Diciembre

Eli is 6 months old today. When I was pregnant and even just after Eli was born people would tell me that it would go by quickly. They were not kidding. The past 6 months have flown by and I can barely believe that it has been that long since our sweet little boy first came into our lives. Here are some highlights from the past couple months:

-Eli is now able to sit up on his own for short periods. He may topple over after awhile, but he is working hard on those core muscles :)

-He is also getting a lot more mobile. He isn't crawling yet, but that doesn't mean that he stays put when you put him down on the floor. He rolls and spins and belly crawls to get where he wants to go. Poor Yoda better get ready.

-We get to hear and see lots of smiling, giggling, and talking. ooooh boy does he talk sometimes. He squeals and squawks and coos. He has a lot to say, we just can't understand him yet.

-He enjoys playing in his Johnny Jumper and his exersaucer which makes the day a little easier for me. He can entertain himself so I am able to get a few more things accomplished. Of course, I still don't have pictures hanging on the walls and very often the laundry gets forgotten, but I am doing better :)

-We have started eating solid foods---or I should say purees. We have tried peas (YUCK!), green beans, carrots, squash (his favorite!) and sweet potatoes so far. Next week we will start working on the fruits.
-The most common question I get: No, he still does not sleep through the night. He usually wakes up once per night. Occasionally we have a rough night where we see his little face 3 or more times, but those nights are few and far between.

-He almost always wakes up for the day happy. Sometimes I think it is a little too early (6am) but Eli is happy to start his day and usually greets me with a huge grin and some gibberish I do not understand when I walk into his room in the a.m.

-Eli's first Thanksgiving at the Haws house. He got to hang out with cousins Parker and Jackson. Jackson (BBJ as we call him) is 2 months younger but weighs the same as Eli. I guess his mom is feeding him some good stuff :)


-We went on a mini vacation to Kansas City. We visited Josh, Sara, Jake and Bethany. I was able to do some shopping and Andy and Josh went to the Chiefs vs Broncos game. We also saw Christmas lights at Crown Center, went to the College Basketball Experience and had a great time hanging out with family.

umm brrrrrr!

We ate dinner at Fritz's (the train restaurant as jake calls it) where your food is delivered to your table by a train. Pretty cool, especially if you are a 3 year old boy who is obsessed with all things with wheels.

with cousin Bethany

-Tonight Eli met Santa for the first time. We went with our dear friends the Crawfords and the Jesters to Bass Pro where they were offering free photos with Santa. Eli didn't mind Santa (I always thought he was a little scary), but it only lasted a few seconds.
The three daddies pushing the strollers through Bricktown. This quickly turned into a hysterical (though somewhat dangerous) game of bumper strollers/nascar racing. It has been so much fun going through pregnancy and parenthood with these great friends! We also drove through to look at the Christmas lights at Chesapeake. They always have the best lights and this year they nearly made me squeal out loud. Various vibrant colored LED lights on every single tree on the property. So great!

-We are taking family photos tomorrow so stay tuned for new pictures!

-I am finished with my Christmas shopping except for a gift for one of my nieces. I attempted to make something and it was a failure, so I will have to face the crowds and head to the stores hopefully just one more time. My goal is always to be finished by Thanksgiving. I didn't quite make that goal this year, but I was close. I still have to wrap everything.

That's about it, I think. I will post family pictures soon. I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween

We did Trunk or Treat at church again this year. We have really enjoyed this event in the past and like to come up with fun games/themes for our decorated car. This year's theme was football. We didn't really decorate the truck, but we had a football toss game and we all dressed up. Andy and I were football players, Eli was the football, Tucker was the referee and our little friend Kerrington was our cheerleader.Kelli and Kerrington. Me and Eli
Tucker was the most popular member of the family. He sat next to us and let all the little kids pet him. Such a good dog :) Yoda had to stay at home because he would bark waaaaay too much. We love you though Yoda and I decided to show you how much I love you by NOT putting a Halloween costume on you this year. (Remember how much you hated the moose costume???) You are welcome.

chatty cathy

having a good conversation/laugh with daddy. i guess they speak the same language :)

SOLD

I forgot to post this: We sold our "summer home" as Andy calls it. We closed on the sale of our "old" house on September 30th. I don't always understand God's timing, but I am so thankful that the house is sold and we survived several months of 2 mortgage payments with me being essentially unemployed. Praise God!

