My Nemesis

It's becoming a problem. Luckily they should be off the shelves by about mid February. Just in time for Cadburry Eggs. It's much more calorie friendly than cake, right?

Our Little Snake

Clayton taught Eleanor a new trick.
We think it's cute, but, you know. We like her.



P.S. I'm holding E on my lap to show her the video, and she does the trick again when she hears Clayton's voice. Am I easily entertained? Or is that as cute and funny as I think it is.

Should I stop feeding her or something?

Today I dressed Eleanor in one of her Threadless onesies. Clayton bought her a bunch of different ones last Christmas and we've loved them. Later today, I ran across a picture of her in the same onesie, but from about six months ago! So I took a few pictures of her to see the difference. Ouch, sob etc... When did she get to be so big? When did she grow all that hair? (I promise not to sing Sunrise Sunset here. Oh and the hair.She is trying her best to pull it all out. She grabs and yanks at it constantly. Ok, so maybe just a few times. But still, bad Eleanor. One of us has to have pretty hair. More on that later.) Also- she did have pants on today, this was right before a diaper change, and I wanted to compare her little (ahem) legs.

Man she's cute.

Then this.

Bwaaaa waaaaa waaaaa! Boooo hooooo hoooo. Ok, so maybe I didn't break down quite like that. But look at her sweet little chubby face! Look at her lack of a neck! (I used to have a heck of a time cleaning under there.) Look at her thighs! Well, she still has good thighs. That's my legacy to her, but with crawling, they will whittle down to nothing. I miss my baby, and she's still just a baby. Geesh! Get a grip.

In other hormonal news, last week I chopped off all of my hair. Plugged in the curling iron and grabbed the scissors instead. I grabbed a big chunk from the back and just CUT. I capitalize for emphasis on how freaking CRAZY that was. Mentally sane people do not cut their hair on a whim. As I already mentioned on Facebook, this is what they do in movies. To show that a character is losing it big time, they show them cutting off their own hair. So ya. Psycho me. Luckily I haven't been too attached to my hair in the last 9 years or so. I like a change. But usually I defer to someone who has talent and or training in that arena. Or at least someone who can see the back of my head. In my defense, Eleanor would grab my hair about, oh, seven hundred times a day. She would use it to pull herself up like I was an unwitting Rapunzel. Since the cut? About one tenth of the pulling. Totally worth it right there.

Look at what I did!

See that awesome, even work I am doing? Great idea Marianne!Since my pregnancy, my hair has been much wavier. You can see the natural wave here. I figure I might be able to pull off a messy, "beachy hair" vibe. We shall see. Luckily my super-awesome neighbor Ann helped me even it out. I will seek out professional help (a stylist, not a shrink) in a few weeks, but it's good enough for now. Here is the lame-o self portrait I took today.
I tried to find a "before" shot, as I've actually thought my hair looked nice recently, but no. I could not one shot of me with my hair not in a ponytail in the last few months. And only about five pictures of me total. Out of about eight hundred. Good grief Clayton, grab the camera once in a while!

Update: Eleanor is Still Cute

Here are a few shots of the last two weeks with Eleanor. She keeps us endlessly entertained.

Some of her new tricks are:

-Sticking out her tongue like a little snake when we ask her to. (Or maybe an iguana, she inherited her dad's freakishly long tongue. No jokes please.)
-Climbing on everything.
-Opening cupboards and taking out what's inside.
-Pulling herself up to everything, by everything (Including my hair, which is why I cut it last night, more on that later.)
-Pulling all of the diapers out of the basket.
-Playing peek-a-boo.
-Picking up every tiny thing she sees in the carpet to see if it's tasty.
-Crawling away during diaper changes as soon as she is naked.
-Chattering on end when she's sleepy.
-Playing with neighbor kids.
-Playing games with daddy and saying "dadda" whenever she sees Clayton.

I think of thirty things every minute that I want to remember, but never when I am trying to write them down. She is eight months today! However, she just barely got her 6 month immunizations, (because I am awesome) and weighed in at 18 pounds and is 26 inches long. She is in the 50-75% range on everything.
But on to the pictures!!!

Here she is with two of her best friends, Lauren and Jasmine. They all lined up at their baby gate while the moms put the car seats in the car for a trip to the mall. They thought they were so funny. (They were.)

Can three seats fit? Sure. Kinda. Eleanor really enjoyed the novelty of having friends to talk to in the back seat. She often gets bored with just me singing to her from the front. Although I think she is really enjoying this week's cd choice of "Wicked". She sings along with me by going "aaaaahhhhhhh, oooooooaaaaaahhhhh" etc... It's painfully cute. Her favorite song though, by far, is 'Eliza Jane' by Elizabeth Mitchell. She also likes Sigur Ros and Death Cab for Cutie.

Here she is driving the plane at the mall toy area. Giving props to mom's old job.

She loves to play with Clayton's hats. She plays peekaboo with them and sometimes just wears them around until she bonks into something.

Happy baby. Notice her adorable bunny slippers? Thanks Smarts! We love wearing them here in cold Michigan.

Eleanor all dressed up for church with daddy.

