Eleanor Claire - commercial actress!

When Ellie was about seven months old I signed her up with my agency, thinking "why the heck not?". They told me that there is very little work for babies, so I honestly didn't think too much about it.
Well, last week we got a call that Miss ECK had an audition! They wanted a baby that was crawling, and thankfully crawling is still our preferred mode of movement. So off we went to do our best crawling towards a camera. There were a TON of babies there of varying ages and ethnicities, so I just left super proud of E for keeping her cool and looking damn cute while crawling.

A few days later we got an email that Ellie was asked to a call back. I couldn't believe it! So off we went last Saturday to the call back. There were 6 babies there, 3 boys and 3 girls, again, of varying ages and ethnicities. When we got in the room, the entire production team for the commercial was there (this is common) and E didn't bat an eye. Same drill as the audition - I put her in the back of the room, ran behind the camera and tried to get her to crawl to me. First go, brilliant. Her pigtails were bopping, she was smiling and it was adorable. The casting director asked for one more shot, so once again, I placed her in the back of the room and ran behind the camera. This time, however, the little stinker looked right at me, smiled, and stood up and WALKED the entire length of the room to the camera, probably 10 feet. Everyone was cracking up, E was clearly proud of herself and I was completely flabbergasted both trying to be excited she was doing some AMAZING walking, but also trying to get her to sit down and crawl. It was pretty funny. We tried again, and sure enough she did the exact same thing. What are you gonna do? So we said our thank yous and left, and I was certain there would be no commercial in our future (even though what she did was absolutely darling).

Lo and behold that evening I got a phone call that she BOOKED IT! I was shocked! But obviously she's adorable - I mean who could resist that face...and those piggies?!

The house had peach trees! Ellie was a fan :)

We filmed yesterday - it took about 3 hours in total - and I cannot even begin to express how proud I am of her. We filmed at a gorgeous old house in Central Phoenix and Ellie's part took place in this small-ish room in the guest house. There were probably 7 men, three of whom had cameras and Ellie wasn't phased a bit.
They apparently liked the walking because they told us they wanted her to do both so they could decide which they liked better. Of course I can't control what she decides to do and was a little nervous she'd decide to do only one or the other, but little bug just rose to the occasion. She played with some toys until they were ready, and then did exactly what they wanted her to do. Every. Single. Time. Everyone in the room was so blown away - they all kept commenting that it was like she truly knew what they were asking her to do! We'd run to the back of the room and have her crawl, and again, and again, and again, and then they'd decide they wanted to see some walking. So I'd set her back and she'd just walk! And again, and again, and again. She never cried, never fussed, never seemed nervous and switched from crawling to walking without the slightest hesitation.

I say this all the time, but seriously this kid is just something special.

I'm not supposed to know this but the commercial will likely start airing in June, and it will be in the state of AZ only. They did say they thought it would go up on You Tube, though, so I will DEFINITELY post it here when it does. So proud of my girl. What a fun, fun day watching her learn, explore, and shine.

Ellie with her on camera mommy (whose shoulder you may end up seeing)

Happy first birthday, Amelia!

My friend Nicole's daughter Amelia turned one this past weekend, so we went over for a little 1st birthday fun. Sadly Amelia fell asleep before we got there and napped the whole time we were there, bu we had fun nonetheless. We also enjoyed the cupcake we brought home, as evidenced below :)

Lego lover

Fun fact about me: I love Legos. Not the kind where you are supposed to build something specific, but the kind where you dump a bunch of them out and just build whatever pops in your head. I could sit and play with them for hours.
Ellie got some Duplo blocks for Christmas and we decided to bust them out this week. She is OBSESSED! The first day we opened them she and I sat for over an hour, just building, knocking down, and pretending. It was pure bliss. She loves the little people that came with the set and especially loves putting them "een" the window and/or door. She is also a fan of the car.
My favorite part was when I threw some pieces together and said "Ellie look! It's an airplane!" and she immediately grabbed it and, complete with airplane noise, flew it around her head.
This. This is what I hope for her childhood. Creativity, imagination, and pure JOY.

