9 Months

This month has been so fun! You are just learning so much and growing up so fast. The most exciting highlight of this month has to be TEETH!! Your first two bottom teeth popped through, FINALLY!! I was beginning to think you would never get teeth, so I was very excited to see them!

Another thing I just love, is that you have started waving and saying "hi". It is the cutest thing EVER!! You just flirt with anyone you see. You wave to them and say "hi" and they think you are the cutest baby on the planet (which you are)! You have also started clapping! This is something I have also been waiting for, I just think it is so cute when little kids clap. Even though you don't really make any sounds with your clapping yet, it is still adorable.

Our apartment is all one level, so we don't have stairs. However, your grandma and grandpa's house does have stairs, and since grandma and grandpa watch you a lot, your new obsession is climbing up stairs. You can't climb down them yet, so you can imagine that climbing up them is a scary thing for mommy to watch you do. The other day daddy was helping you learn to climb up the stairs and he was a little too far away and you fell down three stairs. You did not get too badly hurt, but it was such a scary thing. Now that you are older and trying new things, we need to watch you so much more carefully.

Your personality blossoms more and more every month and it is so fun to watch. You are such a good baby and we love experiencing your growth and development. You know exactly what you want and you want to try to do everything yourself. We love you so much baby girl!

Underneath is a picture that illustrates how hard it was to get a good picture this month (that's why her monthly picture, above, is a blue steel kind of face). HaHa. Isn't that just the cutest, sadest little face you have ever seen? =D

8 Months

8 MONTHS OLD! Wow. This month has been busy, busy, busy! And to go right along with that, you are such a busy, busy baby. You are moving and wiggling non-stop, sometimes I don't think I can keep up with you (I can't imagine what kind of toddler you are going to be).

You learned how to crawl this month, yay! However, if there is something that you want and it is really far away, you will crawl a few feet then plop back down on your belly and scoot to it. For some reason you think scooting is still the fastest way to get around. But as the days go on you crawl more and more and more. You have also started pulling up on furniture (oh my), which means you fall down and bonk your head a lot. :(

Your communication skills are developing more as well. You started saying "dada" this month after daddy spend an ENTIRE day saying it over and over to you. Now you say is all the time. You still say "mama" but only when you are sad and crying, you say "dada" when you are happy and playing...I don't quite know what that means. :)

Since you were 1 month old you have been watching Baby Signing Time and I have been using sign language with you. Since then daddy and I have been so excited for you to learn your first sign, and this is the month it happened. You can sign "milk" now! We love watching you sign it, even if you sign it all day long for things that have nothing to do with milk, we still love it! We are excited to see which signs you start using next.

You are still sleeping great! You love soft, fuzzy blankets and stuffed animals and you will not go to sleep unless you have your green fuzzy blanket. You love your binky and sometimes I catch you playing 3 binkies at once. You love flapping your arms and you get excited about everything. We went on a 2 week long vacation this month, and you were such a good traveler, we were so proud of you. You got to see Uncle Tyler and Aunt Landan get married and you looked so cute in your wedding party dress. You went to your 5th state capital this month, your 13th state, and Canada. You are such a great baby Eleanor and we feel so blessed to have you! We love you so much!

Look at her standing up!! I can't believe she is getting so big! Getting a good picture was so difficult this month because Eleanor just does NOT hold still. Seriously, she wont hold still for 2 seconds. However, that makes for some funny pictures, even if they wouldn't work for her monthly picture I thought I would share them anyways. She just cracks me up! =D

THE MANY FACES OF ELEANOR:

7 Months

7 months!! Wow! This month has been such a blast. It is so fun to watch your personality develop and watch you learn new things every single day. My favorite thing you have started doing this month is saying "mama"! Most of the time it is when you cry you say "ma ma ma ma ma ma" over and over again. No, I do not think you know that "mama" means me, but I like to imagine you are calling for me anyways. You have also started saying "baba" a lot, and someone recently told us that "baba" mean dad in Chinese, so Peter doesn't feel as left out.

