Baby's First Year

Eloise's first year ended several months ago, but I still tear up when I start thinking about how it's gone.  What is it about that first year in the life of a new human?  It's so exhausting, so overwhelming, such an adjustment.  As a nursing mother, I feel so tethered and oftentimes a slave to schedules.  But so much happens.  Personality emerges.  Milestones are checked off (figuratively, of course... if you think this blog is in bad shape, you should see poor Eloise's baby book).  Teeth pop in all over the place.  So much learning and growing and becoming occurs.  I hardly remember our family without Eloise.  One year seems so short and also like forever.  She is my little pal and we spent so  much time together during her first twelve months of life... more than we ever will again.  I treasure the sleepless hazy memories and although I know that what's ahead is even more fun in so many ways, I am still mourning the loss of babyhood.  I truly love the first year and now it's over.  Thanks for all the snuggles, Eloise.  You're the most perfect baby and I love you.

Eloise at Nine Months

Nine months.  She's officially been on the outside longer than the inside (And just for the record; I much prefer her on the outside!).   This precious girl is keeping up with her big sister and delighting us all with her growing personality.  She's definitely 100% mobile now.... not just rolling, but scooching (spellcheck tells me this is not a word) where she wants to go with her own adorable army crawl.  I'm not sure that she'll ever really learn to crawl on all fours with her belly off the ground, but her own sweet little method isn't slowing her down.  As you can tell from these photos, it's getting really hard to photograph her with her little sign... she's on the go!  

 Her big happy grin lights up her whole face and reveals THREE teeth now.  The bottom right one came in on February 21, a day after she hit the nine month mark. We can tell that she's working on all four top ones too.

 Those three teeth are eating everything in sight.  No purees, of course, but this girl will put away whatever meal the grownups are eating.  Spaghetti, chicken pie, soups, casseroles, pizza, fruits and veggies and MEAT.  I know she eats a better variety than her sister... some meals she eats more quantity too!

See that drool from her tooth poking through?  That photo shoot didn't last too long.  Let's try again a couple days later here....

 She is alert and curious, always taking in everything around her.  I sure wish I knew what was going on in her little brain because you can certainly see the wheels are always turning.  She loves rhymes and bouncing (Ride a horsey, ride a horsey is a bit hit right now)

 She is babbling up a storm.  We haven't a clue what she's saying, but she never stops saying it.  The little sounds she makes are hilarious.  She will wave bye-bye and clap her hands and do the sign for "all done" (still working on the others).  She blows raspberries and makes clicking sounds with her tongue.  She laughs at Clara and looks at her with a love and adoration that neither photos or words could come close to capturing.

 She takes two great naps consistently (about an hour and a half each!), although she really prefers that those happen in her crib now.... not quite as good at napping on the go as she was when she was teeny.  Her nighttime sleep is also.... improving.... overall.  Although I'm afraid to type that out for fear I'll jinx it.  We've had some good stretches lately.  Perhaps she'll soon be sleeping as well at night as she does during the day.

 She loves her bouncer and rides happily in the stroller.  Bathtime remains her favorite part of the day and she kicks and splashes up a storm.  Most nights she gets a bath with Clara now and they both love playing together in the water.  She'll stand supported if we put here there, though she isn't quite pulling up on her own yet.  She does, however, pull hair.  Mama has a constant ponytail and Daddy has had some painful chest hair encounters.

 She might love Mama best, but she's still happy and willing to be passed around to just about anyone, and she is certainly passed around a lot.  On Sundays she comes back to me smelling like a mixture of a dozen people's perfumes.  She loves to be held, by whoever is willing to do it.  At her nine month checkup, she tipped the scales at 20 pounds and a little change, so whoever is holding her better have a strong back!  Those rolls aren't light.  We've endured a couple of nursing strikes and she's still hanging in with me.  I don't know that she'll nurse quite as long as Clara did, but since she's likely my last I'll be trying to go as long as she's interested.  I love our quiet snuggle times, even if it's just a few times a day now.

Eloise, you are my little sidekick and I love you more than you could ever imagine.  Nine months looks good on you, sweet baby.

Eloise at 7 Months

Eloise at 7 months is coming more and more into her own.  She's happy almost all the time, and when she's not.... she's LOUD.  A full set of lungs can apparently make all the difference!  She's on the move with rolling and skooching, and her daddy thinks that crawling is not too far off, although I'm not sure.  She continues to be a social little one, her babbling is taking on more and more sounds and I can really tell she's starting to communicate more and more.  We've started a few baby signs and it will be fun to see her catch on and learn those in the next couple of months.  

She takes two great naps most days, between 1-2 hours each. She goes down easy at night, but still seems to want a middle-of-the-night-party with me that I am growing weary of.  She will learn to sleep at night consistently eventually, this I know.  Let's hope it's before we hit 8 months.  She loves her pacis and her lovies and her blankets.

 She loves her sister and her puppy and jumping up and down in her bouncer. She still likes nursing, although she's quick at it and unless she's nursing to sleep, she gets the job done fast and is back on the go.  She's doing a little better with solids than when we first started.  (Whew!  A combination of her not really digging it and so many bad memories of trying to feed Clara at this age made for a couple of tough weeks for me, wanting desperately to throw in the towel.  But I persevered, and it's become more manageable.)  She still doesn't particularly like fruits and veggies, aside from maybe sweet potatoes and apples, but she will put away some baby cereal.

