15 Month Checkup

Yesterday we went to the doc for Eleanor's 15 month appointment. Everything looks good. She weighs 28 lbs, 10.5 oz (97th percentile) and measures 32.5 inches (90th percentile). She also had to get a couple shots (MMR, chickenpox, and flu) and those are never fun. But she handled them like a champ and was fully recovered when we got home.

Last week EKG and I joined Wendy on a business trip to the Cleveland area. And let me tell ya a hotel room is way too small for our 15 month old destructo, especially after being cooped up in the car for 2 hours. Within the first few minutes she threw some toys out of her bag, opened the dresser drawers removing the keyboard and bible, pulled the sheets off the bed, kissed herself in the full length mirror, started grabbing tissues out of the dispenser that was designed at toddler height, disturbed me in the bathroom, tried to climb on the desk chair, banged on the hotel door, opened and closed the drawers again, opened the mini fridge, disturbed Wendy in the bathroom, took toys out of another bag, and she kept going from one "station" to another. It looked like a tornado hit our room. By the way this series of running around and getting into everything is a regular occurrence, but at home we have everything child proofed unlike the hotel.


I had planned on taking her somewhere for entertainment while Wendy was training and during breakfast someone mention the Childrens Museum of Cleveland. So after we dropped off Mom we hit the road to see what it was all about. The place is a lot of fun for kids, although I think Nora would appreciate more when she is a bit older.


The Museum in 100% hands on and has a variety of rooms with different themes. They have a house set, a grocery store and bank, several cars, and a fruit market with velcro trees and fruit. We also walked through a room set up like a barnyard with all kinds of animals, tractors, and a barn with a slide.
They also have a few vehicles kids can climb in, including this car that makes starting noises and a horn that honks. This car also had an open hood with tolls to repair it and removable tires and was clearly the hit of the museum. I had to stop Eleanor a couple of times from pushing an older boy out of the drivers seat. I placed her in the passenger seat and he wouldn't "drive" until she was buckled in, but even after that she kept trying to push him out. When he leaned over to talk to his mom she grabbed the wheel. Have we mentioned how strong willed she has become?

Pumpkinin' Part Two

Here are some more pictures from Circle S Farm. After watching the bigger kids in the hay barn we took a hayride to pick out our pumpkins.


Eleanor wasn't too impressed with the ride and several times wanted to jump out of the slow moving cart.However, once we reached the field she enjoy looking at all the pumpkins. We picked a couple out and she helped carry them back to the cart for the ride back.

Pumpkinin' Part One

The other weekend we took a family trip to "Fall Fun Days" at Circle S Farms just south of Columbus.
They have lots of family friendly activities, including a hayride to pick out your own pumpkin, a petting zoo, a barn filled with hay, more gourde than you can shake a stick at, and pumpkin themed food and drink. We tried to measure Nora's height but she was more interested in something on the ground than standing still. The word from everyone else is that she is very tall and we have noticed because it seems like everyday she grab or open something she couldn't the day before.
He she is balanced on one of the large pumpkins.
Posing with Mom on a bale of hay.

Here is the petting "zoo". There were a handful of goat type creatures, but apparently they had enough of being petted. They were all circled up in the center away from the hands of youngsters. Despite Eleanor's best efforts ("ba BA!") they kept their distance.

Fire Good

A couple weeks ago we went to our friend Kathleen's birthday party which was a hot dog, smore making, campfire shindig. Eleanor loved the horse that lives next door. She charged right up to him and reached out to him, but did shy away when he turned his head or snorted. It's good she shows some fear since in most situations she appears willing to dive headlong into anything.

This was the first time Eleanor has seen fire and her reaction was pretty funny. It was "the discovery of fire" all over again, which was funny to us as a book we just got about toddler development described them as "little cavemen". For hours her eyes were glued to the flames and she walked right to the edge of the fire pit over and over.

She also had her first experience with smores and that was obviously a big hit. She loved them even though she never took her eyes off the fire.

After a night of horses, fire, treats, and playing with older kids she was pretty sleepy and spent some quality time quietly laying on Mom and Dad.

FYI: No Phone

Just wanted to let all of our loyal readers know that we have gotten rid of our home phone line, the 614-299 number. As most everyone calls us on our cell phones we've been thinking about dropping it for a while. We finally made the decision to save a little money and to avoid all the political calls that will only get worse in the next 30 days. No we will only be bombarded by political ads on TV, in the mail, and by the door to door harassers. On one hand it's nice to live in a swing state that will help decide the election, but it is tiring to be bombarded with the negativity each campaign puts out against the other. If half of what they said about each other was true we'd be better off electing a farm animal to lead us. Wait maybe that isn't a bad idea . . .

I think most of you have our cell phone numbers. If you don't send us an e-mail and we will give it to you. If you don't have our cell numbers OR our e-mail, well maybe we are trying to tell you something . . .

Moving On Up

Last week Eleanor began her transition to a new classroom at Goddard. She started going up a couple hours a day and took to the new room so well the usual transition time was shorten and she spent all day Friday with the "big" kids. The age range for this room is typically 16 to 24 months, but Nora fits right in at 14.5 months old. Just another example of her brilliance.

We are happy she has moved up as this room has more activities and we think she was getting bored in the other room. They will do more crafts and learn new baby sign language, which means we better learn some new sign language as well, as we don't want her talking about us behind our backs.



Eleanor loves her little chairs and table that were mine many moons ago. She likes to take her snacks and sit down to eat them. The flying lessons provided by Dad are not a regular occurrence but she loves to fly around the house. My back isn't so sure.


Here is a picture of the happy family and a picture of Nora's little brother whose arrival is only a couple months away. Can you believe it?