Another exciting thing you have started doing this month is getting up on all fours! Yay! You get up on your hands and knees and just rock back and forth, back and forth. Then, when it is time for you to move, you plop right back down on your belly and army crawl wherever it is you want to go. And let me tell you, you have gotten so good at army crawling, you are so fast!

I think you have been growing quite a bit, because you sleep so much lately. You will sleep 12 to 14 hours a night, every night. Then you take 2 or 3 naps during the day all between 2 and 3 hours each. You are a growing girl! You eat anything we give you and love to try grown up food. I keep telling you that you can try more foods if you get some teeth, but so far there are no teeth to be found.

You are EXTREMELY adorable and make mommy and daddy laugh all day every day. We seriously love playing with you and love talking to you all day. You make life so fun and exciting and we love having you in our family. We always say if all our babies could be exactly like you, we would have a ton more. Then we think or maybe we should just quit while we're ahead. We love you so much sweet girl!!

5 & 6 Months

Wow, I have been neglecting my blogging duties BIG time. Things have been so crazy lately. Peter and I went to San Francisco, then we went to Tennessee for 10 days, and then when we got home we had no internet for quite awhile. So, I am going to have to catch you up on two months of Eleanor's life.

Wow, it seems like so long ago that you were only 4 months old. You have progressed and learned so much since then.

You are definitely on the move now! You "army crawl" all around the room chasing toys and you can sit up all by yourself...until you topple over. If you are too tired to army crawl but you want something, no problem, you will just steam roll your body across the room to get it. I have a feeling from now on there is absolutely no stopping you.

Ever since you were born you have been coughing, but you have never had a cough. You fake cough all the time and we just roll our eyes and tell you that you don't have a cough and to quit it silly girl. However, I think we have finally figured out why you cough so much. Your daddy started beat boxing to you since the day you were born, and many of the sounds he makes when he is beat boxing sound like he is coughing. The other day daddy started beat boxing to you and you started coughing right along with his beat, and we made the connection. We don't have a baby who pretends she is sick all the time, we actually have a beat boxing baby!

You are rocking the solids and love every single taste that enters your mouth. You like fruit more the veggies, so if we give you the fruit first, you aren't too happy once we switch to veggies. But so far you are a great eater. You babble and babble and babble and have started to add inflection which makes it sound like you are telling us all a really important story, it is so cute! You love playing with toys and love playing with your toes even more. You have started to discover off limit things around the apartment, like the DVD player and the cords and light switches, which has made us realize that we need to baby proof our house very quickly.

You smile non-stop and you are such a well-behaved baby. People are always very impressed at how calm and happy you are and some are even convinced that we have installed an "off" button. HaHa. People love holding you and playing with you until you spit up all over them, then they quickly give you back to me. Though the spit up is terrible and not showing any signs of getting better, I just can't be upset about it when you flash a huge smile right after spitting up all over me.

I think my absolute FAVORITE thing that you have started doing is when you give me kisses. I will kiss your cheek and then look at you and ask if you will give mommy kisses. You excitedly open your mouth wide and  put it right on my cheek, it seriously melts my heart every single time (except the time where you spit up at the exact same time all over my face...). And after you have done it once, you want to give me like a million more kisses after that, you think it is the funnest game, and so do I!

We are so grateful to have such an amazing baby, we love watching you grow and learn so much. Every day with you is an adventure and you are teaching me so much baby girl. We thank Heavenly Father for you every single day and we can't imagine our lives without you.

Weight: 15.8 lbs. (44th percentile)

Height: 27.3 in. (94th percentile)

My First Tutorial: Burlap Covered Bulletin Board

So, I have never done a tutorial before. However, I am so happy with how this project turned out, I feel like I would be selfish not to share. :)

I got this idea from a blog I came across, and though I did mine a bit different hers is wonderful and provides other options for this project. These burlap boards are pretty popular and cost between $49.00 - $89.00. When I saw them I immediately wanted one for Eleanor's nursery, but I refused to pay that kind of price. I did some research and found a tutorial, did a bit of tweaking to make it my own, and now I have a burlap board that cost me less than $7 (I already had some of the things that are needed, so it might be a little more expensive if you have to buy some of the tools and things). So, without further ado:

The Burlap Covered Bulletin Board.

