Funny note

After writing yesterday that it hadn’t rained here in over 20 days, it’s been raining all day today. Figures!

Doc appt

Eleanor had her 15 month appt on Monday. She now weighs 19lb 13oz and is 30″ tall. So still a skinny-mini! We weren’t able to see her normal doc because of scheduling conflicts, and the doc we were supposed to see was delivering a baby, so we saw a pediatric nurse instead. I actually really liked her! It was a good appt.

Then Eleanor had to get shots. Apparently there’s still a nationwide shortage of HIB, and since she’s already had the first three and is no longer an infant she isn’t high priority for it anymore. So she just got Pc (meningitis). I was hoping that would mean she’d have little if any reaction, but no: she has been one cranky baby the last few days! Ugh. Today she was more her normal self, so hopefully tomorrow she’ll be completely back to normal. Someone had told me before that the reactions get worse with each shot, so I guess I should have expected her fourth Pc shot to be bad. She’s always reacted a bit to that one, though I never knew for sure if it was the Pc or HIB shot. Guess I do now!

Other than that, life’s going well. Enjoying the crazy warm weather here lately. It’s been over 20 days without rain, which in Seattle is unheard of in June. My grass isn’t happy about it, though. Our home improvement project still isn’t done since it seems like something keeps coming up every single weekend. My brother just graduated from high school (woo-hoo!), my SIL/BIL needed help moving, my MIL did something funky to her knee and can’t walk much so we’ve been down at her place helping out a bunch, etc. etc. It’s nice having things to do I suppose, and I like spending time with family, but I’m really hoping we can finish this project soon.

OK, time to watch Burn Notice!

Oh, what an idiot I am

So, we spent the afternoon at the neighbor’s.  Because I freaking locked myself (and Eleanor) out of the house!!!  OMG, I am such an idiot.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  I was distracted when I went out the door to go check on our blueberry bushes, and I shut it before unlocking the handle.  Thankfully Eleanor was with me, though I never leave her inside when I go out b/c I’m so paranoid of this very thing happening.  I tried every window and door, nothing was open.  Tried every neighbor I knew – which is five houses – no one was home.  Finally tried a neighbor I had seen but never met before, and she was home!  She’s an older lady, lives alone, was watching the Mariners (who lost spectacularly).  She invited me in and I chilled there until John got home 2.5 hours later.  He has a new office at one of his work locations and his other office phone apparently isn’t forwarding to it like it should yet, so he missed my two calls begging him to come home early.  Grr!

It actually ended up being a pleasant afternoon, though!  The neighbor was really sweet and seemed to get a kick out of Eleanor.  I also got the lowdown on who lives where, and why a certain house has been basically abandoned, so that was interesting.  I’m glad I met her, though I wish it had been under different circumstances…

New breastfeeding blinkie

Finally got around to making a 13 month breastfeeding milestone blinkie.  : )  It’s on the Graphics page.

New toddler blinkie

I made a new blinkie to celebrate Eleanor walking, and put it up on the Graphics page.  It says “My baby is now a toddler” with a pic of Eleanor walking with her push toy.  Too cute!

Day with the family

We went down to see John’s mom today, and John and the other two kids (well, mid-20s adults), scattered Jim’s ashes finally.  The weather hadn’t been cooperating with a boat launch, but today was beautiful and calm.  The scattering went well.  The rest of us watched from the house, with a motley assortment of binoculars.  It was a little surreal for everyone, I think.  An important day, but not as sad as it would have been a month or so ago.  I hope it provided some closure for John’s mom and grandmother, and for the kids as well.   I have a feeling the tougher parts of this year will be the holidays.  Other than the scattering, it felt much like any other family gathering.  It’s odd how quickly life seems to become normal again, even if the normal isn’t what it was.

Eleanor warmed up to everyone right away this time, so her memory of people seems to be improving.  She hadn’t seen most of them in at least a month.  I keep hoping to hear a wedding and/or baby announcement every time I see them all, but I think it’ll be a while.  : )  We might just have to provide a playmate for Eleanor ourselves!

With all the budget cuts lately, my SIL the teacher may be losing her job.  Her husband is completing his master’s in teaching right now and would have gone on to teach next year, but it looks like he’s going to have to sub until the economy – and school budgets – improve.  My friend, also a new teacher, finds out next month if she loses her job.  I know all of these people will be ok financially should they lose their jobs (between subbing and/or their spouse’s jobs), but I worry about the other families who won’t.  This economy is just awful.  I hope it improves soon.  Fortunately it hasn’t hurt us yet, other than John’s work not giving out the usual cost-of-living and merit-based raises this year.  Tough to complain about a lack of a raise when you know people who are being laid off or having their pay cut.

