Eleanor, to sum up

Eleanor, the first year. In motion, and in collage. Ta-da.

Pink, it's my new obsession

Well, pink has become an increasingly large part of my life over the past few years. First, when I joined Queen Anne's Lace and became The Pink One, or rather, the PANK One. I never really had a problem with pink, but I never gravitated towards it either. Then came Eleanor, and suddenly all my pink accessories were dual function as I started covering my baby girl in all sorts of roses and bows. Now I'm back at Faire, and on Sundays, I have Eleanor with me. Yes, she has a costume too. She has a mini-me costume, made from scraps of one of my skirts and a mini-Diva costume, made with scraps from her Diva Godmother's skirt. It's adorable. And mostly it's just nice to not have to spend two whole days away from her.

Except this weekend I did. She had a bit of a rough week. She's got a molar or bicuspid or some sharp-but-not-an-incisor tooth coming in. Her nose was a little runny. She gave her naps the finger. So, thanks to the kindness of Bagels and Kammah, Eleanor stayed home on Sunday to attempt to have a more normal day than being dragged around Faire in fluffy skirts. So, I spent some time on Sunday saying how much I missed her, but Bagels texted me pictures and that made things better. We had stunningly perfect weather all weekend, some appreciative crowds, and more than twice I laughed hard enough that I was in danger of needing a change of clothes, so I call that a win.

Also, I met Adam Richman of Man v. Food. Apparently, the Travel Channel was out at our Faire filming a... something. Not a Man v. Food, but something else? I don't know. We talked and sang at this nice man, I repeated myself for the camera, then signed a release form, so you know... maybe a few seconds of my face will end up on cable tv. I have to say, Adam was really charming and nice. Since there was a crowd of people watching him talking to us, he made sure to get our show times and tell the crowd to come see us sing, so that was neat. After meeting him, I want to see his show. Now, filming a tv show isn't all fun and games. I mean, I only every worked for broadcast news, but my degree is in broadcast journalism, so I do have some small idea of what goes on. Well, really, so do lots of people, but what I'm trying to say is that getting B roll can be a pain in the butt if you're part of it. Which is what I expected to be when the promotional director lady for Scarborough Renaissance Festival asked us, Queen Anne's Lace to go walking about in the Pecan Grove around noon. We're brightly colored and fluffy and covered in ruffles, so we make a good picture. Visually interesting. And when they first turned the cameras on us, I thought, hooray! Here we are, bright, colorful B roll. Then Adam saw us and hijinks ensued. But for lots of other folks, there was just some repetitive "doing stuff for a moving background while we interview people over here" thing.

Since Eleanor was at home on Sunday (still giving her naps the finger apparently), I got to go up on the Tart Shelf, which is what the Lace does at the end of the day. We hang out on the balcony above the souvenir shop in just corsets, chemises, and bloomers--the Renaissance equivalent of stripping down to your underwear--and wave goodbye to the patrons. "Goodnight! Thanks for coming! Come again!" Each weekend, one lady from the cast gets invited to come up and join us as Tart of the Day. It was very exciting for me when I was just a cast lady, and it's still fun from the other side. It's a bit of a makeover, and that's always fun to be a part of.

The rest of life has been delightfully mundane. I've been working on a video montage thingy of Eleanor's 1st year, and a photo collage and as soon as I can get those presentable, I'll share for those who want to oogle my baby.  For now, I'll just put these up here, because she looks so fantastic in her Penny clothes!

12 Months

You guys, we did it. We survived an entire year! And I won't be doing monthly updates for a while. Which means I might have to remember how to write about other things. I might even get around to telling you all about my "naptime crafts" just as soon as I start doing them again.

The Vitals:
29.25" tall (60th percentile, which I think is a touch inaccurate, because she's the tallest baby I know and she was pretty squirmy at her check up)
21lb 4.5oz (70th percentile... yeah, that I'll buy)
Her head is in the 85th percentile, she still has 6 teeth, including the broken one which does resemble a shark tooth, so that's nice.

1 year

1 week

Highlights:
Faire!
Easter!
Cake!
Just scroll to the pictures, it was a fun month

little rock star

breakfast cupcake

bonnet and basket

bunny butt

Skills:

um... she does stuff?
She claps now.
And sticks her tongue out.
Takes steps, but not really walking.
Says "mamama" and "dadada" at semi-appropriate times so that she might actually mean me & J when she says it, but it's sketchy at best
Nods and says "cha" to every question ever




Works in Progress:
walking
talking
going to college and leaving me all alone with the cats

hand towels are perfectly sized

She likes:
purses
keys
cheese
baths
music

She dislikes:
having her nails trimmed


I like:
Her adorable clothes
Her adorable face

I dislike:
That she is swiftly turning into a toddler--still my baby for now though.

I will do a separate post all about her party and her trip to Faire and all that jazz.

1 year of fluff and stuff

For reference, this is where we started...