The biggest change of this month was two new teeth on the bottom.  (Can you see them?)  All she wanted for Christmas was her two front teeth and she got them!  The first came in on December 9 and the second ten days later on December 19.

Christmas was lots of fun, as she was really interested and excited about new toys (although not quite as interested or excited as she was in the paper and plastic and bows, of course!).

Can't believe how fast this little one is growing!  We love you, sweet Eloise!

(Clara at 7 months, in this same outfit here)

Looking Back: November {Eloise at 6 Months}

On November 15, five days before Eloise turned six months, she finally figured out rolling from back to tummy.  Unlike some milestones, that creep in unnoticed, this one was like a dramatic switch was flipped!  The chilled out, laid back, happy to stay in one place and play with one toy baby had turned into a little girl on the move.  Interested in everything around her, and now with the ability to go after it, she was in a whole new world.  

She continues to get stronger and stronger sitting up too, and is grabbing at toys, playing with things and gnawing on everything. While she lights up with a little extra joy and recognition at her family (and most especially Clara, of course), she doesn't seem to exhibit any fear of strangers and is still happy to be passed all around.  She's social (hard to believe in this family, huh?) and recognizes her name.

Her favorite form of communication is the squawk.  In the weeks leading up to her six month birthday, she was not sleeping especially well at night (although she's a pretty good napper!), but right at six months we cut her off from nighttime feeding and did a little mini-boot camp and her night sleeping improved.

She loves her lovies and her pacis and is becoming more and more engaged in books (she has to listen to her sister be read to a lot!).  She's snuggly and squishy and does usually does really well in the car, in the stroller, in the ergo, on the go.

Her eyes are continuing to darken; it looks like she'll definitely be our brown eyed-girl. And her hair is dark, too and starting to really come in.  No teeth yet, but surely any day now as she's really working on the bottom ones.

She loves her bath, kicking and splashing.  She's not nursing as much these days.... too distracted in all the world around her.  We waited until six months to start any solid food, but a few days after she hit six months, we finally began.

She's full of laughter, full of personality, and full of love. And our hearts are full of love for her. Can't believe we're already halfway through her first year!

Thanks be to God!

Looking Back: October {Eloise at Five Months}

I may not get these photos posted on time, but at least I get them taken.  I loved these five month photos of Eloise.  Perfectly October-y.  At five months old she was starting to sit up for short amounts of time (or tripod style), rolling from tummy to back (but not the other way quite yet) and still loving being with her people.  I could have sworn she was cutting teeth, but here we are a month later and still no sign of them.  She was happy though, if not the best sleeper at this age.  We joke about playing "Whack a Weezie" because naptime (and bedtime) sometimes feels like that old arcade game of Whack A Mole (I promise we don't actually whack her.... just you know, going back in there to settle her or get a paci or help with a burp, etc.).  She loved hearing songs or nursery rhymes like Pat-A-Cake and was becoming more and more interested in toys.  She's so very alert and happy.  She's flexible and rolls with our crazy schedule.  And she adores her sister.

Thanks to Mama K for making this gold afghan many years ago.  It was the perfect backdrop for these fall photos.

Eloise at 3 months and 4 months

It was recently pointed out to me that Eloise is almost five months old.  After arguing that it couldn't possibly be true I realized sadly that it is.  So I better get these three and four month photos up because it will be time for another round very soon!

At three months, Eloise was still a complete and total ball of delightfully easy baby squish.  She slept all the time, anywhere.  (Like close to 20 hours a day).  She would flash a giant gummy grin at any and everyone and was just starting to roll over tummy to back.  She loved eating, snuggling, blowing out diapers and being in and among her family.  She loved faces and smiles and the sound of people talking or singing to her.  She was happy happy happy and a source of immense joy for us all (still is, of course).   Here are some 12 week photos:

And here are her three month photos (Thanks to Mama K for this precious smocked dress that I love and to Mema for this beautiful quilt that I also adore):

And by four months, Eloise had completed that "fourth trimester" and truly come alive!  She's full of personality, and captures us all with those big (turning brown) eyes.  She's awake a lot more, although still a good sleeper who will usually have three good naps a day.  Right at four months she hit a bit of a night time sleep regression and/or growth spurt and after two months of sleeping through the night started waking again.  (This too shall pass).  She's interested in everything going on around her, has learned to bat at and hold onto toys, loves hearing books read to her and adores most of all her big sister.  She's a babbler and a squawker and we call her "Little Squish" because she has delightful wonderful rolls of squeezable squish.  She can roll from tummy to back and holds her head up really well.  She's an easy-going and flexible baby who naps in the car or the stroller when we're on the go with her big sister and eats very quickly (thank goodness!).  She is really a trooper.  She's discovered her hands and feet and is drooling constantly.  She loves to be outside and stares up at the sky with the same look I remember Clara having at this age - complete wonder, gratitude and amazement.  Her gummy smile, chubby cheeks, and big bright eyes bring us tremendous love and joy.  Here are her four month photos (of which there were so many cute ones, I had a hard time narrowing it down.)
 

And just in case you wanted to see what those first twelve weeks looked like all at once, here it is:

We love you oh so much sweet baby girl! 

Thanks be to God.