All About Elanor

It has been awhile since I have posted an update on Elanor. I did not even do one for her 5th birthday! She is 5 1/2 now and getting so tall. 

Elanor is really the same girl she has always been: funny, goofy, smart, passionate and a bit fiery. She feels things deeply and will cry during movies, loves her family and friends fiercely, and is generally caring and motherly to Alice. Elanor is reading now. We have been doing the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and we are almost done with the book. I highly recommend the book, by the way. She loves reading and has started reading books such as "Go, Dog. Go!" and the harder Bob's books. She also loves to be read to, which has been a part of her update since she was born. We have read many books out loud to her the past year such as "The Secret Garden", "Peter Pan"and her very favorite, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (she is on her third time reading it). We read Harry Potter to her out of the new illustrated book (which is one of the most beautiful things you will ever see). A new one will come out each fall, so we will read the Harry Potter books slowly as the illustrated ones come out (that way she has to wait like I did). Elanor is always playing Harry Potter and wants a Hermione doll from Santa.

We have decided to homeschool Elanor next year for kindergarten. There are a variety of reasons and some of them are: there are no half day kindergarten classes in Oregon, I want Elanor and Alice to be around each other more, so that despite their age difference they are close, I think that school is getting way too intense and kindergarteners now have homework (I'm pretty against homework until middle school), kindergarten is optional anyway, so no homeschooling paperwork, I am home and can teach her and want her to have more free time to play, explore, and have adventures, and I would really miss her. I am excited to teach her next year and have been getting ready to do so. She can read already, which will make it easy and my goal is to foster a love of learning. I am not too concerned about being overly academic, as I do not think that is too necessary yet. I am not sure if we will homeschool the year after, as I do think it is good for Elanor to learn from someone other than me. I am excited to see how it will go.

Elanor is such a special and fun girl. She has a great imagination, loves acting and being in plays, loves to dance, craves attention, loves her little sister so very much, loves going to church and loves reading scripture stories, loves to ride her two wheeler and is very good at riding it, loves being around people and can make a friend with anyone and is not shy at all, and is so funny. But also, she can be hard. She is spirited, opinionated, passionate and sometimes a little sneaky. We love this wonderful girl and know all of her hard things can also be her strengths. She has never been a boring child and I am just so glad she is ours. 

Also, Elanor is no longer sucking her thumb! Hallelujah!

We love our Elanor so deeply.

9 Months

Well, she was on New Year's Eve. She is almost 10 months at this point! 

Alice finally had a Doctor's appointment as we finally got all the insurance stuff figured out. She was 16.5 pounds (5-10th%) and 27 inches (20th%). 

 Alice is a very smiley girl, around people she is comfortable with at least. She was very serious at the doctors. 

 She loves to kiss and will do so upon request. Open mouth baby kisses are the sweetest. Cedric (her cousin), was here for a few weeks in December and she absolutely loved him and kissed him any chance she got! 

Alice giving Cedric kisses:

Alice still loves to eat and is not picky at all. She says, "Num!" now, which is very cute.

Here is another video of Elanor and Alice. Elanor loves to play with Alice, and Alice is so good at just doing whatever and not getting upset. She really loves Elanor.

These two videos are basically what Alice is like: affectionate and loving and patient and smiley. She does occasionally let you know when she is frustrated though, with a loud shriek.

Some notable moments that happened in her 9th month:

Met Santa and absolutely loved him.

Played with cousin Cedric a lot, met Uncle Ricky (had already met Aunt Jessie before).

Met her Aunt Allison for the first time!

Her 1st Christmas! She loved the wrapping paper and understood that fun things were wrapped up inside.

Got sick at some point, as per usual for her.

Crawling, crawling, crawling.

We love this sweet baby!

8 Months!...two weeks late

I know I need to do a Weekly Photo, and it was Elanor's birthday last week, but Alice turned 8 months at the end of November and I need to update before she's 9 months old!

{Phone picture, sent to Tyler at work, as he misses us when he is gone.}

I love this sweet, smiley baby so much and I am so glad she joined our family. I also love the baby stage and am so enjoying our baby each day.

