It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Having a new member of the family to introduce all the fun customs and traditions to has been SO FUN this year! I love the year of firsts, in fact that is all Andy and I have known since we married - the first year was "Our Firsts" as Reinbergs and now, we have Eleanor's firsts to enjoy!

This past weekend we visited Santa at the Galleria in Dallas. I was very particular and borderline offensive and snobby (sorry if I was that to you if I in any way scoffed at your Santa) about which Santa we would go to. I even thought about scouting out each of the malls/places Santa appears and picking which one I thought would be best for Eleanor but ran out of time. I finally narrowed down my decisions to Northpark and Galleria. Galleria actually had a picture of their Santa on the website unlike anyone else and I just love Northpark so was a little partial in thinking theirs would be good. After looking at the calendar and time schedule, decided that Galleria was the choice. It worked better with Eleanor's nap schedule as they opened at 11 whereas Northpark opened right when the whole city of Dallas would be done with church at 12:30.

Galleria ended up being a wonderful choice! My hopes for Eleanor's first Santa encounter were that of sweet little Susan Walker in Cole's department store in "Miracle on 34th Street." Galleria Santa's little wonderland wasn't more than a bunch of tasteful Christmas lights on lots of greenery and his big velvet chair but it was perfect! I was quite surprised when we arrived at 11:07 and there was already a line wrapped halfway around the wonderland. When the little elf told us it would be 10 min I was relieved. We finally got to see Santa after waiting for not 10 min. but an hour and Eleanor was a champ throughout the entire wait! She was so giggly and as I worried that her giggles would turn to fussiness at any second, she pulled through until she got to Santa!

When we sat her on him she just stared at him in wonder. Not necessarily in shock or "who the heck are you?" but just in the perfect awe and wonder that every child has when they get to see and touch and be in the presence of that mystical figure, Santa Claus! When she heard all the bells and tambourines she finally looked at us and my desperate attempts to stray her gaze from the jolly old man in the red suit finally proved successful and we got a decent picture!

After pictures we took a stroll down to the skating rink and COrner Bakery and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast while Eleanor was enthralled in the little objects moving on the sea of white and the GIGANTIC Christmas tree in the center of it all. Any commented that he would like to see a tree like that in real life - "Only if you are Clark Griswold," I told him!

We then went shopping for Andy's class' Angel gift and he decided HE wanted to pick out a toy for Eleanor which led him to make her hand touch and push every button on every toy in the kid's section of Target. He decided that "she" liked a little farm animal piano thing. I guess we now are giving her a toy for Christmas ha!

After shopping we picked up "Aunt MEA" and headed to the Gaylord to take some more pictures. BIG MISTAKE! It was a MAD HOUSE! The line to get into the parking garage was forever long so I thought, let's spkurge and do valet. BAD decision...it was $20. So I got back into line and resorted to paying $12 for parking. Keep that in mind if you are wanting to go get a few pictures taken. Probably not worth it unless you go on a not so busy weekday and can actually get some pictures without people in them. Regardless, we got a few shots though I haven't been able to view them on the comp. When I can, I will post the best.

We are STILL waiting to get our Christmas card together. I haven't been able to get the "perfect shot" where one of us doesn't have snot dripping out our nose (we have all had colds) and we are all in good moods (mainly Eleanor) and smiling and in coordinating clothes. Andy growled at me when he came out in a red shirt (very sweet of him to try and dress himself in the holiday spirit but not what I had in mind) and I politely informed him that I had already picked out his shirt and his red shirt clashed with the red shirt I was wearing :) He is such a sweet and agreeable husband for letting me have my way with family matchy but not too matchiness...coordinate is really my word of choice. We will see how these pictures turn out and hopefully have cards in the mail before Santa hits the roof. I might just need to accept that not every picture we "publish" in a Christmas card will be perfect and resort back to my blog title and remind myself that our family is a beautiful "mess" not a model of perfection. Though it is very hard for me to accept that everything can't be perfect, I am working on loving my imperfections and living with them rather than stressing my life away to fix them. That is a whole different blog post though.

Until next time, Merry Christmas and remember, not presents, stressful mall (or in our case Gaylord) traffic, Christmas card mailout deadlines, baking, report card deadlines, perfect coordinating outfits BUT JESUS are/is the reason for the season! :) I am more or less saying that for my own reminder...God Bless!

Growing Growing Growing

Eleanor went to the Dr. last week for a weight check. She had only gained an oz. from 4 - 6 months and our doc was worried so we scheduled a check to follow up a few weeks after her 6 month check up. She weight 14lb6oz. at the 6 month checkup and after we have since put her on solids AND her spitting up has gotten SO much better/almost nonexistent, I am happy to report she now weighs in at 15lb12oz. Much improved and our doc is pleased. That still only puts her in the 40th percentile...she is a petite little bug but growing beautifully we are told!

