Eleanor's new favorite game

Christmas

I already really wrote about Christmas, but I just wanted to add a couple of things.

Eleanor's big gift from Santa was her table and chairs, but another big thing she got was this easel from her Buela and "Papa Bob."  (My mom and step-father.)  For now we're going to stick with the chalk side most of the time, but it's great that she'll have the dry erase board and painting to grow into.  Maybe I'll be brave enough to try the painting outside on a warm day in a few months!

Hunter got me a KitchenAid mixer (well, I actually purchased it myself on Black Friday but we agreed that it was my gift) and an apron.  I think he's enjoying this gift, because tonight I made chili and then I went looking for excuses to use my mixer so I made cornbread and chocolate chip cookies (from scratch of course) too.

I never know what to get Hunter and he's nearly impossible to please, but this year I actually got him something that made his face light up for the first time ever - an electric toothbrush.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I don't think anybody cares about seeing a picture of his new gift!  Hah!

Some pictures of my girl

A sad day

On Christmas night, this dear couple was hit by a car when crossing a street in downtown Charleston.

Nita, age 70, was killed instantly, and her husband George has two broken legs and a broken pelvis.  He is 85 and he has a difficult recovery ahead of him.  George and Nita are my friend Kathy's godparents/adopted grandparents.  She has known them her whole life, and they are like family to her.  I've met them at all of her Christmas parties, kids' birthday parties, etc., and they've even met us for dinner a couple of times when they were visiting a friend of theirs who lives in Florida.  These pictures were taken in February when they were last down here.  George and Nita are very active and intelligent people, and this is a shock to everyone.

I knew two people who died in 2010, and both were killed when they were hit by a car while crossing a street.  Be careful out there - walking and driving - because these accidents really do happen.

Merry Christmas!

All dressed up for Christmas Eve!

Santa found our house!
And apparently, he shops at IKEA.

We got Eleanor's first glimpse of her presents on video.  As you can see, she enjoyed them for about 5 seconds before going for the toys she's been playing with all month.  :)  She's saying "baaa" for the sheep, in case you were wondering what that sound was.  Of course, she did actually play with her stuff later.

For lunch we went over to my brother's house.

Santa brought Julie an awesome new bike!

And Evan loves his new basketball!

Eleanor was happy to play with sticks.

That's my old Christmas dress that my mom made, by the way.

After naptime, we took a little trip to the beach.
(It was in the 70's here.)

Eleanor LOVES the beach!

(Excuse the hair...it was windy!)

Eleanor played with her new toys while her mom and dad fixed dinner.

Yup, all of that is for 3 people - it's a good thing we like leftovers!
It was delicious!

As you can see, we had an amazing Christmas!  We hope that you and your family had a wonderful day together as well.  Merry Christmas!

Hats!

Eleanor has reached a new stage - everything is a hat! Sometimes this can be really fun.

"Cheese"!

She kept trying to circle around me to see the picture as I'm trying to take more.

"Mom, why can't I see the pictures?"

The hat comes off so Eleanor can find her "tails."  She now requests that her hair be put up, by the way.

On the other hand, however, the whole hat stage can just be a bit of a mess sometimes.

Bowls of yogurt were not made to be hats.

17 months old!

It seems like Eleanor has grown up SO much in the past month or so! She is definitely all toddler now and no longer a baby. Here are a few highlights.  (I realize this might be a little wordy and not terribly interesting to everybody, but this blog also sort of serves as a journal of Eleanor's life.)

• She has started paying attention to the doll I got her for her birthday.  She loves to carry "Baby" all over the house and put her in various baskets, the doll stroller, the Bumbo, etc.  She's also learning to change the baby's clothes (well, mainly to take them off), so I got her another outfit for her doll for Christmas.
• Speaking of changing clothes, Eleanor now has opinions on what she wears.  I still pick her clothes out for the most part, but sometimes she'll bring me a shirt (pronounced without the all-important 'r'...), shoes, a hairbow, or a hat she wants to wear.
• She follows directions really well now.  When I say, "Let's go change your diaper" she walks to the changing table, and "Let's go get in the car" gets her walking towards the garage.  This might seem small to some people, but I'm so glad I don't have to carry her everywhere anymore!  Also, she knows what it means when we say, "Go put the book back on the shelf," but a few times her response has been a big "NO!" and a stomp of the foot.  That's the only thing she's ever said no to, by the way.
• She wants to be "down" more often than she wants to be carried or in the stroller.  In fact, today we went to the zoo and I didn't even take the stroller.  I just used a backpack for a diaper bag and she walked all over the place!  She is really good about holding my hand when I ask her to (even if she protests while doing it), and if we're in a new place she'll usually even reach her hand up to me and say, "hand", as if to ask me to hold her hand.  She's not very big on running off on her own, thankfully!
• Eleanor has gotten really good at communicating what she wants.  She now nods her head sometimes to say yes - it's so funny!  She says "'gain" after a song or reading a book if she wants to do it again.  There have been a few times lately that she's come into the kitchen and said, "drink" to me, meaning that she wants me to fix her a drink, and the other day when I was brushing her teeth she reached to take the toothbrush from me and said, "do it."  
• She still can't run, but when you tell her to run she laughs and starts walking slightly faster.  I guess we're getting there.  :)  
• Eleanor has several loveys (those security blanket things with a bear's head in the middle), but she is particularly attached to one that a student gave me.  I named it Osito (little bear in Spanish), and she now calls it, "SEEEE-toh".  When I told her it was time for a nap today and that we were going to go find Osito, she started saying his name over and over again and went straight to the stairs.
• This morning for the first time she opened the door to our bedroom.  My main form of baby-proofing is to keep all of the doors closed - our bedroom, the bathroom, the closet with all the cleaners, the laundry room...  Life is about to get much more interesting!  She was SO proud of herself too!
• Ever since our visit to the Georgia Aquarium she has had a minor obsession with whales.  There are some on one of her crib sheets, on the quilt on her wall, and on her world map in her room.  She loves to point them out!  Hunter and I have both showed her videos of whales on YouTube, and the other day I found her trying to pry his laptop open and going, "Way-uls!  Way-uls!  Way-uls!"  Apparently that's what she thinks computers are for, and she must think that Hunter and I sit around looking at videos of whales whenever we're on our computers.  :)