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Eleanor has taken her first tentative steps into the world of the biped. That is to say, she has started walking!

She is still rather wobbly and unsure of herself, but her progress has been amazing. The most she’s done has been about 5 little steps in a row. But we fully expect her to smash this record over the weekend.

And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… I’ve done a massive photo update! I actually added three separate galleries.

• The first chronicles Ellie’s ninth through twelfth months, and thus finishes up her first year.
• The second is devoted entirely to her first birthday party and all the debauchery that ensued.
• And finally, I started a gallery which will host pictures from Ellie’s second year of life.

I don’t necessarily promise to do a better job at updating this blog. That never seems to work out. But I’ll see what I can do.

Joel Baby

Today is Eleanor’s first birthday! We simply cannot believe how fast this year has gone by, nor can we believe how much our lives have changed. Thanks to everyone that sent along birthday wishes and/or attended her super-fun birthday party two weeks ago. Our family is lucky to have so many loving people in our lives.

Ellie is such a pure joy. She is almost always happy and calm, and loves to play with anyone and everyone. These days she is always on the move. She chooses not to crawl, but instead scoots all over the place on her rump. It’s adorable. She can stand up, too, and likes to cruise around coffee tables, book shelves, the cats… She also has a lot to say.

Although I have not updated the official picture gallery in a while, I have compiled the absolute best hundred-or-so photos from Ellie’s first year in one, easily digestible gallery. You may view them here:

There is also a 14-minute long video version that contains a number of added video snippets and sentimental music accompaniment. I hope you enjoy!

P.S. Ellie really, really loves cake.

Joel Baby, Family, Life

Joel Baby

Lindsay Jordan
Born 12/17/2006, 8lbs. 12oz.

click for many more pics!

Joel Baby, Family

Joel Baby

Well, we are most certainly back from Nova Scotia. The city is as hot and sticky as it always is in summertime, but it’s nice to be enjoying the comforts of home.

Ellie seemed to have a great time. She was really relaxed, very sociable with everyone she met, and slept better than she ever does at home. We don’t know if it was the fresh air, the peace and quiet, or something else. She also enjoyed spending lots of time with her far-flung relatives. And I got the sneaking impression that they enjoyed spending time with her, too.

I’ve posted a large batch of pictures from the trip taken both my myself and my Mom. You can view them here.

I’d write more, but we’re rather disjointed at the moment. Although we’ve just returned, most of our extra time is occupied by getting ready for my next trip. I leave for Dallas on Tuesday to attend QuakeCon 2006. This will be my 7th year in a row. I’m really looking forward to it, but it’s making everything hectic at the moment.

I am not, however, looking forward to being separated from Tara and Ellie. I’ll be gone 7 days and 6 nights. I think the longest I’ve ever been away from Ellie is about 16 hours… and it was hard! This trip will be quite a bit longer. I’m going to be sad. :(

Joel Baby, Family, Life, QuakeCon

Ellie turned five months old this week. Sometimes I can’t believe the time has gone by so fast, and sometimes it feels as if it’s been about eight years. We took her to the doctor today. Another clean bill of health. She weighs an astounding 17 pounds, 3 ounces and is a phenomenal 25.5 inches long.

Eleanor’s biggest new achievement is that she sits up all on her own! Observe:

Speaking of new pictures, I have started the Month 6 gallery. Some great shots in there already. Please enjoy.

At the moment, we are packing up to go to Nova Scotia for two weeks. Thus, updates here may be a little spotty for a while. But we should have plenty of great pics and video when we return! Including some of Ellie with her Great-Grandma Sylvia who has not met her yet.

It’s a big trip and it’s taken a lot of preparation to get Ellie ready to go. We’re a little anxious about the 8 – 9 hour drive tomorrow, but we’ll get through it somehow. My parents managed to do it year after year for decades.

Joel Baby, Family, Life

As usual, I’ve been a recalcitrant poster. It’s not because I don’t love my readers. I do! But you know how it is. One day leads into the next, there’s always something to do, and then suddenly I haven’t posted in weeks.