I think her weight gain was definitely attributed to us starting solids but also to the fact that she can sit up on her own now! It is adorable, she is such a big girl! She still needs us to burp her some but occasionally since she sits up so much, she burps on her own - so ladylike :)

My favorite new trick she has up her sleeve is the clapping. Mom and Andy taught her to clap on command. She will either clap when you start singing the "Patty Cake" song or when you start clapping and say YAY!!!! Here is a little sample of her trick :)

We just love how much she is growing and changing - more updates to come on her 7 month post...less than a week away!

FALLing in Love with Autumn

This fall has been so fun and very busy around the Reinberg household. We have throughly enjoyed Eleanor's first Halloween and Thanksgiving and have loved spending time with our families.

We spent Halloween with our dear friends, the Vaniceks at my parents' house and earlier that day with the Blackwells at their "Boo Brunch" Eleanor was a pumpkin, the same thing her Daddy was his first Halloween (you know how we love tradition in the Reinberg fam) and Andy was Linus (with his big pumpkin). We enjoyed chili with the Vaniceks and the Gentrys (Simon and Nadia and little Nyah) and the babies rotated throwing fits (thank goodness never all three crying at once). Needless to say with the doorbell ringing and screaming babies it was not a quiet night to say the least but it was still fun!

Eleanor is 6 MONTHS OLD!

I can't believe it has already been half a year since our sweet Eleanor joined us! I look at the pictures from her birth and she was just this tiny little infant. NOW she is a PERSON with such a fun and well kind of distinct personality. Eleanor, you are cracking me up every day as you continue to remind me of myself. You got Daddy's looks but you are me to a T! Let me just give a few examples...

Did you know your mommy has been, on many occasions, called "Sally" from "When Harry Met Sally"? Well I have and what that means is I know what I want and I will let everyone know as well. You have begun to show that quality as I have introduced you to solids. So far, you have had sweet potato, rice porridge (food processed brown rice), and avocado. You aren't a super big fan of avocado but you LOVE sweet potato. I have tried to incoprorate rice into every meal and you tolerate it. Because you take 2tbs. of porridge for every tbs. of food, it takes a little longer to feed you the rice and therefore is why I try to give you as many bites of solely rice before also giving you sweet potatoes. For the first couple you are glad to get something in your mouth but by the second or third bites the "Sally" comes out in you. You have been known to act like you are gagging, coughing, anything you can do to be a dramatic diva and let me know that you want sweet potatoes, you even through a fit sometimes. BUT once you see me dip the spoon also into the sweet potato bowl, you are fine! Oh boy, your daddy and I might have a challenge ahead of us! He says "she eats what she gets and doesn't get a say"...BUT I know how DREADFUL it is when you ordered a cheeseburger with no cheese and it comes out making you want to gag and even wiping it off still leaves traces of cheese. I have been there and wanted to gag as well. I know how it is so I think I will be more sympathetic but hopefully some of your dad's resistance to inconvenience anyone and therefore take what is put before you will rub off on you!

More breakthroughs for you this month have included sitting up all on your own! You love it! Daddy took the legs off your play table and you love to sit up and bang on it. You can push and pull and pick up everything on the table! It keeps you super busy! We usually put the boppy around you so that you will have a cush if you fall but rarely do you ever fall anymore unless it is on purpose to roll onto your stomach to play.

You also love the picture book (squisy "Sassy" black and white book you can put pictures of people in). You love to chew on it and look at the pictures of your family. You also have been teething so much more. You will sit and chew on a toy for more than 5 min. at a time. My favorite thing you have learned to do this month is become SO MUCH more vocal! You have two "words" you say daily. We can't decide if you say them at random or with purpose yet but they are bahh bahh bahh and mmmah! So mommy is hoping you will soon say Momma for your first word! There is a good chance!

I think we might have had your reflux under control. A few days after you turned 5 months old, you had a flare up. We aren't sure what casued it and mommy even took out eggs, peanuts, corn, soy, and dairy from her diet to see what happened. She has slowly been introducing back but hasn't done soy yet. We think that might be the proble, though we really aren't sure. Bottom line, we seem to have it under control with the prevacid you so enjoy slurping up each night and by getting some solids in your tummy to maybe soak up the lactose and stomach acid and keep it from coming up. You rarely spit up as much as you used to (entire feedings at a time). Hopefully when we go in a few weeks to have your weight checked, you will have gained. When you went in for your 6 month checkup you had only gained an oz. in a month which landed you in the 28th precentile and scared mommy, daddy, and your Dr., Beline. We think you have gained some weight now though since you have been keeping your foods down!

