Eleanor had two Great Grandmas visit this week! First, Great Grandma L was in town with Aunt Ann, Kim, Genet, Kristen, Eric and Paul for the 4th of July. We had a fun breakfast downtown and had a chance to catch up and play with Genet. It won’t be long and she will be teaching Eleanor all of the tricks she is learning in Acrobatic Circus class. We spent the rest of Monday relaxing and having fun with Dad on his day off, and celebrating the 4th (Thanks to Aunt Libby for the bag-o-fun 4th of July gift bag!). Later in the evening, Eleanor decided to kick off a furious week of Firsts by climbing 6 stairs all by herself. It is really amazing how quickly her walking and balance are improving.
Ellie is also showing more interest in her “learning” toys. She is much more interested in how some of the toys work, like her “shape sorter”, “stacking sombreros” and “5 door popup animals”. She was able to put the shapes back into the sorter for the first time this week, and quickly moved from putting a single shape back to getting all six. She needs a bit of help deciding which hole to use, but stays determined to get that shape back in the basket. With the “5 doors”, she can close them with both her hands and feet (Mimi Sheri is taught her the feet trick!) and can open four of the five. And she stacked two of the sombreros together for the first time. Not to be outdone – the old standby basic blocks also threw in a first this week, with Eleanor stacking them three high.
Amazingly, that is only a sample of all the firsts we knocked out this week. I’ve included the full list below:
- Meeting Cousin Saul
- Climbing stairs all by herself
- First 4th of July
- Rolling a ball
- Waving at the cat
- Successfully putting shapes into her shape sorter
- Stacking blocks
- Stacking “sombrero hat” stackers
- Blowing a bubble
- Operating a light switch
- Pushing a button (iPhone, musical toy, “boing book”)
- Opening and closing doors (although she can’t reach the knob yet)
- Visiting “The Bean” and Millennium Park
- Taking bites off a full size Banana
- Licking a frozen fruit bar
- Tooth #8
Bookending the week was a visit from Great Grandma G, along with Aunt Karren, Papa John and Mimi Sheri, and Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Shawnee and Cousin Saul. We had a great weekend relaxing, sightseeing and playing. We went to Millennium Park, and Eleanor had her first picture with “The Bean”. She really enjoyed playing with Saul, although she did get a bit jealous when he was using the “standing table” and chewing on “Blue”.
