It's a leopard...no! It's Eleanor

Fever. Rash. Fever. Rash. Do we know how to have fun in this house or what? Ellie continues to be sick, though now she's showing an interest in eating again which, apart from nursing, she hasn't been to keen on for probably about two weeks now. The Doctor says that she does not have chicken pox but that she is just covered in some viral rash.......see, on a baby you say awwww, but in an adult you would say ewwwwww. So, we're pretty sure that she's on the mend. PLUS! I don't want to jinx our luck or anything (or rub it in to Colin's Mommy or Daddy) but Ellie slept THROUGH the night last night - from 6:00 to 5:10!!! AND SHE'S DOWN FOR A NAP AGAIN!!!! Ok, now I'm happy because other parents I know say that they have to WAKE their child up for a feeding at 11:00 p.m. but that they fall asleep again until 8:00 or something ridiculous like that. I know that this is a blog for a sweet little girl and I shouldn't say these things, but WTF? Whatever, it may have taken 10.5 months for her to do it once, but Ellie slept the night. Hooray!! Not much is new here, aside from the fact that Ellie continues to practice her steady footing by climbing everything in the house like she is doing here in her very best "watch-out-I-have-a-mysterious-viral-rash" sweater :)
Here she is being a ham-bone and striking a pose...watch out Colin and Lukas, she's comin' to getcha....rrrreeeowwww.

Nobody here but us chickadees...

Eleanor is making a comeback from a pretty nasty cold, although she does still have traces of a smokers cough - sigh, kids these days - so we have been house bound for a couple of days. But, during this time, we had a nice visit with our brave friends Eszter and Lukas who have the COOLEST foam "map of the world" puzzle mat on the floor, where Ellie declared war on Northern Russia. Thankfully reconciliation took place between Eleanor and the former USSR when pieces of the city and sea port of Murmansk as well as the regions below the Kara Sea were recovered. Efforts of reconstruction were successful and diplomatic relations restored.

Riiiiiight....so, when we finally ventured outside, Omah took Mommy and Eleanor for a walk on a nature trail where chickadees will eat right out of your hand, even if there is a crazy 80 pound dog running around. We were lucky to get some great pictures of the outing where (happily) no one was seriously injured; Mommy took a nasty but comical spill on the ice while trying to get a group pic. Pride and buttocks were the casualties.



Ellie also appears to be a musical prodige. She plays the xylophone like an angel and she also works magic with maracas. She also enjoys pushing the toy bus around. I guess the proud mama, bloggable part about this is that Eleanor is learning to play with toys and though she still enjoys stuffing them into her mouth, she also seems to be developing some motor skills and eye hand coordination. What a love bug.



One final reportable event that happened, we have found a day care provider for Eleanor. She seems extremely nice. Ellie has met Barbara two times now and has played at her house. We are thrilled that we have found a safe and happy place for Eleanor to make friends when it is time to unleash her out into the world.

Just a small warm and fuzzy, we would like to send out hugs and love to all our blog readers. We love you all!

February - The Month of Firsts

Alas, mommy has finally resumed blogging after a brief hiatus away from the computer. Happily, Eleanor is extremely busy. She is our little belly-dweller, an amazing superwoman really, as she pulls herself from point A to point Z in about the same time as it takes me to blow my nose and then look up to see that she is climbing the table at the other side of the room. I mean, come on! What adult do you know could pull their body weight across the floor and then up an incline? Babies are so strong and have so much stamina and are so relentless.....that's a lot of so's :)

Anyway, it's good to be back and we are excited to share with you a couple of firsts that Ellie experienced during the month of February.

On February 1, 2009, daddy took Eleanor for her first toboggan ride at the park. We were able to capture this momentous occasion on video:


Ellie also went for her first public swim on February 2. It went much better than her innaugural swim on earth at Buckshot lake on July 20, 2008.

Lukas - The Ladies Man

Ellie and mommy are both very lucky to have friends so close by. Albeit at times brief due to demanding schedules of naps and feeds, Ellie and Lukas get to meet up for regular playdates. Mommies usually consume tasty snacks during said visits; Erin scamming chocolates, chips and hot chocolate or tea from Eszter, and Eszter dining on chocolate peanut butter milkshakes (made with frozen yogurt because a healthy diet is paramount) for lunch at Ellie's house :)
Pictured is Lukas and Ellie learning to share.
Their play rendez-vous are not all just fun and games.
Also illustrated is Eleanor and Lukas pouring over data to co-find the cure for the common cold, which they plan to have FDA approved by the time they are 11 years old.

Sweet Eleanor

I forgot the computer was on. So, I'll take an opportunity to post a pic of our sweet baby girl. Mommy, Eleanor, Melissa and Colin took advantage of the mild weather today and took Tula for a walk around the neighbourhood.

YEAH MEAT!!

Ok, so Keith is TOTALLY the man! An accomplished fully lisenced mechanic, Keith is also a wizard at making turkey meatballs (pictured) from scratch! Ellie is a very big fan of both daddy and his balls of meat.

The Evolution of a Baby

(this posting is the first of many gratuitous opportunities to show off our beautiful Eleanor Violet)



This...


To this....

to this...





...To this













...to this.

Eleanor 101 Continued

After slightly dramatizing what my grocery shopping experience was like yesterday by the preceeding entry, I would like to pick up where I left off the other day with introducing some more of Eleanor's family members.

