Happy half-birthday, Eleanor!

  

Happy Half-Birthday, Eleanor Grace! I can hardly believe you are six months old today! It's absolutely true when they say that time flies when you're having fun. We continue to become more and more taken with your sweet personality as we see it develop.

~ You truly are the most easygoing baby ever. You of course love Mommy and Daddy the best, but you are almost always willing to be held by just about anyone. We went on a week-long family mission trip with our church last week and I don't think you were put down once except to sleep. You rarely fuss (even fireworks didn't faze you!), and just seem to roll with the punches.
~ You are now going all over the place with your rolling and scooting. You are also getting up very high on hands as if you're ready to push off and crawl any moment.

~ You continue to grab at everything at the table when we are eating. I don't think it's going to be hard at all to interest you in some big girl foods here pretty soon.
~ You are a great sleeper. You take two really good naps during the day and sleep 11-12 hours at night. Sometimes you don't wake up at all, sometimes just once. Most often I nurse and rock you all the way to sleep, but if you finish nursing without falling asleep, I just put you down in your crib awake. You then roll around and talk for a couple minutes before falling right to sleep.
~ You love to snuggle. You are very content being carried around in the ergo, or just laying on our chests.

~ You are still a very loving little baby. You love to give big open mouth kisses (which sometimes involve licking too)!
~ Your thumb can still be found frequently in your mouth. You like to use it to put yourself to sleep, but you also just like to suck your thumb and watch the world go by.
~You love your exersaucer. We usually keep it in the kitchen so that you can play in it while Mommy cooks. We hook some of your most favorite toys to it (your taggies, especially), and you are quite content to just play and bounce around.

~ Speaking of the exersaucer, I think it has helped you develop quite a bit of core strength as you are now sitting up for long stretches of time on your own. We still stay pretty close though, in case you topple over. You're not very good at catching yourself yet!
~ Your big sisters absolutely love you and I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual. AK loves to entertain you, bringing you toys or making you laugh, and Caroline thinks you belong to her. If she could just figure out how to feed you, I'm pretty sure she would think that she could take care of you all by herself, no mommy necessary.

Smiling at Caroline

Laughing at Anna Kate

 

~ One of your new favorite toys this month is your soft crinkle book. I hope that means you'll become an avid reader like your sisters!
~ This month we have started to put you in the baby swings at the park and you love them! I just have to make sure your sisters don't push you too high!
~ You really love listening to Mommy play violin. I always bring you with me to praise band practice and you just lay right next to me and look up and smile the whole time. If we're at home, you just sit in your exersaucer and watch and listen.
~ You have very precious soft blonde hair starting to come in. It looks a lot like Anna Kate's did at this age. We'll see if it stays blonde and straight like hers did!
~ We still use all of the nicknames that I listed for you last month, but our favorite two are "Bellsy" (Caroline), and "The Nor" (all the rest of us).
~ You are growing so fast and getting very chubby! We have your six-month check-up tomorrow, so we'll get an official weight check then, but I know you're growing very well (and you should be for how much you like to nurse!).

Eleanor Grace, our hearts are so full of love for you. Words can't describe just how special you are and how grateful we are that God blessed us with you. You know you must be a sweet baby when I sometimes go into your room before you wake up in the morning, or after naps, trying to make a little noise to wake you up because you've slept too long and we miss you! Sweet Ellie Grace, you are the greatest!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy (and your big sisters!)

 One month

 

Two months

 Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

 

And for comparison...

AKT at 6 months

CHT at 6 months

June celebrations

Our little family had many, many reasons to celebrate last month. First, Luke turned the big 3-0 on June 12th! The renovations on our house were completed (or completed enough) just in time to have a little birthday/housewarming party in his honor with some of our close friends, as well as his parents who came into town for the weekend. It's hard to believe that the first birthday I celebrated with Luke was his 20th birthday, and now here we are 10 years later! His actual birthday was during VBS, so some of our youth decorated his car!

Sunday, June 15th was also a very special day. In addition to being Father's Day, it was also our 7th wedding anniversary. And to add more to the celebration, we participated in Parent/Child dedication with our church family, where we committed to raise Eleanor in the ways of the Lord. On Father's Day last year, we had just learned that God would be blessing our family with another baby. After much uncertainty about her little life last summer, it was such a joy to be able to dedicate our precious four-month-old little girl. She behaved so well up in front as we made commitments with our church family, and just sucked her little thumb the whole time!

We came home and had a wonderful dinner with Luke's mom and dad to celebrate Father's Day. And if that weren't enough, a few of our youth girls offered to babysit ALL THREE so that we could go out for our anniversary!

God has richly blessed our family and we are so grateful.