Woohoo!

Finally! My pestering actually paid off, and Haley actually started a blog! I could only be more happy if I wasn't having to wipe Eleanor's snotty nose every two minutes this morning! I am so excited to get to check in with her more often than our weekend phone calls (that as much as we try, don't happen every weekend). So, if you want to spy on one of my very bestest friends in the whole wide world, now you can. Haley, it's time for you to start catching up on all those times I've tagged you. Get blogging, tootsie!

2 and 1/2

Eleanor is growing up in leaps and bounds, and it's hard to know where to begin!

• Early in February, she finally figured out how to open doors. Before, she couldn't reach the knobs well enough to get a good grip. For a while, I said she was O.C.D.C. (Obsessive Compulsive Door Closer), because anytime a door in our house was open, she had to make sure and shut it. Maybe she just enjoyed knowing she would have to open it agian. I don't know.
• Due to springtime and her recent visit to Utah, she loves sheep.
• She loves babies, and always wants to hold her cousin, Isabel.
• Any time I ask her if she wants Mommy to have a baby like baby Isabel (or any other example I can think of), she says yes. If I ask her if she wants a baby brother or sister, she always tells me no.
• Favorite TV show: seems to be slowly shifting from Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies to Word World.
• Favorite cereal: Honeycomb. She grabbed a box off the shelf at the grocery store this month, and was so confident in her shopping abilities, that we just bought it. After she saw it get left in the cart, she chose many other items on that shopping trip. All of those items were secretly removed by Daddy while she and I moved on down the aisle. Bless her heart, she thinks she's helping.
• Her vocabulary and language skills are taking off. She's getting better with pronouns, actually says, "his" now-- most of the time correctly. She has started experimenting with "was" and "cause." They mostly get tacked onto the beginning of a sentence, but I like that she's branching out.
• She's using her imagination more and more. She'll tell me who she is at a certain moment, such as baby Lucy, "Daw-bee" (David), doggy, sheepy, Audrey, and then any time I address her, I have to call her by that name. If I say, "Okay, let's go," for example, she corrects me, and I have to say, "Okay, doggy, let's go." She also pretends to hold different things. She'll hold out her cupped hand to me and tell me she has something such as a dog, sheepy, cow, lizard. . . the list goes on and on. She usually wants me to pet it, too.

I may have to return to this post and add more later. I know there's more I wanted to record, but I'm getting too sleepy to remember.

Pregnancy update: I started feeling some movements before the trip (around 14 weeks), though it was often difficult to distinguish from gas bubbles most of the time. Now, the movements are getting much more defined and easier to recognize. I still have to be relaxing to feel it, though. We sure had a lot of movement this evening after Grant got home! Maybe he/she could hear Grant and Eleanor talking over dinner. We have an appointment tomorrow, so we'll get to hear that blessed little heartbeat again. Last time, Eleanor said, "I hear my baby sumping!" We also took her to the first appointment when they gave me an ultrasound. Her comments were "I see Mommy's baby on TB!" and "Mommy have goop on her tummy."

Utah trip: Day 1

Sheila called me way back at the beginning of January to ask me to fly down to Utah for my dad's 60th birthday party. She said she didn't think she could pull off a surprise party, so he knew about the party, but she hoped my arrival could be a surprise to him. On a night in January when we booked our plane tickets, Grant asked Eleanor if she wanted to ride on a plane with Mommy and Daddy. Of course, she said yes and headed for the door, wondering why we weren't close behind her, getting our shoes on. It took some explaining to help her understand it wouldn't happen for another month and a half, and she was rather disappointed-- good one, Grant.

So, on March 12th, our journey began. We got a ride to the airport from Kelli. Eleanor loved riding in "Rissa's" car. Larissa was only with us long enough to get dropped off at her grandma's, but that seemed to satisfy Eleanor anyway. We rode the ferry across the river to get to I-5, which was really new for Eleanor. We told her what was going to happen, and once the car was on the ferry, she kept telling us she wanted to get on the boat. Apparently, it just isn't a boat ride if you have to stay in the car!

This was actually the very first time Grant and I had been on a plane together, because in the past, we've taken the road trip to save money. We let Eleanor wear her own little backpack at the airport, and she did really well with all the security measures. Her main setback was when we checked her carseat. She did not want us to hand it over to some strange man. That was her carseat, and she told us all about it! We assured her that it was going on the same plane as we were, and we would get it back when we got off.

Eleanor loved watching all the planes fly by with her daddy. They watched as our plane pulled up, and she even got to see them load her carseat onto the plane.

Ready for a nice, safe flight (even though we flew Southwest).

