I haven’t written much in the past few months, and the other day, it was beautiful, Eleanor was in a really good mood and we took some fun pictures. So I decided I’d go ahead and do another update about Eleanor to keep the ball rolling. Eventually, I plan to reinvigorate this blog, but I don’t feel like putting a timeline on that because let’s be honest, timelines aren’t always a mum’s best friend.
Eleanor is 15 months, and this year just seems to be going by at the usual pace…as fast as ever! Is it seriously mid-October?
Highlights & Milestones
Since the last update at 12 months, it seems there have been many highlights and milestones. For starters, Eleanor started walking about 2 weeks after her birthday, and I’m not sure she’s stopped moving since. She loves walking, and she’s started venturing into the realms of running, climbing, scooting, tip-toe ballerina walking, and twirling. The girl basically doesn’t sit still. She’s full of energy and loving exploring and playing all day, every day.
In the past few months, a major highlight and I suppose milestone for us on our parenting journey, is that Eleanor got her own room! While my Dad was here mission building, one of his projects was our house renovations. We cut through a wall into the flat next door to us, and we have turned that room into our living room and our old living room into Eleanor’s room. It’s life-changing. I’m being dramatic, but oh my goodness…it’s good! We are so, so grateful. Eleanor loves her little room, and we are really enjoying all the extra room to stretch out and host more friends as well.
Since moving into her own room, Eleanor is sleeping really well at night. She normally goes to bed by 7, and she’ll wake up sometime between 6-7am. Just this past week, Eleanor and I finished our breastfeeding journey. I was really feeling sad and sentimental to choose to stop, but Eleanor decided for us. I was only feeding her when she woke up first thing in the morning, and she normally would ask for it pretty quickly. Then one day, she decided her toys seemed more fun and hasn’t looked back since. It’s so strange to have that part of our journey finish, and if I think about it too long, I feel a little sad. However, I also feel so thankful to have been able to breastfeed her for as long as I did. I loved our journey together. Now I find myself smothering her in kisses and hugs pretty much all day long. EDIT: Our breastfeeding journey resumed a few days after I initially wrote this because she got sick, and I was desperate to comfort her. She ended up having a middle ear infection – her first one – and I was so grateful that I still had milk to give her. We will see where we end up this time around…
Eleanor is saying a lot more words and “talking” all the time. She loves to sing you a song – one of our favourite things she does. She says mumma, dadda, papaw (still working on Grammy!), Sai (friend), Ollie (friend), Lilly (friend), ball, bubble, baby, wow, dog, and hi/bye. She also knows where her head, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, belly and toes are. She knows what sounds come from lions, dogs, cats, pigs (the best!), cows and monkeys. She shakes and nods her head for no and yes, and she signs “more” and “all done”. She has been such a sponge, observing and learning new things daily.
Exploring parks and new places has been a real highlight since she started walking. She has so much fun climbing and goes down slides quite bravely! Her walking skill has allowed me to dress her in skirts and dresses again, and I am loving it. Her hair has also gotten long enough to be put into a little ponytail on top of her head or two tiny pigtails. I am LOVING all the girliness!
She is still quite small for her age, but anyone who knows her knows how much this girl loves her food. She’s riding steadily on the 3rd percentile for height and weight, but she’s thriving as far as her health is concerned.
She got given swim lessons for Christmas last year, and she started that in July right after we returned from the States. She has picked things up quite quickly with swim, and I see how beneficial it is, especially living in Australia with all the beaches. We are now on her second term, after loving the first. I think it will prepare her for a really great summer!!
Likes
- Food! Especially fruits, popsicles, pasta, burgers, eggs, crackers, yogurt, water, vegemite and pickles.
- Parks and playgrounds
- DOGS! Most animals actually.
- Playing pretend with her picnic set and her baby dolls
- Other little babies, especially the two youngest on base, Zane and Owen
- Balls
- Bubbles
- Bouncing or being tossed up high
- Scooting (15-month-old scooting prodigy!)
- Music and dancing
- Swimming
- Her little friends!
- Being chased
- Books!!!
- Blowing kisses
- Filters on snapchat :)
- Finding little steps or stoops to sit on
- Shoes – your shoes or her shoes, the girl already LOVES shoes haha
Dislikes
- Vegetables and most meats…sigh
- Getting her nose/face wiped
- When Mum goes anywhere without her (separation anxiety to the max!)
- Waking up
How Am I Doing?
I’ve been doing pretty well. Like I mentioned above, the house renovations have seriously changed things. It’s so nice to have Eleanor in her own room and to have more space to spread out and have more people over. I am still praying through what it looks like to be a missionary as a mum – probably something I will continue to pray about always as seasons change. I am learning so much, though, and I am enjoying the process.
I am loving this stage Eleanor is in right now. She’s so much fun. Not to say we don’t have hard days. We definitely do. She’s yet to become a stellar napper so when her pretty average or below average nap isn’t so great one day, it seriously affects the rest of my day. She’s sleeping so well at night, though, now, so I try to remember that. It’s so nice to get a good rest each night now. I’ve continued working out, and I am loving it. We are still working through allergy stuff with me, and I am hoping to get some clarity pretty soon with that. I realised about a month ago how much it affected my day-to-day. Even though Eleanor was sleeping through and I was exercising, I was still so exhausted mostly because my allergies were all day, every day. Hopefully we’ll see some breakthrough with that soon.
Other than that I am doing well. I am really wanting to get a fresh vision for writing and for the blog, but like I said above, I don’t want to put a time pressure on myself that is unrealistic. So stay tuned :)
UPDATE: I wrote this last week, and because I hadn’t added the pictures, I didn’t publish. In the meantime, we had our Annual Retreat with 220 people, Eleanor was sick, our hot water wasn’t working, Eleanor had her first middle ear infection, I got the flu…I mean, it’s been a bit of a rough week around here. Eleanor has seemed back to normal since yesterday, and I was so grateful to have so much help because the Dr said basically all I could do was take ibuprofen and rest. Any mum of a toddler knows that is pretty impossible, so I was thankful to have some friends to call on. I am getting better, but my ears and throat issues are still lingering. I can’t wait for next week and sunshine and working out and smiles – that’s how it works right?? Haha! Thanks for reading!
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