Things you will need:

bulletin board - (any size)

burlap - $2.99 a yard (enough to cover your board, I got one yard from Joanns)

upholstery nails - $1.30 per 25 count (enough to go around your board; I got two boxes from Lowes)

some kind of wire or string - (I used beading wire, just because that is what I had)

staple gun - (I have also heard of people using a glue gun)

hammer

tape - measure or ruler of some sort (not pictured)

nail - (not pictured)

Step #1: Cover the bulletin board with burlap. Wrap the burlap around the edges of the board and staple it to the back. I used MANY staples so there is no chance of the burlap coming loose. I'm sorry if the staples are hard to see in these photos.

The corners are a little tricky. These photos might not make it any easier but I tried to show how I did the corners.

I folded in the corner kind of like how you do corners when you wrap a birthday or Christmas present. It is also kind of like making the corners of a bed, I think.

I put a staple on both the top of the folded in corner and on the side.

Then make a final fold up and over, covering that side staple and staple it to the top. Then continue stapling the burlap down the side until you come to the next corner. Make sure to pull the burlap SUPER tight as you are stapling it.

Step #2: When you are done stapling the burlap to your bulletin board on all sides, cut off any excess fabric.

The back of your board should look like this:

The front should look like this:

Step #3: Now you want to put in the upholstery nails around the edges of the bulletin board. These nails are more like push pins...they bend very easily and I learned the hard way that they do not hammer in like normal nails. To solve this problem I used a real nail and hammered in a hole, pulled the nail out, then pushed the upholstery nail into the hole. This system worked VERY well.

First, you want to put in the four corner nails. After that, use a string, wire, or thread to make a straight line from one corner nail to the other so you can put the rest of the nails in a straight line.

Step #4: Measure the dimensions of your bulletin board and divide that number by the number of upholstery nails you have or you want to you use. So I measured all the sides of my board and added them together and then divided that number by 50 (the number of nails I had). The number you get is the amount of space you want between each nail. Use your measuring tape or ruler to place your nails around the board.

Tip: After I divided my measurements by 50 I got a number like 2.32in. That is a very hard measurement to work with. To make up for human error I put in two upholstery nails on the left side of one of the sides, then two nails on the right side, then two nails on the left side, etc. This way once you get to the middle of the board, if you have made errors you can just put the last nail right in the middle and no one will ever notice.

After all the nails are in, you are done! YAY! Enjoy!

"Solids"

Eleanor had her 4 month doctor's appointment yesterday. She is doing great and right on track with everything which made me really happy! =D I had heard that it was recommended that babies wait until they are 6 months old to eat solids. I always planned on giving her solids before 6 months, but I didn't think the doctor would talk about solids at her 4 month appointment. However, he recommended that we start introducing solids into her diet. Eleanor has been really interested in "big people" food for a few weeks now, and we have put a spoon in her mouth a few times to see if she would push it back out with her tongue and she didn't, so I knew she was ready. So, today I went out and bought some jars of baby food and some rice cereal. This is how it went:

I think she was a little confused and skeptical at first...

But in the end she did great, and she was happy and full!! =D

I also have a video of her first reactions to the cereal...but for some reason it wont let me upload it...so I will try to add it later, it's pretty dang cute!!

4 Months

Wow, time is flying!! This month was the month of attitude. You know what you want baby girl and you are not afraid to scream bloody murder if you don't get it RIGHT when you want it. I'm starting to see a blossoming personality and it is really fun to watch.

You are getting your first tooth! Which means, you are drooling all over everything all the time...lovely. You are still eating and sucking on your hands, but you are also grabbing and holding toys now so you love to suck on those too. Basically, everything goes in your mouth...always. You can't grab or hold anything small yet, but soon we are going to have to worry about choking...not looking forward to that.