And my last piece of news: Eleanor got her first head wound today.  : (  She fell down while walking toward a table and, you guessed it, bonked her face and gave herself a fat lip.  She even bled a little, though that stopped quickly.  We have her some ibuprofen to try to stem any swelling, and some soy ice cream ostensibly to get something cold on it.  (I tried an ice cube inside a towel, but she wouldn’t hold still for it.)  She loved the ice cream and calmed right down, haha!  I’ve been trying not to start a food as comfort habit, but I think this was a good exception.  She nursed well after that and took her pacifier to go to bed, so it must not be bugging her too much anymore.

We have a walker!

For about a week now, Eleanor’s been walking!  On April 9th she took four steps, though she didn’t realize she had done it.  Every day after that she took a few more, and now she totters everywhere!  It is amazing to both of us how quickly she went from just barely taking steps to out-and-out walking.  She’ll even “run” a bit if she knows she has somewhere safe to land, like the side of the couch.

I started taking her to toddler classes a few weeks ago, at the local Gymboree.  She loves it!  It takes her about 15 minutes each time to warm up, but then she gets into it.  And I love having somewhere to go with other grown people, haha!  I’ve been trying to take her to story time at our library as well, but she suddenly decided that 10:15am (when it’s supposed to start) is her new favorite nap time.  Ah well. Wish they had a later option for this age set.

In other news, we took a little trip to Forks, WA (the home of Twilight) with my folks a couple weeks ago, which was fun.  We drove around the Olympic Peninsula checking out beaches and such, and went on a little hike at Cape Flattery, which is the northernmost tip of WA state.  It was absolutely gorgeous! We lucked out and had sunny weather the whole time.

Now we’re doing some home improvement.  I’ve decided that I’ve had enough of carpet in our main living areas – it’s always disgusted me, but now especially with Eleanor on it all the time – so we’re starting to put hardwood floors in (bamboo).  We’re starting on one of the smaller rooms, since we don’t exactly know what we’re doing yet.  Plus it ain’t cheap!  Hopefully it’ll go well and we can move on to the other rooms.  I also want to put in a second bath tub though, and we need to do some closet work (for which we already have most of the materials), so the rest of the floors might be a while.  It’s nice to finally be doing work on the house again, though!  We took an almost two year hiatus with my pgcy and then Eleanor being born.  We bought this house in ‘05 knowing it needed work, so not doing anything for half the time we’ve been here has been a little aggravating.  It was for a very good cause though.  ; )

New breastfeeding blinkies

I put up blinkies for 11 and 12 month breastfeeding milestones.  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Eleanor turned one year old yesterday!  We had a party for her on Saturday with about ten people, mostly family.  It was a good party and she got tons of new toys and clothes!  She spent all day yesterday playing with her new push toy (from mommy and daddy).  She loves to walk around behind it.  She is so close to taking her first step on her own, but isn’t there quite yet.  Hopefully soon!  For now she moves much more quickly crawling so she doesn’t have much incentive to walk.

She’s now saying dada and versions of mom (mama, ma, nen, even Jenn recently), as well as “hi” and “up”.  Her little voice is so sweet!  She learned those last two in just the last week or so, so she seems to be learning quickly now.  I’m looking forward to hearing the next word!

She doesn’t have another appt until the end of the month, so I weighed her (on our Wii Fit, haha) and measured her myself.  She’s now about 18.5 lbs (13%) and 29″ tall (59%).  So she’s still  skinny, but not as much as before (she was 16% weight and 87% height at 9mo).  We’ve been feeding her a ton but I guess she might need even more.  Yikes!

We gave her soy milk for the first time the other day and she loved it.  I’m hoping to swap out a couple nursing sessions a day for it, but so far she seems to be treating it as more of a supplement than a meal.  Now that I know her stats, maybe that’s a good thing.  I’m planning on continuing to breastfeed for the foreseeable future, hopefully until she’s about two, which is the WHO recommendation.  We’ll see how it goes.

She popped her first molar on the 12th, which brings her grand total up to nine teeth!  Her sleeping is still all over the board, largely from the constant teething.  Though apparently I was a horrible sleeper as a baby too, so it could just be that.  I am so thankful that I’m able to stay home with her!  Besides the fact that I love being here with her, I would be a zombie at work most days.

I can’t believe my baby is one, but I also look at her and see a one year old.  This year just went too fast.  I hope the next one is a little slower, and I can’t wait to see what it brings!

Good-bye, Jim

My father-in-law passed away on Sunday, February 8th, 2009, at 2am, just twelve days after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.  He was in his own home and surrounded by his loving family when he passed, though we don’t know how aware he was of any of us at the last.  We spent the time recounting memories, and I think  it was the best last hours we could have given him.

Rest in peace, Jim.  You will be missed terribly.