Kayli comes over to our house every Thursday after school. She helps me by watching Eleanor while I teach piano lessons and then the three of us just hang out. Yesterday my piano lessons were canceled, though, so we had an opportunity for a larger, longer adventure. It was a beautiful day, but hot, so we decided to walk down to the library and Whitney Commons to play in the fountain.
Ellie took a nice long nap in her stroller while we walked and picked out a ton of books at the library. Then she woke up just in time to head over to the park. She was fascinated by the water and all the kids playing, but she acted scared when we tried to take her into the water. So, she hung out with me in the shade, watching all the activity very closely while Kayli splashed around for a while. Then Eleanor led us over to the playground and we all played on the slides for a while.
By the time we finally got home (3 hours later) we were all tired, but happy. I suspect we'll have many more days like this in the near future. Kayli gets out of school on Monday and then she's going to spend a couple of weeks with Ellie and I before her summer camps and programs begin. We're looking forward to art and sewing projects, gardening, walks, trips to the library and much more fun.
Eleanor was super fun to play with yesterday. We spent all day just hanging out together. She is such a giggler!
How fun to get together with friends, eat cinnamon rolls and play in the sun! Here are just a few of the cuties we hung out with this morning: Thanks, Nicki, for getting everyone together. You have the perfect yard for such a gathering!
We worked in the yard, enjoyed the sunshine, ran (a lot), worked on Seth's Jeep and just spent time enjoying each other.
This is the new planting bed we put in over the weekend. Apparently, the original owners had a bed here previously, but the last owners ripped everything out and planted grass. I needed more color and visual interest, so here's the beginning of our development - more will come eventually (maybe next year).
I also planted some shady things in the back yard...
... and we got the trellises up in the garden, as well as seeds planted. I'm waiting until the first of June to transplant my indoor seedlings. This morning there were little lettuce sprouts. Yeah! And, outside the back door we have pots of herbs. The basil and oregano sprouted overnight, too.
Eleanor has learned several new words in the last few days... some of which we understand and some that are still question marks.
Two days ago Ellie woke up yelling, "Ohb-ee ba! Ohb-ee ba!" She continued using the "words" throughout the day. Eventually they morphed into "ohp-ee." After talking it over with Seth and watching her for another day, we finally figured out that she's saying "open." She wants doors, the refrigerator, bananas, etc all "ohp-ee!" It's her new favorite word. Every once in a while it will sound a bit more like open, but most of the time she emphasizes the ee sound.
While on a long run this morning, Eleanor pointed to a duck and said, "duck." Amazing.
She's also recently added "wa-tay" (water) and "puppy" to her vocabulary.
We're having fun with these new developments, but it's also caused Ellie some frustration. She gets pretty upset when we don't understand what she's trying to tell us (or when we don't do what she wants).
Ellie Turned One... so, obviously, we hosted a pancake breakfast open house! (Haha)
The party went very well. We had a fun time, our guests all seemed to come and go in manageable shifts and Eleanor was in good spirits. It was especially great to get so many of our neighbors together! We feel amazingly blessed to live where we do, with many welcoming, friendly neighbors and new friends.
It's taken so long to get all these pictures uploaded that I'll let them speak for themselves.
Eleanor had a couple of friends over today. So we brought out the dress up box. We had a bride, a doctor and a firefighter. We also briefly had a night in shining armor... The doctor's stethoscope was definitely the day's favorite toy. We had lots of heart and lung checking! It's a good thing, they are all healthy kids. :) Thanks for coming and playing, guys.
Everything is pulled, pushed and turned upside down to climb upon these days. Ellie especially loves to climb in her little red rocking chair (and now the grown-up sized rocking chair in her room). Unfortunately, she likes to stand on the rocker... and mom's not quite so comfortable with that. Anyway, Eleanor has discovered that climbing on things helps her see and reach objects she wouldn't otherwise be able to touch... and yet another round of baby-proofing begins.
We may no longer say this word out loud in our house without the intention of allowing Eleanor to go out. She whines, grabs shoes, bangs on doors, and grabs any and all adult hands she can find to lead toward outside doors.