I love this picture, you can see her two bottom teeth!

Also- I have to note how cute her little sweater is from cousin Caitlin. She wears it all the time.

An example of naughty Eleanor. Here she is scaling the fireplace hearth. Note the wipes case used as a step? And note the diapers all in a pile after another game of "messy"?
That's ok. Mom plays that game too.

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

One piece at a time, baby!

See that? That one small slice of a Sam's Club bakery cake? That is the only bit of this cake that I didn't eat myself. Should I be proud or horrified? Don't answer that. I know I just grossed out more than half of my readers. The rest of you already know me too well. You know of my love for cheap, Crisco-based-frosting bakery cakes. And I really did only eat a piece a day. Well, except twice. But that's not so crazy, right? Can I get an "Amen!"? No? Ok. I treated myself for my birthday by getting it, but Clayton wasn't interested, so I slowly made it disappear. Ta daaa!

A Conversation about...

Hey Marianne, where ya going?

Huh? Oh, just Chicago.

Chicago? What did you do in Chicago?

My friends and I went to the American Doll store. Look. Here's Kirstie's doll, Kirsten! Isn't she so cute?

Seriously? You drove four hours to go to a doll store where you wont even buy dolls?

Um...

What else did you do?

Look at Ann! Doesn't she look so glamorous and urban? We were actually taking pictures to get the shady guy in the car across the street. We were worried he might break into our car...

You are changing the subject. What were you doing in Chicago?

Look! Ruth and Lexie came too! We had so much fun! We went to some shops downtown...

Right. A bunch of women with husbands in post-grad work went to Chicago to shop? I'm not buying it. You are all poor right now because of school.

Geesh. Be nice man.

Sorry, but seriously, what were you doing?

Look! On the drive home we saw a licence plate that said JazzyJ. Ann's daughter Jasmine is nicknamed Jazzy! Isn't that crazy?

No, it's not. And you are totally blowing me off.
And that's a really crappy picture.

I know. Sorry, but it's hard to take a picture in a moving car.

Marianne?

Well, see, we went to see this other friend. She made us wait in line...

Ok, so your friend made you stand in line? And?

And well, I didn't want to say anything, because she's kinda famous...
and I don't like to name drop....

Yes you do.

Yeah, I do. You're right, but still...

Uh huh. I think I see.

What's in the bags Marianne?

Huh?

Marianne?

I'm not supposed to blog about it.

Marianne?

I signed some paper and everything.

But I think you can ask me in person...

Ok. We were originally supposed to go today, but our taping time got changed. It would've been too early, so they accommodated us and we went yesterday instead. We left at around 6:45 am, arrived in plenty of time, got great seats and had a freaking blast. Afterwards we drove to the magnificent mile to go to Filene's Basement (We'd heard good stuff, it's basically a less-fun TJMaxx, but still- fun!) and then drove home, stopping for pasta on the way. We really did sign a paper saying we wouldn't blog about the taping. I don't think I'm breaking any rules here. Hmm, my husband is in law school, maybe I should run this by him first? Anyhow. Did I mention that we had sooo much freaking fun? It was an awesome day. I think I can say more after it airs, I will let you know when that is.

The only downside was that our sweet husbands had to stay home and tend 9 kids all day. I know, we do this everyday, but they are normally in school or work all day. They had to play musical chairs to attend their classes or meetings, but they all sacrificed something to enable us to go. Thanks guys! Sweet Eleanor had an ok day. This was the longest I've been away from her, I left when she was asleep, and came home when she was asleep. Only something as big as.... well, you know, could entice me away from her that long. It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Give me a call and I will fill you in on all the rest!

Halloween 2009!!!

This was Eleanor's first Halloween and she seemed to enjoy it. Even though the costume poll had Ballerina as the winner, I went with Dorothy instead. It was only one vote difference. Dorothy worked since I had planned to go as a cop-out, mom-witch. You know, throw on a hat and call it good. Well then I asked Clayton who he wanted to be. The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, Lion, Wizard etc... And of course he answers "Glinda". Ok then. Since he was going all out I figured I would at least go green. (Bad idea, by the way.)Here are the shots!

The world's cutest Dorothy.

Wicked Witch, Dorothy and the world's most disturbing Glinda.Glinda and Dorothy. I made both their dresses. I've enjoyed saying that all week.

Witch and DorothyWe tried briefly to recreate the poster to the musical Wicked.
Our friend Shannon did it last year HERE to great success. Us? Not so much.

We went to two parties last night. Because we party like rock stars. No, not really. However it was great fun, as we weren't too keen on going door to door with Eleanor. First we went to the Phillips' for a fantastic and spooky dinner. Then on to the Boardman's for a very popular party. Both were so fun. Clayton and I love Halloween and seeing everyone get dressed up. I thought I took more pictures of all the costumes, but find I only have like three. Oh well. Here is one of some friends from our ward. Emily and Bob are dwarfs, and one daughter (Ellie?) is Snow White and their baby Kate is Maleficent.

We also ran into another group on their way to the Emerald City. This is Marissa, Chad and Corbin.

