Eleanor at 3 months

Eleanor at 3 months...

Eleanor has developed the roundest face.  Between her cheeks and her double chin, she has the perfect circle of a head.

She sleeps consistently between 10:30 pm to 6:30 am.  I don't ever set an alarm anymore before I know she will wake us up at 6:30 am on the dot.  **Update: at 3 months and 1 week Eleanor decided to forget how to sleep long stretches, ugh!  For the past two and a half weeks, Eleanor has gotten up in the middle of the night to eat and then will still get up at 6:30 am and then is up for the day.  I had thought we were one of those lucky ones who would never have to sleep train, but alas we are not.  Hopefully it gets sorted out soon.

Some days are better than others but she does take a little longer of a nap in the morning and afternoon.  Then it's cat naps for the rest of the day.

Eleanor is wearing 3-6 month clothes.  The Carter's brand seems to run small so she is almost out of their 6 month clothes.  She's getting big and tall!

She smiles SO much but her smiles are hard to catch on camera.  She smiles the most in the morning or right after she is done eating.  I love that her whole face smiles, not just her mouth.  I now measure the success of my day by how much I can get her to smile.  The happier she is, the more accomplished I feel.

She has started lengthening out to eating more like every 3 hours, which is wonderful.  Although I think she is getting less calories in during the day, hence the middle of night feedings.

Eleanor got a passport!  It was an extremely stressful process (leaving me sick of the US Post Office forever...).  Have you ever tried to get a 3 month old to look straight into a camera, not make a funny faces, and with no clothes interfering with her face/ears/jawline? So hard!  Eleanor doesn't even have a defined jaw line, its just pure cheeks and double chin which always touch her clothes.  Getting that picture required 3 different post office photographers attempting it whilst Aaron stood on a chair behind the photographer with a rattle and I held down her clothes and tried to keep her head straight.  We finally got a semi decent picture and called it good.  She looks totally mad in it though, as she probably was.  Ha! So glad that's over.  Now we just need to travel the world these next 5 years to make it totally worth it!

She is now a pro coo-er!  Oh how I love her little coos. We carry on whole conversations these days.  I ask how she is doing, she coos.  I ask her if she loves me, she coos.  I ask if she wants to walk to the park, she coos.  It's great!  And so adorable.

Eleanor wants your attention all the time these days and if she feels like you aren't focusing on her she coos more earnestly til you look at her and then she smiles.

^^I love the hand on the knee!  She does this a lot and I think it makes her look so wise and contemplative.

We never had issues with her having gas bubbles in her stomach before but all of a sudden it's an issue.  If she's crying (other than for food or sleep) then it's always because of gas.  We pat her back and keep her upright until the blessed burp comes and then the world is right again.

Nick names include: Chubs, chubster, chunk and chubby girl. Notice a theme? The rolls are multiplying!

Being her mom is more of a joy than ever.  I was changing her diaper one day and she smiled up at me and all of a sudden I felt this rush and I just knew that she is a kind soul.  I just kept looking at her and felt like I knew who she was to the core and knew she was kind.  When I told Aaron this, he said, "Well of course she is.  She takes after you and that's my number one hope--that she can be kind like her mother."  Which is incredibly sweet of him to say of me.  If I have any kindness in me it's because of my mother whose kindness amazes me.  And I think my mother developed her kindness from her mother, who Eleanor is named after.  I can't wait to see Eleanor grow and develop this attribute.

We love her!