What are your names?
I’m Emily, my husband Mike and our daughter Eleanor.
How did you decide on your daughter’s name?
My sister is a writer and in her novel, the main character’s name is Eleanor — I fell in love with that name and Mike loved it too.
How did you decide what Eleanor would call you?
We let it happen naturally – Eleanor can say “daddy” and “mama” now at 15 months, so we go with those.
How did you decide on Eleanor’s last name? Is it hyphenated? Only after one parent?
We decided to give our daughter my husband’s last name, even though I didn’t take his last name. We thought hyphenating our names was just too long and wanted to keep it simple. Plus Eleanor Stewart sounds so elegant.
What were you most afraid of about becoming a parent?
I was most afraid of staying home for a year on my own with the baby. I’m a very social and outgoing person, so being at home alone with the baby most of the time seemed intimidating. I was really worried that I would get “cabin fever” and “baby blues.” Both of these did happen to me, but they weren’t as bad as I thought and now I have the best of both worlds — a job I love and I get to come home to Eleanor’s sweet smiles.
What is the most rewarding part of being a parent?
The most rewarding part of being a parent is just being able to be there for them as they experience life’s ups and downs. Whether they run to you in excitement or in fear or sadness — it’s truly an amazing feeling to be the one they run to.
What do you do for fun as an entire family?
We love to build towers out of lego and then knock them down, chase each other around the house and hide and sneak up on Eleanor (she loves being startled). In simple terms — we love being silly.
What was a “must have” item you used with Eleanor?
When Eleanor was little our must-have was the dock-a-tot. We gained so many hours of sleep because of it — instead of having to hold Eleanor all the time when she was newborn or during growth spurts, it gave us valuable minutes/hours by letting her feel snuggly like in the womb (she actually slept more than 40 minutes in it the first few weeks of life).
Describe your parenting styles. Is one parent stricter?
I don’t think we have a particular parenting style, but we focus a lot on encouraging Eleanor to be independent, resilient, and to discover the world outside of mom and dad. As she’s getting older, we are also focusing on teaching her responsibilities like helping us put away her toys.
Finish this sentence… “To me, family is….”
To me, family is the people that you fall deeper in love with every day, again and again.
