A Momentous 24 Hours

These last 24 hours were pretty big for Ellena. Momentous, you could say...

Last night, as her pediatrician predicted, Ellena woke up crying - not because she was hungry, but because she's starting to remember which led to her screaming for me. Some sort of object permanence thing. Lovely! So I spent 5 minutes with her trying to calm her down and when I left, she squirmed for less than a minute and was zonked out for the night. We shall see if this continues or not...

Today, Ellena rolled over! Every time we placed her on her back, she would swing her leg across her body and get in this odd twisted position. She needs a little nudge to get over her shoulder, but once she's on her belly, she's enjoying the new view. In just a couple days, her neck has gotten sooo much stronger - really cool to see her development! But now, there's also that chance that she'll be "practicing" in her sleep, which is yet another reason she will wake up crying. I'm just way too spoiled with my full nights of sleep.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With so much to be thankful for, we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

We hosted an early dinner, so I did an art project with Evan in the morning. I hope we can make it into an annual Thanksgiving tradition. Using his paintings, we made hand turkeys. And then we wrote a little letter to each of our guests. Some were very cute - Grandpa, I'm thankful that you take me to school. Some were sweet - Uncle Moon, I love you and hope you get better soon. And then there were the ones he made for me and Pops. Momma, I am thankful that you give me chocolates. I looked at him and said, "Seriously? All that Momma does for you and THAT'S what you are thankful for?" Poppa got a similar note about oatmeal. What a guy.

And Evan was dead set on eating the turkey drumstick, so here he is in all his glory.

And here's Ellena slinged up while I wolfed down my food before giving her her bottle.

Stranger Danger

Today I took Ellena to her 4-month wellness check-up. I was very surprised when my sweet angel (who never hesitates to throw around her smiles and charm everyone around her) had a huge crying fit with the nurse. And then with the doctor. And then with the nurse again when she came back to give the shots. The hardest that Ellena has ever cried before today... Imagine that times 10. Seriously, she's never cried so hard before. Nothing could calm her down, she was screaming, tears were flowing, she was turning red and sweaty - oh my!

And I'm sure our doctor gets this a lot, but I had nothing else to say but, "She's never done this before!"

So our doctor was saying it's stranger anxiety, but it's just setting in a couple months earlier than usual. And she was convinced that shows how smart Ellena is. So we'll take it. But I'm a little nervous about Ellena having a meltdown when strangers stop us on our errands to smile at her. They may not be expecting her reaction!

Slacker

So I started the Nov 20 Evanisms post a week ago and only got around to finishing it today. Slacker! I could blame it on the craziness of the Thanksgiving holiday, but that would be a lie. Pops takes care of the turkey and my mother-in-law has all the sides. So I have some easy appetizers that I will whip out tomorrow. So the truth behind my slacker-ness is those stinkin Twilight Saga books. I got the first one from the library and couldn't put it down. After passing it on to my father-in-law and getting him hooked, we agreed to go halfsies on the set from Costco since I was #200, #600 and #400 on the waiting lists for the next three books at the library! I finished the last one last night and made sure Grandpa Joe took them out of the house today so I wouldn't re-read them anytime soon. :)

So what the blog missed during our one-week hiatus:

Happy Belated Birthday, Grandma Sue!

Very few pictures, since our camera has gone kaput.

Evan and Ellena growing up too fast.

Pops playing Call of Duty and I was reading so our DVR is getting full of shows to watch.

I'll be starting physical therapy in a couple weeks for pain in my tailbone area, probably related to childbirth - lovely!

Nov 26

Ellena is 4 months old today! She continues to be such a sweetheart. What she's up to lately:

While lying on her back, she can lift her legs in the air and roll to her right side. She doesn't usually go much further, because she hates being on her stomach! So lazy!

She continues to delight us with her sweet coos, giggles, and blowing bubbles with her mouth.

She sleeps from 8 - 8; about once a month, she seems to wake up for a 3 AM bottle and I get so disoriented (spoiled!). Uhh, what am I supposed to do with you now?

If the tv is on, she wants to watch. She's become a football junkie.

She gave Poki her first smile the other day. Maybe they are over their girl rivalry thing.

She's really enjoying watching Evan. He will walk around and around her and she tracks him the whole time.

She takes a morning nap and afternoon nap. She's mostly forced to nap on the road in the morning while I do errands. I put her in her crib in the afternoon and like clockwork, she cries for 8 minutes and then sleeps for about 45 minutes. Then she's up and wants me to sling her. The above picture is her "slingy smile". When she sees the sling, she breaks into the hugest smile.

