The Rhodes Trifecta

it looked like michigan...

2010-03-01T13:30:00.002-06:00

...or at least what michigan looks like on TV.

Elle is a lot like me-- she likes looking at the snow, even gets excited about the snow... but from the comfort of the indoors. She tolerated about 10, maybe 15 mins before she got really bored and looked miserably cold.

Maybe in 10 years when it snows like this again she'll like it a little more.

Then again, probably not.

a new beginning

2010-02-15T20:29:00.003-06:00

Alright, folks.

First, we're alive.

Second, Jeremy just reminded me that we need to change the name of our blog, because our 4th member will be here in about a month! Suggestions welcome:)

Third, we took Eleanor to see Sesame Street Live! the other day, and let me tell you, it was b.a.d. (like the michael jackson bad, not like the bad-bad). Just to give you a hint, Elle squealed with such delight when all of the characters came out that I cried. Yes, I cried. I couldn't help it-- she was just SO happy. (and I am SO hormonal). either way, it was a fab family date. I highly recommend it. Photos below.

Fourth, Everett Ray Rhodes is scheduled to make his debut on March 26 at 10am. Counting the days!

Fifth, since our last post was almost a year ago, thought I should mention that RedBird Photography has a new website and blog. Check it out! www.redbird-photography.com

the count

these elmo balloons were super-cute, but they were $10 (for a BALLOON!), and unbelievably almost every child but mine got one. (who are these people? I already bought the freakin' tickets)
my loves

cookie monster in tye-dye

elmo

our FAV: abby- cadaby

p.s.- I forgot to mention that the title of this blog is the name of Lori Chafer's (of waterdeep)solo album. It's great, you should check it out.

erin's belly

2009-04-20T21:56:00.002-05:00

c-r-a-z-y.

i only thought working full time, getting my masters degree and having a baby was busy. i had no idea.

short update on nikki:

1. started a new job working for a counseling company that contracts with HeadStart; now I do play therapy with 3-5 year-olds.

2. I also still do contract work with MHMR's crisis team.

3. I also own/run RedBird Photography-- see my latest work here.

4. and Eleanor is awesome, as usual.

5. and Jeremy is in school, as always (and forever).

love y'all.

waco wetlands

2009-03-27T10:39:00.004-05:00

so, my photography class took a field trip to the "waco wetlands", and elle was our model. here are the results :)

See more on the RedBird Photography blog

These were obviously not taken by me, since I am in them. Curtis, my instructor, took this one.

Gina, a classmate, took this one:

i'm so excited, i can't even come up with a name for this post.

2009-03-04T23:53:00.002-06:00

RedBird, "mega".

see for yourselves: www.redbird-photography.com

brad harris, you rule. (www.bradharris.org)

Announcing...

2009-02-08T22:28:00.006-06:00

the long-awaited and much anticipated (by me :)).... Redbird Photography!

I (Nikki) am so excited and have been planning/ working on for months my own *little* (and I mean LITTLE) business, which you will see a small portion of at this link. I have been buying equipment, talking about taxes, business names, marketing, prices, mentoring, designing websites (mine is "under construction"), taking a class (SO thrilled to be taught by Curtis Callaway), and of course, taking a few photos here and there...

...and though I'm not in a technical "launching" phase, I think I'm ready to tell the blogging world:)

yay!

Here are a few new shots of elle at the dam--

So many pictures, So little time...

2009-02-04T10:35:00.007-06:00

ok, let's get started. First, Macy's Birthday Party on Saturday. I (Nikki) took a million pictures because I am enrolled in an advanced photography class and I had an assignment due (ie- use two light sources), so I was busy trying to kill about 17 birds with one stone that day. Results are as follows: (and all the rest of the party pics- 'cause there are a LOT) are here.

CAKE!!

Roy

Campbell Rose

PRESENTS!

Elle was a ham, as usual.

ok, these sunglasses were TOO cute. I hope mom is ok with her being on my blog. Check here for the rest of the party pics.

Macy LOVED her mini-horse. I mean, LOVED it. It was awesome. The photos are proof.

We may indeed be witnessing the most beautiful person in the history of time...

2008-12-15T16:10:00.010-06:00

We recently had some professional pictures of Elle taken. We love them so much. Enjoy!