Eleanor has two aunty godmothers, Tracy and Lauren.

Tracy is married to Ellie's Uncle Jay (rockband rocker extraordinare). She also has her trusty Uncle Ian whom she loves very much.


Obviously, Ellie is one very lucky girl. There will never be a shortage of people to love her and to teach her the ways of life. It takes a village to raise a child and Ellie has an army of dynamic people to help her along her way.

Suspected Pterodactyl Reincarnate Sighted at the Superstore

Ottawa-January 21, 2009
Consumers of the Superstore were appalled to see a pterodactyl that looked shockingly like a baby on Wednesday afternoon. "It was just shrieking like crazy." one witness said. A random paleontologist on the scene confirmed "At first sight, it looked like an above average beautiful baby girl of the human variety, but after the crinkling raisin package was taken away, there was no mistaking it. The decibel of the cry was distinctly that of a pterodactyl. The only scientific explanation is that it has been reincarnated as a baby." Shoppers have been advised to proceed with caution and to beware of the unpredictable nature of the lizard not sighted since the Mesozoic period, which may be disguised as teething babies. Economists hope that this sighting will not discourage people from shopping, causing further inflammation to the world economic crisis.
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Catching up with the Bowles's

Darn them. Darn them, darn them darn them, in the most loving way possible, of course. Everyone has one or two. Friends that are so together, they have the most adorable blog of their baby charting his amazing Journey...now I have to play 8 1/2 months of catch up with the knowledge that I am a bona fide copycat.

Melissa, I cannot believe that you have inspired me to create a blog. Me - who refuses to sign up for Facebook and who doesn't know how nor cares to learn to MSN people - is going to attempt to make a blog. Kudos, sista from anotha mista.

So, here's to catching up with the Bowles's whom we are privileged to call our good friends :)

And here's to my beautiful daughter, Eleanor Violet who has forever changed my life for the better. Mommy and Daddy love you, sweetheart.

So, without further adieu, I will start a-blogging. You will be relieved to know that I am not going to try to remember and share better than 8 months worth of Ellie-ness, but what I am going to do is post some recent pics/videos that absolutely paint the picture of who Eleanor is - and that is basically our life. She is already a decisive cut-throat decision maker who obviously wears the pants in our household. But she gives some pretty tender cuddles.

Eleanor 101
Eleanor AKA Ellie AKA Ellie-bean AKA Sweet Pea
Has a loving 93 year young Great Grandma AKA "GG"



Has a Great Grandpa who she doesn't see often enough, but who came to Ottawa from Bolton to celebrate her first Christmas. Great Grandpa got Eleanor a beautiful Christmas ornament for the occasion and it was proudly hung on our tree at home.



















Also from Toronto, Eleanor's Great Uncle Doug came to Ottawa for the holidays and got to spoil his favourite Great Niece.


Uncle Doug gave Eleanor a Royal Doulton Peter Bunny bowl and spoon set that she got to eat Christmas supper out of. We ate at Aunty Tracy and Uncle Jay's house (their first Christmas together as Mr. and Mrs. - hurray!!) Eleanor literally ate what the adults ate: turkey, stuffing, brocolli, cheese sauce, carrots, squash, gravy, albeit, it was all blended into one mish mash of tastiness. Ellie had the meat sweats and had to take a nap shortly thereafter. Ellie comes from a proud line of meat sweats champions. Maybe that is why she has a snoring problem??


Speaking of meat sweats champions, Ellie has a doting Omah and Opah. Now, I know these fair weather residents of Butterball Lane would cringe that I have just associated them with meat sweats, a term they loathe, online for all to see, whose blog is it anyway? Besides, who could blame me with tangible evidence like this?






But in all seriousness, worms were made to be eaten anyway and that does not change the fact that no one could deny that Omah and Opah are quite the "Binky" fans. Opah calls Eleanor "Binky".

Opah likes reading the classics to Eleanor. Hand Hand Finger Thumb is one of their favourites.
Eleanor and her Opah like to discuss the deeper meaning behind such literature. Sometimes this requires such deep thought that it can only be done in the peace and tranquility of Buckshot Lake.
A Song mommy made up regarding Buckshot Lake and Eleanor - yup, that is what mat-leave does to you....It turns you into a composer of children's songs. Here are the lyrics:
"Eleanor, you're my baby girl. You're the sweetest little baby in the whole wide world. Your eyes your smile are sweet as cake. You're the greatest little baby on Buckshot Lake. You are my baby. My baby, Eleanor. Eleanor, you are one of a kind. You're the type of baby who just blows my mind. A quiet, happy, sweet baby you make. You are the greatest little baby on Buckshot Lake. You are my baby. My baby, Eleanor. Eleanor, yes you are a true gem. The judges all agree that you're a ten out of ten. My love for you I just could not fake. You are the greatest little baby on Buckshot Lake. You are my baby. My baby, Eleanor." Smart, eh? What's brilliant is that when she's 16 and she's trying to sneak behind the shitter to snog with a summer romance up at Buckshot Lake (Colin or Lukas are looking like good candidates, haha), I can modify the song a little by replacing the word "baby" with "lady" to maximize the embarassment factor...just for fun.

I digress. Eleanor also has a very loving Grandma and Grandpa who are responsible for a generous 2/3 of her wardrobe that is NOT PJ's. They have discovered the joy in shopping for girls.