Thomas Tidbits...: Walking Girl!

The past couple of weeks were filled with Cool House Tour prep and Nana's visit while Laura (our nanny) was out of town. The biggest news is that Eleanor is officially a walker! She started dabbling with a few steps on her own around the 14 month mark, but she's toddling around full steam ahead like the independent little girl that she is.

Besides the walking, I've been amazed at her development in the last 2 weeks:

: When we read books, I'll ask her "where's the xxx?" and she points out various objects. Even better, when we ask her, "Where's the Jayhawk?" she knows exactly where that silly bird is, whether it's in a book, on a t-shirt, or a stuffed animal. Love the early brainwashing;)

: Lids! Eleanor loves putting lids on containers... after we noticed this infatuation, we went out and bought her puzzles. She much prefers lids though.

: Over the past month, we've transitioned to 1 nap/day instead of 2. It's nice from a planning perspective because we're not tied to the house as much.

: Most days, you'll find our daughter donning my jewelry around the house. Her favorites are necklaces, but she'll dabble in a bracelet every not and then too.

: Eleanor LOVES bike rides with Daddy. We've learned that we have to limit our rides though because she's been falling asleep at the end of our 1-1.5 hour rides. We have to hide her helmet because when she sees it, she starts screaming and demands that she wear it around the house.

: E has started to become a little more snuggly and loves to give (open mouthed) kisses.

: Eleanor continues to remind us that she's a Texas born baby. She says "bye bye" with a total southern
accent.

: Our daughter's a champ at straw sucking now - makes for easy sips of our drinks when we're out and about.

We leave for Chicago on Saturday for our annual Chicago Summer Vacation. We are so anxious for some much needed time off - we have lots of friends and family to see, and I'm sure Eleanor will love all of the non-stop action.

We had to leave our house for our floors to be polished. We thought we'd catch an early happy hour at a local beer garden. Eleanor got so excited about salty bar food that she ate way to quickly. Then immediate threw up. So, naked baby in a bar - parents of the year!