Favorite Things About Elenore

To celebrate her 4th month birthday on Jan. 20th, I thought I would write a few things that Elenore has learned to do so far and some of my favorite memories of her four months on life out in the world. How time flies! When I was in my last months of pregnancy I would wake up crying from dreams about our last child leaving home and being empty-nesters. Jonathan laughed at me, seeing as we hadn't even had our first child yet, but time does go by so very fast and those days will be here before I know it, so I don't want to miss anything or forget about the little every day sweetnesses.


Looking intently at her Daddy soon after birth

Something I love about Elenore is that she is so alert and has always been very perceptive to what is going on around her. When she was being born, Jonathan said her eyes were open and looking around as her head kept coming out and slipping back in again. She stayed awake and looking around, locking her gaze onto us for the first 12 hours or so after she was born. She continues to love seeing everything. She is also very aware of people's emotions and reacts to them quite sensitively.

Elenore is a very happy girl. Before she gave "social smiles" she would always give a big, sweet smile just as she was falling asleep. She started smiling back at people right before we left Virginia, and whenever one came bursting out on her face, we all melted. She smiled at my friends Beck and Emilie with some of her very first smiles. It was nice to know she liked them too. :) She has now started laughing that adorable guttural laugh (followed by her signature squeal) at unexpected moments that are just a treasure! Elenore first laughed with me and her Auntie Anna while I was playing with her after a diaper change and I was blowing raspberries on her tummy. It was very exciting. I still have to work hard for one, but they are coming more and more frequently and just make my day!

When we moved in with Nathan and Anna, they had a little gym mat set up for her with hanging toys. She quickly started to bat and kick at them, until she mastered the art of grabbing them and putting them into her mouth. She is getting really good at grabbing things now, both with her long fingers and her toes. She has crazy long and strong monkey toes. She now grabs anything and everything and shakes it around and puts it in her mouth or licks it. She loves to lick everything! It is so funny to watch. She has a long, crazy fast little tongue and will get you in her grasp, licked all over like a puppy before you know it.

She started rolling over from her tummy to her back when she was two months old. The kind where she would accidentally fall over with a surprised look on her face. She just barely started rolling from her back to her tummy, this time with a little more control and purpose. She grabs onto something beside her, brings knees up to her chest and rolls over. Still struggles moving her arm out from under her to get all the way over comfortably, but keeps trying over and over. She is working on her core muscles and tries to sit up from a prone position, and will quite readily sit up when I let her grab onto my fingers. She will also come to a standing position, getting less and less wobbly all the time. When she does this all nakey, all wobbly and stomping around awkwardly, she reminds me of the little shorn sheep in the Pixar short, "Boundin'", It is so darn funny and cute! But yesterday she started supporting herself on things and holding herself in a standing position all on her own for a little with me close by to make sure she doesn't fall.

All these developments are very exciting, but they also make me miss my sweet little newborn girl. Here are some pictures of her while we still lived at BV and those early days of my sweet baby girl.

Sept. 20th 2009 Elenore Hazel was born at home. We're a family of three!

Elenore's first morning.

Holding Elenore is my Young Womam Laural and friend Jessie Jolley who rubbed my feet, painted my toes, brought me fries at work when I craved them, and basically was a wonderful support during my pregnancy, as well as praying for me while we were waiting for that blessing... love and miss her!

Daddy's Little Girl - so true! She completely melted Jonathan's heart when she showed up! She has such a funny serious face.

Daddy gets to feed his little girl! It was so sad not to be able to breastfeed, but a blessing to share in that special time with her daddy. He is so good with her! She loves him to bits, and now she is not happy in the morning until she gets to smile at her dad.

First (and last) bath in her little tub. She just looked too cute. But the tub was more hassle than it was worth, so we gave it away. I just shower with her, or use the sink if needed.

Laying on her Beatrix Potter blanket made by my friend and adopted Grandma BJ DeReus. Lovely embroidery and quilting! Thanks, BJ! And this is definitely not the only one she made us! Wow!

Sleeping in the sunshine... if you could only hear the snoring! She is a crazy good snorer!

More Snoring! Just so cute to look down and see that snuggled in my arms...

Had to do one of her "I Love my Mommy" shirt! Wiggle, Wiggle!