Nov 20 Evanisms

* Evan has a new saying that I get such a kick out of. When I read to him a fun fact from his book or magazine, he remarks in the most amused voice, "That was interesting!"

* At dinner, we were discussing the slowing economy and how Hawai'i is getting hit pretty hard, trickle-down economy, etc. Evan wants to be a part of the conversation and he whispered in a silly voice, "And that's why everyone is coming to Issaquah!"

* Evan has been coming home from school and telling me about "Sammy". Today Sammy pushed Brian. Today Sammy touched my body. Today Sammy said naughty words and she had to sit on the porch. I met a cute little girl named Sammy in his class, so I didn't think anything. But then I got a flash of brilliance. "Evan, are YOU Sammy?" I thought maybe he was disguising his misdeeds by saying it was Sammy. But no, Evan said that Sammy is doing all those naughty things and not him. He's pretty good about telling me about when he does something naughty at school, so I hope he continues to be honest with me! How funny would that be, if he started blaming things on Sammy!

* Some of the new phrases that Evan uses besides, "That's interesting!"

"I'm adorable!"
"That's terrible!"
"That's horrible!"

Getting Older and Regressing At The Same Time

So I have to admit, the years are flying by and I'm not really "feeling" it. I still feel pretty young (young at heart, I guess?) but my age, as a number, sounds much older than I feel. I guess that's a good thing. I remember when I just finished high school, I was teaching sewing to 5th grade girls. One of them was talking about her mom and she said in the most horror-filled voice, "My mom still shops in the 'Generation' section (think Forever 21 of our island's department store) and wears Bongo jeans!" I cracked up. But now that I have little Ellena, I'm wondering, am I going to be THAT mom? :) And then, with horror, I realize that those little 5th graders that I taught are now finishing up college and then I realize how the time has flown by. Yikes!

And not to overcompensate on youth, but there are definitely some "teeny bopper" stuff that I'm into... My guilty pleasure is Gossip Girl and I've just become obsessed with the Twilight series books (Thanks, Charkie!). Pops mentioned that he heard that age-wise, 39 is the new 29. So I looked at him and said, "Oh good. So does that then make me 19? And now, I'm just 2 years outside the range of the Twilight target audience, instead of twelve??"

Nov 17

Here's Evan tickling Ellena to get her to smile. They crack me up!

An update: Ellena continues to be such a sweetie. She is so pleasant to be around! Sometimes, she gets cranky and I take a look in her mouth - so much easier to do when she's crying, unfortunately. And no kidding, it looks like her bottom 2 teeth are just under her gums. I think Evan's first teeth popped out around 5 months. Ellena is almost 4 months old. It may take another month to finally make an appearance, but I'm pretty sure I'm seeing teeth on the girl. Oh my!

Today I put her in her crib for her afternoon nap. After 5-10 minutes, I hear her crying. I go in to check on her and she's wide awake and her poor leg is "stuck" between the crib slats. It wasn't stuck-stuck, but I'm sure if she tried to wiggle it, it would seem stuck to her.

Must be a girl thing: We've noticed that Poki and Ellena have a little rivalry going on. Not sure what it can be attributed to, except that they are being catty... ha ha, get it?! Poki has always been pretty patient with Evan and will let him snuggle up to her (if she's in the mood, of course.) But with Ellena, Poki gets a little combatant and strikes back rather quickly. We have no fear for Ellena's safety, but it's just such a different response that Poki is showing to the two kids.

We keep asking Evan if he's ready to sleep over at Grandma's house. I think it's safe to say that no, he is not ready... yet. His response is always, "Maybe tomorrow..."

A special treat for Evan - our neighbors are having their roof done so Evan gets to watch the roofer man in action!

Nov 13 Pic

Ellena got into a comfy position, propped up on Pops. As soon as I got the camera out, Evan (the ham) jumped into the picture with his cheesy fake smile.

Boppy Time

I think I mentioned that Ellena is not a big fan of tummy time. I know, these pictures seem to tell another story... But really, the only way I can get her to do some tummy time is when the following stars align:

* She's on the boppy

* After she eats, but before she gets too tired and cranky

* After she gets her burps out, so as to not spit up all over the boppy

* I'm folding laundry in front of her to keep her amused

* Tummy time lasts no more than 5 minutes :)

Beef... It's What's For Dinner

Yesterday Evan and I had quite the conversation. He started out by saying:

Evan: Momma, butter comes from cows.

Momma: Yup, what else comes from cows?

Evan: Milk!

