Eleanor At 9 Months

Holy cow Eleanor! You’re nine months old? Already?! And at the same time: you’re only nine months old??

It seems like you were born just days ago. As if you should still be a newborn. Yet, here we are, three quarters of the way through your first year. I’m already thinking up ideas for your first birthday party. How can that be?

Sometimes it’s hard to believe you are only nine months old. The things you do. You are so motivated to be just like your big sister (who you absolutely adore) that you’re becoming more mobile, more advanced every day.

You say Mom, Dad and Hi. You also wave hello and goodbye. Mostly hello. And always with a huge smile, like you’re so incredibly happy to see whoever it is you are waving at. Sometimes you grab my face and give me a juicy, open-mouthed kiss. It’s the most adorable thing ever.

People – strangers even – stop us everywhere we go to gush over how beautiful you are. Even your doctor told me, repeatedly, in her most serious “I want to make sure you understand just how much I mean this” voice, how stunningly gorgeous you are. Those were her exact words.

You let us feed you babyfood twice a day – fruit for lunch, veggies and meat for dinner – but really love feeding yourself. Handfuls of Cheerios and frozen peas. Chunks of avocado and fruit (but not bananas. You are not a fan of bananas). You have a really good pincer grasp already. The other day you were eating fistfuls of rice and tearing off chunks of my muffin to shove in your mouth. Despite your itty bitty size, you really are a good eater.

Itty bitty. That about sums it up. Last week you weighed in at 14 pounds and 3 ounces, putting you at the first percentile for weight. Your doctor suggested we try feeding you more, although I tried to explain that you already eat a lot. It’s just your genetics, one more thing you have in common with your big sister. Your height is also on the petite side. At 27 inches you fall right around the 30th percentile. Sorry about that. Luck of the draw kid. Somebody has to take after my side of the family.

There are so many little things you know how to do. You search for hidden objects. You pull the blanket up and down in front of your face to play peek-a-boo. You tuck your thumbs inside your fists while putting your arms through sleeves, so that your thumbs won’t get caught. You can walk holding onto the outside of your walker or your little ride-on car. You get such a big, proud, happy smile on your face when you do that. You much prefer to walking that way – under your own power – than while holding onto my hands.

You have two bottom teeth and there are two top teeth about to poke through at any moment. I really hope you stop biting me while nursing, because with teeth on bottom and top, I’m just not sure I can handle that. And I really do want to keep nursing you, for quite a bit longer, if you don’t mind. Speaking of nursing, the “gymnurstics” act is a wee bit…uncomfortable for me. Trying to stand on your head while nursing just doesn’t really work for either of us, so let’s just stop that one, ok?

The Word “Vacation” Does Not Necessarily Mean “Relaxation”

So we went on vacation. I did not, for one moment, let myself believe it was going to be a relaxing vacation. I was right. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun though.

Shuttle ride to the airport. Zoey’s first “bus ride” thrilled her.

We left on Wednesday afternoon, only to hit our first speed bump before we ever even left the state. “Flight Delayed.” Awesome. We finally landed in Los Angeles around 9:15pm. The rental car agency was supposed to close at 9pm but, after some desperate and frequent frantic phone calls from me, they stayed open until 10:30pm to get us our van. That is some seriously stellar customer service, people. If you ever need a rental van in LA, let me know. I can send you to an awesome company.

So we got to our (lame, somewhat dirty, won’t be staying there again) hotel and basically passed out. Well, Zach, Zoey and Eleanor passed out. I was awake a good part of the night because Eleanor would only stay asleep while nursing from me or cuddled up against me. Since we were all in one big bed together, I was somewhat nervous that Zoey might roll over on Eleanor in the night, so I had to keep myself in a rather uncomfortable position to protect the baby. Not conducive to great sleep.

The next morning we headed to downtown LA, hit up a Target for babyfood and snacks, and then made our way to the University of Southern California to meet up with the rest of Zach’s family. The whole purpose of the trip was that Zach’s youngest sister was graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a major in animation.