more pics and videos

Here is some randomness of photos and video, mostly from the past month. wathching OU. He loves watching football.
Yaaaaawwwwwn.

crying after we took him out of the warm bath.

www.mobywap.com i love this thing

snoozin

tummy time with the dogs

fell asleep on the way home. it was pretty cool outside so he is wearing a hoodie...and he is actually wearing pants he just kicks so much when he is in the carseat that his pants end up like shorts.

the speedbumps i made on the bed so he wouldnt roll off while i got dressed.

bandaids :( after his 4 month shots

bumbo seat being used unsafely according to the warning on the side of the seat. do not use on elevated surface (except kitchen table while eating pancakes for dinner!)

snoozin some more

crooked smile.

ready for church

After our 4 month checkup, our pediatrician told us we could start trying some rice cereal. ohhhh what fun this will be.

Just making noise

enjoying splashing in the tub

4 months old!

Eli is 4 months old today (10-12-09). I really wish I could say that I have documented every little milestone like a good mommy should, but I haven't. I enjoy (nearly--except when he is really cranky and I am really sleep deprived) every minute I spend with the little man, but I am horrible at writing things down and I have even been pretty bad about taking pictures the past few weeks. Ugh, I know I will regret it, so here I vow to do better :) The past month has been a lot of fun. Eli smiles tons... usually a shy, coy little smile where he tucks his chin down to his chest while the little grin just creeps out, then it develops into a whole face consuming smile where even his ears come up just a little (just like his daddy). This is fun because even when I am behind him, as in holding him to face his daddy or grandma or a stranger, I can still tell when he smiles just by the little movement of his cute little ears---it is a lot easier to see this because he STILL doesn't have a hair on his head. And yes, we have purchased a nice warm hat for him for the winter. We got to use it this weekend when we traveled to Hillsboro to visit with Froese/Loewen family. It just happened to be FREEEEEEZING (not technically), 33 degrees saturday morning when we left the house to watch a soccer game (we watched from the car) but we did walk around Tabor campus a little so we were all bundled up. picture to come...

Let's see, Eli is rolling from back to belly fairly consistently. He started rolling from his belly to his back about 3 weeks ago, but then apparently forgot how to do that and started going back to belly. He gets mad now once he ends up on his belly because he has "forgotten" how to roll back onto his back. (confused?) He is getting pretty good with his head control and loves for us to hold him up so he can stand. He laughs when we talk in the silly baby voice or when we tickle him. His most recent acheivement is finding his hands. He plays with them constantly and has started putting them in his mouth (awesome! during flu season) so anything that happens to be near his hands ends up in his mouth as well (blankets, pacifier clip, etc.) He coos and "talks" and has started to splash in the tub. He is just so much fun lately and I am so in love.

3 months old

September 12th marked the 3 month anniversary of Elijah's arrrival. To celebrate, we spent several hours waiting to get his pictures taken. We had scheduled an appointment at Target and had timed things perfectly...he was fed, napped, changed and totally happy and smiling. Then we waited...and waited...and waited. They were running behind and an hour and a half later (with a seemingly content baby) we began our photo session. All it took was one pose to send him into a mini-meltdown. He was in desperate need for a nap, he had just fooled us into thinking he would stay in a good mood. We should have known, and we should have left after 30 minutes. I mean seriously, a 3 month old's window of happiness is so short before they need to eat or sleep (or at least our 3 month old's window is short). So we went home and relaxed for awhile and scheduled an appointment for later that day at JC Penney. Attempt #2 was slightly more successful. They, too, were running over an hour behind, but we managed to get some decent shots despite an unimpressive photographer. After getting home and looking at the photos again (I was in a very bad mood at that point), I decided I wanted to try one more time. I just didn't love any of the photos. So I scheduled another appointment at Target (a different one) for another day (Thank you for no sitting fees!). We had to take a break because he skipped his nap that morning, but we finally ended up getting some really cute pictures. Moral of the story...don't try to get a 3 month old's photos taken professionally? Leave immediately if they tell you they are running behind? If at first you don't succeed, try again? I don't know, but look at this cute baby!

in other news...

We have a contract on our house....FINALLY!!!!!!!!! It has been on the market since January and we moved in May, so we have had 2 lovely mortgages for 3-4 months now and are REALLY excited to be selling this house. Of course, this is all dependent on inspections, etc. so please be praying that all goes smoothly and we can close on September 30th as planned.

I am finally coherent enough to write something...

