A random mid-month Eleanor update

Here's some cool stuff my baby is doing. I'm not waiting until 5 months to share, because I need to focus on some good stuff now, and Eleanor is FULL of good stuff. We're having a bit of a rough day today, so it will do me good to put my brain in a better place

1- She's sitting up. By herself. Sort of leaned forward in a tripod-ish position, and only for 3 to 5 seconds at a time, but still! It's the first step. She's so close to doing it on her own.

2- Some other milestones: she rolled over officially on July 28th. She discovered her feet on August 6th, in the "eat my toes all the time" sort of way. Then on the 15th we discovered that she could sit up a little bit. All these tiny discoveries have come during the middle of some of the saddest days our tiny family has seen, so it's been a real blessing to have her around. She gives us something positive to focus on.

3- She's been "chewing" on things recently, so I think I'm going to start putting some food in her face. I'm fascinated by baby-led weaning, but I also want to try to make some purees myself, so I think we'll do like we do with diapering--a mish-mash of styles that works for me and keeps me from going crazy. She's definitely a grabby girl at the moment and likes watching us eat, so she's probably close to ready for other foods. I can hardly believe we're even at the point to start talking about this. Nursing has turned into something I really like to do. I don't like when Eleanor seems interested in putting everything BUT me in her mouth, but I love how happy she is when she's nursing. I remember some friends talking about knowing for sure that switching to a bottle was the right choice for them because it made meal-times a happy thing again, and I understand that now. After that first awful month, I never thought I'd enjoy feeding her. I wanted to do it, and I was happy that I could do it, but I didn't enjoy doing it, if that makes any sense. Now that I see solid foods (or mushy ones, whatever) on the horizon, I'm a little sad. Happy that she's growing and developing, and happy that I'll get a little break from being her only food source, but also just a little sad that things are changing. Not that we're done nursing by any means, just... Different.

4- She's started giggling somewhat reliably. Snurffles on her ribs or her daddy's whisker kisses seem to do it almost every time. Her giggle is still one of the best things to ever happen to me. Ever.

dude... look at those eyes!

5- Splashing! Friday night, in the bath, she discovered that she can splash the water. It was so fun to watch her little face light up. She's enjoyed baths for most of her life, but this was a new discovery and she was just delighted. Happy baby is my favorite color.

6-Speaking of color, we've been very curious about what color Eleanor's hair is. Right now, the fluffy fuzz she's got is sort of... Golden brown? Sandy-ish? It looks reddish in the light and she's got blonde eyebrows, so what she ends up with is sort of anyone's guess at this point. She doesn't have the BRIGHT RED hair I had as a baby. Neither does she have enough hair to really tell. BUT! She's got some more hair coming in, like an undercoat and it seems to be blonde. Bright blonde. Pure golden blonde, like her eyebrows. Where on earth that comes from, I have NO CLUE. Maybe from Jeremy.

7- On a totally shallow (and vain) note, my baby is beautiful. I love looking at her face. She makes all these crazy expressions, which are very hard to capture on camera, and someday, when her eyebrows aren't invisible, they'll be even better. Also, having a little girl means I get to buy tiny tutu swimsuits. Yeah!

Bean's baby with Beylit

chillin' with her puppy

8- She's taking an interest in the pets now. She watches them and tries to reach them. Thankfully, we have one of the sweetest dogs I've ever known and he is so incredibly patient with her. Also, with other babies. At my niece's 6th birthday party yesterday he let an 18mo old little boy get a death grip on his fur as he (the boy) tried to walk. Puca just stood there and waited to be rescued.


9- She got to meet one of her namesakes. Jeremy's grandma Wanda's maiden name is OQuin (spelling and punctuation confirmed by a high school reunion notice) and it made my day for her to get to meet Eleanor Quinn. Also, Gib, Jeremy's granddad, was just amazing with her. He made her smile and laugh. It was such a pleasure to see him delight in his latest great-grandbaby.