Cousins, playing together in Auntie’s animation workspace.

We spent the next two nights at the beautiful, historic Biltmore Hotel with the entire Clegg family.

Checking out the swanky digs at the Biltmore. Zoey approved.

Besides us there is Zach’s older sister and her husband and four kids (aged 7, 5, 2 and 6 months), Zach’s next younger sister with her husband and baby (6 months, born the same day as his cousin!), the next younger sister and her boyfriend (she just graduated with her master’s from VCU!), Zach’s youngest sister who was graduating and Zach’s parents. That is a lot of people, ya’ll. A lot of people and a lot of kids to try to get organized, agree on restaurants, activites, etc and then transport to those places in a timely manner.

Waiting for her crepe for breakfast.

So, we spent two days in LA, saw the graduation ceremony (which featured lots of well known directors and producers as speakers), toured the school, ate at some good restaurants, saw a bit of Hollywood, the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and swam in the hotel pool. Needless to say, we were keeping up a fast pace. Unfortunately, not having her “sensory deprivation chamber” (i.e. bedroom), Zoey did not nap the entire time. Which made coping really hard for her. There were some definite meltdowns, although I managed to keep them mostly maintained. Eleanor was also missing out on a lot of sleep, but would at least take brief naps on our backs in the Ergo baby carrier.

A nice mural, near Hollywood Boulevard.

On Saturday we spent the day at the beautiful Santa Monica Pier. Zoey loved getting to build sandcastles and play with her cousins, especially after days of being confined in airports, on planes, in vans, in strollers, in auditoriums…you get the idea. She was very happy to be able to run about a bit. Eleanor was also delighted with the sand and really enjoyed demolishing the sandcastles her sister and cousins had built.

Building – and demolishing – sandcastles.

Saturday night we stayed at a hotel in Torrance so that we could have breakfast the next morning with my Grandma and Uncle and Aunt. It was the first time my Grandma got to meet Eleanor (who looks a lot like my mom, her daughter) so that was pretty special for me.

Eleanor meeting Great-Grandma Dorothy

We took a walk by a little man-made stream near her assisted living center and saw two mommy ducks with their ducklings, which was really fun for all of us, especially Zoey. Then it was back to LAX for a flight home (which, again, was somewhat delayed, but by less than half an hour this time).

We did a lot in only four days. We’re now trying to recover from some serious lack of sleep and a bit too much sunshine (I’m forbidden from sharing the pictures of Zach’s sunburn but, let me tell you, it’s quite funny). It’s always nice to see Zach’s family – his sisters are especially fun and great to spend time with – but I do also enjoy coming back to my calm, quiet(er), rainy, gray Seattle home.

Having a blast playing in the back of the rental van. We gotta get one of these.

I Wanna Go To Rehab

Ohmahgawd. Seriously you guys. Know that saying about needing a vacation from your vacation? Well I need rehab from my vacation. These Cleggers man. Awesome, fun, loving, exhausting people. I love them to death but, seriously, do you guys keep up this pace all the time? How are you still alive?!?!

So, I promise to fill you all in on our awesome family vacation (because who doesn’t like looking at pictures from distant relative’s/stranger’s family vacations??) as soon as I feel like I can function without heavy doses of ibuprofen and my eyelid stops twitching it’s demands for caffeine.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of my “always adorable and perfectly behaved would never throw temper tantrums on airplanes or at star-studded USC graduation ceremonies” children.

Beautiful Zoey

Rocker Zoey. She’s a natural.

Eleanor will be joining me in rehab. Clearly, she has OD’d on toys. Poor kid can’t even hold herself upright anymore. I blame her parents.

May Photo Challenge: Week 3

May 13: Sunrise/Sunset

The weather was crazy this day – wind, hail, rain, clouds, thunder and lightning, sunshine and rainbows – so I wasn’t sure I would even be able to get a sunset picture. (It goes without saying there was no way I would be awake for a sunrise picture). Just at sunset, though, the clouds cleared a bit and I was able to get this one from our front porch.