To atone for my inaction, here’s a picture of Ellie with a cookie on her head: (She is going to be so mad at me one day…)

I’ve added several additional pictures to the latest gallery page. (Sorry, Mom… they’re the ones you’ve already seen!) And while you are there, please check out the spiffy new gallery software I’m using. Since I had to transfer my entire website to a new host, I decided to take the opportunity to upgrade. The new gallery is a lot more powerful and flexible. But unfortunately, it broke many of the links from older blog posts. At some point I’ll probably go through and fix them, but in the meantime you may find broken links.

As I mentioned, I was trying to find a good way to let people sign up for e-mail alerts for blog posts here. I found a good plug-in, but I haven’t gotten it working 100% correctly yet. But since I can at least manually send out notifications, I’ve decided to start letting people sign up. There will be a little box for this that lives over on the right. But for now, you can enter your email right here:

As for Ellie updates, there’s a whole lot to report. She’s such a joy to have in our lives. She is sweet and mellow most of the time and loves to examine things around her. Her naps still usually only last about 30 minutes, but every now and then she’ll take a nice long one. She is still chubby and jiggly. Every few days she adds a new sound to her repertoire. She is still rolling from back to front, but has not yet mastered the reverse, front to back. Although now she’s getting more comfortable with tummy-time.

I guess the big new development is that we have started experimenting with “solid” foods. And by “solid” I mean “mushy” things like oatmeal and apple sauce. At first she didn’t know what to make of these strange substances in her mouth, but after a few tries she figured out that she is supposed to swallow them. It was so cool to see her reaction the first time she tasted the sweet apples. Her eyes got super-wide as she processed the experience.

And while we are on the subject of Ellie’s mouth, I am pleased to announce that Ellie’s first tooth has poked through her lower gum! I’m sure she’ll be biting us in no time.

Joel Baby, Blogging, Life

Eleanor rolled over by herself for the first time today! We’ve been expecting her to do so “any day now” for over a month, but today was the big day.

I missed it, unfortunately. Tara says Ellie was just kinda playing on her side and then gave a big kick and flopped over onto her tummy. And then, just as suddenly, thrust with her arms and went back on her back. We could not get her to repeat this feat later on for me to see, nor would she cooperate for the video camera. Oh well. Maybe she’ll be in the mood tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I got some bad news yesterday. The company that hosts this website is going out of business. I only have until July 1st to find a new host. Hopefully there won’t be any interruptions. But if this site vanishes for a few days, you’ll know why.

Joel Baby, Blogging

I know, I know. Weeks upon weeks without a post! It’s disgraceful. Let’s hope that Eleanor inherits her work ethic from her Mom rather than her Dad. But I pledge to do better.

A lot has happened since the last post. But in the interest of actually publishing content, I’m going to start small. I’ll begin with the most recent information.

Ellie turned four months old last week. She went to the doctor today and had a perfect check-up. She is 15 pounds, 11 ounces of cuteness. She is 24 ¾ inches long. And she is reading on a seven month level.

Last weekend Eleanor went on her first swing ride. I’m not sure she really knew what to make of it at first. But I think that she ultimately enjoyed herself. Through the magic of Internetronics™, you can experience it for yourself!

I’ve also posted a number of new pictures in various locations. I finished off the Month 4 gallery with a few more pics, and then started the Month 5 gallery.

I have also created a separate gallery for pictures from Eleanor’s Naming Ceremony. I will go into more detail about the ceremony another time. It was such a wonderful day that it deserves its own post. But you should enjoy the pictures now.

In general Ellie is doing great. Every single day she becomes more and more aware of the world around her. She gazes at people, observing their every action, and seems to be especially fascinated by other little kids. She is also getting much better at manipulating objects with her hands and feet, and has a 86.375% success rate at getting things into her mouth. And she is still sleeping through the night.

Alright, I feel better now that I’ve posted. I’ll have more to say soon. By the way, would anyone be interested in some sort of notification system? Say, for example, you could sign up to have an e-mail sent whenever I update the blog? That way you wouldn’t need to fruitlessly check the site when I haven’t updated. Just a thought.

Joel Baby, Blogging