Eleanor's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Eleanor's actual birthday as a family, since Brad had off work for the week between Christmas and New Years.  We started the day by going out to breakfast, and then playing at Betty Brinn Children's Museum (Eleanor's request - it was crazy busy).  For dinner we had Papa Murphy's pizza and watched Tangled (also E's request).  Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes.  She LOVED having us all sing to her, blew out her candle (Bennett helped), and then wanted more cupcakes after. :)

Her party was originally supposed to be the weekend before Christmas, but she got sick and there was bad weather so we rescheduled.  Her new party was on the afternoon of NYE.  She told everyone she came across that she was "two!" and that her birthday party was going to be "Doc McStuffins!"  She just ADORED her party and having all of the attention.  She ran in circles singing, "I so excited!" a million times.  She loved all of the Doc decor and LOVED opening her presents.  It was really tough for Ben to let her do it because he definitely wanted to open presents too.  It's hard for him to understand that come April, he'll open all the presents when it's his birthday.  Elle's big present was a new, bigger play kitchen from us.  They both love it!

Eleanor is 2!!!!

Our baby girl is officially a toddler.  She's two years old!  Time sure flies.  Her first year of life was a little rough, with her not taking a bottle/nuk and not sleeping through the night for 14+ months.  But her second year was pretty awesome - she's a spunky, sweet, and smart little girl.  And she sure loves her momma!

Eleanor is talking like crazy.  Honestly sometimes she seems like she's three in that respect.  She says a lot of almost complete sentences, just leaving out some smaller words.  And she's doing pretty well with "me, I, my" versus just saying her name.  She also LOVES singing and it blows me away how many songs she knows.  Her favorites right now are the songs from Frozen.  That's her favorite "moobie" for movie night and Aunt Missy and Uncle Kyle got her the cd for her birthday.  She loves it!

Eleanor is starting to love playing make believe.  Her favorites are playing with her baby dolls and playing doctor with her stuffed animals and dolls (Doc McStuffins is her favorite TV show).  For her second birthday she got twin babies and a double stroller, plus a new bigger play kitchen and lots of food, so she's pretty much in Heaven playing in our basement lately.  She also loves to pretend talk on the phone.  She also loves reading books, doing puzzles, and playing with anything Bennett is playing with.  She loves being outside except in the cold so I think come spring she'll be super happy to be out again.

Eleanor just adores Bennett.  Don't get me wrong, the fight like crazy (which I was not expecting when they are so young!!).  She always wants to do what he's doing, including playing with whatever he is playing with, so that leads to lots of fights.  Usually that means Ben is crying and Eleanor is running away with said toy, giggling.  She's kind of a sass. :)  But mostly she just wants to be just like him.  If he runs and yells, she runs and yells.  If he sings, she sings.  He goes to school, and she is just dying to go with him.  She loves to carry his lunch box and water bottle to the car each day for him when we pick him up.

Eleanor usually sleeps from 7:30pm-6/6:30am.  And she takes one nap a day around 12:30 (usually 1.5-2 hours long).  Once in awhile she refuses her nap and those days are looooooong.  She occasionally cries in the night - mostly if she's sick and needs a kleenex or water.  I normally send Brad in to deal with it because then she goes right back to sleep.  If I go in, it's like a half hour ordeal.    Eleanor is also a great eater.  Bennett was already so picky at this age (and still is!), but she will eat almost anything.  If she won't eat it, she's either sick or it's really not kid friendly.  Her favorite things are snacks "Need nack!" and meats "Mo meat!"  She loves mac and cheese, string cheese, crackers, pizza, pasta, fruits, and most types of meat.  She's not a huge veggie fan but does better with raw carrots and dip.  Anything with dip she is a big fan of.  :)

She's definitely a toddler lately, and tantrums and saying "No!" are everyday occurrences.  She's more even-tempered than Bennett, and usually pretty happy, but if she gets hurt she doesn't handle it well and it usually turns into a tantrum.  She's starting to be very independent, therefore she doesn't like being told no or that she can't do something.  She wants to pick her own cup, bowl, plate, snack...you name it!  She also is really big into showing us things lately.  If she gets hurt, she'll take our hands and lead us to the scene of the crime, saying, "Show you.  Right here."

