Scooter

It's official: she's mobile.

Eleanor is now kind of crawling, most definitely scooting, her way around. This means she will not simply sit up and look at the camera and be adorable anymore; she realizes if she's sitting, she is only seconds away from scooting, and immediately her hands and knees hit the floor. I tried to take pictures yesterday - they are all of her blurry forehead. She's also decided to stop practicing any other skills in favor of scooting. Babble? No. Scoot. Play? No. Scoot. Eat? No. Scoot. Sleep? No. Scoot.

How Eleanor Gets What She Wants (Another Computer Series)

Step 1: Gives a cute, but slightly pathetic face.

Step 2: Hits something. Hard.

Step 3: Looks adorable, and a little inquisitive
(like she might even be learning something),

once she has gotten what she wants.

Distractions

We were having a nice, contemplative photo-shoot during which
I was capturing the quiet stillness of a calm baby...

and then Augie came in:

The Latest

This week, Ellie has been perfecting the art of clawing her little way up things. Her favorite target, my standing leg, particularly if I'm in soft yoga pants that allow her to really dig in those little baby fingers and get a good grip.
Her second favorite thing to claw her way up is the ottoman - anything to get to that computer!
There are so many tiny buttons to push! While it doesn't make as many fun noises as the piano when she pushes the keys, she apparently finds the screen, which changes as she bangs away on the keyboard, mesmerizing.

The Big One

The goal when taking pictures of Eleanor is to capture "the big one": the smile that is so big, her nose wrinkles and her usually wide blue eyes turn to little slits.

Success!

6 Month Stats

At 6 months old, Eleanor:

• is 27 1/2 inches long (90-95 percentile) and 20 lbs even (above 95 percentile) - I know, I know
  
• eats 8 oz from a bottle at a time, 4 times a day (typically around 6:30, 10:30, 2:30 and 6:30), which is not that much! I don't know why she is so huge.
  
• can sit completely unassisted for as long as she wants and doesn't topple over anymore
• reaches for toys, grabs them with either hand, and can move them from one hand to another
• makes all sorts of squealing, mumbling, laughing and babbling noises, the newest being "mmm hmmm muummuum"
• has started rocking back and forth on her hands and knees and sometimes lunges forward from that position (crawling will be soon!)
• takes two naps (at 9am and 1pm), each lasting about an hour and a half
• has a bedtime routine every night that includes a few songs from Daddy on the guitar, followed by a bath, a bottle, a song by Mommy and rocking for 10 minutes (she gets the song and 10 minutes of rocking before each nap too and usually goes down asleep, but sometimes just goes down drowsy, talks to herself for a minute, and THEN falls asleep)
  
• goes to bed between 6:30 and 7, wakes up between 6 and 6:30
  

6 Month Portraits

Who needs a studio?
I have a lovely navy fleece blanket that does the trick just fine!

More Peas Please

Babies don't typically love veggies the first time they try them. The baby books I have read say to start with fruit to get them used to eating, and then slowly introduce the veg - it will take a while, but baby will eventually eat them. Today, Eleanor tried peas for the first time, and COULD NOT GET ENOUGH of them. Squealed for them. Sat there with her mouth open - MORE! Finished an entire jar of baby peas. She has not ever finished an entire jar of anything.

And I thought, where the heck does this love of peas come from?
Then I remembered this:

Ryan, around 6 months, enjoying some peas.

Mea Cupa

Eleanor's favorite game, by far, is "cups". These $3 plastic stackable cups have been entertaining her for countless hours now. She likes to knock them down; she likes to pick them up. She likes to bang them on the ground; she likes to bang them against each other. She likes to nibble at the rims; she likes to lick the bottoms. The girl likes her cups.

Daddy's On TV!

Watch my Daddy talk about China!
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/230921

Isn't he smart? And handsome too?

Another Sweater Picture

She'll be 6 months on Thursday, but I think she looks more like she's approaching her 1st birthday in this picture!

Wishful Thinking: Sweater Weather

Eleanor is a big girl - 19 1/2 pounds and not even 6 months yet. This is mainly a good thing: she's healthy and strong. However, I'm worried that some of the clothes people bought for her that were meant for the fall might not see much air time. And with this particularly miserable heat of late (and by "of late" I mean "of the entire summer since the end of May"), I'm worried summer is going to last FOREVER. So, on a particularly hot day, I'll crank up the AC for an hour and have a photo shoot in which Ellie models the cutest of the baby fall line. Anyhow, by the time it actually cools down, she'll probably be able to wear some of my sweaters.

"Crawling"

She's crawling! Well, she's scooting. Ok, so she's scooting backwards, but she's basically crawling! She starts out flat on her tummy...

Then scrunches up her little body and gets on her knees...
Then she just pushes her arms out straight, so she ends up going backwards.
It's both exciting and terrifying to imagine a mobile Eleanor. I think she'll love being a little more independent, and I'm thinking I might love it to...? I know everyone says not to rush them into growing up, that it'll all go by too quickly, and that I definitely shouldn't even consider blinking, otherwise she'll just go ahead and turn into a teenager right then and there, but I'm excited for the next phase. Though, we are going to need about 6 baby gates for this house that is made almost entirely of stairs.

Just One of Those Days

On days that Eleanor is being particularly needy and demanding of constant and undivided attention, I try and dress her in one of her most adorable outfits. Somehow, the cuter she is looking, the easier it is to take the fussing. Today she is raising her arms into the air and whining for me to pick her up. She has no where she wants to go; she just wants to be picked up. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Again.

News

Well, you all better get used to pictures of Eleanor in her stroller with touristy destinations in the background.
We are headed back to London, again, this time for 2 months. Ryan's going to work out of the main office and I'm going to walk Eleanor around in the rain. I will be needing one of these. Early Christmas present anyone? Oh, and speaking of early Christmas presents, who doesn't want to have to buy us one for the next 7 years and instead, agree to watch Augie Doggy while we are gone (Oct. 1 until around Thanksgiving)? He comes with all the dog food he can eat and a shock collar. Finn is easy to hand off; it's like asking people if they wouldn't mind keeping this teddy bear on their bed for 7 weeks. Oh, and you have to feed this teddy bear and take it out TWICE a day. I know, unbearable right? But good old Augerson Dogerson, he's like a real dog who needs a walk and likes to play and has the urge to chew. Eleanor is going to miss him so much; she definitely smiles more at Augie than at anyone else. Seriously though, we don't know what we are going to do with the dogs.

(The picture above is from a recent trip to the Hirshhorn; we took Eleanor to see the Yves Klein exhibit. Her favorites were the blue pieces.)