Props to Tasha from Homeshade Photography in Houston-

she's A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Birthday Bash

2008-11-17T20:59:00.010-06:00

Eleanor's first birthday is in a couple of weeks (Dec 2), and my (jeremy) 30th birthday was last week. So Nikki decided that we couldn't just have a birthday party for Elle; we had to have a joint party for the both of us. I felt a little awkward hogging in on my only daughter's birthday party, but we had a great time.

We had decided several weeks ago that we were going to grill some burgers outside, since it's only cold in Texas for about 3 weeks in January. Unfortunately, it was frickin' freezing. You'll see in the pictures that people are wrapped in coats and scarves as they drink beer and coke outside. Don't see that too often.

Most of the people who came are friends from Waco; some from church, some from my department, some from Nikki's work, etc. We are especially grateful to those people who came in from out of town - Nikki's parents and grandmother, my brother Brian and his fiance Stacey, Brad and Meredith, Matt and Krissy, and Kristin and Russ. Love you all. Unfortunately, my mom got SERIOUSLY ill the day of the party, and my older brother had dental surgery, so they couldn't come. We missed them a lot.

Here are some pics of the action...

The birthday girl.

Nikki loves this picture.

Elle's best friend Campbell Rose King

Much food and such.

Jerks.

Sarah and Myles

Eating a birthday cupcake.

Love Brad and Mere.

Okay, so this one requires a bit of explanation. As party favors, Nikki found fake grills. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of grills, it's basically a set of fake teeth with gold and silver and gems on it. Very gangster. Or gangsta, as the case may be. Here's a pic of almost everyone sporting their grills, with the best hard-ass gangsta face they can muster. As you can see, some are better than others. I'm looking at you, Sam.

And here's a video of Eleanor eating her birthday cupcake.

Our Backyard.

2008-11-02T16:49:00.010-06:00

Some of you know that Nikki finished her MA in counseling last August. As a graduation present, Nikki asked her parents if they would fund and assist in some backyard landscaping projects (insead of the cruise they offered-- ha!). They agreed, and we spent several days doing the whole project. We can't thank them enough for this, and Nikki completely loves it.

So here are a couple pics of the backyard before we started (these pics are from when we first bought the house)

After digging out some of the grass and removing the former stone pathway, Nikki is laying down some new stones. We were able to reuse a number of the stones from the previous walkway.

We rented a gas-powered tiller to get up this large section of the grass.

It took over a day just to lay down all the stone tiles. This was very tedious work, and Nikki and her dad did all of it. For each tile, they had to level it and measure its distance from the other tiles, then level it again, then put some sand under it, then level it again the other way. You get the idea.

Here is the finished product

We also tore out the screened in porch and opened it up.

Thanks Mom and Dad for all of your help and hard work- we absolutely couldn't have done it without you and we LOVE it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

It's been awhile...

2008-10-28T20:01:00.008-05:00

So I know that it's been several weeks since our last blog post, and yes, we are still alive. yes, we still live in Waco. yes, we still have the most beautiful and amazing little baby in world history. So I guess a lot has gone on, but we will not be discussing much Rhodes news on this post. I do not have the energy. I will, however, post a few videos and pictures.

This first video is of Eleanor walking. She has been walking for 5 or 6 weeks now, and this video was taken 2 or 3 weeks ago. She can walk a bit faster now, but you get the gist.

This next video displays a few of her latest tricks, which include touching her nose on request, whistling, fake hilarious whistling, saying "Pop", and just generally being astonishing.

And for our final video of this post, we have Eleanor laughing. It is wonderful.

And here are a few pictures that we've taken in the last few weeks.

Nikki hosted a Mary Kay party, and decided to put makeup on Eleanor.

This was her new favorite expression for a few weeks.

Again, this time on her swing.

And playing peek-a-boo behind the treadmill.

We did some landscaping in our backyard (with Nikki's parents' endless help)

Surprise!

2008-09-18T21:31:00.001-05:00

Elle has a hysterical new expression that she mimics when we act excited and raise our eyebrows at her. See for yourselves.

Eleanor laughing is like a song.

2008-08-24T22:25:00.003-05:00

So this video was taken a couple of weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to putting it up. For a few weeks now, Elle has decided that spitting out her food is more fun than eating it. Sometimes we'll put the food in her mouth, and as soon as we move the spoon away, she starts spitting it out. We say "no" and this works sometimes, but not always.