This is a pretty horrible, early morning picture, but I love it! It shows how Alice is so sweet and loving. She loves to hug, cuddle and can kiss upon occasion. She loves to reach up and touch my face.

 Alice giving me a kiss. 

When I think of Alice, I think bright. She a little light of a person and brings so much joy through her huge smile and sometimes very loud sounds. She absolutely loves music and seems to already have good rhythm and taps her hand to the beat or moves her body to the beat. She is always right on with the music and I am thinking it will be something that she will always love.

Alice seems to be generally a little less social and not as talkative as Elanor was at this age (and still is), but is also sometimes very loud and does enjoy the company of other babies or children. She is also getting so much better with the whole stranger or even going to people she knows thing. She will often smile at strangers and lets people hold her quite often. She often still looks at me to make sure I or Tyler are there. Speaking of Tyler, she lights up so much when he gets home!  

Two weeks ago, Alice was just starting to army crawl around and could get places. She is even better now and gets up on her knees all the time and has taken a few knees and hands "steps".  She often will get frustrated with herself, but is very determined to get where she wants to go.

Alice also loves to eat and will eat anything. Smoked blue cheese, yep. A scone, of course. Soup broth, definitely. Brussel sprouts, she gobbled them up. She LOVES food. Alice has also got the pincher grasp down and can feed herself really well. 

 Alice still loves Elanor so much and Elanor loves her. I hope despite the age gap that they become the best of friends.

Oh, and she loves putting pretty much anything in her mouth and she is simply wonderful.

7 Months

I feel like these past couple months have flown by! I love, love, love babies and am really loving mine. She has grown up so much this month.

Just look at that posture!

 She was sitting up at six months and is pretty much a pro at it now. She scoots and rolls around, and also turns circles on her tummy (like a clock hand). She is getting much stronger and I predict she will be crawling within the next month or so.

 She still rather prefers me to anyone else (as it should be), but is much better about not crying when other people hold her. When she is in a new place, or even a place she has been, she takes some time to warm up to people and mostly observes and has a very serious expression. Once Alice warms up, she is all smiles! She has also started getting excited when Tyler comes home, which is so cute!

 Alice lights up so much when Elanor plays with her. Alice is also extremely patient with Elanor and only cries if she believes herself in real danger. I obviously watch Elanor very close (Elanor just loves her so much, so I have to remind her to not smother Alice with love).

As with most babies, Alice loves being outside. She also really loves animals and gets so excited when she sees a dog or cat.

 Alice is now sleeping through the night!!! I will write more on this in another post, but if your baby has trouble sleeping or napping I recommend The Sleepeasy Solution.

 Alice loves to eat and will eat anything! Her favorite is probably avocados, but she does seems to really enjoy soup broth as well. Alice is getting that pincher thing down and has started getting food in her mouth herself. She seems to be quite a dainty eater and tries to be very careful about getting food to her mouth.

 She is also pretty funny and likes to make us laugh with faces like these or funny noises. (She is doing this face on purpose.)

It is so fun to get to know Alice and figure out her personality. She is quite a bit different from our crazy, social, fun-loving, deep feeling Elanor. Alice seems quite calm, quiet and observant. She does however let you know when she is tired or upset in a pretty big way. Alice needs time to adjust to different places and people and is pretty dependent on me and needs me close. She likes to make us laugh, but does not seem to be an attention-seeker (being an attention-seeker is not a bad thing--being one myself as a child--so is Elanor). Alice also really enjoys music and dancing. She has the greatest smile and brings so much joy to our little family. 

Six Months Old

This cute baby is six months old!

Alice is such a joy to be around! She smiles easily and at anyone. She is getting much better at letting other people hold her, but prefers me. Alice does get really excited when Tyler comes home and as always loves Elanor. She is really good at communicating what she wants for the most part and is quite talkative.

