Eleanor

When choosing baby names, I don't really pick based on the meaning. Well, I want to make sure the name has a decent meaning, but I don't choose the name because it has a certain meaning. The other day we were going through a big baby name book and I read the meaning of Eleanor. When we chose it, I had only ever seen the meaning as "light", but this particular book had the meaning as light-hearted. This meaning fits Eleanor to a T -- She is so happy-go-lucky and easy going!

Eleanor is growing up way too fast. She is turning into a little toddler right before my eyes. Although I miss my little baby Eleanor, it is still so fun to watch her grow and learn new things everyday and get better at communicating and responding.

-She can put her shoes in the shoe basket after taking them off and throw things in the trash for me (sometimes), which I can foresee coming in very handy with a newborn and lots of diapers!

-She talks A TON, but only knows a few words - dada, mom, some(which basically means food), no (which I'm not quite sure she understands the meaning of), bye, hi (she says hi and bye to everybody and everything!), go, uh-oh, baby, and her own version of "what's that".

-She can sign all done, more, and milk.

-I never thought I'd talk about poop on my blog, but I think it's so cute when after she poops that she points at her diaper and waves her hand over her nose and says something that sounds like stinky stinky.

-She's also gotten pretty good at a couple of animal sounds. She can tell you what dogs, cats, and cows, and sheep say. She can also identify her eyes, nose, teeth, toes, hair, head, hands, belly button, and knees.

-One of my favorite new things she does is give hugs, this totally melts my heart!

-She likes to look at pictures of Jesus. Last week she FINALLY folded her arms during family prayer. We've been working on this for a while, and it was so cute to actually see her do it on command. After we finished reading scriptures we said Eleanor, it's time for prayer, fold your arms. And sure enough, she put her little hands together and bowed her head. What a special moment!

While we were in Utah about two weeks ago (yeah, I have no pictures of my own to post, I guess we were too busy/having too much fun to get the camera out) my sister Laura took some really great pictures of Eleanor for one of her classes, check them out here.

Here's a conglomerate of pictures and videos of what else we've been up to recently...



Eleanor at bath time. This girl has a ton of hair!

Bed Head after pigtails.

I'm 24 weeks! and Eleanor loves Barney.

Last week they had a family night at the Student Recreation Center. They had free pizza and free admission to the pool, where they also had Finding Nemo projected on one of the walls in the pool area. Eleanor LOVED the pool. At bath time, I think she gets really confused why no one else gets in with her to play, so she loved that we were all in the big pool together.

Last week I bought some Kool Aid Jammers (basically Capri Suns, but on clearance) on a whim. I figured it would be a good way to celebrate the arrival of warm weather. So Eleanor and I headed out to the backyard and had them and blew bubbles. She was loving life!

We are so happy that Eleanor is a part of our family!

viewer discretion advised

I've been thinking lately how grateful I am that we live here. I am so thankful for my friends here that are so kind and so helpful and so caring!!

The 4 year "anniversary", I guess you could call it, just passed of my car accident that ripped open my arm. And if that would have never happened, I really don't think I would be where I am today. So as crazy as it sounds, I'm glad that car accident happened :)

We (me, my sister, brother-in-law, my niece and nephew) were driving down to Southern California from Provo for my sister Emily's wedding. About 2 hours into our drive two big semi trucks passed each other and we caught a big gust of wind from it and starting fishtailing (it was snowing). Well we went off the road and rolled and landed like this... (lucky for that fence back there that stopped us, otherwise we might have kept rolling)

While rolling, my arm either went through the window, or the window broke and landed on my arm and sliced it open like this...

Fortunately everyone else was fine. I got over 100 stitches and got all wrapped up...

and we headed back to Provo and flew to Orange County for my sister's wedding...

My niece Grace was really curious about the sling. (I think she was probably about Eleanor's age in this picture)

It was my last semester at BYU. My major was Actuarial Science (a little bit of statistics, mathematics, and economics) and my classes required a lot of writing/doing math problems, and since I couldn't use my right arm I had to withdraw from all my classes and thereby delay graduating. I moved home and went to physical therapy to regain strength and mobility in my arm. There was some nerve damage and parts of my arm are actually still numb to this day.
Here is what the scar looked like then and now.
About a month after the accident...

