Eloise Helen

Eloise is getting so big so fast. Now she is learning to sit. Here she is practicing with the aid of her boppy pillow, which we don’t need for nursing anymore.

She is also borrowing neighbor Dylan’s exer-saucer. She still pitches forward a bit, but as you can see, she’s digging it. It may be a little overwhelming, though.

Hmm, I guess there’s no afternoon nap today. Maybe we will go for a walk. Right now she’s lying in her crib pretty happily talking to herself, kicking, chewing on her hands, and hiccuping … a happy scene, but not one that’s going to lead to a nap, I think.

We are very much looking forward to visits from Stephanie and Ryan, Uncle Wes, and Nanny and Grammy in June. With Papa Dan’s retirement and Hannah and Robert’s wedding too, this is looking like a very eventful month for us! Last weekend we went to Portland Nursery to celebrate my birthday. Eloise was wiped out when we got home. She is the spitting image of her Uncle Dan when she’s asleep. So cute. We’ve given her a pacifier because she has been so miserable lately. She seems to like it. She doesn’t use it as it was intended, but she likes handling it and chewing on its different parts, and just holding it, as you can see in the picture.

On Thursday Keira and Deanna came over to play. Keira is running around like crazy and talking and bouncing off the walls in full-on toddler mode (Deanna and Joe seem tired these days!), and poor Eloise can’t even begin to keep up. Fortunately for her, Keira pops in every once in a while to give her a kiss and pose for a picture. Deanna, Keira, and Joe watched Eloise twice yesterday so I could get a facial (so nice) and go out to dinner with Chris for my birthday, which is tomorrow. It was really nice to get a little break, and it helps that Eloise loves Deanna. When I got back (first from the facial and then from dinner), she was asleep in Deanna’s arms, just conked out. So sweet.

And here are some pictures of me and Eloise before we went to Kaitlin’s baby shower yesterday. Kaitlin and our nephew Tyler are expecting their baby girl to arrive in early June. Then we’ll have three little tiny ladies running all around at family events. For those of you who are thinking about this carefully, yes, this is going to make me a great aunt - yikes! Great Aunt Martha: I might as well pack on 100 pounds, get a perm, and dye my hair a nice shade of gray blue! In the meantime, I do like these pictures, because not only does Eloise look stunning in her little dress with the smocking from RJ and Mary Beth (thank you!), but I also put some effort into making myself look presentable. I took a shower, ironed my pants, and put on makeup. Whoa.

It was hard to keep Eloise’s hands out of her mouth. She’s teething and is really into shoving as much of her hand into her mouth as possible and chewing away at it. She has all kinds of teething toys, but seems to prefer chewing on her own self (or our fingers when they are clean and we let her).

Okay, so a lot of people say there’s some cousin Emma in this lady. And even more people say that there’s a lot of Uncle Dan in her (which I see for sure, especially when she’s asleep). But my goodness, she really looks just like her dad. Which essentially means she looks just like her Auntie Deanna, which makes her just about the luckiest lady in the world. I think she has my eyes, but the rest of her is so dad. I used to think she had my facial expressions, but then I saw this picture. Yikes.

And for the record, Aunt Mary, I’m just feeding her breast milk. That stuff is magic: just look at the baby it grew! And it cures eye infections too in just one application (file that away all you new moms out there: Aunt Ba told me that, and it was so helpful). Sometimes it makes me feel like a superhero. What is it that T-shirt says? “I make breast milk. What’s your super power?” Sums it up pretty well!

Last night Eloise screamed her head off (again) when Chris tried to soothe her to sleep. She’s suddenly decided that only Mom will do at bedtime. Other times of day, she’s more than happy to chill with Dad. These are pictures from last weekend when it was oh-so-hot. I love the furrowed brow: she doesn’t like the heat any more than I do.

Pop Pop, we thought you’d like these ones of her in her ABCD onesie too. She’s ready to read, and rock for that matter: she certainly has a strong pair of lungs for rockin’ out.

Eloise seems to have forgotten how to roll over again. Poor girl. (We will try to get the rolling videos up soon: they are impressive and cute as heck.) And she seems to be teething pretty seriously, although there’s no sign really of any teeth yet. Both of these things make for a pretty peeved baby, which makes for a very fatigued and grumpy Mom

The situation is not helped by our stupid neighbors’ barking dogs. Who leaves their dogs out all hours of the day and night just to bark bark bark? Crazy people, that’s who. The kind of people who dig their own bunker with a back hoe that they don’t know how to drive and almost plow into my garden shed, that’s who. I ran over there in my bathrobe twice yesterday morning to ask them to put an end to the madness, but they did not answer their door. I researched city code and found that they are violating it with their stupid dogs (you can’t let them bark for more than ten minutes or for more than 30 minutes if the barking is intermittent rather than constant). I am going to continue trying to talk to them. I’ll even leave a note if I have to, but then I am going to look into getting some intervention. It’s ridiculous. And if it starts interfering with my kid’s sleep, oh man, I am going to really go nuts. I think Julianne next door will back me up on this: there’s nothing quite like nursing your kid at 3 am to the sounds of your stupid neighbors’ barking dog. Urgh.