This video was taken at Nikki's parents' house in Jacksonville (they're doing some re-modeling on the inside, so that's why the background looks like a disaster zone). As Nikki's dad was feeding Eleanor, she was of course spitting out the food. But for some reason, when he said "no" to her, she thought that was absolutely hilarious. This was the most she had ever laughed.

Let it be known: he promised to call me "Master Nikki"

2008-08-11T21:35:00.005-05:00

... he also told me that once he got his PhD and everyone starts calling him Dr. Rhodes (hypothetically), that mine would still be better because the rule is that you always go by your final degree, and mine would of course be Master, and everyone knows a master is better than a doctor--- please.

he won lots of points that day.

In all seriousness, he has won a LOT of points every day for the past two years as I have been commuting to school, working, pregnant, and mommy-ing. I haven't been what you would call "around" much, but Jeremy and Elle have both been the most supportive, patient, and encouraging little family I could ever ask for. I owe my ability to finish to them and the good Lord for holding us all together.

People Eleanor Loves

2008-07-15T17:36:00.006-05:00

Nikki and I were talking the other day about Eleanor and love. Of course, everyone has heard a million times about how much you love your children, beyond your wildest expectations, blah blah blah. What has been surprising in these first 7 months or so, however, is how it affects us when other people love Eleanor. When someone loves Eleanor, I seem to connect with them in a new way. I'm grateful to them for loving that which I love the most.

This is one of the main reasons why we love hanging out with our parents so much. Milestones and new skills happen all the time with Eleanor. Some of them are pretty important (crawling), some of them are less than earth-shattering (hair seems to be 1/8" longer than 6 months ago). But regardless of how unimportant some of these things seem to most people, even to close friends with children of their own, these things are never unimportant to our parents. With who else can we talk for 30 minutes about the syllables she can pronounce, or the fact that she likes this toy but not that one, or the noises she makes when we drive in the car? Only four people in the world care as much about that stupid stuff as Nikki and I do: our parents. We love them so much, and they all make Eleanor smile more than anyone, often more than we do. I'm not making that up.

So here are a few pictures of Eleanor with the four people she loves the most.

Pop

Honey

Grammy

Grandpa

Visit from the Kings

2008-07-15T10:42:00.008-05:00

So Kristin and Russ brought Cambell to see us this weekend, and we had a great and relaxing weekend. Here's some pics.

Beautiful little girl.

Eleanor had a consistent urge to gouge at Campbell's eyes. We told her, "eye gouging is only for 6 month old babies."

Eleanor planning her next eye gouge

If Elle can't gouge Cambell's eyes, she will settle for an uncomfortable stare

They already have the same taste in clothes. Amazing.

Fourth of July and other pics

2008-07-08T21:52:00.005-05:00

We went over to Nikki's parents' house (Nikki's parents are called Honey and Pop) on lake Jacksonville for the 4th of July weekend, and we had a great time relaxing and hanging out on the lake. Here are a few pictures...

Elle in her new floaty swimsuit thing.

a 4th of July outfit that her Grammy and Grandpa bought her

swimming with Pop

tubing with Mom

And now a few non-independence-day-related-photos

not sure which of these two enjoy the Baby Einstein DVD more

Elle's Uncle Brian and Aunt Stacey had a shirt made of their niece.

What's better than this face?

Eleanor doesn't seem too fazed by the fly ball that I saved her from.

CRAWLING!

2008-06-25T20:36:00.001-05:00

Elle is less than 7 months old, and she has started crawling a little bit. Granted, it's not a sophisticated crawl, but she can scoot a few feet. Here's the video.

A few new pics...

2008-06-11T09:35:00.005-05:00

Holding her own bottle? Advanced.

Eleanor is starting to take a greater interest in the pets.

Violet is so sweet and gentle with Eleanor. She lets Eleanor crawl and tug all over her.

Our first taste of solid foods other than rice cereal. This was peas. Not a fan.

Chillin in the sun in her new pool.

Just love this picture. There's something devious about this smile to me.

Thomas loves poking things, especially belly buttons.

Pretty in Pink

2008-05-19T19:53:00.005-05:00

So I (Nikki) went to the store to buy a little silkie (anyone know where I can find a plain one without a teddy head attached?)- and though I was unsuccessful at this, I happened upon something I couldn't pass up. Yes, it was a hot pink tutu. for my daughter who can't walk, much less dance. But I didn't care- it would make for superb pics. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought elastic, pink ribbon, and a big ole' pink flower, and made her headpiece. here is our first attempt at our homemade photo shoot in the entryway. (yes, we are very much in grad school...). We took at least 30 pics, most of which have been posted to our smugmug.

