Fun with Friends

Taylor, Eleanor, and Rilee
On Monday, we went to Corvallis to pick up Grant's diploma. Woohoo! While we were there, we got together with Mandy and Jason and their girls. We were in the same ward when we all lived in Corvallis until they moved to Portland and we moved to Salem. They moved back to Corvallis to start Jason's chiropractic practice in December, so we were excited to see them again. It was so much fun catching up and seeing how we've all changed since we were all just young married couples without kids. Our bedtimes are certainly earlier, that's for sure!

Eleanor and their girls had a blast. We took a tour of the clinic. As soon as we walked in, the girls, with Eleanor close behind, took off to go to their office in the back. We received the grand tour, looking in each room going around the building. By the time we made it back to where the girls were, all their shoes were taken off, all in a row, and they were sitting on the couch watching Thomas the Train. Isn't it adorable how quickly kids become friends? Taylor is 3 and Rilee is 2, just barely older than Eleanor. They made the perfect group, all those curls and dimples all in a row. If you enlarge the top picture, maybe you can see it. The picture doesn't quite do them justice, but Taylor has deep dimples right in the middle of her cheeks. Eleanor has dimples just below the corners of her mouth, the deeper one on her left side, and Rilee has them just above the corners of her mouth. What a bunch of cuties! We decided we will have to be making more trips down to Corvallis so these girls can play.

All About Eleanor

A friend of mine records milestones and details about each of her children every month on the day they were born. I hope she won’t mind that I’m copying her idea in an attempt to record things before they quickly slip from my memory. I hope to do this every month, but I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it the same way she does. Most months won’t be this long, but there are a lot of things I’ve been meaning to write down.

~28 months old~

Height: under 3 feet
Weight: 21 pounds, give or take
(these are guesstimates because I haven’t measured either recently)
Clothing size: just growing out of 18 month pants, shirts and dresses are more difficult to tell, since brands vary so much in size. Most 24 month shirts fit her.
Shoe size: 4

Now, here are some details about her and any anecdotes I can remember that I’ve been meaning to write down but haven’t had the time:

