To Wrap or Not to Wrap- NOT FOR CHILDREN'S EYES

The question came up at a recent girl gathering about Santa Claus and whether he wraps gifts or not when they arrive at the house Christmas morning. There were 10 of us girls there and 8 out of the 10 had wrapped gifts from Santa under the tree that morning. I was one of the 2 that had unwrapped gifts from Santa.

Here is my family background- each Christmas morning (that I remember anyway) we would awake to find Santa's gifts in nice piles for each of us four kids. The piles were all separate under the tree with each child's stocking laid out in front of that kid's respective pile. We did not have anything in our stocking- just the gifts behind them. I always thought it was amazing how Mom got a picture of each child's gifts in the nice pile for the scrapbook. I think one time she told me that Santa helped out and took them for her. How nice is that Santa.

I found it really interesting that this topic came up because Nick and I went back and forth on how we would celebrate Santa and the gifts from him. I believe that Nick had wrapped gifts and got a piece of fruit in his stocking.

Back to my original thought… being the 'organized' (substitute your word of choice for that one) person I am, I wanted all traditions to be set for Eleanor's first Christmas. Yes, my friends did think it was very funny that when they came to meet Ellie for the first time (the week she was born) that there was already a stocking hung for her. Yup, I convinced Nick that we HAD to have stockings, and they all had to match. They also needed to have our full names on them and we needed them this year so the pictures in the scrapbooks would be uniform throughout the years. Our stockings arrived the day before Eleanor was born (and I may have had them up just to see how they looked the night we went to the hospital). It is a good thing the ultrasound tech was correct and Ellie was a girl!

Back to the gifts- Nick and I decided that Santa would wrapped the kid(s) gifts and we would put a little gift in their stockings as well, maybe a piece of fruit once Ellie gets old enough. It is also a good thing that when I was purchasing our wrapping paper for Christmas on December 26th of LAST YEAR that I grabbed a roll of paper that did not match the other ones (just in case Santa arrived this year). So, our tradition will include wrapped gifts, but the gifts will be in a different paper than the other presents and will not arrive until Christmas morning. Each family member will also have a stocking, with a small gift in it. I cannot wait until Christmas morning to see what Santa puts in my stocking!

Let's the Christmas Celebrations Begin!

Last weekend kicked off the first of our many family Christmas celebrations- and are gearing up for a week of festivities. I do believe that Christmas is my favorite holiday (Nick would probably agree since I get so excited for it and like to start the holiday season early). Once again this year we had all (well, all we could get before Ellie was born) presents purchase before Thanksgiving. With Ellie's impending arrival, the tree was put up ahead of time as well and the presents wrapped and under it.

I did hold off on starting the Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving, thank you very much Lite 104.1 for your non-stop Christmas music! Ellie is a big fan of Christmas music as well. Her favorite songs: Silent Night (in honor/memory of her Great Grandpa Greving), Baby It's Cold Outside, Away in a Manger, the song about a Baby Being Born (I don't know all the names of the songs- just the words), and the Christmas Shoes song. Her non-favorite songs: O Holy Night (she thinks it is over played), Santa Claus is Coming to Town (she must think she was bad this year because almost every time this one comes on she cries), Rudolph (once again, I have no idea but it makes her cry), and any song without words (she likes her Mommy to sing the songs to her). What we are going to do after Christmas and the songs are not allowed (per the radio station and her Daddy), we have no idea! One more week of singing and dancing for Ellie (and Mommy).

If you cannot already tell from the multiple blog posts- we are very excited and super blessed to have Ellie be a part of our lives for this Christmas Season. It makes the season even more fun and we cannot wait until next year when the tree excites her a little more.

Daddy photo shoot and more...

Daddy got a new flash for the camera (well, we got one but Daddy is the expert photographer). He needed a subject so Ellie volunteered. Here are a few of the pictures, as well as some other ones that have been taken this month.

