Eleanor is growing up so fast. I had to arrange a playdate with Melissa because I couldn't believe some of the pictures and things Melissa posted recently. Eleanor is 6.5 months old now, and it is CRAZY how much babies change from 3.5 months to 6.5 months. She's way closer to Micah developmentally now.

It was funny seeing the personality differences between Eleanor and Micah. Eleanor is way more social than Micah! When we sat them facing each other on the floor, Micah's first reaction was to look around the room. Eleanor's first reaction was to reach out and touch Micah's foot. Ha! (He didn't care at all. Hardly noticed, actually. He did try and touch her later, but after he had assessed the room as a whole, LOL.)

The other thing I noticed was that Eleanor was immediately unhappy and would fuss when Melissa left the room. When Micah was younger, he would sometimes call for us after a few minutes of us being out of the room, but Eleanor knows immediately when Melissa is gone. Melissa said she still has a hard time when she's left with Katie (her babysitter) every Tuesday. I'm glad I didn't pursue that job! I have way too hard of a time handling crying babies, especially when they're not mine and they don't take pacifiers and I have NO way to comfort them.

It seemed like Eleanor needed encouragement to look at things and explore them, but I could be wrong. It may have just been that way while I was there.

Melissa says she can roll but she isn't very motivated to do so. Another big difference from Micah! Once Micah figured out how to roll he wanted to go everywhere.

I had a surprisingly good time. I was afraid we'd be on tense terms since I declined the babysitting job. But it was really okay. I still feel bad that Melissa has to drive an hour before and after work though. :(

One of the most surprising things was when Melissa actually asked me how Micah goes to sleep. Like she was looking on ideas on how to get Eleanor to put herself to sleep or something.

Wait. Someone is asking ME for baby advice?

The full strength of the astonishment didn't hit me until later. But WHOA. It felt like the world had just spun 180 degrees! In my mind, I'M the one asking all the questions.

She also talked to me about solids, since she just started Eleanor on them. It was a huge relief to hear someone else express some frustration with how slow it was going, because of trying one food for 4 days before introducing another one to look out for food allergies. She said she couldn't wait until she could just feed Eleanor whatever we're eating. AMEN!

So yeah. It went a lot better than I was expecting. :) Next time, though, I might invite Melissa over here, maybe on a Saturday or something. Just because of the distance. It's a half-hour drive to where Melissa lives, and I have two other playdate friends who live just 5 minutes closer to me than Melissa does, and it's kind of exhausting if I do a playdate with them and Melissa in the same week. That's a LOT of driving.

But mostly I actually felt worn out by simply being with other people with our babies, which was a surprise to me. Not a bad surprise. I love that I'm getting social interaction (wait, wasn't this supposed to be for Micah's social interaction? LOL). I'm just still as introverted as ever, ha!

Anyway.

One last note. My favorite thing that I've recently started doing is library storytime. :D On Tuesdays, I go to a local library for baby storytime. It is SO fun to meet other moms and their babies! And to learn new rhymes and games for Micah. I definitely did not imagine it was going to be this fun. Savannah came last week, but I don't know how often she'll make it. 2 months is still awfully young! And Savannah admitted to me the other day that "It's hard to get out with a newborn!" That made me laugh because I related so much. Because YES. YES YES YES and YES it is way hard!!! I think all new moms are surprised at how hard it is. I know I was. Babies are HARD! :P

Ooh... That just made me want to write more, but I think I'll need to make a separate entry.

-Stephanie

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