You learned to roll from your back to your tummy this month. You have also started scooting more and more. With all this new found motion, you have become extremely wiggly. When we feed you, you arch your back and make it almost impossible to hold the bottle in your mouth without you tumbling onto the floor onto your head. You just want to get up and go so badly. You have also started holding the bottle by yourself though you don't quite have the coordination to keep it in your mouth for very long. This creates a battle the entire time we are feeding you. You want to hold it so badly, but then scream and flail when it drops out of your mouth. Even when you are not trying to hold it you are so wiggly your hands end up knocking it out of your mouth anyways, which results in more screaming. We finally have to end up pinning your arms to your chest just to finish feeding you. You are just trying to grow up too dang fast.

You are interested in everything that is going on around you, even the tv. Your daddy and I were watching Toy Story 2 the other night and you couldn't take your eyes off of it. Whenever Jessie the Cowgirl came on the screen you would giggle and giggle, it was so cute. I can't believe you are already understanding and reacting to things like that.

You can seriously babble and gibber-gabber for hours now. I'll be cooking dinner, doing chores, blogging, etc...and you just lay there all by yourself talking up a storm. I don't know if you have imaginary friends or you just love talking to yourself, but it is so funny! I will miss your babbling so much when you  learn to talk, it seriously puts a smile on my face all day long.

Raising you is so fun baby girl, and even if your screaming makes me want to pull out my hair sometimes, one smile from you makes it all worth it! I love being your mommy so much!

Weight: 13.6 lbs. (33rd percentile)
Height: 25 in. (68th percentile)

(I know this is a different onesie, but she ended up spitting up all over the first one, so we had to change. Ha.)

 Don't let the first picture of this post fool you. Most of the pictures of this wiggly girl turned out like this.

Putting EVERYTHING in her mouth!

1 Month          2 Months          3 Months

EASTER (a little late)

Peter is all involved in law school finals right now so Eleanor and I barely see him at all these days. Therefore, Easter weekend was great because we got to spend time as a family. Thursday Peter and I went to the Pioneer Theater Company's performance of "Laughing Stock" and then on Friday we went Skiing. Peter's mom and sister babysat, and we were so grateful for some time together. Easter Sunday was filled with good food and fun family togetherness.

Eleanor in her Easter dress!

Easter Jammies!!

I'm excited for next year when Eleanor can search for eggs and get excited about candy. But this Easter was so great with my little family! =D

Giggling and Rolling Over

Oh my...she is growing up so fast, I can't even believe it.

Isn't this just the cutest?! =D

First Time Skiing

I have always hated snow...always. I just really don't like being cold, and even though snowball fights and building snowmen are supposed to be fun, I ALWAYS end up getting snow down my shirt, or my pants, or in my shoes and socks and I HATE that. Peter on the other hand really enjoys the snow and has been wanting me to ski basically since we met. He thought that I would transform into a snow lover once I learned to ski. I have been avoiding this for our entire marriage until a couple of weeks ago when Peter's dad took us on a ski trip.

I was really nervous about skiing and NOT excited about it at all. I thought I would be freezing the entire time and I knew I would be falling all over the place unavoidably getting snow down my shirt, pants, and into my shoes and socks. I was dreading it. Peter, Peter's dad, and Erika (Peter's sisters) were all very upbeat and positive about the idea of me skiing. They all wanted me to have a great time and encouraged me the entire day. They were so awesome and really helped make the experience a good one.

The first thing I did was sign up for a beginner's lesson. I really felt like I would be so lost in this lesson, but honestly it was not that hard. It definitely lived up to its title: beginner. We didn't even really learn to turn. We mastered putting on the skis, standing up, how to fall, and stopping, which are all very important things to learn, of course. But I was feeling pretty bored by the end and pretty excited to learn some more. After my lesson I met back up with Peter and his family and we decided to hit some of the easier slopes. I was feeling a little cocky about my skills (stupid, I know) and the first thing I did when we got off the ski lift was fly down the mountain out of control and eat it. Yes, I did get snow down my shirt, pants, and into my socks and shoes. I decided to slow down a bit and take a few more lessons from Peter and his family. The rest of the day went like this: I took it slow and easy and made good progress, I started to feel a little better about my skills and decided to take it a little faster and riskier, I flew down the mountain, out of control, and ate it (usually taking other skiers down with me).