One Month Old!

Ellie turned one month old yesterday. It is crazy how fast the month went by, yet it seems like she has changed so much during that time.

Here is where Ellie stands today. She can:

- down 7 ounces of milk and then proceed to go 6 hours before her next feeding (this happened last night for the first time)

- lift her head up at least 45 degrees, going on 90 degrees

- wake up and lay in her crib looking around after her morning nap with no crying

- lay awake in her crib for alone time (or on the floor in the living room) for at least 10 minutes at a time

- sleep in her crib the entire time at night, with minimal awake time other than eating and changing the diaper

- 'become the talk of the church' just by being cute and well-behaved during mass

- almost get her Daddy wrapped around her finger- and get whatever she wants (I think this will be 100% the minute she smiles and laughs at him). Her Mommy thinks she has probably achieved this with other people such as her aunt Megan, Grandma(s), Grandpa(s), and Mommy

- make her Mommy sing and dance with to Christmas songs with a slight whimper

- help get Noah his daily walk by making Mommy and Daddy walk the hall during fussy time at night (Noah walks behind them, just to make sure they keep it up and make her happy)

- fit into some of her 3-6 month clothes (mainly bodysuits) without any problem

- continue to make her Mom and Dad the happiest people on earth by having her in their lives

2 Week Dr. Visit

We had Ellie's two week Dr. visit last Monday, and she is growing like a weed! If her percentile stats are any reflection of her future grades in school we are set!

Weight: 9 pounds 2.5 ounces (95 percentile)
Height: 20 1/2 inches (85 percentile)
Head circumfrance: 14 1/2 inches (89 percentile)

Her breast-milk induced jaundice has gone down considerably (which we could already tell as the yellow/orange color has all but gone away) and she is doing great on her feedings! She is still a decent night sleeper, lasting 3.5-5.5 hours between feedings and going back to sleep immediately after she is done eating. That makes for one happy Momma!

This week she has started holding her head up more and more. She is also a new fan of just laying in bed and looking around! A couple times today I head her making noises and went in to check what was going on, only to find her looking around completely content.

We are still waiting for the shoe to drop, as things have been going very well thus far. We have had a few fussy days last week, but other than that it has been pretty easy (knock on wood).

We hope to have some more pictures up in the near future.

The Third Parent

Thanks to Nick's Aunt and Uncle down in Texas, Ellie now has what we like to call the Third Parent. If the swing could only feed and change diapers, I think it would be her preferred parent.

What's in a Name?

We have been asked by multiple people where Ellie's name came from, so here it is. Before we found out we were having a girl Nick and I started throwing out potential girl and boy names. Of course we couldn't agree on any one of them at first- are you surprised?

Anyway, we must have been destined to have a girl, because to this day we will cannot agree on a boy name. Growing up without a nickname, I really wanted a name that could be shortened- but still have a full name that sounded professional and traditional for when she was older. Nick wanted a name that wouldn't hit the 'Top Baby Name List'. After much discussion we decided on Eleanor (like former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt). It is both traditional and ranked number 256 on the Top Baby Names for 2008 (not common at all)!

Eleanor is of Greek origin and means* 'shining light'

The meaning of the name is perfect, as she is the 'shining light' in our life. Eleanor is the most traditional spelling of the name. From there we came up with Ellie for a nickname (it goes with her girl cousin's 'ie/y' theme: Sammy, Ally, Izzy, Natalie and Ruby).

As for her middle name, Ann--- that was the easy part. Both Nick's mom and my mom have the middle name of Ann. I remember looking at our birth certificates when we went to get our marriage license, and commenting that they had the same middle name AND it was spelled the same way! I think it was at that point that the idea of if we ever had a little girl she would have the middle name of Ann- after the two of them.

So there it is. Pretty basic and not all that exciting- but still has meaning to us.

*We understand that there are other meanings for the name Eleanor. We opted to be selective and pick our favorite.