Happy Thanksgiving! Eleanor and Henry had a fun Thanksgiving weekend – travelling to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to celebrate with the extended family. Henry was really working on his mobility this week – he made several trips up Grandma and Grandpa’s staircase all by himself, and loved cruising around with the “doggy” push toy. A couple of times he took a step or two while reaching out to get to Mom or the play kitchen – I’m not ready to give him credit for walking yet, as he was off balance when he took them, but they were definitely headed in that direction. He has also regained interest in working on his balance, and several times stood unassisted for 10 seconds or more. At the end of the week Mom captured a great picture of him standing unassisted while eating some puffs. I think he was so excited about getting two hands into the puff action that he didn’t even realize that he was standing. In the firsts category, this was Henry’s first Thanksgiving, first time celebrating Dad’s birthday and first trip to Great Grandma’s house.
Eleanor was excited all week about the prospect of sleeping in the same room as Mom or Dad while at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, as well as the new “Hungry Caterpillar” toddler bed that Grandma and Grandpa got for her. She got to sit at the “kids” table with her cousins during meal times, and even did the same craft (a painted penguin) as the “big kids”. Eleanor joined in decorating the Christmas tree, but wasn’t very good at hanging the ornaments. She did take two pieces of Styrofoam off one of the balls and set them carefully onto a branch, and also lay one small stuffed bear ornament down to sleep on a branch. Eleanor quickly caught on to the cash register game, and kept saying “Eleanor wants the money” :) Both Henry and Eleanor tried lots of new foods over the holiday, but only Eleanor got to participate in the desserts. Her favorite was sharing a “Gobble” cookie with Grandma. They would split it in half, and one got the “G” for Grandma, and the other the “e” for Eleanor. Eleanor’s attention span has really increased recently, and she did her first real jigsaw puzzle with Dad this week. She gets a bit frustrated with the pieces sometimes, but with a bit of encouragement she made it through the whole puzzle.
