New Clothes

We got lots of wonderful clothes when Eleanor was first born. Some of them where in a larger size, and we put them away for 'later.' Well, it's a good thing we pulled out the box and went through it recently. Many of the 9month clothing now fits her. Some of that is because she's got a big butt due to the cloth diapers, but some of it is just that she is a pretty long baby.

Here is one of the cute outfits we got from family in Florida. It's got Thing 1 and Thing 2 on it. I love the back pockets!





Here's a onsie we got from our family in Oregon.




And of course, the funny hat that I got to help make it through the rest of the cold season. She grew out of the winter hats we got in November.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Eleanor truly is our Wee Irish Blessing! As usual, she enjoyed eating the bib!

Baby's first cold?

I'm not sure if Eleanor has a cold or if she is just teething. Starting last Thursday, she decided that she would only sleep in someone's arms. In addition, she has been extra drooly, gassy and snotty. I figured it was just teething. However, today, she seems to have a bit of a cough and a lot of snot. She doesn't seem overly bothered by it, so I'm still not sure if she has a bit of a cold or if she's teething. Unfortunately, I do have a cold. It was pretty bad last night, but I feel much better now. I think Andy was worried about leaving for his business trip with a non-sleeping baby and a sick mommy.

Another teddy bear photo series

Here is another series of photos with Eleanor and her teddy bear.

I see my teddy bear...


I touch my teddy bear...


I knock over my teddy bear...


I bring my teddy bear closer...


I talk to my teddy bear...and then,,,


of course, I eat my teddy bear.

New bedroom

Andy and I have finally moved upstairs and into our master bedroom! Andy finished putting in all the wood flooring awhile ago, and we just finished painting the trim. We love our new bedroom furniture as well!

5 Months!

Eleanor turned 5 months old on Sunday. It's been a busy, but fun month! She's continuing to discover the world around her - and still puts everything in her mouth (including my Mothering Magazine!). Eleanor loves interacting with people - which is funny since Andy and I are both fairly introverted. If someone is not holding her, then there must be someone nearby to watch and talk to, or else she'll start to fuss. Luckily, she usually doesn't mind laying on a blanket in the middle of the kitchen while Andy and I make dinner. She still sits in her high chair and plays while we eat.

It's amazing all the things she's started doing in just the past couple of days. Over the weekend, she starting being able to sit unsupported! Of course, now all she wants to do is sit! Luckily, we have lots of pillows for those times when she falls over to one side or the other (or straight back). She can sit for about a half a minute before starting to lose her balance.

Usually, when we are getting her ready for bed, as soon as we start putting her nightgown on she melts down. Last night, she did the opposite. She's usually not much of a laugher, but last night she was giggling and laughing while we were changing her. It had Andy and I laughing so hard we had a difficult time getting her dressed!

Sleep finally seems to have settled out. She's going to bed around 7:30pm, wakes up around 4 for some food, and will usually go back down for 2-3 hours. We are still working on naps. Her favorite place to nap is on someone's lap. If we move her to her bed or someplace else, she wakes up crying within minutes. Fortunately, she'll also sleep in the sling, which has been a lifesaver for me!

5 month high chair photo - we had to strap her in because she keep trying to get out!



5 months old and Eleanor is now much bigger than her teddy bear!


Eleanor's hair is really starting to grow! Some of her hair is quite long and sticks straight up after a bath!


Sleeping in her new carseat. She seems much more comfortable in the convertible car seat than she did in the infant bucket.


Sitting unsupported - with the Boppy nearby to help soften the inevitable fall.

EEWWW Gross

This morning, while Eleanor was doing her usual 'distracted baby' nursing, she decided to rub her face while staring at the ceiling. She turned back to me and started nursing and I noticed a huge snot had been rubbed into her eyelashes. She had rubbed it out of her nose (some was still on her hand) and into her eyelashes. Yuck. Luckily, I noticed it right away so it came out easily.

Bath time fun

Eleanor had a major blowout today, so we had an unplanned bath. I decided that it would be fun to take a bath together, so I got everything ready and we took a nice warm bath together. She wasn't so sure about it at first, maybe the big tub kind of scared her. However, it didn't take long for her to realize that if she hit the water with her hands, it splashed and made a cool sound! Usually she cries when I take her out of the tub - whether from being cold or being taken from the water, I'm not sure. However, for the first time today, she didn't fuss when we got out of the water. In fact, she looked very sweet all wrapped up in the towel!

Getting Bigger

Sometimes, Eleanor still looks like our cute little baby.

On Valentines day, she wore her red corduroy dress and looked quite cute.



Of course, she still loves naked time - or even just time in a diaper. We were pushing our luck a bit here, because we had her in a cloth diaper without a diaper cover, but we were lucky and there were no accidents.



Some days. she looks a little bit older. We dressed her up in denim overalls recently, and she looked more like a little girl and less like a baby. She's also decided that she likes to try and jump out of the high chair (hence the harness) and she usually likes to sit on the couch - even if I'm boring her by once again taking a photo!

Toys

Eleanor loves any toy she can put in her mouth. We've started letting her play with toys in her high chair while we eat dinner. It's a good way to get her used to sitting in her chair during dinner, but now she's going to think that dinner time is play time (we'll be introducing solids in about two months).





Of course sometimes, a simple mirror is better than any toy!




Sometimes her own feet are her favorite toy. she loves to chew and suck on her toes. It makes diaper changes quite a challenge these days.