Ooof, is it ever hot! A few days ago, it was cool and wintry, as you can tell from Dash and Donna’s outfits. They came to see us in the morning earlier this week with Ally.

Now it is beastly hot, and Eloise is spending a lot of time naked … and awake. We cannot get her to sleep!

She has discovered how to roll over on purpose, and she cannot be stopped. So the bassinet is out of the question. We had an awful night last night. Ended up sleeping together on the futon on the floor in the basement. She was rolling and rolling until she fell asleep on her side, mid-roll. She was so tired, but her little body would not quit. I think she hates the heat as much as I do.

Eloise loves bath time … not. But we do! We get to see her without her clothes on and dress her up like a frog or an elephant, depending on the towel. Thanks, Kearstin, for the elephant towel. The trunk just really hits it home.

And, no, we really can’t stand how cute she is. It’s unbearable, as in, we don’t know what to do with ourselves sometimes!

Eloise was so excited this morning when I told her that her first East Coast friend was born! Jenny and Tim welcomed eight-pound Benjamin Patrick this morning at 9 am ET. We are so excited! I had to cry a little to start the day … first because I was so happy, then because I was sad to be so far. I want to hold him!!

When I explained to Eloise that Benjamin is thousands of miles away, she was also a little sad.

But we are so looking forward to seeing him. We are fantasizing of vacations together down the shore. I’m not totally sure why I’m so fixated on taking Eloise to Ocean City since I’m never going to let her out in the sun, given our family history of melanoma on both sides. Nostalgia, I s’pose.

Last night Eloise got a gum massage from Chris. We’ve graduated from earlobe massages to gum massages: much more functional. She is much happier today after sleeping tremendously well last night, but for the past few days she has pretty much been a huge grump, thanks to the onset of teething.

Here are two pictures of Eloise waking up today. Isn’t she lovely?! It’s so wonderful to walk into the room and look down into the bassinet at this gorgeous, happy little lady. I took her picture on this particular morning primarily to capture her crazy outfit. She looks like she’s just about ready to blast off … or abate some asbestos.

And here she is after going on a walk with our new friends Hannah and Teal. Teal is 7 months old, and Hannah is her mom. I liked the way Eloise looked surrounded by all her toys, and I adore the aviator hat so much. Many thanks for that one, Wallace-Wolfe family: it is one of my most favorite! (Lee, I also like how shocked she looks. Does she find me shocking and scandalous? Crazy? What is she thinking?) The baby below who is not Eloise is her friend Teal. I like that Eloise already has friends, even if their friendship consists mostly of acknowledging each other’s existence with squeals on Teal’s part and a knowing gaze on Eloise’s. But that’s progress compared to a couple months ago when Eloise wasn’t really aware of other babies yet.

Oh! And I almost forgot. Eloise weighed in at exactly 14.5 lbs and 24 inches at the doctor yesterday. And although there’s no way to quantify her level of bravery with accuracy, I’d give her a 10. She was a champ about her shots, making the experience minimally traumatic for us both. Eloise turned 4 months on Monday and I have been looking at old pictures of her a lot lately. She has gained more than 8 lbs and grown 5 inches in these four months. Wow!

Chris gets home from San Jose tonight! Yay! He was learning about firewalls, enjoying the In ‘n Out Burger, and geeking out on all the famous tech companies. I think he had fun … but we are psyched to have him home. I am going to go eat some toast and read a short story before going to bed. Thrilling, this life of mine!

I talked to Grammy this morning, and she asked if Eloise smiles much. Eloise smiles a lot! But I realize I hadn’t captured it on film much. So I set out to get a smile today, and here it is! She looks just like Chris’s baby pictures when she smiles. The resemblance is unreal.

Grammy also asked about her eyes. Blue, blue, blue. And you can really tell in this picture.

Now that she can face out, Eloise is really enjoying her Ultimate Baby Wrap. I wrapped her onto me and went out into the garden today to inspect the slug damage and out-of-control, un-pruned rose bushes. When I saw these pictures that Chris took of us, I could not believe how enormous my daughter is! Whoa! (We have our 4-month pediatrician appointment on Tuesday, so we’ll find out how big this lady really is.) As you can see, our nursery “theme” is still junk room, although it is a junk room with the most lovely curtains, thanks to Nanny.

In the picture of us in the bathroom doorway, I am showing her the faucet, which she really digs. And then I did a dance: I’m practicing my teenager-embarrassing moves for the time in the future when Chris and I get our kicks from mortifying our daughter. We will be so good at it … especially me! I was trained by the master, after all. Thanks, Pop Pop!

Here is Eloise enjoying Naked Butt Time. No more diaper rash since we’ve been doing it daily. She has not rolled over since her rolling debut and it’s been a few days since she laughed, despite my antics, which get crazier and crazier the longer she goes without a chuckle. This girl definitely lives life on her own terms, to the extent that she is able at four months. (Four months?! Where did the time go?)