Elinor at 19 1/2 months

Here is a link to our most recent Picasa album with pictures of what Elinor has been up to lately.

Another busy month for all of us!  I have been suffering from really bad back pain the past 2 weeks, to the point that even walking has been impossible.  So, Elinor’s grandparents (and Burke on the weekends) have really taken over and planned so many fun things for her to keep her occupied.  Big Truck Day, a trip to OMSI, lots of walks to the park, sprinklers and pools in the yard, and bike rides.  I am so thankful for our families.  It’s been so hard to be so dependent, but our families have made it incredibly easy to be that way.  And Burke has been the best dad and husband ever…every chore has been his for weeks!

The annual “Not Laurelhurst” block party was in front of our house a couple of weeks ago and was so fun!  We really love our neighborhood and our neighbors.  Good food, a DJ, a pinata, a band, a keg, tons of children…a fantastic evening!  I look forward to it next year when I am not pregnant!

In July, Elinor and I went to Long Beach Peninsula with my parents for a getaway during the week.  Elinor has always loved the sand, but for the first time she got to get her feet wet in the ocean.  She can’t stop talking about it and wants to watch the video of the water going over her feet over and over and over.

In fact, Elinor wanting to look at pictures and videos of herself has gotten to be a bit of a problem lately.  Every time I bring out my iPhone she says “Elinor” (“El-no”) and points at herself.  She used to sign “cat” every time she saw my iPhone because she wanted to watch cat videos but now it’s all about El-no! I am VERY bored with watching these videos so I’m hiding my phone a lot.  And, of course, out of sight, out of mind!

Elinor is still learning new words every day.  She can repeat almost everything we say to her first.  She’s still signing a lot of basic words like cat, dog, milk, but she’s wanting to say more complicated words like microwave, tic-tac-toe, hummus, etc.  She’s also combining words, like “mommy home” and “red dot”.  It’s a very fun time!!! 

One of our bedtime traditions is to talk about her day and then say prayers while we are rocking in her chair.  The past two weeks, she’s started participating in talking about her day.  She’ll interject signs (like telling me about the helicopter she saw land at Big Truck Day) or words (like “red dot” to remind me of the things she saw at the park with Miney and Jake).  This absolutely makes my day!  I love what she remembers and reminds me to not forget to talk about!  Sometimes I have no idea what she’s talking about, especially recently when others have been taking care of her so much during the day.

Some other fun things that Elinor is doing: drawing O’s, playing tic-tac-toe (she’s always the O!), identifying colors and shapes, sorting, jumping (or trying very hard to at least!), walking backwards, and climbing up into the crib (only can do this if the rail is down, so it’ll be awhile yet before she’s climbing out!).  She also is getting interested in the potty and even tee-teed in it one night (we think this was an accident!).  She’s getting more demanding at bedtime, always wanting one more book (she holds up her finger in front of her nose) or to be rocked one more time, or wanting Daddy to rock her instead of Mommy.  She also is finally taking just one mid-day nap which was quite the transition (it took a couple of months to finally get to that point!). 

So, we all know things will change for ALL of us once we bring this baby home from the hospital!  Motherlode, one of my favorite parenting blogs, just had a post yesterday about going from a family of 3 to a family of 4.  I loved reading all of the comments.  One of my favorite comments was that bringing home a new baby is one of the best gifts that you could give your other child–and that is the gift of knowledge that they are not the center of the universe!  🙂  But of course the sibling that she will eventually love so very much (and not imagine life without!) is the biggest gift!

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