Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Time is flying by and I haven't posted in what seems forever. I have quickly come to learn that I can't get anything done any longer and that the 3 hours that Landon and Ella are in preschool seems like 15 minutes. Anyway, I haven't even taken as many pictures as I would like as I often forget my camera when I am trying to pack us all up and get us out of the door on time.

Landon and Ella continue to be very attentive towards Eli and will help with some small tasks. However, it does always seem that there is some type of crisis when I am feeding or in the middle of changing Eli. I guess that is just murphy's law anyway. Eli doesn't seem to mind the attention from them or anyone else for that matter. A friend has let me borrow a stroller that I can "almost" fit all three in at one time which is a life saver. I can definitely fit two of them in and one can help push or just hold onto the side while I push which makes for easier trips across parking lots.

Eli is growing really fast and seems to already be on the verge of entering into his 3 - 6 month clothes and he isn't even 2 months yet. He eats well and I haven't had him weighed to know exactly where he is but my back feels like he could be close to 13 pounds. He is sleeping pretty good only getting up once on most nights but I am still exhausted for some reason. Most nights he will eat and then stay up for an hour or two before falling asleep for 4 hours before eating again. I am very excited that my sister-in-law is coming over tonight to see if Eli will take a bottle. If so this will allow for others to feed him on occassion and maybe for me to get a little more sleep a night or two a week.

As for the last few weeks, we have traveled a couple of times to VA with one overnight trip (our first since Eli was born). We celebrated my brother's return back to the US after a deployment to Kosovo. We also celebrated his birthday and Frank's birthday, another year older and another year wiser (that's the nice thing to say right?). We have been back to church and Bible study, some of the hardest mornings to get us all going at the right time. Mike has even kept all 3 kids by himself so I could go out to dinner with girlfriends, that was such a weird feeling but it was so nice to catch up. I am looking forward to many more fun events in December as Christmas approaches and I hope that I am able to post more often!

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks with my favorite of Eli's smile!!!!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Eli had his 2 week checkup today and had gained 1 lb and 6 oz and had grown 1.5 inches. They truly do grow up fast. Mike says he is looking more and more like Landon. He has also had his first bath which he most enjoyed. I thought he would start screaming when he touched the water but instead he became so relaxed he almost fell asleep instantly. He wasn't a big fan of leaving the bath and getting dressed but who likes to be wet and cold? Eli's other first was having a pacifier for the first time. We had struggled with some crying in the late evenings for an hour or so and I ended up buying a pacifier. Landon had a "paci" that he became very attached to. Ella on the other hand is a thumb sucker. It was hard to get rid of Landon's paci (harder on his Gammy than anyone) but will be much easier than getting rid of the thumb sucking. So, I figured we would prefer Eli to have the paci than a thumb.

So far Eli seems to be a laid back baby that goes with the flow. He puts up with a lot of attention from everyone, especially Ella, and lots of noise and going from here to there. I pray that he stays this way!!!!

Due to time change and lack of sleep for mom our house has appeared a little crazy. Just look at these pictures and the only one that seems close to normal is Eli. Actually, if you want the real scoop Landon has become interested in taking pictures so we were all practicing using our funny faces, now we are sharing them with you. Hope you enjoy!

Friday, November 2, 2007

I hope everyone had a festive week. We had our fill of candy, costumes and pumpkins at our house. Ella finally had a costume she wanted to wear and not only did she want to wear it on Halloween she also wanted to wear it every morning and evening. We have yet to put it away because she still asks for it often. We went to several events including a party last Friday, a visit to the pumpkin farm that didn't have any more pumpkins to buy, trunk or treat at a nearby church, fall festival at our church and trick or treating at brother and sister-in-law's neighborhood. The kids have enough candy to last for several months (I hope) and only asked to eat one or two pieces that night. Ella does enjoy carrying her candy around and removing it from the bag and putting it back in over and over again. Landon also won some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing in the cake walk and decided he liked the cake part too.

Another attachment for Ella has been her small pumpkin that we got at the grocery store several weeks ago. She started carrying it with her in the car, giving it hugs and kisses and ultimately carrying it to bed with her each afternoon and evening. As you can see in the picture she was quite fascinated with her pumpkin. Of course as pumpkins normally do, it started to rot and get very very soft. Nannie was a life saver and went out and bought some very similar looking pumpkins and switched it out in the early morning. Ella didn't seem to notice the change but has lost her strong affection for it over the last day or two.

Eli is doing well and getting used to all of the noise around our house. It hasn't failed that when things get quiet at night and the kids are in bed that Eli wakes up for a couple of hours to enjoy the limited noise and the attention of mom and dad. Landon and Ella are still continuing to give lots of kisses and right at this moment Ella is singing the infamous SNL "broccoli" song to him. It's hard to believe that he is 2 weeks old already but at the same time my short nights lets me also feel like it has been longer at certain times. I am feeling pretty good and actually made it out to the fall festival and to see the kids trick or treat a little. I am getting a little more mobile every day, a big thanks to my mom and Gammy for helping so much over the last 2 weeks as I couldn't have done it without them.

I hope you are all doing well and that you enjoy some of the pictures from our recent activities.