How did this happen? How is my sweet baby already a year old?!? It feels like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. And I guess in the grand scheme of things it was just yesterday! Eleanor Irene Schultz was born on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 4:48 pm. She came into this world in a hurry (arriving before the doctor) and has been doing her very best to keep up with life in the Schultz house ever since. Our bouncing baby girl was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches long.
From the very beginning Eleanor was an easy going and mellow baby. She loved to be held, was a great sleeper and tolerated her sisters....which was asking a lot! She had (and still has) the cutest baby pudge ever. She was my first baby to enjoy a swing and tolerated tummy time without hollering. I feel that in some ways Eleanor was forced to grow up faster than my other two kiddos because she had to jump into our already crazy life. But in a lot of ways she is so much more a baby at 12 months than my previous babies were. I don't want to rush her.....I don't want her to become a kid faster than is totally necessary, so I baby her! Eleanor didn't really roll over until she was around 4-5 months old, she didn't start crawling until she was around 9 months old, and she has yet to start walking. And I am totally okay with all of these late-ish milestones because it means that she gets to be my "baby" just a little bit longer!
I think that Eleanor is one of the happiest and most content babies I have ever come across. She loves to smile, loves to laugh, can entertain herself with toys, loves nothing more than to be in my arms and seriously LOVES playing with her sisters. She is a funny baby, and she knows that she is funny which makes it all the more funny. It's so amazing to watch her crack herself up with something as silly and simple as putting her finger up inside her paci and waving it around. She thinks this is hilarious! She has recently discovered that her finger fits very nicely inside her nostrils and she spends much time testing this new skill out. She claps when she is happy, she loves playing peek a boo and she is excellent at jumping and dancing. One of her favorite activities is wrestling with the girls and putting small Pet Shop animals in her mouth. Although she is very good at spitting them out if you put your hand in front of her mouth and tell her to give them to you. She loves crawling up the stairs, playing with keys, putting small objects inside other objects and taking baths.
Eleanor has been nursing since she was a few minutes old and she is still going strong! I feel like this is a huge accomplishment for both of us because my other girls weaned before 12 months. And not only has she been nursing for all this time, but she has only had 2 bottles of milk since birth. Yep, that's right.....I have fed her from the source for every single feeding (except 2) for the past 365 days! I feel pretty proud of myself for this insanity. It did feel a bit crazy in the thick of it, but I am so glad that I stuck with it. She still nurses between 4-5 times a day and I have no intention of stopping until we are both ready, which will hopefully not be too soon! On top of breast milk, Eleanor eats pretty much everything you could imagine. I did make baby food for her, but only for about 2 months and then we switched to giving her little bits of whatever we were eating. Her favorite foods are broccoli, hot dogs, rice, blueberries, pizza crust and cheese crackers. We also pretty much skipped the bottle and went straight to a sippy cup and she enjoys drinking very watered down juice.
I honestly can not believe how lucky we are to have Eleanor in our family! She is such an amazing gift of laughter and joy. I think God knew exactly what we needed and sent miss Eleanor Irene to us. I knew that our third baby would fit right into our family but I am overjoyed to see how much greater our family is because of her. How our hearts have grown to fit her. How much love she has for Dan and me and her sisters. How much love we have for her. I watch Maddie and Charlotte interact with Eleanor and I see devotion. Both of my older girls would move heaven and earth for their baby sister and I know that Eleanor adores them. I know that this next year will bring us a walking, talking toddler.....that there will be trials and difficulties and struggles for independence but I truly believe that God will never give us more than we can handle and I have a feeling that our littlest baby will take it easy on her parents! :o)
Happy birthday my sweet 1 year old! I love you immensely!
1 comment:
So sweet!! Love it!!
Post a Comment