Here is my attempt at artsy. What do you think?

Saturday Eleanor had her first playdate with Chloe (born 8 days after her). We had a great picnic with our friends Elisabeth (my friend from work) and Cory.

On Mother's Day we went to Babie's 'R Us to pick up a few things before we left town and were offered free portraits of Elle if we agreed to let a trainee "practice" on her. (We are sure this is because she was the prettiest baby to enter the store that day...). After a heated "discussion" about the pros and cons (J: She's sleeping, I don't think she'll do well; I want to go home, N: we never do anything fun), I won and we gave it a go. She was perfect.

My best girls.

2008-05-12T20:17:00.007-05:00

Eleanor is just so fun. Tonight, Nikki said, "She just gets more fun every single day." These smiles are just piercing. How are we ever going to be able to say no to this? Seriously.

Since we've been going out of town for the past 3 weekends, I've been posting pics from those trips. Last weekend, we were able to go see some of our dear friends down in League City, Brad and Meredith. Sometimes we joke that we will someday live next door to them. They may think this is a joke. I assure you it is not.

Bryce and Kim, also dear friends in League City.

Here are a few random pictures of smiles and such that I've been meaning to post for some time now, but am just now getting around to.

Weekend in Jacksonville

2008-05-06T11:00:00.008-05:00

We got to go see Nikki's parents (Grandparent names are Honey and Pop) last weekend in Jacksonville, and Elle had a few firsts: first boat ride, first time touching the water (the water was too cold to get all the way in), and first kitchen-sink bath. Major moments. Here are a few pictures.

Though she is wearing a bikini, I assure you she is not a hoochie...

2008-04-27T22:18:00.017-05:00

I wasn't too sure about this bikini. When she was born, I informed her that she would not be allowed to wear a bikini until approximately age 30. We made it almost 5 months. Don't let this fool you, though. I'm not one of these push-over fathers. When I make a rule, I mean to keep it. All other rules are still in effect, such as:

1. No boys. For several years.

2. No makeup. For several years.

3. No watching commercials. Ever. We will mute the TV or turn it off or something.

4. No becoming a vegetarian. That's wrong.

5. No watching of movies starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey. That's wrong. And unfunny. And immoral.

I could go on, but I listed only the most crucial ones.

Well, her Grammy and Grandpa found her this bikini and a matching hat, so my rules were useless against their "Ahhhh, c'mon"s. Note to Grammy: In the future, if you show up at my house with a bag of makeup or a boy or a plate of organic vegetables or a copy of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," I will not let you in the house. You will immediately drive back to Houston.

Here are a few more pics of the Elle and our weekend in Houston. Enjoy.

Here's Eleanor with her great grandparents, Mimi and Papa.

Elle and Grandpa.

Eleanor and Uncle Brian.

Thank God we finally got to go see the Fraziers! Here's Elle with two potential suiters, Ben and Logan. Fight to the death, boys!

Love my Aunt Kellye.

Though this is not a flattering picture of Eleanor, I just love this picture of Big Ben.

Note: We also were grateful to be able to see Erin & Matt, Kristin & Russ, and Uncle Van. Unfortunately, pictures were not taken of these historic events.

for campbell, inspired by erin

2008-04-10T09:36:00.002-05:00

For my very first post to this blog, here are the letters I made for Campbell's room. It was certainly a labor of love, and I have a newfound appreciation for Eleanor's letters made by Erin.

It's funny how much i love her already.

A few movies.

2008-03-25T09:00:00.003-05:00

Decided to post a couple of short home movies that we have made of Eleanor. Each video is about 2 or 3 minutes long. Enjoy.

This first video was taken about a month ago, and it shows Eleanor anticipating kisses. We love this. We started coming in slowly for kisses, and before long, she knew the kisses were coming, and reacted accordingly.

This next one shows Eleanor standing up with her grandmother, who we call "Honey." She is advanced.

This next one was taken almost 6 weeks ago, and it was when Eleanor started talking herself to sleep. I would stand and rock her, preparing to lay her down. As we rocked, she would just start making these wonderful noises. Pay no attention to the ominous music in the background. It's supposed to be a womb noises CD, but it turned out to be some mixture of a horror movie soundtrack and Yanni music.

