Them Plus A Whisk.

I'm now getting into a more normal work schedule. This week I work two days. Next week it'll be three. I really like my job (I'll share details on that soon) and being challenged in new ways. But I am glad not to do it full time so that I can be with these two cuckoos!

-Heather

Toothers.

Our cutie's first tooth popped out; the bottom front. The other bottom one plus the two top are ready to burst on the scene shortly. Another milestone for our Annalee! She's finally getting into eating baby food now, at least figured out how to get her mouth to do what it needs to get the food past her tongue. I hope to make her some homemade baby food once we get into our house. For now, she's stuck with Gerber. She has gotten into mum-mums lately, too. She has about half-formula these days and seems to take it with the same urgency as breastmilk. If she is hungry you will hear her exclaim loudly until the second that bottle hits her mouth. AAAAAGGGGGHHHH umph nom nom nom. Almost like she is saying "Give me this bottle right this instant!!!! I don't want to wait!!!! Ok!" Annalee also still takes a pacifier but not as often and with not as much vigor.

This girl is also moving so fast. You blink and she's across the room. She's a determined kid. She is really into toys and will work hard to get one. I can't believe how quickly she figured out the crawling thing. Especially since she's so short. She can roll over to her tummy from either side, which she usually will do after being put down. She goes right to tummy-crawling mode and has insanely strong abs. I swear she planks like an aerobics instructor. She sleeps on her stomach as well... rarely do we find her on her back. Annalee can sit up by herself too, at least for a few minutes before tumbling over. And I've also seen her pull up onto the toy box.

I got her to giggle this last week so loudly that it made my mama-heart soar. Those moments have been a little less with Annalee so I treasure them even more. I had her in the Ergo carrier and was bouncing while walking and she thought it was a hoot. If I had to guess, her brother is going to be the one to make her laugh because now he really makes her smile. She lights up when she sees him (and her daddy and grandpa and sometimes now grandma too). This girl is delightful when she smiles at you. She wants to really be IN the know about what's going on, watching the movement and action. She seems to be quite social.

Other Annalee-isms: She's still not a stellar sleeper. She sucks on her lip or her tongue often. And it's normal to see her little tongue out and to the side. Like a puppy out the window. But a cute puppy.

I just compared my daughter to a dog. I better stop before she reads this in fifteen years and gets mad.

-Heather

From our trip to SC... wearing a sweet flower headband my friend Cindy made (you can order them from her, let me know) and Maelee's outfit (we got from Greg's co-worker) that we had displayed on her dresser for a long time. Such redemption for me to put my child in it.

Seven Month Cutie.

Our little sweetheart...

who is harder and harder to photograph:

-Heather

Cereal and Sports.

One week ago Eli turned THREE. Sometime in March I realized we were still going to be living in Greg's parents without the bulk of our stuff by the time Eli's party rolled around. I had a moment of panic (my four (or is it five?!) bins of party stuff tucked snugly in with all our other belongings). What would we do? I then thought of Eli's favorite thing (cereal) and another favorite (sports) and that led me to Wheaties. An hour later, the invite was designed and my theme was set. And as promised after birthday year one and year two, I did scale Eli's party way back this year. Part of that was due to all my party stuff being stored up, partly due to it not being in our own home, partly because I promised, and partly because most of his friends are still in SC. Sigh. We sure missed his friends but glad for the family and the new friends here.

The invite (edited slightly): 

Pretty cute, eh?

 And here are a few details from the cereal/sports themed party:

Rice Krispie "Cake" (we also had a Fruity Pebble football shaped one)

Hee hee.

Favors were box of cereal, sports sucker, and fun paddle thing

I did it for year one and year two... so the Eli shrine is sort of a tradition.

Oh yes, yes we did. There was more than this, too. I made sure to buy sugary kinds. And four kinds of milk.
We did have other breakfast food, too.

Deanna and the sister (eating tablecloth)

Birthday Boy having fun!

It was rainy, groan. We were to play sports outside but that didn't happen. Thankfully our entertainers showed up. Uncle Chris and Lilli. Together, they are all you really need to up the noise level and fun value.
Case in point:

Much fun and games were had! It was insane for a bit there. Eli got super overwhelmed towards the end. In fact, he was a horrible kid the rest of the night. I hope that's not a indication of year three for him. I am certain it was just him being overstimulated though... all the noise and excitement. Oh my!

