Uncategorized – Page 9

Eleanor 5 Months and Baby Blessing

November 15, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

5 Months old and delightful as ever!

Eleanor started solids at 5 months and couldn’t have been happier! She takes 2 long naps and 1 short nap a day and sleeps 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Amelia, Samantha, Meredith & Eleanor, 5 Months Old:

Eleanor never rolled over! She’s so content on her back or when we put her on her tummy for tummy time that she just doesn’t see the point of rolling over on her own. That, and she’s so chubby that it’s probably impossible! She’s working on sitting up on her own, but is still pretty wobbly.

Getting too big for her milestone blanket!

Eleanor is so interactive and loves to smile and coo at everyone she sees. From her perch in the Ergo carrier, she is obsessed with greeting her fans, especially at school drop-off and pick-up. Random strangers just can’t resist giving her legs a little squeeze or coming up to chat with her– she’s very magnetic!

Eleanor loves sweet potatoes, butternut squash and oatmeal!

Such a joyful baby!

We finally had Eleanor’s baby blessing on November 15! A few days shy of her 5 month birthday, she was the oldest of any of the other girls to get her baby blessing… I kept having to order dresses that didn’t end up fitting because our chubby baby kept growing out of them! 1 p.m. church is kind of nightmare for her since that’s right in the middle of her longest nap, so we finally decided to have her blessing at home on a weeknight when the Bishop was available.

It was very low key since it was just our family, but it was our favorite blessing ever because the girls listened and got to see the blessing up close! Ironically, even though Eleanor almost NEVER fusses, she was cranky during her blessing, even though it was just at home… argh. Who knows whether she would have been quieter during church, but oh well. Despite Meredith crawling around my lap and banging on the piano and Eleanor crying, Jake kept his cool and gave her a very thoughtful blessing. It was a peaceful, intimate experience and everyone gave our little angel a little squeeze afterward, even though she was a little fuss bucket!

We finally timed it right so that Eleanor’s custom silk dress fit her before she grew out of it!

Eleanor’s blessing (complete with Meredith banging on the piano, me shushing and Eleanor crying!)

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Milestones, Uncategorized, Year One Tagged With: baby blessing, Eleanor 5 months, milestone

November Happenings

November 10, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

After Halloween, Grammy stuck around for a few days and Eleanor took full advantage of all the extra cuddles!

Grammy and girls indulging in their ice cream bar creations at South Swell in San Clemente, right after pizza at Pizza Port.

Meredith started meeting up with a playgroup of other 2016 babies every week. Most of the moms also have a 2018 baby like Eleanor, so in a few years, she’ll have a bunch of friends she’s grown up with!

Amelia and Samantha’s school pictures– first time they’ve looked at the camera for school photos and smiled (sort of).

Fall artwork from kindergarten.

We met up with Lucero, Kennedy and Sebastian at the Spectrum one night to check out the new-fangled play structure and play games at Dave and Busters.

“Bowling!”

Sebastian reached for Amelia’s hand and I almost died. Cuteness!

Meredith requested to ride the ferris wheel with Lucero and Kennedy– I guess they are more fun!

We were so sad to say farewell to our favorite babysitters, twins Charlotte and Claire. We’ve know their family for years and Charlotte and Claire have been the girls’ favorite babysitters of all time. They were a lifesaver during the fall when they came back from school before leaving on their missions, babysitting after school a few days a week for me. Every day, Meredith would wake up from from her nap and ask, “Are Charlotte and Claire coming today! I want to chase Charlotte and Claire!” It was perfect having both of them because one of them would do whatever the twins wanted to do and the other would run around with Meredith. Sometimes they would go out to the park or play games all together. Nice to have options! The girls still ask when when they are coming over to babysit again! Hopefully, they will be able to babysit in a year when they get back, so in the mean time I’ve been placating Meredith by telling her Charlotte and Claire are going to come when they get back from a very long trip!

Charlotte went to Warsaw, Poland and Claire went to Berlin, Germany. It’s the first time these identical twins have been separated by that far of a distance (5 hours!) We still laugh how they are serving in bordering missions. We miss them!

Amelia being silly while waiting for her tennis lesson. She is pretty accurate with her swings!

The twins attended two birthday parties at Pump it Up– a popular choice for kids at school, apparently.

Crazy-eyed Meredith.

Eleanor loves story time before Meredith goes down for her nap.

Maple is always so generous sharing her seaweed snack with Meredith at the park.

A typical crazy Family Home Evening.