Eleanor got to play with her best friend Jasmine. Isn't Jasmine the cutest little bee? Here is Eleanor attacking her as usual. She was very interested in biting her wings.

At the end of the night, Glinda told Dorothy that she had the power to go home all along. All she had to do was click her heels three times (or fuss a little) and she was magically transported safely back home.

Peek-a-Boo

Eleanor now can play peek a boo. Another trick she learned in Utah. Must be something in the water there. She does it better than this now, but this was her second try. She is with our friend Julie Higginson here.

Adventures in Babyproofing

So remember my post about all the dangers in our living room? Recap: There are a lot. I feel like I made some good headway on the immediate dangers that Eleanor faced. I moved the plant up high, I installed a baby gate (three times) at the base of the stairs, I rearranged a bit of lamp and couch, I tidied up cords and I put a rubber bumper around the edge of the hearth. So far so good. Only Eleanor quickly learned to scale the hearth, making the bumpers only slightly necessary.

What gives with this girl? She's racing ahead of us at every step. Whenever I think we have a cushion of time to prepare for her next big milestone, (like coming on her due date), she decides to mock us and jump on to the one just past it. Are we proud? Heck yeah! Is it annoying? Also yeah! I want her to stay wee and small and be my little baby just a tiny bit longer. She is pretending to be a toddler. I don't like it. Don't get me wrong, she is in her age range, we don't have a super-baby (well, we do...). I think I may just be behind on the parenting. Her three favorite things in a room full of toys, and hundreds of benign items? Clayton's computer cord. It is her Holy Grail. Kleenex and paper. Wont let me wipe her nose, but if I wanted to feed her Kleenex she would eat a full box. And anything small or gross stuck in the carpet, or the carpet itself. Like dead ladybugs and leaves. Seriously. I could use this girl as tweezers. When she can have everything else, how does she know these are the few things she can't have?

Anyway... Here is a video of her climbing the stairs.

One picture-heavy post about our Utah trip

It's been a slow week back here at home in Michigan as Eleanor and mom are both sick. So how about a few more shots from our Utah trip?

Everyone asked how Eleanor did on the plane. Amazing. That's how. She slept very little the night before (nerves) so I expected her to crash the whole flight. Nope. She slept a sum total of 20 minutes, split into two small naps. Luckily my honest-to-goodness, exact prayers were answered, and we were seated next to two grandmas. Hallelujah. They were so sweet. Nells and Helen. They are mother-in-laws (her son married her daughter) that travel together for fun trips. They were headed to Vegas this time. They held E so I could use the bathroom. Eleanor enchanted the entire group of people around us. She would turn her head around and around making sure that each person was in fact looking at her and smiling. If not she would stare at them and wait. She does that with her daddy too.

Upon arrival we were met by the Utah branch of Eleanor's fan club. Grandma Judy, grandpa Tom and cousin Abby. Abby made a very detailed sign to welcome us home. Check it out!

Grandpa Tom was so happy to see his little cutie, but she was more interested in her present, animal crackers.

Once home, Abby and E got right to playing.

The next night we went to see the Firth grandparents. Here is Eleanor getting a lift from grandpa Rex.

Jet lag and excitement threw off her sleep schedule so she got a lot of naps with loved ones.

Like aunt Jenni.

She got to play with most of her cousins. Including Jack.

And lots of time with Allie. Allie had just turned three a few weeks before. This is the same Allie who gives us the marvelous hand-me-downs.

And look! Allie is big enough now to hold Eleanor. Sort of.

It was really nice to spend time with my grandma Marguerite. She has Alzheimer's and doesn't remember us, but she loves babies. She loved to hold Eleanor (when E would let her) and was always concerned about feeding the baby or who was going to put the baby down. She would sit and watch her play for ages with a smile on her face.

Sadly the memory loss means not remembering what babies shouldn't have. Like dairy. Oh well, Eleanor loooved the mashed potatoes.

Eleanor got to meet my friend Robert Higginson for the first time as he has moved back from California recently.

She really liked his shoes.

Learning to crawl on the trip was a real highlight. Sadly we don't provide her with enough pockets. So she has taken to carrying things in her mouth as she travels.

Like bottles of aspirin. For her tiny headaches?

One day we went to Gardner Village to see the witches for Halloween. We went with Allie and friends Sophie, (pictured) Millie and Ririe. Aunt Jenni took some awesome pictures.

Cute cousins together.

Sophie's mom Allison was "sneezing" to get Eleanor to smile. Works like magic.

There are so many moments when I didn't get the camera out, like girl night at the mall with See's or our trip us to Logan or swimming night with Abby etc... And there were so many people we didn't make enough time to play with, sorry to the friends we missed. We had a wonderful time and it went by so fast. We were spoiled rotten by all and appreciate everything everyone did for us.

At the end of two weeks though, we really missed daddy and were happy to head east to Michigan where he was waiting for us. The trip home was another success as Eleanor slept through a good part of the first flight and all of the second, AND we had an empty seat next to us both times. Ahhh, happiness! I like to think that all the flying she experienced in utero prepared her for it. (Technically, she's been to France.)

All in all it was a rockin' good time!