-Current favorite question: "Mommy, is sat?" Translation: Mommy, what is that?
· She LOVES going to the library.
· She calls blankets, “cozies.”
· She’s still a total binky girl, and since we’re just now jumping over the sleep hurdle, we’re not anxious about getting rid of it any time soon.
· She’s not interested in potty training. Not at all.
· She’s getting very particular about certain things. When it comes to food, she wants a “big one” or a “baby one,” and trouble will commence if you mistakenly give her the wrong one. She’s also particular about who does things for her, such as get her out of the car, out of her chair after eating, get her dressed, etc. She makes up her mind and declares something like, “Daddy get my out.” If anyone else tries to get her out, she throws a big fit. We had that problem just last night when she wanted me to get her out of the car, but I ran inside out of the rain while Daddy got her out. She came into the house in tears. Bad mommy!
· She’s really trying to grasp and use pronouns lately. The only ones she really knows are “my” and “her.” I love hearing her use them incorrectly because she generalizes them to all situations. She says things such as, “No, my do it,” and “Daddy put her jacket on.”
· She’s talking more and more every day. Sometimes she just doesn’t stop (except when strangers are around. She’s still pretty wary of adults she doesn’t know). I used to love that I was one of a few people who could understand and speak her language. I felt like an important translator. I loved her mispronunciations and backwards words. (In case you don’t know, many times, Eleanor would pronounce a new word backwards at first and eventually magically turn them around to be the actual word. Examples: flower was “aaaflu” and big was “gii.”) Now that she’s forming sentences, I’m not hearing those as much. It makes me a bit sad, but I know she’d sound pretty silly as an adult talking the way she does. I just wish I could hold on a little longer. . .
· Several weeks ago, we were in the car, and Eleanor started playfully yelling, “ahhhhh.” I looked back to see what she was doing. She was wearing a sweater with long sleeves, and she had pulled the sleeves over her hands and was waving her hands in the air and slowly reaching them out of the sleeves while yelling. I laughed at her and told her, “You crack me up.” I told Grant to look back the next time she did it. She did it again. We both laughed, and Eleanor said, “My crack Mommy up.”
· How she says oopsie: “soopie” or “soopsie”
· She loves pancakes for breakfast. Any time you ask her what she wants for breakfast, she shouts excitedly, “Pancakes!” And she’ll hold you to it. Do not ask her what she wants for breakfast unless you are prepared to make pancakes. Instead of asking her if she wants to eat breakfast, I have to ask her if she wants to eat toast or cereal for breakfast. If I don’t name a specific option, I’m bound to get a request for pancakes.
· Eleanor recently started calling all her babies, “Isabel” or “Addie,” the names of her two baby cousins. The other morning, Grant and I were still in bed when Eleanor brought one of her babies to Grant and said, “Here Daddy. Hold Addie.” He held her for a while and eventually got up and went to work. Later that day, Eleanor went and got the baby from our room and said, “Noree using Daddy’s Addie.”
· She’s just barely learning to open a doorknob, but most are still pretty difficult for her.
· One of her favorite places to hang out (and has been for months): our bedroom closet. I promise, we never put her in there when she hasn’t requested it. And, keep in mind, this is a small closet, not much bigger than most people’s coat closets. It has a light in there, and we tend to put our dirty laundry at the bottom, so it’s probably soft for sitting. She just takes a few toys in there and asks us to help her close the door. We used to knock on the door right after closing it and then open it again. Now, she just wants it shut most of the time she’s in there, and she’s starting to open the door on her own.
· She has always been very sensitive to other people’s feelings. One of the ways we got her to go to sleep on her own was by telling her how happy it makes Mommy and Daddy when she sleeps all night in her own bed. I let her watch Finding Nemo for the first time this month. We zipped a couple of the scary parts, but what troubled her most was the scene with the guy getting drilled in the dentist chair.
· Sometimes, I just randomly tell her, “You make Mommy so happy.” Without fail, every time, she turns to Grant and says, “Noree make Daddy so happy too,” (more as a happy declaration than a question, but Grant always confirms it for her). She just has to account for everyone.
· She has a really long attention span. She can sit and listen to you read books for about as long as you’re willing to read. She could play with play-doh for hours and hours. The other day, I let her play with play-doh for a while before her nap. When she got up, her first words to me were, “Noree play play-doh again!”
· Grant was on the phone the other night, checking on something, and happened to say, “Jocelyn and Eleanor Matthews.” Eleanor scowled and said, “No, NOT Dossin. Just Mommy. Not Dossin.” Apparently, she’s fine with Grant being Grant and Daddy interchangeably (even according to her), but I am and forever will be “just Mommy.”
· As I was getting her out of the car the other day, she looked at me carefully and said, “Mommy have brown eyes.” I agreed with her, and she exclaimed, “Noree have brown eyes, too!”

On Christmas Day, On Christmas Day

I debated whether I even wanted to post this, since Christmas was so long ago now. But, I decided I would remember it better if I wrote a little bit about it, so it's worth it to me to continue backtracking. Besides, there really hasn't been much going on around here lately, so I might as well talk about the past.

Eleanor really seemed to enjoy Christmas morning. She was able to really catch on to some of the excitement this year. She loved finding a candy cane in her stocking, and she loved opening presents. When she got to the bottom of her stocking and found an orange, she immediately dropped everything to go over to the kitchen table to eat her orange. She got a set of blocks from Santa, with a shape-sorter lid. She and her daddy have really enjoyed them (not that I haven't, but Grant is such a builder). The shape-sorter lid sure helps motivate her to help clean up. All I have to do is start matching the shapes, and she quickly wants to get involved. One day, she actually scolded me for trying to put them away before putting on the lid.

Grant and I gave her a couple of Little People sets. She has really seemed to enjoy them. The one she's playing with in the video is a pet salon, so she's doing the dog's hair. She got her first Little People set for her birthday this year. It had two little girls with it, and she would always call them "little boys." She's just recently starting to call them all girls.

Eleanor started to slow down at opening presents after a while, so we decided to take a break to get showered and dressed. As you can see, right after her shower, she was ready to go back to the presents. She opened her new hat and mittens and had to put them on immediately.

Here she is actually dressed, in her new sweater, too.

Once we were all done at our house, we headed over to my mother's to do some more Christmas with all of them. Here is Isaac, opening his present from Eleanor.

She gave him a little tool set. He's reaching into the package to push the button on the saw. He had so much fun with that saw. He cut just about everything and everyone in the house. Good thing it was just a toy!