Well I guess it is finally time to write something on this pathetic blog. I know this will come as no surprise, but we have been very busy over the past (nearly) 3 months. We absolutely LOVE being parents to our sweet baby boy Eli. Sure, we have had many many challenging moments while trying to get the hang of this parenting business, but seeing Eli grow and develop new skills makes it all so worth it. The first month was really just survival. I tried not to lose my mind when Eli nursed for HOURS on end. It got to the point that Andy would jokingly moo at me any time Eli fussed or cried and he was always right--Eli was ALWAYS hungry. Prior to Eli's arrival I had mentally committed to breastfeeding for a year. That first month made me question if I would make it another day, much less a whole year!!! I hate to admit, but at times I let the stress and the fatigue win. Eli was a pretty needy newborn. It seemed like I was always nursing and the few minutes where he wasnt he still insisted he be held. With his demanding feeding schedule I didnt have time to shower and get dressed, clean or cook, and definitely didnt have time to just relax. I would get frustrated, cry (blaming it on the crazy hormones), and tell Andy I didn't think I would make it (nursing). Andy was so great and would always ask how he could help and tell me that I could do it and that it would get better. He would also always say that if I couldn't do it anymore it was ok with him. We both would prefer breastfeeding for lots of reasons, but he was always so sweet to make sure I knew that he was more worried about me/my sanity than the money we would have to spend on formula. The next month was slightly easier. Month 2 was more about learning Eli's routine--learning to read his cues and intercept problems before they became meltdowns. We began to establish an eat, play, sleep routine and he also started to sleep slightly longer stretches at night (4 hours or so). We did pretty well during the days. Because I was getting better and knowing what he would need and when, Eli spent less time crying during the day. The evenings were a different story. It seemed like when it hit 5 or 6 he would start. It wasn't severe enough to be colic, but he was fussy for a couple hours each evening. We could calm him down, but only temporarily. I felt sorry for Andy, who would come home from working all day to a crying baby. As always, Andy was a great sport about it and spent many hours with Eli in his favorite football hold, often outside playing fetch with the dogs. Month 2 also brought some really GREAT moments. Eli flashed me his first REAL smile the day he turned 6 weeks old and he hasnt stopped smiling since. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, melts my heart like this little boy's smile. Oh just thinking about it almost makes me want to cry (can I still blame it on the crazy hormones? :) haha) He put on weight like a champ--thanks to the constant feeding--which was so great to see since he started out so small. He started getting strong, holding his head up better, pushing up/lifting his head during tummy time, occasionally and accidentally rolling over, and did i mention SMILING? :)
His 3rd month has been my favorite so far. While I do miss the snuggly little guy who was always curled into a little ball and would sleep so peacefully on daddy's chest, we are starting to see a little personality. He smiles more and more and is starting to giggle and talk a little. We get some precious ooohs and aaaahhs followed by some heh heh hehs and we just cant help but laugh. He is getting stronger every day. He sits up well with support and LOVES to stand up. We are on a pretty good eat, play, sleep routine during the day and E can sleep up to 6 straight hours during the night (not always, but sometimes), almost always giving me at least 4 1/2 or 5hrs after he first goes down for the night. Andy has taken over the bedtime routine. I feed E then hand him to daddy who changes him into jammies, swaddles, sings and rocks, and puts him in his crib. (Eli moved out of the pack n play in our room into his own room and crib at about 6 weeks) He is now going to the nursery at church (still a little rocky because it usually interrupts his nap) and is staying with our friend Katie 2 days a week while I go to work (new job). He is very interested in the world around him and gets mad if you make him sit reclined or where he cant see things around him. He wants to be sitting or standing up with your help, looking out at all the interesting things he hasnt ever seen. He likes to look at mom and dad, the ceiling fan and sadly, the TV--so sorry we are starting this so early. He has started to like his swing and will sit for quite awhile entertaining himself and will often drift off to sleep without any help from us. We still have rough days, especially because he has reflux. He has days and times where he doesn't feel well, and he cries because he hurts. Those times break my heart, but all in all we have more good time than bad now. It is just so amazing to think that 3 months ago I didnt know Eli. I knew his kicks and wiggles, but I didnt know his face or his cry or his smile or his little laugh. Needless to say, now that I know him, I am in love.

sneeze

i dont know if anyone else will enjoy this, but andy and i think this might be the cutest noise in all the world.

the many faces of Eli