The last one was taken only yesterday, and she just started making this noise. It's kind of a cross between a laugh and a shriek of the mythical banshee.

Elle in a fly dress...

2008-03-14T11:43:00.008-05:00

Not much to say on this post, just thought I'd post a few of the latest pics.

Kristin and Russ came into town last weekend, and Kristin took some family pics for us. Thanks, aunt KK.

Now that's a smile.

2008-03-02T16:30:00.006-06:00

Two things make Elle smile more than anything in the world. 1. when Nikki comes to get her out of bed (only if she's already awake... if Nik has to wake her up, she is not happy) and 2. when we hold her up to our face and sing to her. huge smiles almost everytime. I'm talking like huge smiles, like I wonder if it hurts her mouth to stretch that much. So we've been trying to get one of these smiles in a picture, and finally we got close this morning. This is when we went in to get her up this morning, and she was a happy girl.

Eleanor is doing really really great. She's been sleeping through the night almost completely for the last few nights, and when she does wake up, she goes back down pretty quickly. She's also mimicking us a lot more. She makes this funny gurgle noise sometimes, so we started doing it too. Now, when she hears us make the gurgle noise, she does it back. brilliant.

Nikki and I are both keeping really busy. Nikki has been back at work for 3 or 4 weeks now, and we're starting to get the hang of it. We juggle the baby back and forth; so I have the baby when she's at work, and she has the baby when I'm in class. Nikki is taking one class this semester, and it's an online class, so she doesn't have to drive out to Belton this semester. However, she is having to study for her comprehensive exams on top of her classwork, working 30 hours a week, and feeding a baby every three hours. She's a machine. Here's the normal schedule, from my point of view:

6:00 - We wake up and hope that Elle stays asleep till 7:00.
7:00 - Nikki feeds the baby while I do some house chores
8:00 - Nikki leaves me to fend for myself
8:05 - Put Eleanor down on her play mat, sit down at the desk to start writing.
8:06 - Pick Eleanor up. She will have none of this "playmat" nonsense.
8:07 - Get frustrated cause I feel like I'll never get any work done.
8:08 - Remember that Elle is a precious gift from God, and feel kind of like an ass for getting frustrated
8:09 - Play, sing, and dance with Eleanor
8:20ish - Start trying to put Eleanor down for her nap
8:22ish - Pick Eleanor up. She will have none of this "nap" nonsense.
8:45 - Eleanor usually goes down for her nap around this time.
9:45 - pack up the girl and drive up to Nikki's work, where she feeds Eleanor
10:45 - arrive back home; go back and forth between playing with/consoling Eleanor and reading or writing at my desk
11:15 - Put Eleanor down for nap
11:17 - Pick Eleanor up. She will have none of this "nap" nonsense.
1:00 - Nikki comes home, eats lunch, hangs out, and feeds Elle, then goes back to work
1:30 - play with Elle
2:30 - Eleanor naps, and I work as much as I can
4:00 - Nikki comes home and feeds Eleanor.
5:00 - We go for a walk around the neighborhood
6:00 - Elle eats again, while we eat dinner at the same time
7:00 - bathtime for Eleanor
8:00 - Eleanor eats again, and goes down for the night. I go into the office and work for 3-5 hours. Nikki also works between feedings
10:00 - another feed for Eleanor, this one's called a "dreamfeed" where you don't actually wake her up; she just eats while she sleeps.

This is all subject to change on days when I have class, or days when Elle is hungrier than usual. It's crazy busy, but also fun. We're in love with her.

Elle's favorite pasttime is watching me study. I'm pretty awesome at studying. You should come over and watch me do it. (I know you're not supposed to put those Bumbo seats up on the table, but it's okay if I'm sitting right next to her. Back off.)

A very fly Baby Bjorn that our friends let us borrow. Stylish.

This has nothing to do with Eleanor, but

2008-02-24T21:33:00.001-06:00

So this has nothing to do with our Eleanor (sorry), but my brother sent me this link and I thought it was hilarious. Please view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBM854BTGL0&eurl=http://www.fistofblog.com/?p=6772

Contrary to what this looks like, my daughter really does like me.