About 4 years after the accident...

It's amazing how resilient our bodies our!

Anyway, back to the story... Two of my classes were only offered Winter semester, so I went back to BYU for the whole school year. And this my friends, is when I met Andrew. If I would have graduated when I was supposed to, I had tentatively planned to move down to California and live the high life and become some big shot Actuary and wear suits and high heels everyday :) But Heavenly Father had a different plan for me!

So, in a nutshell, because of the accident I was at BYU a year longer than planned, I met Andrew, we got married, he applied to Law Schools (and actually only applied to Akron because he had an application fee waiver), and we ended up here in Akron, Ohio of all places! And now I am lucky enough to be in a great ward and have awesome friends!

20 weeks

The obligatory belly shot.

The best thing about being 20 weeks? Having an ultrasound!
We had ours on Friday and found out....





We're really excited for another little girl! Some of the girls names we like are Penelope, Molly, and Juliet. I'm glad Eleanor will have a little sister to be best friends with, because I know I love having sisters!

Unfortunately we also found out at the ultrasound that there are a couple of things wrong. I have marginal placenta previa which means my placenta is too low and currently blocking my cervix. This would require that I have a c-section. It's also possible that it could cause preterm labor or hemorrhaging. The good news is that there is still time for the placenta to rise on its own. So that's what I'm hoping will happen!

The other thing is that there were cysts on the baby's brain (Choroid Plexus Cysts). This could be a marker for down's syndrome or trisomy 13/18. Everything else like the heart and all body parts looked fine, which is a good indication that things are going to be ok and that she's developing properly. (It even looked like she was sucking her thumb like Eleanor -- I wouldn't mind another thumbsucker!) Apparently these cysts often clear up before the baby is born, so we'll have another ultrasound in 8 weeks to check on that and my placenta. I'm just trying not to worry about it until I have to, because I really feel like both problems will clear up. So just say a little prayer for us that both of these problems will resolve in the next few weeks!

visitors

Last weekend Andrew's parents drove up from North Carolina to visit us. We had some pretty nice weather so we took a walk to the park and showed Grandpa Doug and Nana where Eleanor likes to play.


She loves the slide...


And here's a picture from my phone of Eleanor in the bathtub after a long hard day of playing. The quality isn't the best, but I thought it was too cute to pass up.

After we put Eleanor down for bed Andrew's parents stayed home to babysit and let us have a night out on the town. I have to say, it was pretty nice. I almost forgot I had a kid for minute. We went to a hibachi grill and then we went and saw New Moon at the dollar theater. I know, I was probably like the last person on earth to see it and I think I'm ok with that :)

The next day we went and took a trolly tour around Cleveland.
Andrew and his mom before we took off.

Despite what it looks like, Eleanor really did enjoy the ride. I think she was pretty excited she didn't have to be in her car seat.

When we got back home Eleanor had some grocery shopping to do.

Here she is practicing her balancing act.

We're just really excited it's starting to feel a little more like spring around here :)

my lil sis

My little sister Amy is so talented. She's got the best voice and is usually so shy about performing in front of people. Anyway, she made a video with the help of my other little sister Laura (they are so good with cameras and computers!) to enter into a contest to meet Ingrid Michaelson. They had to do a music video for their version of "Everybody". She needs lots of hits on her video to win, so go ahead and help a sister out and watch her video. Then the top ten viewed videos will get voted on after March 29th!



In other news I get to go see Amy and Laura and my 2 little brothers next week when I go to Provo!

Can't wait to see you guys!!

And speaking of sisters, my older sister Emily had her first baby on Sunday, a sweet little girl named Pearce! She was 9 pounds 8 ounces -- we sure grow them big in our family :) They live in California so we probably won't get to see her in person for a while, but it so so fun to see her newborn baby pictures - keep them coming!

don't worry....