May 14: Need

I needed to finish all our packing so we could leave for California the next day. Turns out, the amount of baggage you carry with you exponentially increases with each child you have.

May 15: 7 o’clock

If you caught my frustrated post, you’ll know that at 7pm we were supposed to be touching down at LAX. Instead, our flight was delayed by over two hours. More frustrations coming soon on that front.

May 16: Mailbox

The snazzy old mail drop at the historic Biltmore hotel we stayed at for a couple nights.

May 17: Season

It’s always the right season for love.

May 18: Want

I want these cousins to always be such good friends. They just adore each other now and have a wonderful bond.

May 19: My Favorite View

This is a view of my hometown, Seattle, as seen through the windshield of our car. We were on our way home from the airport of a very fun but exhausting vacation in California. I’m always so glad to come home again.

9 Months Old

Operation: Entertain Toddler in Airport

Flight delayed. Two little words that can totally mess with your day. We had it planned all perfectly: arrived at the airport and all checked in with just 45 minutes until our flight was scheduled to take off. The perfect amount of time to use the bathrooms, let the kiddos burn a little energy and then board the plane. The timing was just right so that Eleanor would nap for at least one leg of the flight, and Zoey would be tired enough from skipping her nap that she would sit calmly, but not be at critical meltdown point yet. We would get to California and check into our hotel just in time for bedtime. Perfect.

And then: flight delayed. In a screen full of ON TIME on every other flight, ours is two hours late.

So here we sit. Eating expensive airport food. Making puppets out of paper bags the food came in to entertain a really bored and slightly fussy toddler. With a baby passed out asleep in the Ergo on my back (read: a baby who will be WIDE awake for the whole flight).

And the roof is leaking on the chair next to me. *sigh.* Vacations sure are different when you have kids.

To be continued in California…

Don’t Go Up In the Space Needle

If you grow up in the Seattle area, it’s almost a guarantee that you will read The Wheedle on the Needle at some point. It’s this awesome kids’ book from the ’70′s about a big orange creature that lives on top of the Space Needle. Basically, he sleeps all the time and when he does his nose blinks red. This is the red blinking light you see at night on top of the Needle. I loved this story as a kid and Zoey feels the same. Recently, a sequel to the story came out called The Wheedle and the Noodle. While I personally don’t find it quite as magical as the original, Zoey is thoroughly enchanted. Probably because it contains not one, but two lovable furry creatures (spoiler alert: the Wheedle adopts a cat).

Anyway, ever since I read Zoey these books a few weeks back she has been constantly repeating, “Don’t go up in the Space Needle, Mommy!” in a teasing, sing-song voice. You know the voice. The one that says “Don’t you tickle me!” when what they really want is for you to come tickle them until they can hardly breathe because they are laughing so hard. That voice. The thing is, I have no idea where this particular phrase came from. It’s not in the book. It makes absolutely no sense in any context I can come up with. And she says it all day long. EVERY day.

So…on Mother’s Day we took her to the Space Needle. Her eyes lit up when we told her we were going there, and she brought her toy stuffed Wheedle along for the trip. And no, we did not “go up in the Space Needle.” She would have liked to, actually, but it’s a bit pricey and we were running late for food and naps. So we took her inside the gift shop at the bottom of the Needle and told her (in really excited voices) “Look! We’re inside the Space Needle.”

Am Mother of the Year. Am awesome. Am lucky she’s only two years old so I could still get away with that. Barely.

Refusing to smile because she knows I’m taking a picture

Chasing the pigeons in Seattle Center

How did you spend your Mother’s Day?

May Photo Challenge – Week 2

May 6: Broken

This is a play tent I got secondhand for free. It has holes in it and the stakes are missing, but the kiddos sure don’t seem to mind. Especially on hot sunny days like we’ve been having lately.