2008-02-15T23:01:00.009-06:00

Is it weird or somehow wrong that I laugh so hard when Eleanor cries like this? I just think it's hilarious. This is her pouty, "I'm sick of you people bothering me" cry, and she loves to bring it out when she's tired of us kissing her. Which sort of happens a lot. The kissing. And I guess the crying too. She better get used to it, cause it ain't stopping. It ain't even slowing down. At all.

Here's a few more pictures we've taken.

She has started to smile a lot, but it's been hard to get a good picture of a smile. As soon as she sees the camera, she just sort of stares at it, kind of emotionless.

Elle is always a hppy girl right before bath time. She can be crying her head off, and the second we walk into that bathroom, she's content. She and Nikki pose in front of the mirror.

This is another example of how her cries crack me up. I put her in this whatever-you-call-this-weird-thing and she's clearly not ready for it. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but her legs are dangling, and you can see her right hand sticking out the leg opening. Not an orthodox sitting position, but hilarious nonetheless.

Yes Yes Ya'll...

2008-01-29T07:41:00.000-06:00

Well, I realize that two nights is only two nights, and babies routinely do things that you want them to do for a short time only to break right back into the old practices. I'm not getting too excited over this, but... Eleanor slept through the night. Twice.

Can I get a what what? Can a get a yes yes ya'll?

Last weekend, we had to leave town suddenly and got back into Waco on Sunday at about 6:00 or 7:00 PM. Eleanor had been really fussy throughout the car ride (she usually sleeps the whole ride), so we thought we'd be in for a long night. She went to bed at about 8:00 or 9:00, and Nikki fed her again (without waking her up) at about 11:00 PM. We went to bed and before we knew it, it was 6:00. Since the last few weeks of Nikki's pregnancy were pretty rough on her, it had been at least 3 months since she had 7 hours of straight sleep. The next night (Monday night), she went to bed at 9:30, and Nikki tried to do the 11:30 feed in her sleep, but Eleanor was not interested. So we were sure she'd wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 AM, since her last meal was at 9:00. Low and behold, we woke up at 7:00 AM! Eleanor went like 10 hours between feeds! And slept full on from about 10:00 till 7:00. Very proud.

Nikki and I are fully aware that some babies will sleep through the night for a few days or even weeks, only to start waking up again for a time. We're just grateful for these two nights! Here are a few pictures to remind you how beautiful Eleanor is (as if you could forget)...

We got a new camera lens...

2008-01-17T21:02:00.001-06:00

So with our Christmas money, we decided to buy a macro lens for our Nikkon camera, and it allows us to take super close-up shots. If you ever see close-up pictures of a flower or a bee or something, it was probably taken with a macro lens. Needless to say, Nikki has been going to town, takng endless pictures of Eleanor's face, eyes, hands, feet, mouth, you name it. Posted a few here, and a lot more are posted on the smugmug website, http://www.nikki-rhodes.smugmug.com/ If you want to see how impressive these pictures can be, click on one of them to see it in full size.

Eleanor is growing up so much already. She is starting to smile (though we don't yet have many great pictures of the smile, I'm sure some will be posted soon), and she coo's all the time. Her favorite time of the day is the morning, right after her first feed of the day, usually around 7:00 or 8:00. She has started making a lot more eye contact with us, instead of constantly gazing at the fan. (Seriously, if you put your face in between her and the fan, she squirmed around until she was back in view of the fan.) Her sleeping schedule is becoming a bit more reliable, and even though we are nowhere near a full night's sleep, she has gone 6 hours a couple of times.

She hasn't smiled yet, but damn she seems close.

2007-12-29T16:20:00.000-06:00

This past week, we've made some great progress regarding Eleanor's sleeping patterns. She still wakes up 2 or 3 times each night (pretty normal for a 1 month old baby), but she almost always goes right back to sleep after feeding. So even though we're waking up a lot, we now get 6 to 8 hours of sleep almost every night. She's also taking more daytime naps now, whereas before, it seemed like she never slept in the afternoon, she just fussed. Lots of progress in the Rhodes house, and Elle is getting more beautiful each day.

My daughter is an absolute spectacle.

2007-12-28T18:37:00.001-06:00

This is maybe my favorite picture of Eleanor. Maybe. I decided I'd post a few more pictures, since some of you want to see them, but don't have the time to wade through a million pictures on Nikki's smugmug site.

Here she is, live and in color!