You can see Uncle Father Bill in the background of this picture. It's hard to get a picture of him because he is so cooperative (please note the sarcasm), so I was glad to see him in the background of this picture.

Eleanor with Grandma. She wanted to sit in someone's lap every time she opened a present. I think she sat in Grandma's lap for the first few presents she opened on Christmas Eve, and that just set the precedence for all gift opening. Even at home, she would sit on my lap or Grant's to open a present. Her new baby doll is next to her. She liked it at first, but then she got really freaked out by Grace's doll that really cried and moved around. Now, since her new doll's eyes close when you lay it down, Eleanor is terrified of her own baby. We're working on it, but I think it will take a while. She won't hold it. Sometimes, she'll tell me it's crying, and tells me to hold it. She doesn't want to hold it herself. Someday, I'm sure she'll love it. Until then, she is enjoying all the accessories that came with it and using them with her other babies.

Our Rockin' Christmas Eve

Whew! I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas Eve. Maybe I'll actually catch up to current day if I keep at it. It was so much fun to have Beth and Paul in town for Christmas Eve.

Here are the kiddos, Eleanor, Isaac, and Grace, with Grandma.

We adults played our traditional steal the white elephant game. We didn't think the kids would enjoy holding a gift and having someone take it away before they could open it, so their version was to be handed a gift they could open immediately. Eleanor got bubbles, an instant hit. I got a can of sardines, but then my mom, who hadn't opened her gift yet and knew what was in all of them, traded me. I ended up with a few dog treats and ten dollars. Not a bad trade!

Then, we enjoyed watching the kids do some dancing around. Maybe I would have slept better that night if I had done some dancing with them.

Then, they danced some more.

. . . and did a little more dancing.

The kids got to open these cute bags from Father Bill, filled with fun stuff.
Eleanor liked sitting on Grandma's lap every time she opened a present.

And, they got to open one present: matching pajamas. Such cute girls! Isaac's pajamas had a little monster on them; they were really cute, too.

These two cousins had such a good time together!

The Christmas Dress

Teresa is one of many sweet ladies at Grant's work that have a great love for Eleanor and treat her like their own granddaughter. She has always been so good to us, and she has bought Eleanor a beautiful Christmas dress each year. We are so grateful to Teresa for her kindness and friendship.

This year's dress.

The Sunday before Christmas, we went to my mom's house right after Eleanor's nap after church. My sister and her family had arrived late the night before, and we were anxious to see them.
Eleanor and her cousin, Grace.

Thank you, Teresa, for another adorable Christmas dress!

Why I Have a Purple Laundry Basket

Eleanor's First Gingerbread House

Grant's cousin and her husband invited us and a bunch of family over to make gingerbread houses in early December (yup, I'll be backtracking for a while). Eleanor had fun making her first gingerbread house ever.

Helping her dad with the construction.

She quickly grasped the main benefit of making a gingerbread house. More candy, please!

The finished product. Not bad for a 2 year old. It kept her attention for quite a while.

The object of Eleanor's affection. She loves to hold baby Adelynn.

Tinsel Time

This is really old, but I thought it was so adorable. Eleanor's friend, Briggs, came over to play while we were still in the first stages of decorating the Christmas tree (lights only), so I thought it would be fun for them to put the tinsel on. They were so cute about it. I was surprised at how meticulous Briggs was. They had such a good time playing together that day. I told Grant that Eleanor did all the things she isn't supposed to do with a boy when she's older: she had a boy in her room, they played in her bed, and they even played footsie under the table. Hopefully she'll get it out of her system now!

Last Year's Cold

I always look forward to a new year. It feels like a fresh start. I can set goals and tell myself I will actually keep them this year. I was looking forward to welcoming our new year with a post, and catching up on all the action I haven't blogged over Christmas. Unfortunately, Eleanor and I got sick on the 31st, and we have been ever since. So I haven't had a chance to welcome 2008. I haven't written down any goals. I haven't started off the year with great accomplishments. I'm stuck in the muck from 2007. So, if you need us, we're here trying to get rid of last year's cold. If I'm up to it, I'll try to do some of last year's laundry and dishes. Then I'll take down last year's Christmas decorations, and then I'll think about finishing some of last year's Christmas presents (obviously late and getting later every day). And, if I ever get around to it, I'll post on my blog about last Christmas. How's that for resolutions?