Halloween at the church chili cook-off in her fabulous chick costume. So Cute!

Two if my best friends, Emilie and Cammi. We were all pregnant about a month apart in a row. We got belly pictures of us earlier in order, this was our "the babies are here!" picture in a row. Elenore between the two boys, Jack and Caleb. Too bad we had to leave, she could have had her pick! :)

And these are the older brothers who would probably get her first before their younger brothers. My favorite Tommy Davis (not quite sure about the screaming, tired girl I was trying to get him to kiss goodbye before we left)

...And the adorable Joshua Cooper. Such handsome suitors!

From BV-ers to Wichita-ians

I have succumbed to the many pressures and requests to start a blog so that people could keep in touch with us, and now that Elenore is here, and we have moved away from Buena Vista where most of our friends were, I figured it was about time. But I am really bad at figuring this out, and we live in the land of the slowest Internet known to man so I will not be able to do a lot of the fun things yet, but I hope to learn and slowly improve our blog as I go. But hey, if you were one of the requesters, you got your wish.

As this is titled, we moved away from our home in Buena Vista to Wichita to live with Jonathan's little brother while we look and wait for job prospects. It was a really fast decision, and the reality of it is just starting to hit me that I will not see that place or those people for a very long time, if ever. That is really hard on me. I have always hated moving, every part of the process from beginning to end. Jonathan has been very good to me and patient with all my foibles. We were very blessed to have many friends come forward to help us with everything from packing, cleaning, cooking, and caring for Elenore.

The trip out here went well enough, and we were happy that we used U-pack so we could drive our own car out together and not worry about Jonathan driving a truck and me being alone in the car with Elenore. She hates her car seat so that made it difficult for me. In fact she screamed so much the first day, and I was so worn out from packing and getting only a few hours sleep a night, I was sobbing myself after only 5 hours of driving (we wanted to go at least 10 that day), so we pulled over and stayed in a hotel.

The next day we made it to Melodie's house, my best friend since childhood, and stayed with her and her beautiful family. That was absolutely wonderful and a major highlight in this whole process. We made it to Wichita and rested a few days before heading off to Colorado for a few weeks. Jonathan's brother was getting married and we were going to spend Thanksgiving with our families for the first time in years. It is a blessing they all mainly still live in Montrose. It is always fun trying to juggle time with both families, but we had a wonderful time. It was especially wonderful getting to introduce little Elenore to everyone. She has started to give such winning smiles, so she completely stole the hearts of her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and even cousins. She is the first cousin on both sides, so it was fun.

Now we are back in Wichita, our shipment of things has arrived and Jonathan has been working hard trying to get unpacked and organized. Still no job yet, but we are hopeful and looking forward to making a new home wherever we may end up.

Well, as you probably just want to see Elenore and be done with my boring ramblings, here are some pics of our visit to Colorado, the wedding and all the fun family times.

Josh's wedding with the Graves Clan. Happiness. Jonathan was the  best man. Isn't he handsome!

Siblings at the wedding. Martell, Breanne, Lara, Me, Lenore. My sisters came all the way from Utah for Joshie. We love the kid. Man, my brother is so grown up, I can't get over it!

Family Thanksgiving pictures below. That was a good day!

Hurray, Cousins! 

EVERYBODY!!!

 The sunshine was very bright midday Colorado sunshine, but it was the only time we could do it. . . I think they still turned out pretty good! I love my family to bits! Too bad our endless fields behind my family's house are now subdivisions... oh well, you still can see mountains.

The Orignial Ackermans... oops. & Elenore

SIBLINGS! Breanne, Me, Lara, Lenore, Heather, and Martell. So much happiness, I cannot even say. Look how handsome our little brother has become!

So, the kids started climbing on the roof and we brave ones followed! Such fun times have been had on that roof, it amazes me it still stands! Or rather that we did not fall through... Seth and Eve are the brave middle children of Heather's. Eve did not want to come down, or pose for the picture...

Breanne and Me: Special Sissies. I love her!

Papa Ackerman with Elenore watching us on the roof

 I have a wonderful, beautiful family, immediate and extended. I just love them all! Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Hurray for internet finally working. I was finally able to add pics and will now be able to send this to everyone!