You have endured another road trip south in your 6th month. You went to College Station for Mommy's KTB reuinion and to visit Grammy and Grandpa and your uncles. You did great on the way down. We left at 6am when it was still dark and you slept until about 8:30/9. At that point we stopped in in Centerville to feed you and then you did NOT want to get back in your car seat. You cried the whole hour to College Station. On the way home you slept for a little while (from Houston...we went to visit Baby Reese Wentrcek on the way home from CS) until about Buffalo. We got you out to play on your first playground at the Dairy Queen so you could stretch your legs and eat. You cried the whole hour home from Buffalo as well! Today, you and mommy are going to see Aunt MEA in San Marcos and do some Christmas shopping. Hopefully you will cooperate in the car and the traffic won't be too bad!

Lastly, you have definitely become preferential in who you let hold you. Even sometimes when Daddy is holding you and Mommy is in the room, you have been known to throw a fit until Mommy holds you. You did however possibly mistake Aunt MEA for mommy as when she was visiting and put you down while you both were playing with Marmi, and left the room you cried until she came back. Usually you don't cry when you are alone with Marmi at all! Visiting your grandparents in College Station, thought rushed, was a treat but kind of a different scene and took some time for you to warm up to. You hadn't seen them in almost 3 months so you definitely didn't recognize them nor did they recognize you. You weren't as smiley as usual around them but I think that was becasue you were trying to figure them out. Hopefully, now that Daddy's football is over, you will be able to see your College Station grandparents more often and hopefully they will then get to know your super fun and happy personality better.

Recap on your 6 month breakthroughs:

- reflux hopefully under control

- Started solids (sweet potato/rice porridge/avocado)

- getting clingy and picky on who holds you - you KNOW your surroundings now

- sleeping from 8pm - 6:30/7am

- taking two 2 hours naps a day (from 8ish - 11ish and from 4ish - 6ish) and then a couple smaller naps in between

- Bbbahh and MMahh are your "words" that you repetitively say

We love you sweet angel love and can't believe how you amaze us with your sweet smiles, cud

Babytique - HUGE SALE! If you have a baby READ THIS!

So I was invited to attend a test market for this new online baby registry that was just starting up when I was pregnant with Eleanor. They have quite a few unique products PLUS many of the popular brands you see at Buy Buy Baby/Babies R Us. They are moving offices and for that reason are having a HUGE sale coming up. Everything in their store is 40% off!!! On December4th it is al 50% off!

Here is the actual add verbiage below. ALSO if you would like to register with them, put me as a reference. They are great to register with becasue it is all online. Your gift givers don't have to go to a store and like I said, they have a lot of what the popular baby stores have plus more unique and fun merchandise. GREAT for gift giving! Check it out!

mybabytique.com, home of the “not finding out” registry experience is having an end of the year holiday moving sale!
Beginning November 22 through the end of the year, shop 40% off all in-showroom merchandise.
Lots of your favorite boutique brands including BeBe Au Lait, Hooter Hiders, Baby Soy, Caden Lane, Aden & Anais and MORE!
Store located at 3100 Monticello Avenue Suite 120 (open 9 to 5pm)
December 4th—enjoy 50% off
Sneak Preview at www.mybabytique.com
Keep the Change donations benefiting Generation Heroes. www.heroesforchildren.org

UGGHHHH

So I still don't have a perfectly functioning computer which means I can't get my pictures properly uploaded to a computer (that isn't my work one) and onto blogger so until then, my posts will be boring and pictureless. I have been waiting since beginning of Oct. to fix my laptop and it just hasn't happened so I have saved my posts waiting to add pictures to them before publishing. SO now my OCD is taking over and I can't have written posts that aren't published sitting for that long. SO, they are published below...I will write more/add pictures when the sweet little pink dell gets its act together! :)

Eleanor's first day of solids!

Eleanor ate her first solid food, sweet potatoes, today! It was so exciting! She has been so fussy lately and it made me wonder if she maybe just really was starving! I know baby food isn't meant to replace but just be an addition to her normal feedings but thought maybe it was time to try. Not to mention that she was constantly grabbing for our food and wanting to drink out of our cups/Andy's beer bottles. Well, she was ready as she didn't even flinch at the taste of it and had no problem with swallowing her food!



I made sure to do my research and had everything set up like the book and my dear friend Stefani Blackwell (she is my guinea pig since her son, Canon, was born a few weeks before Eleanor) said to. E had already tried out her high chair before so we knew she would like it. She was def. hungry but of course not starved (I started feeding her a little before her actual feeding time), I made sure to smile and touch the spoon to her lower lip/tounge before sticking it in and had some water on hand for her to sip if she got parched :) Probably not an issue with sweet potatoes but I had it anyway. I baked a sweet potato and then scooped the insides into my mini cuisinart food processor. I blended it until it was basically really silky smooth mashed potatoes and then took a teaspoon full and stirred it with some breast milk to a liquidy consistency. She LOVED it and was grabbing for the bowl whenever I would get up to check the camera! You can see the rest in the video below...whenever I set it up...