Momma: What else?

Evan: Umm... Kalbi ribs!

Momma: Uh, yeah. It does come from cows! Good job Evan. What else comes from cows?

Evan: Roast beef sandwiches from Arbys!

Fall Leaves!

Fall is here! We had some nice weather so I packed up the kids and took them on a walk this afternoon. We passed by a bunch of leaves and I promised Evan he could choose one leaf on our way back from the park. I loved watching the pure joy on his face when he jumped off the stroller to sift through all of the leaves to find the perfect one. It's great to be 3! I guess it's also great to be 3 months old - you get cozied up under a warm blanket and pushed around in a stroller!

Nov 10 pics

Here's my attempt at taking a picture of myself and Ellena.

On Saturday morning, Evan ran upstairs to get something from his room. He got distracted and picked out his snorkel, mask and swim shorts.

Grandpa Joe, Ellena and Evan
(Ellena is watching some football on tv and can't be bothered with looking at the camera.)

Not Quite Two Peas in a Pod

Ellena is 3 months old and we're getting in our Ellena groove. I am already recognizing some interesting things about her that is so different from Evan. Here's what I've noticed so far:

* El is a happy, content little girl. She cries when she's hungry or overtired. Ev was not very happy to be introduced to this world. It took him about 4 months to mellow out. Until then, he was very serious... almost grouchy with us... and he would cry/scream non-stop from 4-7 PM every night. Lovely!

* El loves the bouncy chair. There's just something about a vibe-booty that pleases her. Ev hated the bouncy chair. He was more of a swing boy. El's not so into the swing.

* Physical appearance: El looks like me! Ev looks like Pops! Ev came out with curly red hair and lost most of it. El came out with straight black hair and it is growing in thick!

* Ev was a great sleeper during the day. I "trained" him to take his naps in his crib. El is a little more strong willed. She wants to be sling-ed for her naps. But she does fine at night in her crib. Hmmm... Something to work on with her.

* El sleeps for 12 hours at night. Love it! Ev didn't do this until after he was 1 year old. No complaints here.

My two kids - I wouldn't trade them for anything. Each are so unique and special!

Milk

Today our neighbors had some milk delivered from a local dairy. Evan saw their cool cow-spotted truck and started asking about it.

Evan: What's that truck for?

Momma: It is delivering milk to our neighbors. The man is bringing it fresh from the dairy.

Evan: Where does the milk come from?

Momma: The cows make the milk. Then they need to clean it. Then they deliver it to their homes.

Evan: How do they clean it?

Momma: They... uhhh... Maybe the... uhhh... You know what? I don't know how they clean it.

Evan: Maybe they give the cow a sponge and he uses that to clean it.

Momma: The cow? He gets the sponge?

Evan: Yup. And then after it's all cleaned up, the man delivers the milk!

Decision '08

Election Day

Get out and Vote! I guess next year we can say, "Mail in your vote!"

Go, Diego Go! And Baby Jaguar, too!

Last night was a whirlwind trick-or-treating experience! After no nap - "I'm too excited!" - I got Evan dressed in his Diego costume and put gel in his hair. Uncle Stu came over and we took a few quick pictures. And then off we went to Poppa's work place. Evan trick or treated and even made a caramel apple! Then we went to Bellevue Square and Evan went around and got candy from some stores. But the entire time he asked for a balloon from the balloon maker - the lines were so long! In the end, Poppa and Evan stood in line for the balloon while Ellena got a bottle and played with the grandparents. I took over on balloon duty while everyone else went to get a table at Red Robin. I think we waited for an hour for that stinking balloon. After a yummy dinner, we came home and did a quick walk around our neighborhood. I hope the kids sleep in this morning, but El has been squirming a lot in her sleep. And that is why I am up at 6:30 and trying to get her to stretch it out to 8. :)

Evan's costume: I made his cargo shorts and vest. He had a blue tshirt that he's wearing backwards. We got him a rescue pack, Grandpa got him a watch and we found the Animal Rescuer patch on Ebay.

Ellena's costume: Poppa found a kitty costume on Ebay ($4.99! The Diego patch was more expensive!!) I bought some animal print material, cut the spots out and glued it on. It didn't look like much on the hanger, but that girl can make anything look cute. :) It also looked HUGE on the hanger, but she filled it out quite nicely.

Evan & Ellena - Diego and Baby Jaguar

Funny thing about our backdrop - Evan received a Diego blanket for his birthday. One side has a rainforest design, so we hung it behind us. Ha!



Uncle Stu and the kids