Hug Your Child

Today I'm hugging Eleanor even more. I've been reading about a litte girl named Layla that is losing her battle to stage 4 neuroblastoma. She's only 2 years old...and sadly is in the final stages of her precious life. I ask that you continue to pray for her and her family as they prepare to let her go home to her Lord, and ask you to hug your child or children a little more today. Be thankful for the moments you have with them...for none of us know when we'll be called home. If you'd like to read more about her, here's the link: www.laylagrace.org

She's a Walkin'

Yup....I'd say it's official now. She's definitely walking. Yesterday she was taking like 10 steps by herself...so I think that qualifies :) My baby is walking.....sigh.......sigh some more. What happened to that tiny little person I first met almost a year ago. The little girl that stole my heart when we first saw her on the ultrasound. M & I have been flipping through old pictures and video and we both are like..."Would you look at how little she was!"....and "Oh my gosh....look at how little her hands were!".....and how we thought each month she looked bigger. That part is probably true...but it's amazing how quickly you forget.

Believe it or not...a year ago at this time...I was watching 3 other little munchkins...when I was 38 weeks pregnant...my nephew and nieces. I remembered a funny story the other day about when they were here. I took them to a local park...and it was during school hours...so a couple other moms that didn't have school age kids were there. Immediately one started questioning my nephew about why he wasn't in school...and gave me a disapproving look. He politely explained that they were on vacation....which then softened her a little. The other mom was chatting with me...and the whole time I kept thinking...I wonder if she realizes I'm 38 weeks pregnant. WHAT??? Hahahahaha.....OF COURSE she did...hahaha....I guess we're you're in the "first" pregnancy mode you're a little self-centered...like no one else has ever been pregnant before. And by judging from the photos I've seen of myself....I'm pretty sure even the blind new I was pregnant. I WAS HUGE!! LOL.....oooohhh...funny funny!! Amazing how your perspective changes. Here's a couple fun pictures from this time last year :)

Eleanor's Got Loco Legs!!

Say it isn't so...."sniff sniff".....

My baby girl is 11 months old today. Only one more month of her being a "baby." She's growing up too fast. I know...I know...I say the same thing every month....and say that too. She's changing so much everyday. This week already she learned where her tummy is. So now she knows "head" and "tummy." She's taking more steps by herself, but we definitely need to up our walking practice so she's able to show off her skills at her birthday party next month. I'll have to take a picture of her party invitations that I made. They turned out pretty good. I think these are the cupcakes I will make for her party, except use pink & purple frosting. I better get busy practicing :)

Picture from Martha Stewart Cupcakes Cookbook

Things I'm learning....

1) Riding in the backseat of our car next to Eleanor for 5 hours is not always as pleasurable as I previously thought

2) Steamy, stinky dog breath is not my favorite scent

3) It's time we get a bigger vehicle!

These were all learned on our way back from NC this past weekend. Granted...5 hours in the car for anyone is not always fun...and certainly wasn't for Eleanor or anyone else. I tried my best to entertain her, by making silly faces, tickling her, making even more ridiculous faces AND sounds...nothing worked. She was miserable and so was I. I reached my breaking point...and was ready to pull out my hair. I realized that it's ok to have these moments. I wasn't my most patient with her, but we all have less than perfect days of parenting..and this was one of them. I'm convinced that had we been traveling in a much larger vehicle, ALL of this could have been avoided....but we're not there yet :)

Pictures of the snow

This is insane. We're supposed to get up to another 20 inches tomorrow. That will easily put us close to 5 feet on the ground...at one time. Good grief.

Here's a couple pics of the snow. One of Eleanor sitting on top of the snow in front of the house. The second one is looking at our house from the parking lot. You can barely see out our front windows due to the massive pile of snow in our yard. I'm sure it'll be awhile before all this melts :)

Snow Snow...and more snow!

We got a whopping 34 inches of snow!!! Great googley moogely it's a lot!! Doesn't help we have a bad shovel...so the digging out is taking much longer than we'd like. But it's not like we could go anywhere anyway. The roads are pretty bad still. Oh well....good excuse to snuggle inside with Eleanor :) Hope you're all staying warm!! I'll post some pictures tonight of all the snow.

Big things have been happening!!

She took her first steps last week!! Big girl!! She been busy practicing all week...and this morning took some on her own without me prompting her. She also said "Uh oh"...this past Sunday. She tipped over her ball pit and looked and me and said it. It was the cutest thing EVER!

She's really getting into everything now. I'm constantly following her around, and getting her off the stairs. We really need to figure out something for those!! She's been cutting her one year molars all last week too, so we've all been a little miserable for that. Finally today I didn't have to put any diaper rash cream on her either. Things are finally starting to look up :)

Other big news......we're getting a new stroller......FOR FREE!! Whoohoo!! Bumbleride is replacing our stroller for free to sort of make up for the fact that M almost cut his finger off :) Isn't that so nice?? We are a Bumbleride family for life now! :)

Ok...well...I think I covered just about everything. We are still hoping to get a night out just the two of us this weekend...but it's supposed to snow yet again. This would be the second attempt at M's holiday party...and I got a special dress for it too. Keep your fingers crossed that the snow completely misses us!! :)