Eleanor's favorite places to go are the library, Panera, Betty Brinn Children's Museum, and Target.  She's my little errand buddy when Bennett is in school.  She especially loves running errands with Daddy on Saturdays.  Bennett usually wants to stay home with Mom, but Elle always wants to go.

Eleanor is definitely a Mommy's girl.  She'll randomly hug me and say, "I love you mommy."  She's excited for the baby and will often say, "Baby soon!  Hold her.  Feed bottle."  She's in for a rude awakening when she realizes that having a baby sister is tough for the first few months when she needs to be by mommy most of the time.  Hopefully she loves helping with the baby as much as she thinks she will.  We just adore this sweet girl and can't believe how fast she's growing up!

  

New Nursery

Now that Bennett and Eleanor are sharing a bedroom, it was time to get to work on the new nursery.  We turned the toddler bed back into a crib, cleaned and dusted really well in there, and then put up the new baby items.  I ordered a crib skirt from Pottery Barn that I just fell in love with, kind of a peachy pink color, then found curtains at Target that kind of matched, and ordered a few decorations off of Etsy.  I think it's pretty cute!

Christmas at Home!

We drove home from Oostburg on Saturday night so we could go to church Sunday morning at our church.  We kept the kids with us in church and it went pretty well!  Lots of snacks and things to look at were needed though. :)  After church, Missy and Kyle came over and we had an egg bake and opened gifts from "Santa," and played with new toys.  It's funny because Bennett kind of knows there's no Santa, but once he saw the presents under the tree he immediately seemed to change his mind... "Santa!  Did we give a present to Santa?"  It was pretty cute. :)

Christmas With the Gabrielses!

On Friday morning we headed up to Oostburg to celebrate Christmas.  We opened presents that night, then on Christmas Eve relaxed while the kids played with their new toys, watched the Packer game, and ate some great food.  When we celebrate Christmas the Gabrielses always do an appetizer overload, and it's one of my favorite meals all year.  They also have a punch/slush type drink which his so good!  Ben and Eleanor got super spoiled and loved all of their gifts!  Ben's favorite gift was probably his Magnatiles or Paw Patrol Lookout Tower.  Eleanor adores her twin babies and their double stroller.

On Saturday it was really nice out, so Ben, Grandpa, and Nate played outside for an hour - sledding, shoveling, and making this fun snowman! :)

3K Christmas Program!

Ben also did a little Christmas program with his 3K class at school.  It was so cute - he was grinning ear to ear as they walked in and he spotted us waiting to watch them.  He did a really nice job singing all of the songs and did most of the motions.  He did get a few nose picks in... :)  Then after the singing, we had a little pot luck lunch and he gave us a Christmas gift (tree ornaments he made), and he got a gift from his teachers (playdoh set).  It was a fun morning!

Preview of their singing :)

Big Boy Bed!

In preparation for the new baby, we got Bennett a big twin bed and moved him into Eleanor's room.  So far room sharing is going pretty well....Eleanor sometimes gets upset she can't be in Bennett's big bed.  And sometimes they talk a lot at night.  But mostly they sleep all night and just get each other up a little earlier than we'd like (between 6-6:30am).  Ben was SO EXCITED about his big bed.  We found bunk beds on Craigslist.  Brad stripped one of the bunks, then his dad stained it to match our other furniture.  Bennett probably asked him if his bed was done about a hundred times.  :)

I think Ben really likes having Elle in the room with him.  He's like her minion.  He'll come out usually a couple times and say things like, "Eleanor wants more water" or "Eleanor needs to be covered up."  I love to listen to them talk before bed.  Ben will say, "Eleanor, now no talking."  :)

Church Christmas Program!

Because Bennett's in 3K this year, he also gets to do Sunday School.  Before their lesson, the kids K3-2nd grade always sing first, and then at Christmas, the K3-4th graders put on a little Christmas program.  Bennett actually did pretty well.  He waved at us quite a bit, :)  but he also sang the words to most songs.  He didn't do many motions, though.  It was cute!

Preview of a song!  So cute! :)