2007-12-27T10:13:00.000-06:00

Sorry that it has been so long since I last posted anything, but as you can imagine, things have been busy. Eleanor is doing great, and we're having so much fun learning about her little personality. She starting to sleep a little more, but most nights are still pretty exhausting.

Here's a video we shot this morning when she was very alert. We really enjoy these moments when she wants to be awake, and seems much more responsive to us. For those who watched the entire video and didn't understand my reference to the "dramatic chipmunk," here's that clip. Just keeping you informed.

This is my life...

2007-12-07T10:27:00.000-06:00

Can you believe this? Seriously.

For those of you who haven't heard, Eleanor came into our lives at 10:23 PM on Sunday, Dec 2. She weighed 6 lb 14 oz, and measured at 19 3/4 in. Her beauty is absolutely unspeakable. Nikki and I are pretty overwhelmed at this point. Overwhelmed with joy, exhaustion, laughter, stress, sleeplessness, gratitude, wonder, humility, questions, love for our daughter, and love from our friends and family.

Nikki's recovery from the c-section is going great. We went to get the staples out of the incision on Friday morning, and the doctor said that Nikki is moving around so well that he would have thought her c-section was 2 or 3 weeks ago if he didn't know her. Breastfeeding is also coming along really well. After a few miserable and stressfull attempts in the hospital, things are finally coming along well. Nikki's milk came in on Wednesday night, and our little Eleanor is finally getting enough fluids (for awhile, we thought she'd have to go on an IV drip of fluids due to dehydration, but we're out of that mess now that she's feeding so much better).

Thanks to all of you precious friends who want to talk to us, but have kept yourselves from calling every day. I know it has been hard for some of you, and Nikki will begin calling all of her beloved friends soon, I promise. For now, she has enough to stress about without me asking her to return phone calls from friends. We'll keep trying to post updates on this blog, and we're also going to be posting more pictures on Nikki's smugmug photo site, at http://www.nikki-rhodes.smugmug.com/ We've already posted a few photos to that site, so I'm not going to post many here. Check out that link to see more of our precious little bean. (We started calling her bean after seeing her swaddled up so tight in her blanket.)

Our mammaries overfloweth. (actually, Nikki's mammaries overfloweth. No flow is occuring with my mammaries)

Question: Is my daughter here yet? Answer: No. No, she is not.

2007-12-01T08:55:00.000-06:00

So unfortunately, Eleanor is not here yet. We went to the doctor last Wednesday, and he said that he'd be surprised if we made it to next Wednesday without having the baby. So that's good news, but Nikki is till miserably uncomfortable.

Our wonderful friend Erin made us these wooden letters for Eleanor's wall that Nikki and I are in love with. Especially Nikki. The letters are from some website where you can submit any font and size you like, and they cut letters for you. I think you can order them painted different colors, but Erin got them blank and painted all these designs on them herself. Can you believe this? Seriously, this is a literal question: can you believe this? You should have seen Nikki when the letters arrived. She hasn't been that excited since we found out we were pregnant. They are easily Nikki's favorite thing in the room. Occassionally, she'll randomly get up to go into the room, and say to me, "I think I'm going to go look at the letters" in this squeaky, giggly I'm-a-fifth-grader-who-just-met-Jordon-from-the-new-kids-on-the-block voice. Last week, we were driving home from a bed & breakfast weekend in Salado, and as we drove home Sunday morning, she said, "I can't wait to see the letters." They are that good. Pictures attached, but the pictures don't do them justice. If you live within 250 miles of Waco, come see them. On second thought, maybe you should wait till Eleanor comes so you can see her too.

This is a Blog...

2007-11-23T08:19:00.000-06:00

So Nikki and I have started a blog. What does this mean for civilization? How long will the list be of individuals who have had their MINDS BLOWN by our lives? Only time will tell.

Even though I consider myself to be a tech-savvy guy, I've never had a blog, and I felt a bit like out-of-touch-middle-aged-guy-who-can't-email when I first signed up for this. How do you post a profile picture? What about embedding videos on my post? I'm more that a little embarrassed that I don't yet have the answers to these questions.

So my daughter is currently scheduled to arrive in this world on Dec 4, and this blog will help to chronicle all the stuff that goes with that. Mostly pictures and little stories about her; don't expect to read my insights about life. I have no insight. I have a house and a wife and soon a daughter, and that's it. No insight.