 Alice loves to eat! She has started doing this funny thing where if I am not putting food into her mouth quick enough she starts beating her arm against her body and making a funny noise that sort of sounds like breathing in and out quickly but with sound. It is pretty hilarious! She also chews in just about the cutest way possible.

Personality: From what I can tell at this point, Alice is happy and fairly easy going, but also determined and loud. She generally does so well at running errands and missing naps and does not complain. However, she still wakes up screaming in the middle of naps. She seems to be doing better at night, but it is hard when when she has been sick at least once every month of her life. Poor baby!

 Alice still is quite small I think, but we do not have a doctor here yet so I am unsure of her stats. She is a lovely squeezable baby, with nice little rolls and chubby cheeks. 

I love getting to know her more each day.

4 Months...a little late.

Alice was 4 months on July 31st! 

She was 11 pounds 6 ounces (5th%)

and

23 inches (also in 5th%).

I cannot remember her head circumference, but it was small. Alice is on the charts now, which is a big step for her. She is gaining weight and is looking like a proper chubby baby!

 She coos and squeals and smiles all the time. She really has the best smile! Alice also starts crying out of the blue when she had been happy and cooing a second before. I'm not sure what that is about. Her cry is still incredibly loud and often high pitched. However, she easily smiles and will do so at anyone.

She loves her parents and also really loves Elanor. They are so very cute together! Alice has also been grabbing and holding things.

Alice has a great stare and can stare anyone down.

 She is still not sleeping through the night and her naps are still hard as well. However, we think she is pretty much one of the cutest babies, plus she is just so sweet.

 We took some family photos before we left Utah and here are a few cute ones of Alice:

 She can also do this awesome trick right now:

She is the sweetest, loveliest baby and I'm so happy that she is ours.

3 Months

Our wee Alice turned 3 months old last week! So, yes, I am over a week late, but I do have some very cute pictures.

The first set of pictures were taken last week on the day she turned 3 months and the next set were taken today (over a week later). It does seem to make a little bit of difference.

We don't have a weight or stats for her as she does not have a doctor's appointment until she is 4 months old. However, she has obviously started putting on weight and is looking like a proper chubby baby! She is still in newborn clothes in these pictures, but has recently just grown out of her newborn cloth diapers and covers and is also moving into 0-3 month and 3 month clothes.

 Her face in this one is so funny and thus I included it on here!

She does look a bit like Elanor as a baby, but also looks so much like my baby pictures, plus a lot just like herself. Alice smiles a lot, especially on her changing table (she loves it up there!). She has also had many little colds, which can make her a bit sad at times. She also often cries a lot for no apparent reason, such is baby life. She loves to nurse. Elanor was already sleeping eight hours or more at night at 3 months, but Alice usually only sleeps for 4 hours and then needs to eat. I've heard that sleeping through the night has to do with weight, so she will get there!

She is often a little trooper, and does not get to stay home and nap all the time like Elanor did. She has been on lots of hikes, camped twice, been to watch swim lessons and ballet class, had to run errands all the time, etc. Such is the life of every baby but the firstborn. Most of the time she is great, but will let you know when she has had enough and would like to go home.

 She loves Elanor! This picture is so blurry, but she was laughing at Elanor and the two of them are so cute. Elanor is so great with her. She loves to hold, talk to, kiss, and help Alice in any way. Even though Alice is so young, you can still tell how much she loves Elanor as she perks up and smiles whenever she is around.

 This is a Harry Potter onesie saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." My parents got this for her! If you haven't got a clue what this phrase means, you should probably read the books. 

 Alice is quite "talkative". She coos and squeals and tries to mimic what we say. She also tries to communicate her feelings and will talk in this sad voice with sad noises and seems to be trying to tell us what is wrong. Elanor would do the same thing.

 Elanor and Alice is their matching Marauders Map shirts. A great face by Alice.

 Alice is quite strong. She has rolled over several times, but I still don't think she has quite gotten the hang of it. Her head is really stable and she can lift her head all the way up when on her tummy.

She can lift it higher than this, but I don't have a picture of it!

Alice is a delight and we are all so in love with her.