All-in-all it was a REALLY fun day. I wasn't cold at all (it was actually really hot), I didn't hate the snow, and I actually really enjoyed skiing. I have some pretty awesome bruises and I could barely get out of bed the next morning, but I am really looking forward to the next time I get to ski. Thank you Kerns for being patient, sharing your skills with me, and helping me enjoy Utah a little more. =D

YEAH! We're ready!!

This illustrates Peter's skill level...and my skill level. Haha.

I did this...a lot...

This bruise is on my upper thigh...it looked SO much worse in real life. Ouch. HaHa.

3 Months

 My baby girl,

You have really grown up a lot this month. Seriously, sometimes I look at you and wonder what happened to my little baby. Your face is so much more grown up and you act like you know exactly what is going on at all times. Now, when you babble, it sounds like you have something really important to say and you need everyone to pay attention. It is so cute.

Your absolute favorite thing to do is look at, play with, suck on, and eat your hands. I can put you down on your boppy and you will just lay there looking at your hands for hours...it's great. =D You especially like to examine them while I am signing to you, I expect your first sign will happen soon.

You are still sleeping great! Between 9 and 11 hours a night. However, your naps aren't as productive as they use to be. You love to be swaddled, in fact you will not sleep without being swaddled. Problem is, you are getting too big for your swaddlers now, so you are constantly breaking out of them and waking yourself up. I guess it is time to wean you off your swddlers...but I think it might be a long and nightmare-ish process. (If anyone has any suggestions on how to transition from swaddling to not swaddling, that would be wonderful!) You are smiling SO much now...especially when we come to get you out of your crib, you flash the hugest, cutest smile, it makes my heart melt.

You learned to roll over this month! However, you only do it when you want to. One day you rolled over, tummy to back right and left, about 12 times. We were sure you would be rolling over all the time after that. But then we would try and show your trick to other people and you refused to do it. Now, you just roll over every once in awhile when you want to...I am not even convinced you really know how to do it, I think it just happens sometimes. HaHa.

You got your cast off this month (hopefully for good) and your foot is looking a lot better. You also went on two vacations. We went to Bryce Canyon for Peter and I's two year anniversary and you did so great. We got a little front backpack thing and hiked with you. You just slept the entire time, I think you loved being so close and snuggly with daddy. Your second vacation was to Arizona to see Savanna (former roommate) get married. On the way home you got to go to Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, Wupatki, The Grand Canyon, and Four Corners. You have already been to 4 states in 3 months! We had tons of fun, even though you weren't very happy some of the time, all-in-all you were wonderfully behaved.

You seriously light up our lives little girl. We love having you in our family even though everything in our house, including us, is constantly covered in spit-up. We love you more than you will ever know.

1 Week       3 Weeks       1 Month       2 Months

Eleanor's Baby Blessing

Sunday (February 19th) was a wonderful day for our little family. First of all, it was Peter and I's two year anniversary! I can't believe it has already been two years. Secondly, we had Eleanor blessed at church. It was an amazing day filled with happiness, family, and friends! Peter gave Eleanor a beautiful blessing and it was so fun to celebrate with that blessing with the people we love.

Sometimes it is really hard to get a 2-month old to take a happy picture. Even though she is not smiling in any of these, she is still super cute!! =D

I promise, she really is a happy child!!

I LOVE the yawning picture! She is such a doll.

After the blessing we had a little lunch back at my apartment. Thank you to Ashley, Erika, Tyler and especially Kathie (Peter's mom) for all your help with the lunch! It turned out really cute and really yummy!! Thank you so much to everyone who took time to come to Eleanor's blessing, we really appreciate it. And to those who weren't able to make it (mainly my family) thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers, we missed you. We love you all!

YUM! =D

We had a table with sweets, pictures and little things related to Eleanor's life so far. That is her very first cast...I can't believe she has grown so much already!

Thank you Janssen for the cute garland idea!

Idea from: this blog via pinterest

We used her cast as the guestbook for everyone to sign. It makes it much more colorful and fun! =D

Eleanor is such a blessing in our lives. She has the sweetest little spirit and bring us so much joy. I can't imagine our lives without her and I am so glad we are blessed enough to raise such an amazing little girl. We love her so much and thank Heavenly Father for her every single day.