Dispatch from the road

I have internet access at my aunt and uncle’s, so figured I’d post a quick update on us.

The ride down was fine, though a bit hairy in parts.  We left a day earlier than we had wanted to because of the weather, and I’m glad we did.  The first day on the road was nasty.  I have a pic of the freeway as we were leaving the first hotel, which I’ll post later.  It was basically a pure white road with no lanes!  At least we were one of the only cars on the road.  Our car trucked through it just fine.  Eleanor did wonderfully in the car, sleeping the majority of the way.

At some point on the way down, all three of us and most of my family came down with a cold.  We’re all still fighting it.  Figures, but what can you do?  Just life.

Disneyland was fun, though quite a bit harder with Eleanor than I had hoped it would be.  She had a few major breakdowns on rides, which was not so fun, the worst one being on the Finding Nemo ride!  Ugh.  (For those who don’t know: it’s a submarine.  Yeah, imagine a baby screaming on a submarine!  It was awful.)  For the most part she was a trooper and slept quite a bit in her stroller.  Her favorite rides were Small World – she was enthralled! – and Dumbo.  Riding through Small World with her made my trip.  She was so excited and happy!

We got to my aunt and uncle’s – my uncle is my father’s brother -  in So Cal on the 26th, and had a great first evening here.  However we woke up to the news that my paternal grandfather had passed away in his sleep the night before.  : (  My grandpa successfully fought off lymphoma two years ago – it was Christmas time when he was diagnosed – but never truly recovered.  He’s been pretty ill ever since, and we’ve been worried several times that we were about to lose him.  So his death was not exactly shocking, but still felt a bit out of left field.  He had been doing pretty well lately.  My grandma seems to be coping well.  In a way it was the best possible timing: we would all have come down here for his funeral anyway of course, but this way my grandma also has help making arrangements, etc. and has all of her family around her for support.  One of my uncles lives with her still, so I’m sure he’ll keep her good company in the future.  (She lives about an hour and a half away from my other uncle, so I’m glad she has someone closer.)

Looks like the funeral is going to be this Saturday, and we’ll be staying for that.  We were originally going to leave on Friday.  John’s work is very generous and gives him three days of bereavement leave even for his spouse’s grandparents, so that’s great.  He has enough time saved anyway, but it’s a nice bonus.

We’re hoping for an uneventful conclusion to this trip.  The roads have cleared quite a bit, so at least there’s that.

It’s been too long!

I’ve been busy enjoying summer and early fall with Eleanor, and lost track of this blog!  I’m sure all you mommies out there understand.  : )

We’ve all been doing well.  I’m still BFing Eleanor, though she’s also eating some solids now.  She’s eating one “meal” a day, though yesterday she had two and we’ll see what happens today.  So far she’s liked everything but avocado, though she loved the taste of guac John gave her the other day.  I make most of her baby food, and have successfully stuck to all organic things to date.  We’ll see how long I can keep it up!  She’s still sensitive to dairy, though it’s not as bad as before.  Nw if I eat it she gets a little fussy and gassy for a few days, which is mean to do to her but not nearly as ill as she used to get.  I’m hopeful that she’ll outgrow it by the time she’s a year old, though I’m planning on BFing well past that so that we don’t have to wean her to other milk.  I’d like to avoid giving her cow/goat/soy/etc. milk for a while (she reacts to cow and goat cheese, and we’re not completely sure about soy), and rice milk has almost no nutritional value.

Eleanor is trying to learn how to crawl right now, though we won’t be surprised if she walks before crawls.  She loves to stand up and can do so for a few seconds completely unsupported now, though it’s hit or miss.  She stands at her activity table until she gets bored, or tries to lunge for something else and topples over.  She doesn’t seem to quite get that she can move her feet *before* moving her body, lol!

She’s gaining well and growing like a weed.  I’m not completely sure what her stats are right now (forgot to take them at seven months), though I think we’ll be moving her into the next car seat soon.  We got her a Britax Marathon, which I’m happy about.  I feel safe moving her into it.  I’ll miss the ease of carrying her in her infant seat, but she’s getting too heavy for me now, anyway!

Nothing else much is going on in our lives.  I’m a  political junky, so I’m loving all the election stuff.  I’ve also been sewing diapers for Eleanor, since I finally figured out I could probably do it better on my own and for less.  (Bamboo fleece is a wonder fabric!  It absorbs so much liquid, and is very thin.  For once my cloth-diapered baby doesn’t have a huge bubble butt!)  Oh, and we’re heading to Disneyland for Christmas!  I’m so excited about this!  We haven’t been in probably five years, and of course this will be Eleanor’s first time.  I think she’ll be too young to enjoy it, but we sure will.  : )  We’re going with my immediate family, and also visiting some relatives down South for a week after, so it’ll be a long trip.  Should be fun!  I just hope it isn’t too stressfull with Eleanor.  We’ve taken quite a few smaller trips with her (across the mountains to see Grandma and Grandpa), but nothing like this.

I hope to be a better blogger in the future, though I’ve always been bad at this sort of thing, lol!  Maybe I’ll expand out a bit from just writing about Eleanor…