Eleanor didn't get pinched, I made sure that she wore green on St. Patrick's Day.
It's hard to get her to stay still for a picture, so here's a little video of her.



On St. Patrick's day I also celebrated being 19 weeks pregnant! Wooohoo, we're almost half-way there! In a little over a week I'll have my ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl! That is the best half-way mark present, I am so anxious to find out. I've had dreams it's a boy and I've had dreams it's a girl, so I really have no "intuition" about what it will be. With Eleanor I thought it was a boy, and obviously I was wrong, so I haven't really speculated much this time around. Going strictly off of symptoms, I might say it's a girl because this pregnancy has been almost identical to Eleanor's. But that could be completely irrelevant. I guess only time will tell! What do you think it will be??

American Idol

I think I'm done watching American Idol this season. I'm so sad that Alex, Lily, and Katelyn went home, they were some of my favorites! There are only a few others left that I like - Siobhan and Didi and I think Crystal and Michael are good, but not really my taste. I guess I should have voted, maybe my vote would have made a difference :)

3 years ago today...

we got engaged!

I know this is so cliche, but it honestly feels like it was just yesterday!

Andrew picked 3/9/2007 because he thought I would like the numbers...You know, 3 times 9 is 27. I'm kind of weird about number combinations. I blame it on my Math Game 24 days back in elementary school, but you probably have no idea what I'm talking about :)

Anyway, when I was digging for this picture I had a grand time taking a walk down memory lane. You can join me if you want...

Andrew and I were in the same ward at BYU and we became friends when his apartment asked my apartment if we wanted to do a dinner group on Sundays. I soon developed a "pretend crush" on him - it would have been a real crush if only he would have been a little taller :) I know, I'm a little superficial, but I figured it out eventually. Andrew decided he liked me when we went on a road trip to Colorado for a BYU football game. I mean, how could you resist this...

I guess he wanted someone who could appreciate a football fanatic...

My birthday was about 2 months later and I caught him checking me out...

About a week after my birthday he needed help with his Statistics homework, and since it was my major I offered to help. The following night he needed more "help". This time around he claimed there was an extra credit problem he had to do so we turned to it. Turns out he had made up his own stats problem, which was actually pretty elaborate, and typed it up and taped it in his textbook to ask me out. I think it was when I found out that he had been up all night trying to come up with that question that my pretend crush turned into a real one. After our first date we hung out practically every night. Then we both went home for Christmas break and we talked on the phone everyday. When we got back to Provo after the break we changed our statuses on facebook to "in a relationship" :) And the rest is history!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our dating days...





Looking at these pictures makes me realize that now I'm a lot less tan and a lot less blonde than I used to be, but I'm ok with that because I've got a great husband and a sweet little girl who love me no matter what! Andrew is at school taking a Finance test, but when he gets home we'll celebrate with some Moose Tracks ice cream and watch Lost together. How romantic!

Some days

Some days we wake up with bed head and stay in our pajamas all day.
(most days, really)

Some days we get all dressed up and look really cute!
(yes that's a toothbrush in her hand, she's been slightly obsessed with them lately)

Some days we sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time.

(This is a rare occurrence around here- I'm pretty good at sitting still, but Eleanor is really busy!) Today we went to the Museum of Natural History in Cleveland and Eleanor really took to the puzzles in the "discovery zone". She loved running around and looking at all the random exhibits like dinosaurs, rocks, planets, gems, etc. She ran around so hard she really wore herself out. She and her buddy Hannah crashed on our way home.

Some days (actually all days) we get really messy.

Eleanor loves to squish her food (especially fruits) and rub them all over her face and hair and high chair.

Buyer's remorse

I probably shouldn't have bought this bag of treats! I've already gone through half the bag in less than a week. Woospies :)

While I was sick with my sinus infection this was the only thing I felt like eating. Now that I'm feeling better maybe I should hide them. Or maybe I should just hurry and eat them to get rid of them?

P.S. Who wants to come over for a season finale party of The Bachelor??