Eleanor's First Birthday

I can't believe that it has been a year since Eleanor Joyce came into our lives. The time has gone by so fast, and it has been an incredible journey so far. I never imagined that motherhood would bring such joy. While Ellie will likely not remember her first birthday, I wanted to celebrate having the opportunity to be her mother for the past year. We celebrated with my family a few days early since we will be leaving on Ellie's birthday, March 19th, to go to California with the Porters.We missed our Texas cousins, but it was so fun to have everyone else up to the house for a barbeque (even though there were some technical difficulties with the grill). Ellie has such cute and fun cousins. Great-Grandma Joyce even made it up for the occasion and I am glad for any opportunity that Ellie will have to be with her only surviving great-grandparent on my side of the family. Ellie got some great gifts from her aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. She also loved her very own cake (well the frosting anyway) and was a happy girl the whole day (except when daddy let her fall down the stairs). Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us!

Ellie is really coming into her personality and is so much fun. She has her dad's energy for sure. She can crawl at lightening speeds and will make a beeline for any open door or set of stairs. She can crawl all the way up the long flight of stairs and now likes to slide down backwards on her belly all the way back down, but she doesn't know how to turn herself around and go backwards if she is at the top of a staircase, which makes keeping her safe a bit of a challenge around the three flights of stairs in our house. She says, "Mama" and waves hello and goodbye. She tries to mimic many of the smaller words I say. She loves looking at books and pulling all the books out of her book basket in her room. Her favorite foods are bread, string cheese, avocados, plain yogurt, and fruit of any kind. She will only eat vegetables if they are pureed into baby food consistency, which is weird because she is great at eating solid foods on her own. She is also starting to not like her oatmeal in the mornings and will often not eat it unless I put a piece of fruit on each spoonful. Ellie shakes her head "no" and definitely knows what it means. She is pretty good at communicating what she wants. She pulls herself up on furniture and on the banisters and will probably be walking pretty soon. She loves walks in her stroller and the swing in the backyard and I think she will be an outside girl. We love her so much and can certainly not imagine life without her!