconds, like she was trying to decide if she was awake or not, and then suddenly she just threw her whole body forward and lay there on her stomach with her eyes closed, thumb still in the mouth.  I guess she was still sleepy!  :)

My little firecracker!

What's wrong with this picture?

My sweet girl