May 7: Something beginning with F

Flowers! This is a Western Rhododendron. It is the official flower for Washington State and they are all over the place around here. They always remind me of my mom. During the summers when we were kids we could always find her out in the yard watering her “rhodies” at the end of a hot day.

May 8: Shape

There were all kinds of shapes at the park where our PEPS group met to play.

May 9: A snack

The picture speaks for itself.

May 10: Stars

This is my favorite of our baby onesies and BabyLegs. Everything about them screams 80′s and Rainbow Brite to me which, basically, makes my soul turn cartwheels.

May 11: A smile

A shared moment between sisters that I managed to catch on camera. These two can make each other smile and laugh like no one else can. It melts my heart every time.

May 12: Mother

I was delivered breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day. It was beautiful, luxurious and, above all, delicious. Especially the bacon.

My Brilliant Plan To Make A Million Bucks

Bear with me as I share with you my oh-so-deeply-thought-out get rich quick scheme that occured to me in the shower this morning. You’re going to love it, I swear.

First some role playing. Pretend you are a mom (tough stretch for most of my reading audience, I’m sure).

Question A: What do you (like almost all moms) have?

Answer:

1) kids
2) gray hair

Question B: What do you not have (or have in limited quantities)?

Answer:

1) free time*
2) extra money*

*see question A, answer 1

So you go to the store, buy a box of hair dye and take it home where you spend forty minutes holed up in the bathroom, surfing for a good, steamy romance on your Kindle and breathing in all those wonderful hair dye chemical fumes while your hair turns to a lovely shade of brown. Except the gray ones; they turn orange. You call this “me time.”

What’s that? Go to a salon? Ain’t nobody got time for that! Or money! Were you paying attention to the questions? I mean, I even gave you the answers. Sheesh.

The problem? You smell like those chemicals for the next 2 days.

The solution (Finally! I’m getting to the point!):

Make those little tubes of after-dye conditioner that come in the box smell good.

I will wait while you all applaud and cheer my brilliance.

….

That’s it? You can clap more than that. C’mon. Seriously, I’ll wait.

…

Ok, fine. Moving on then. Yes, scented conditioner is my big idea. Rosemary mint would be my particular choice but, really, anything would be an improvement of the status quo. Are you reading this Clairol? Good. Now go put my royalties check in the mail. I expect to see this on the shelves at Target STAT. (And then I expect to spend every cent of my royalties at Target. Because, you know, it’s Target).

When There Are Two

When we just had Zoey, she and I were inseparable. I took her with me everywhere, as much for the lack of a babysitter as because I wanted her with me all the time. The only time I left her was for work, and during her first year I was working nightshift so she barely registered my absence. She was my sidekick. There was an incredible bond there.

That all shifted after we brought Eleanor home. Suddenly, there were two little people who needed attention and love. Really, I started to feel this change before Eleanor was born. My pregnancy was rough and had me so physically limited that I couldn’t heft and play and let Zoey climb all over me the way she wanted anymore. She spent hours in front of a television, being cared for by the characters of Sesame Street, while I lay in a sea of nausea. Already, our relationship was changing.

I told myself that this change in relationship was part of the reason why we wanted another baby so close in age to Zoey. We wanted her to not be the only center to our world, to know what it is to have a sibling, to have to share everything – even her parents’ love – and to know the world doesn’t revolve around her alone. This is still true, and becoming a big sister has been wonderful for Zoey. She’s fantastic at it. That doesn’t mean the change in relationship was any easier for me.

For the first few months after Eleanor was born, I couldn’t help but feel that – even though so much had been added to our lives by her birth – something had been taken away. Lost.

I wholeheartedly believe this is normal. To feel this way is good and healthy. The bond I have with Zoey is still there, albeit changed. As strong as ever, but with another bond extending from each of us to Eleanor. I allow myself to mourn the loss of the relationship I had with my only child, but I also remember to celebrate the new relationships I have with my children.

Did you feel like this after becoming a parent to more than one child? How did your relationships change?