For the last few days, however, Ellie's gotten to be outside almost as much as she'd like.
We've gone for walks and runs, played in the back and front yards, dug in the dirt, gone fishing, filled flower pots, practiced climbing up and down stairs and planted seeds. Eleanor loved helping me fill the flower pots with dirt. She also loves helping water the plants with the watering can.
I finally finished digging out our garden plot. Seth marked out our beds for me and I got all the dirt transferred into it's appropriate places. Eventually we plan to build some nice raised beds, but I really want some vegetables this year, so we decided just to mark out our plans and plant as is right now. I think we'll build the structures in the fall... There is still a ton of yard work to be done, but it's exciting to get the garden ready to plant. We took a risk and planted 6 rose bushes in various places around the house back in mid-March. We then had quite a bit of snow, but the bushes survived and are doing really well now! I also rescued some strawberry plants from the middle of what is now dug up garden and they are growing quite happily on the patio. After I get the vegetable garden planted I'm ready to think about clematis, hostas, ferns, etc. We also have a TON of tulips to dig up all over the front and the back... and a side of the house I haven't even looked at yet... someday I'll get some happily colored flowers and other annuals, too...
(At least this girl isn't afraid of shovels! Now... imagine trying to get this garden plot dug up while chasing a 1 year old back and forth from the deck stairs... I'm ALMOST finished! Meanwhile, Seth repaired our sprinkler system. Yay!)
We've also been fishing. Seth found some lakes close by with drive-up access so they are family-friendly. I think we'll be out there quite a bit through the summer.
Our weather suddenly changed from wintery-spring to summer. It is already 85 degrees this morning (10:30 am) and has been hot the last 3 days. I guess that's how it works here: we just skip the 70s. I'm hoping the garden will be all dug out by the middle of this week so I can finally get some veggies planted. I'm continually impressed at how late our average frost-free date is... May 20... and we often will still get frost into the beginning of June.
I've been meaning to start a list of all the new skills Eleanor has acquired over the last few weeks that haven't quite made it here to the blog... but sickness has overtaken my brain, organization and energy. So, instead of a well constructed post on Ellie's latest development, we'll have to settle for some scattered thoughts.
At her 12 Month Well Check, Eleanor weighed in at 21 lbs. This seems so small to me, but she is very healthy and eats well. She lost some weight during her recent illness, too, but has gained it back quickly. The last few days I've hardly been able to feed her enough. :) Anyway, this weight puts her in the 49th percentile.
In contrast, Ellie is 31 inches tall. This puts her in the 95th percentile. I'm not sure where she got her tall genes, but she continues to shoot up. She can now reach things off the table and at the edge of the counter. She loves to stand at the top of the stairs and hang her little head over the top of the baby gate to peer down at mom, dad or Pekoe. She also can now open all the drawers in the kitchen and bathroom. What fun!
Our babe's head is 17.9 inches, which puts her in the 60th percentile. We knew her head's been growing because many of her shirts suddenly got really difficult to pull over her ears. We've had to bump her up in size simply because the 18 month tops have more snaps and buttons down the back and they make it much easier to get them on. New clothes are really fun, but I have to chuckle most mornings because these bigger shirts hang so big around her middle!
I think the most marked change in Eleanor's development has come with her walking and maneuvering abilities. She's learned to walk forward with speed, figured out how to walk backwards a few steps (especially important when backing out of a corner, for instance), loves to turn in circles (think dog chasing his tail) and occasionally scoots along sideways. She loves to walk up and down steps, holding on to railings and hands. She's also gotten very secure walking on all sorts of different surfaces and can recover well from stumbles without always falling down. She still loves to put her shoes on and go outside.
Ellie's language abilities are also growing and changing every day. She synthesizes things well and follows many directions. I'm always amazed when I ask her to bring me a new item and she just walks over and picks it up. She will bring us shoes that are in another room, books, balls, socks, jackets, her blanket... She's also trying out saying new words. She doesn't have a lot of words yet that she uses really frequently (except for dada and up!), but she says things here and there very clearly. My favorite is kitty-cat which comes out either "dit dit dat" or "ditty."