The whole thing was very low stress which was a gift considering the day before is when we found our house and the day of is when we put money down for it (read: my mind was super distracted). It all went fine though, sans loads of details normal Heather would have done. Example: I didn't get my cute banner background. But at least remembered to take the kiddos-only shot:

Thanks to our few new, few old friends and our family that made it! Eli was so glad to have people come and eat cereal with him. Really this party was right up his alley considering cereal is his absolute favorite food. And most all our attendees (kids and adults alike) liked the cereal "bar" so we may just have to repeat that again next year!

-Heather

$$$ Anniversary Present.

Nine years with this amazing man. And he went ALL out this year and bought me a house!

Details soon!

-Heather

He's Three!

Three years ago right about now I was in labor with a hopeful heart, wanting so badly for things to go right this time and have a living baby. Praise God that happened and that our redemption boy is still alive and thriving!

He brings us joy and laughter mixed in with normal parental angst. We are grateful for God's grace as we attempt to parent him without screwing him up. We do think he is a stellar child and we adore him...probably too much. His personality is sure to delight you and I wish I could adequately describe his goofy, thoughtful, selfish, energetic, timid, hilarious character! 

His party today will not be in typical fashion due to a variety of things (more on that later). Case in point: Last fall I bought him a shirt that says "I'm 3!" to wear today. I put it in storage assuming there's no way we'd still be having our stuff in storage by now. Fail. 

But we will still gladly celebrate Eli Joseph! 

Instead of a planned, smiling adorable typical photo... I'll go with this one picking his nose, pants-less yesterday. Seems more fitting this year! 

I love you, Eli. You are my buddy-boo, my boy!

-Heather

Pneumonia.

Back to our ND crazy. Flying back was a little tougher. I was thrilled to get back to the boys but our flights were at the end of the day. That means screaming baby. Sorry United ORD passengers. Then I didn't get to bed until 12:30am and still had to drive Fargo to Bismarck this morning. Very tired. Came home to our boy who was sickly and not so full of energy. The smile he gave me when he saw me was priceless though!

After a few hours of seeing him not well (fever, high heart rate), I decided it was worth a trip to the walk-in clinic. I'm glad three hours were spent there because after a chest x-Ray we learned Eli has pneumonia. Not a bad case. But definitely a reason for his continual saying "I don't feel well." And "I want you to..."

Poor kid. I guess a week of day care was too much!?

But the whole time we were at the clinic, all I could think about was how cancer sucks and that cancer in kids sucks the most. 

Back in SC there is a sweet three and a half year old little girl who Tuesday was at the zoo with her mom, just a normal day and today had surgery and starts chemo. The mom saw Zoe had blood in her urine and that led to hours later finding out she has cancer. And stage four. Zoe is this mom's rainbow baby. They lost six sweet babies second trimester and a couple years later were shocked to be pregnant with Zoe. I met the mom just weeks after we lost Maelee, months before Zoe was born. She is one of those super sweet, strong women and her insight was always encouraging. I was so happy for them when Zoe was born (same day as our niece Ava). We bought "the beast" toy from them and though I hadn't seen them in years, was elated when they were blessed with another girl not that long ago.

So to hear they are facing yet another thing no one should ever have to go through, it breaks my heart. Please pray for Zoe. I'll link to their caring bridge site soon. Lord please let this rainbow baby live. 

All that makes Eli's pneumonia seem very small or at least manageable among our continued crazy life. Watching him get his chest x-rayed was nothing compared to my friend watching her daughter get CAT scans or wheeled into surgery or chemo. 

Makes me thankful for each day we get. 

He was so sweet at the doctor then  waiting at the pharmacy. Very thankful to be here to snuggle him. 

-Heather

She Crawls.

I keep forgetting to mention this important milestone in our sweetie. She's been crawling for a few weeks! It's not your normal official crawl which is why I was hesitant to call it that at first. But if she wants something, she'll go for it. Sometimes to her detriment (she pulled a camera strap and ended up with a camera on her head today - ouch). She's getting better at it each day and I'm continually amazed considering how slow her brother was in this developmental area. So fun to see her being her own little person!

We've had a great Easter here in SC but miss our boys! I'm taking great photos on my camera but won't get those on here until later...

For now: because He is risen, we could all wear "loved" onesies. 

Indeed!

-Heather