Jake worked on refinishing an outdoor table, with Meredith as his crew member. She’s a pretty good sander.

The twins love to show off their Magnatile creations.

Curling hair before a Christmas pajama photo shoot.

Behind the scenes!

The weather was so nice that we spent our mornings going on bike rides or picking flowers at the pocket park.

Meredith’s saying of the month was, “I know my colors!” Even if she had identified the wrong color.

I had to get a few more pictures of Eleanor in her poodle skirt costume before storing the Halloween stuff away.

Eleanor was so chubby and always so hungry that Dr. Young gave us the go-ahead to start solids at 4 months! We waited closer to the 5-month mark to start oatmeal and then vegetables, but she was definitely ready. She was SO happy to finally have something to eat other than liquid!

The twins were at school during Maple’s 3rd birthday party, but Meredith was so excited to go and celebrate with her dear friend. The party was at Maple’s brother, Parker’s, tae kwon do studio and was so fun! The TKD instructors were very engaging with the kids and Maple did some impressive moves! She even cut her cake with a giant sword, which was pretty much the coolest thing Meredith had ever seen.

Group hug.

Meredith re-connected with her friend, Owen, who lives in our old neighborhood. They were obsessed with hugging each other!

Meredith is normally not shy about hitting at home, but seemed confused that it was actually encouraged at the party!

The hugging game was very entertaining!

Give him some space, Meredith.

All the kids took turns doing their best chop to break a board!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: charlotte and claire, Eleanor poodle skirt, eleanor solids, first solids, Grammy, irvine spectrum, Kennedy and Sebastian, Maple, maple's 3rd birthday party, meredith knows her colors, oatmeal, Owen, sweet potatoes, tae kwon do

San Mateo Camp Out

November 5, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

For their second camp out with the Rainbow Sky Expedition, the girls and the rest of the dads and daughters in their Pink Panthers troop camped out in San Mateo. I’m not sure how well Jake slept, but the girls had a blast!

Recap of their campout created by one of the dads:

Night One: Uno in the tent.

Up at the crack of dawn for homemade donuts.

Only dads would think of bringing a football-themed photo backdrop.

Since San Mateo is not far from us, I dropped Meredith off for the day. She’s technically too young to join the troop, but was fine for the day part. Meredith loved her camping experience, although the twins were not happy about little sis crashing their daddy-twin time! Meredith joined just in time for their hike to San Onofre beach where they collected sea shells.

Taking over the campout, Meredith style.

Meredith invasion!

Building a fire.

Apparently, Jake advised the twins to run up and grab a ball first, instead of hanging back during their first game of dodge ball. It didn’t end well.

We really need these giant boxing gloves at home for the girls to get their rage out.

Let the Tug of War begin.

Warming by the fire.

At night, I picked Meredith up to go home while all the troops had a dance party and performed a skit. The twins received roses for being the newest members of the Pink Panthers.

Jumping beans!

Still obsessed with the boxing gloves…

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: camp out, camping, dodge ball, pink panthers troop, punching bags, rainbow sky expedition, san mateo, san onofre, tug of war

Fall 2018 Family Photos

November 1, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Our former neighbor, Keriann, has taken our family pictures for years now and this might have been the first year there were no tears or major tantrums out of anyone during the shoot! We always do it pretty early in the morning and it’s a major task getting four girls dressed, hair done, accessories, emergency tissues and bribes (gummies) ready to go and out the door to Coto de Caza by 7:30 a.m.

We turned the kitchen into a salon, with combs, bows, curling irons and hair spray everywhere, with Grammy on baby and accessory duty, and Jake and I on hair duty. We sprayed, combed, curled, and sprayed some more while the girls chowed down on their breakfast and watched a show. Amelia’s curls turned out great and Jake tried his best to curl Samantha’s hair, but I didn’t have time to re-do it, so off we went.

We had an extra assistant on hand with Grammy in town on our photo shoot day, and we credit her for getting out the door on time with minimal crying. The hardest part was timing Eleanor’s nap so that she would be happy for pictures before going down for her nap, and she stayed up for almost everything until the very end!

Best buds.

3 Amigas.

Even though I remember Keriann taking this photo, the first time I saw it, I though Sammy was looking in the mirror!

Nope, not a mirror.

Double trouble.

Eleanor was just about to meltdown from being overtired!

WHAT IS GOING ON?

My friend, Phi, let me borrow her daughter, Maple’s dress, for our photo shoot for Eleanor to wear. Maple wore it on her 1st birthday… Eleanor was only 4 months old and it fit like a charm!