Her vocabulary includes: "up" - up "ba" - banana "ba ba" - bye bye "hi low" - hello "app...le" - apple "aaan" - on "aaa" - off "haa" - hot "no" - no
Eleanor has also started kissing. The other day she was asking for a drink of Seth's water and he let her drink out of a big girl glass. She would take a sip of water and then lean into Seth's face for a kiss. Over and over and over again. She often wants to give me kisses after she gets her diaper changed.
The other terrifying skill Ellie is learning is how to climb. She climbs on everything she can and tries on everything else. I know it's an important phase of development, but many attempts end in falling and tears. She loves her little red rocking chair from Auntie Dianne. Over and over again she will climb up into it, turn herself around and rock a few times. Then she scoots off and starts again. She often takes "special" objects with her. This morning she was trying to climb on it with an open container of Joe's Os. It made quite a mess, but she was very proud of herself when she finally was sitting and rocking and still had a few Os to eat while she did so.
We continue to feel extremely blessed by our little girl. She is so joyful, so curious and in general very calm. She is happy to entertain herself and loves socializing. Lately I've had several other people watch her in small chunks and everyone says, "I'd be happy to watch her anytime. Seriously, she's so easy!" Thank you, Eleanor, for being such a sweet little bug!
This is Daniel Evan Sargent, Ellie's new cousin. Welcome to the world Buddy!
Daniel was born on Monday, May 11th at 10:00 am. He weighed in at a healthy 7 lbs 8 oz and is 19 inches long. We can't wait to meet him!
We are so excited that you decided to bless your mommy with an easy delivery and hope you guys are all settling well into life at home. (Good job little brother! He's a cutie.)
This morning's breakfast conversation went like this:
"Eleanor, would you like a banana?" "Ba," meanwhile shaking her head, "No." "Um, are you sure? Aren't you still hungry?" Shaking her head decisively, "No. Up!" "Okay. Are you all done?" Ellie grabs Joe's Os in both hands and reaches toward the sky. "Up! Up! Up!" Then she eats the discarded Joe's Os from the floor around her highchair. "Are you still hungry?" Shaking her head, Ellie says, "No!" "Hey, when did you learn to say no anyway?" She grins at me and walks away.
My grandma knits really fun things. She sent me this sweater for my birthday. I love the bright colors and like to carry it around the house. My mom was a little bit afraid I wouldn't have any good, cool weather in which to wear this sweater because when I opened my gift it was 72 degrees outside. The rest of the weekend and Monday it was up to almost 80! Yesterday we got another wind and rain storm, though, and it was the perfect day to wear a brand new sweater. I got lots of compliments.
Ellie picked this adorable dress out of her closet on her birthday morning. It seemed quite appropriate to me! Thank you Grandma for providing the perfect birthday outfit. :)
We spent much of Eleanor's birthday getting ready for the next day and her party. It involved blowing up many, many balloons. She really liked that part.
Before she headed off to bed, the birthday girl got to open the packages that arrived from both sets of grandparents.
Okay guys, is the camera ready? I want to get into this present!
This great hat was the first item to be pulled from the Sargent bag... and ended up being quite the distraction...
Eventually Ellie got back to the gifts. She was drawn here and there by the many bright colors, and fixated on this animal puzzle. Eventually we got into the Tippin box, too... and with books, shakers and noise makers, our living room was a seriously rocking place! Reading "Where is Baby's Mommy?" - Eleanor loves the page that asks, "Is Mommy behind the plant?"
I think the fun hat from the Sargents and the maracas from the Tippins were the biggest hits... although everything is wonderful! Somehow this mom thinks that maybe the hat will continue to be more accessible to one little busy-body, however... :)
Kayli comes over to our house every Thursday after school. She helps me by watching Eleanor while I teach piano lessons and then the three of us just hang out. Yesterday my piano lessons were canceled, though, so we had an opportunity for a larger, longer adventure. It was a beautiful day, but hot, so we decided to walk down to the library and Whitney Commons to play in the fountain.