More walking clips

I can't help myself! It's just too precious!

\

Ellie and Penny

It's no wonder Penny is tolerating her more these days!

Colds. The WORST.

Man I always forget just how long a cold can last. We're about 12 days in and she's just now FINALLY starting seem back to normal. Cough, runny, stuffy nose, on and off low grade fever...just the worst. It certainly hasn't been helpful that both B and I are DYING from allergies (they're apparently the worst they've ever been here - how lovely).
A few pics below from the sick trials of ECK:

-I always know when she's not feeling well because she'll sack out on our morning walk - a rarity these days.
-E and I tried to cure what ailed us by soaking up some sun and eating fro-yo. Definitely didn't cure us, but it certainly helped :)
-We've also tried some frozen yogurt bars to ease her sore throat - I was pretty impressed that she figured out how to hold it on her first try at a popsicle!

"Oshee" water

We're OBSESSED with our new Crayola bath color tabs (thank you, Aunt Karen!), and the blue is definitely my favorite color. We've told Ellie we think it looks like the ocean, so now blue water is "oshee". I'm such a sucker for a cute bath pic :) 

Happy Ellie

I'm a little behind in my posting, but I had to get this one down before I forget. 

On Saturday we were driving home from a 1st birthday party. Ellie had had a great time - walking around, watching bigger kids play, and thoroughly enjoying some rocks in the backyard. 

Brad and I were chatting away in the front seat and we both stopped at the same time and listened. It was clear as a bell what Ellie was saying and we looked at each other and about cried.

From the backseat, Ellie said over and over again "happy Ellie. Happy Ellie! Happy Ellie". Totally matter of fact and totally causing my heart to melt into a big, messy puddle in the driver seat. She proceeded to talk about "happy mommy", " happy daddy", "happy Moosh" and "happy Ellie" the whole rest of the ride home. 

Stop kiddo, seriously just stop. My heart can only take so much. 

Resilient, thy name is Eleanor

I almost cancelled on one of my last Gala wrap-up meetings which was scheduled over lunch today, but E seemed to be in okay spirits, so we went. She was such a trooper, smiling and making friends with everyone at the Camelback Inn, and even eating a decent lunch.
On our way out, the flowers were SO gorgeous that I had to stop and snap a pic of her...I just couldn't resist.
So resilient, this one, and I adore her.

Sick baby Eleanor

Poor E has her worst cold to date. She'd had a runny nose for a handful of days, but on Saturday she woke up with that horrible kiddo cough that just hurts your heart every time you hear it. Add a low grade fever and snot that wouldn't quit and we had ourselves one sad and run down bug. The worst was the crying that you could tell was for no reason other just feeling like CRAP. And very little made it better.
Saturday night we were faced with a bit of a dilemma. We put her down at her normal time, but by 10:30 she up was, stuffy, crying and pretty much unable to be consoled. She was exhausted but wanted to be held and desperately needed to sleep. The problem we have is that she has been an AWESOME sleeper. Like, the best it gets...when she's in a crib. But because she's been such a great crib sleeper, she won't sleep anywhere but a crib. Not in bed with us, not on the floor, not on a couch, nowhere. Aside from the very few times that selfishly I've wanted to lay down with her and snuggle, when she's sick this is a huge problem because that makes it nearly impossible to hold her and sleep.
We decided to turn her bedroom floor into one giant pallet, and that night Brad and I camped in E's room so that whenever she woke up, we could stick a hand through the crib slats to calm her down, hold her hand, and sing to her. At one point around 3:30 am I was up trying even to get her to sleep in her recliner which worked for awhile...needless to say it was a loooong night.
The next day she did magically fall asleep on our pallet for about 30 minutes, which I managed to snap a pic of. And then later that afternoon, I resorted to hopping in her crib and snuggling her to get her to go down.
The things we do for our kids.

Maricopa County Fair

Today is truly going to be one of our last spring days (plus there's a killer breeze!), so I decided to take Ellie to the Maricopa County Fair. It was a bit of a trek there, and when we arrived, I was a little disappointed we'd traveled so far for it. It was much smaller than I expected and because we arrived right when it opened, it was pretty...well...desolate. And if you've never been to a "fair" that isn't busy, it's a little weird.

