two months old

our smiley little girl turned two months old yesterday. it also just so happened to be my first full day back at augustana for a faculty retreat. it was no fun to be away from her, but it was a lot easier knowing that she was in loving and capable care of her grandma while i was gone. over the past week or so, eleanor has started to find her hands (so as to put them in her mouth) and hilarious slurping sounds commence. her neck, arms and legs are getting a lot stronger as the weeks go by. she holds her head up quite well and loves to pull herself up into a sitting position when she grabs on to your thumbs. the change in vantage point seems to amuse her no end. the same goes for when you put your hands under her arms and she pushes up to standing. she's also still a champ at more or less sleeping through the night with only one feeding between 3:00 and 6:00am.this weekend my dad came to iowa city and we celebrated his first 59th birthday with a steak dinner at the iowa river power co. restaurant on saturday night. the next morning, rob made blueberry coffee cake and steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast. my parents came over as did joyce, who hadn't seen nory since the day she was born. on sunday eleanor even went to the IC area's newest yarn shop with joyce and me. they were having a store-wide 30% off sale, so i couldn't resist picking up a copy of vogue knitting's stitchionary and three skeins of noro kureyon in the color shown here. i still have a bunch of unused noro yarn from my trip to LA last year. alas, the stash continues to grow...

seven weeks old

at seven weeks, eleanor has become a cooing and gurgling machine--we love it when she "talks" to us, which is often accompanied by big smiles. we can tell that her vision is getting stronger because she's able to track objects better and is mezmerized by her mobiles--the whales above the changing table and cranes over her crib. she also seems to watch TV, which makes me a little uncomfortable. when they watch live with regis and kelly together, my mom calls it "the big magic color box." though i know more about 80s sitcoms than most any person should (sadly, another round of the world series of pop culture has passed me by--i 'd totally clean up!) and still managed to get a PhD, i'm wary of exposing eleanor's beautiful blank slate of a brain to television...here she is, with semi-"crazy eyes" (as henry calls them) chilling out, diaper-only, in her crib.

last weekend, we took eleanor on her first picnic in city park (no, that's not her sandwich) with the boelks. brian and amy have three kids--taylor is 4 and twins carver and kinnick are 2 and a half. they cavorted around the shelter, finding bugs, chansing each other and eating grapes like they were going out of style.

on sunday we headed to clarence, IA for the decker/frink/drake family reunion picnic. (you can see more photos at 'sup with bill and kathie ). senorita eleanorita wore her fancy, frilly dress picked out especially for her by henry. the food was delicious home cooking--three bean salad, scalloped corn and macaroni casserole, baked beans and even two pans of ham balls! rob made a frozen peanut butter chocolate pie (this month's cooking light cover recipe), which was a big hit. as bill mentions at his blog, it was cool to have the oldest member of the family (rob's great uncle ed) and the youngest member (our gal eleanor) together with all ages of relatives in between.

six weeks old

eleanor is now six weeks old and this has been a pretty eventful week for her. she has started smiling intentionally--responding to the sound of our voices and seeing our faces. my heart skips a beat every time the corners of her little mouth turn up and especially when she shows off a big toothless grin. last night she slept a solid 7 hours, from 11:00pm till 6:00am. she was also a hungry fussbudget in the evening, so perhaps she was just gearing up for the long snooze. we put her on the postal scale (in a blanket-lined cardboard box--have to get a photo of that next time) yesterday and she's up to 11 and a half pounds now.
this past weekend, eleanor made her first trip to chicago with me and my mom. unfortunately, we didn't go just for a visit, but to attend my great aunt harriet's wake and funeral. she met her great grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins on my mom's side of the family as well as her auntie julie who was able to stop by my parents' condo on sunday.
when we got back to iowa city on monday, rob's uncle tom and his daughters, emily and alex, who were in town from salt lake city, came over for a visit. we had a great time hanging out and the girls showed us "the landlord", a hilarious online video.

they also brought eleanor this spiffy cap, which just so happens to match her onesie (also a gift from tom, emily and alex) perfectly. note the good grip on that keyring--within the past week she's started holding onto objects really well and grasping toys with minimal assistance.
yesterday this new gadget--a fisher-price rainforest swing--arrived in the mail. we seem to be slowly losing the battle to remain baby-gadget-free. oh well. we're just happy that it doesn't need batteries. the swing is a gift from my uncle tom and aunt marg and eleanor really enjoyed her first ride, especially the rotating mobile that features a toucan, a monkey and a tree frog. we have some video, but haven't been able to get it uploaded through youtube yet. stay tuned for short clips in future posts!

I'm A Simpson

After reading Sarah's Blog, I had to Simpsonize myself...

I kind of look like my uncle Jim.