This wasn't Eleanor's first flight. I flew to Salt Lake with her once when she was about 13 months old, so this time was a little different for her. She did really well. We were able to get the front row where there is plenty of leg room (and toddler roaming room). The only time she had a problem was after she had been on her feet most of the flight, and the captain turned on the seatbelt sign for landing. She was less than enthused about being buckled in again after roaming free all that time. Grant tried holding her on his lap, but the stewardess said that since she was two, she had to be in her own seat. She helped us out by giving us a deck of cards, though. That seemed to cheer Eleanor, and she and I counted them until we were landed. We had all gotten a cold before the trip (great timing), so my ears were so plugged I could barely hear a thing. Luckily, the cold was a fairly mild one for Eleanor; it hit Grant and me the hardest.

After all that, it was time to get into a car for the 3 and 1/2 hour drive to Vernal. I had hoped Eleanor would nap almost the whole way, leaving her pleasant and happy when she would reach Grandpa, Austin and Kenzie. Apparently, she had other plans, and she played and talked for a good part of the trip. It was a good chance for her to interact with Grandma Sheila, because I was tired and eventually stopped playing with Eleanor. She did eventually fall asleep and got about an hour nap. She woke up when we got to town and switched vehicles. Sheila had told Dad she was just riding to Salt Lake with her Aunt Beverly, so she and her mom and Beverly came to pick us up. Then, we had to get into Sheila's van that was parked at Beverly's to drive the rest of the way home.

Eleanor loved seeing all the livestock as we drove through town. We would point out either window and show her cows, horses, or sheep, often with babies. She loved it. She would tell us she wanted to see more animals whenever we ran out of things to show her.

The secrecy was all worth it. We got there, and Austin told Dad that Sheila was back and needed some help. He walked out of the house to find me, Grant, and Eleanor holding a sign saying, "Happy Birthday." He was so surprised and happy!

Kenzie showed Eleanor the new baby goat, Annabell, only a week old. Eleanor loved seeing all their animals. Outside, they have chickens, ducks, dogs, goats, and a horse. In the house, they have chinchillas and lizards (both in cages).

Annabell was hilarious when they put her on the ground. She'd run and jump, and her bottom looked as if it was trying to flip sideways while she was in the air.

This is Fern, Kenzie's horse (one of three, but the only one residing on their property). Eleanor liked petting the horse, too. She also liked watching Fern out the kitchen window and saying, "Horsie. Eeeeee!"

Daddy don't love Mommy

Last night, I got a really bad craving for a strawberry milkshake as we were driving to Grant's parents'. Dana had frozen strawberries, but no vanilla ice cream. Grant, being the wonderful, doting husband that he is, agreed to drive down to Safeway and pick up some ice cream. Eleanor wanted to go with him. As I was buckling her into her carseat, I told her, "Eleanor, you and Daddy are going to go to the store and get ice cream, and when you get back, we're going to make strawberry milkshakes because Daddy loves Mommy!"

Eleanor scowled and said, "No. Daddy DON'T love Mommy! Just Eleanor love Mommy."

Grant immediately started explaining to her that they could both love Mommy, and she immediately returned his explanations with protests that only she could love me. I just kissed her and left them to it. I'm sure they probably argued all the way to the store.

The strawberry milkshakes were delicious! They completely satisfied my craving, although I could have eaten more than I did (and probably would have made myself sick). If any of you are wondering about my intense random craving, you probably are one of the few who haven't yet heard that I'm pregnant again. I'm 16 weeks now, with a due date of Sept. 7th. We don't know yet whether it is a boy or a girl (that seems to be the first question off everyone's lips lately), but we will be finding out toward the end of April. I had wanted to do some cutesy post with Eleanor saying something or wearing something indicating she would soon be a big sister, but time and energy have left you with this. I guess it will have to do. We are SO excited! I am even starting to feel movements now and then, and of course, my tummy is getting poochy.

P.S. We were in Utah

Cough--Cough--Atchoo!

Wow! There's a lot of dust that has settled on this blog. Eleanor and I just got back from a trip to Utah. We left with Grant on the 12th (he flew back last Monday to get back to work). I hadn't been able to blog because I was so busy preparing several different projects for my family in Utah. I couldn't even mention that I would be unavailable for a while because our arrival was planned as a surprise for my dad who celebrated his 60th birthday (and I couldn't blog about it and ruin the whole thing). We had a great time; we didn't even let the cold we all caught right before the trip ruin our fun. I'm looking forward to posting pictures and telling all about it as soon as I get a chance.

Until then, sorry the blog was out of commission for so long.