We made our way through the indoor vendor area, and I was already wondering if it was even worth it to be here to risk messing up her afternoon nap. When we came out of the vendor area, we found the petting zoo. This, my friends, is where we turned it around. Ellie loves animals and amazingly has zero fear. We parked our stroller in sight, bought our $1 cup of goat pellets, and in we went. The lady at the front warned me that she'd need to try to hold the pellet flat in her hand (which is next to impossible for a 16 month old), but we gave it a go anyway. Ellie was all business immediately picking up pellets one by one and generously handing them out to every goat that hungrily came her way. It was so hilarious and amazing to watch. Maybe the goats got it? Maybe they're gentler than the lady thought? Who knows, but we had no incidents, no tears, no fear, just some good old fashioned goat and sheep feeding.

That alone would have made the trip worth it, but when we came out there was a lady running a little train that drove through the fair grounds who asked if we wanted to ride. Why not? So in we hopped for a ride in a darling little train. The bonus was we got to see every part of the fair grounds and I realized there was a lot more to do than I thought. So once we hopped off, we set out to play some more. We looked through the 4H animals, rode the carousel (the first time she's ridden one without mommy sitting on the horse with her; she was ALL business), watched for airplanes in the sky, watched some crazy dudes doing tricks and flips on the halfpipe on their bikes, and said hi to everyone we passed.

We ended our trip with some BBQ (holy messy and holy hilarious - the beans were her favorite part) and a fried Twinkie (because doesn't every trip to a fair call for something deep fried?!) while enjoying the musical stylings of some terribly awful high school marching band.

There were so many awesome things about today, aside from the fair fun.
It must have been the day where the fair opens up to school and community groups because I've never seen so many disabled kids in one place in my life. Wheelchairs, special strollers, lots of hand holding, lots of helpers, lots of special needs. It felt like everywhere I looked there was a group of kids that needed special care...who were having the BEST time. What special adults to be with them, and what a powerful reminder of just how insanely lucky I am to have such an awesome little girl.

Today also served as a great reminder that most people in this world are good. Every time we rode or experienced something I had to leave the stroller parked, and not once was I worried that something would happen. Everyone was there to have a good time, and again, it was a pretty awesome thing to witness.

Today, we rode trains and carousels, petted sheep and goats, ate messy, messy BBQ and a fried Twinkie, listened to painfully bad high school bands and choirs perform and were covered in sauce, sticky, dust and grime. Basically, it was everything that childhood is supposed to be. We could have called it quits, but I'm so glad I decided to stick it out. I chose not to let anything bother me, and instead decided to embrace the fair for all it was.

Ellie certainly won't remember this day, but I most definitely will. We laughed and watched and walked and talked, and it was one of the best days I've had in a long time. And now as she soundly naps (a HUGE bonus that I was able to keep her awake in the car on the ride home!!!), I am SO ready for a shower :)

(I took so many more pics than I needed to, but it was a day that called to be captured. A link to the photos is here.)

And our trip to the Fair can be summed up in this one short video :)

I know who I am!

When I picked up Ellie from the gym daycare today, one of the staff members looked at me and said "I'm pretty sure Eleanor is going to be president someday".
Huh?!
Her response? "She is seriously the smartest baby I've ever met!". And this woman has 4 kids. Another staff member told me that Ellie kept saying "Me Eleanor" today, which blew me away as she hasn't yet referred to herself as Eleanor, only Ellie, and only when she sees pictures of herself (a very recent development).
I feel like she's pretty smart, but it's hard to have context when you only have one kid. Who knows, but what I do know is that she's perfectly Eleanor and that's good enough for me.
Video below of this new self awareness :)

Cooking wins for Mommy!

Not sure what has come over me the last couple of days, but I've been very into cooking/baking. The latest was banana bread (below - afternoon snack-style) and turkey meatballs (REALLY proud of this dinner I threw together! Lord the struggle is real). Ellie loved them both! Mommy win!

Daddy's in Hi-Ho

B is in Ohio for work. When I told Ellie this, she happily repeated that "daddy in Hi-Ho". Love her. (And a shot of E on our morning walk which was sent to daddy as his good morning thrown in for good measure :)

Our new Monday Funday

Our swim school is currently closed for roof repairs, so for the next 6 weeks we're taking classes at the Peoria location. It's a bit of a hike, so our Monday mid-day is pretty shot. But we've  been making the most of it by getting there a little early and watching the big kids swim before us (E loves watching other kids), and then having lunch out after our lesson. We hit up Chipotle yesterday (cue E yelling "RICE AN BEEEENS!!" the whole way to lunch). I adore these special moments with my girl.

Lazy Sunday

It was a rainy, rainy Sunday - a welcome treat in the desert - so aside from a quick bite to eat at one of our new favorite lunch spots, we spent the day inside reading, snuggling, and putting together new toys. A whole weekend with nothing to do? Simply perfect. 

Bug is Walking!

She took a few steps on Easter, but we hadn't seen much action since. Then last week (Wednesday) she went for it and we caught it on video! Since then she's been taking a few steps a day. So proud of our girl!

16 months old!

My girl is 16 months old! She continues to brighten every single day with her sweet and funny personality. She talks all day, takes a few steps a day, and loves her babies and stuffed animals something fierce. She has 2 teeth, and a couple more seem to be close. She still sleeps with her paci, nurses in the morning, and loves berries (of any kind), kiwi, mandarin oranges, crackers, string cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt. She's developing a taste for almond milk, and still won't even consider regular cows milk. She's 100% bug, just the way she's supposed to be, and we simply adore her.

 

Happy Friday!

Can't even blame the little for this one. But every time I do something like this, I think about how my reaction might be shaping E. Lord knows we've got a LOT of messes in our future. My new go-to response is "oh, mommy" which E happily repeats, and a quick solution without complaints. Turns out it's good for both of us - it's amazing how simply changing your focus on a "problem" can change your whole outlook afterward. In my pre-E life something like this might have had me grumpy for hours after. But on Friday? We said uh-oh, both helped clean it up (laughing as we went), and moved right along with our day. I'm working hard to teach her that accidents happen, and the way to move forward is with a constructive solution. No drama, no screaming, no crying, no worries. (Lucky for me she loves to be "wipeen" - ha!)

Pop! Goes her second tooth

The other morning as we were playing I thought I caught a glimpse of white, and sure enough her second tooth has popped through! (Other bottom center) 

I could tell it was close, but in true Ellie fashion, she never let on if she was in any sort of pain. I assume it popped through while she was sleeping that night before, but she didn't wake up or even whimper. 

I'm sure that not all of her teeth will be as easy as the first two, but here's hoping!

Her favorite new game

Feeding babyx2

Working on our fine motor skills...

...with yogurt! And surprisingly not as messy as I thought it would be!

Yep...it was what it sounded like.

Visit from the Carr Family

What special five days we had when the Carrs came from DC to visit! So much fun, so many laughs, and so many wonderful memories were made. It's always so bittersweet when people you love so much come to visit - our time together is so precious, but when they leave it's even more sad because you've just been reminded how much you truly miss them.
Zoe and Ellie were quite the pair - only being a little over a year apart, they were pretty sweet together. And it was so fun to think about where we'll be with Ellie in 12 short months!
And there was just something too incredible about seeing Annie with Ellie. They took to each other, and E could not stop (and still has not stopped) talked about her. I'm having a hard time putting into words why it was so special seeing them not only in the same place, but loving on each other. I think because it feels like Annie is the kid who, in a sense, gave us our first taste of parenting. Not that we were anything close to her real parents, but we learned from her and felt protective of her and all around adored her. Maybe Ellie sensed it :)
Trip highlights were the zoo, the Scottsdale Quarter splash pad, a spring training game, and Easter fun (dyeing eggs, Easter baskets and an egg hunt). We miss them terribly and can't wait to see them all again hopefully very soon!

A link to all our photos (and there are a bunch!) is here.