Our Morning

Here's our morning so far...

I was so excited to lead worship this morning at church, but instead I was vomited on multiple times by Ellie. We decided to run to the store to get some Pedialyte, but we locked ourselves out of the house! After calling the local police, who couldn't help us, Joe got to show off his brute strength by bashing in the window to our back door with a brick. Oh yes, apparently Ellie detests Pedialyte. I wish she had mentioned that little fact when I told her that's what we were going to get.

Snow Baby

We got about 12-14 inches of snow last night, and this was Eliana's first experience with it! It took longer to get her dressed than we spent outside, but she loved it. She cried when I said we had to go inside. Click on the slideshow to see larger versions on the photos.

My Handyman

Joe is experiencing the joys of home ownership. He saved us some big bucks by fixing this one himself. I'm so proud of him and so happy I didn't have to do it!

I'm Glad I'm Your Mother

Check out the book title.

Snuggles

Spoon Skills

Check out Eliana's new skills with the spoon!

Potty Time

You have been warned. There will be talk of potty training within this post.

Okay, it all started about two months ago when Eliana started to relax during her baths by going poo. It didn't take me too long to recognize "that look" and quickly grab her from the tub and put her on the potty. After about a week of this, I thought...Hmmm. I wonder if she will go on the potty at some time other than during her bath. I gave it a try, and wonder of wonders, it worked! Enough of those dirty diapers if she'll take care of it in the bathroom. Eliana pretty much has #2 down pat. We've only had 2 dirty diapers in about a month (both of which I chalk up to an upset tummy for reasons that I won't detail here). We're still having lots of wet diapers, but she seems pretty young to push the whole bathroom routine more frequently than we already are. I'm just so grateful for the progress she's made thus far.

We have a great song I made up for the occasion that seems to produce wonderful results. I'll have to record it and post it for your enjoyment. Watch for it coming soon!

Christmas Photos

We had a wonderful Christmas this year in our new home. We even managed to get our tree up by December 23! Eliana was so fun. She got a real kick out of opening all her gifts and had a great time visiting with all the family. She's always a charmer in a crowd.

New Home Photos

Here are a few "before" photos of the new place. I can't wait to make my mark!

Click on the slideshow to see larger photos with captions.

Keys Tomorrow

While it looks like Eliana has already made herself comfortable in her new house, we get the keys to the big house tomorrow. Hurrah! After all this waiting, the time has finally arrived. I'm grateful that I've been able to arrange my work schedule to have both tomorrow and Friday off. It wasn't supposed to be that way, but I had to work a day this weekend to get a project finished which enabled me to get another day off during the upcoming week. Perfect timing! We should be all moved over by next weekend. I'm hoping to spend either Thursday or Friday night in the new place. :-)

New House

Hi all! Here are a couple quick shots of our new home. We closed last week and I'm just itching to get my hands on it. I'm hoping to get the keys before Christmas, but it's a bit up in the air. I'd move tonight if we could!

Holy Molars!

This has been the Week of Teeth--two molars and a another front tooth all at once. Not fun! I've got to say, I love seeing all those teeth when she smiles.

I didn't have to work today, so Ellie and I hit the mall to do some Christmas shopping. While there, we took a time out to have a good time in the garden playland. We've only been there once before, but as soon as Ellie saw it, she started squealing and kicking. She just couldn't get out of the stroller fast enough. Here are a few more shots from the morning:

Sharing

Okay, so it's 5:30 a.m., and Joe has left for work. I'm doing a little school work while Eliana is playing on the living room floor. I'm lost in a list of student names when, all of a sudden, I realize that it's too quiet. Do you know that feeling? So I quickly look up to see Eliana sharing her pacifier with the dog. Yuck! The dog would lick it, and Ellie would put it back in her mouth and giggle. I only saw one round of this before I put an end to it, but who knows how many times it happened? UGH!

Proof

Eliana Has Skills!

Fall Foliage Fun

Click on the photo below to see my entire fall album.

Fall Photos 09

Double click the slide show to open it in a new window. Otherwise, all the photos you are seeing below are cropped a bit, and I'm sure you want to see every pixel of Ellie!

First Steps

This week Ellie has taken her first steps! Hurrah! She's up to about 5 steps at a time before she plunks down. It's so exciting! I'll try to get a video posted soon. Ellie gets such a kick out of walking around holding my hand. Last night we walked from the living room to her bedroom and when we passed Daddy in the kitchen Ellie just giggled and giggled. Too cute!

In other news, Joe and and have begun the search for a house to buy. We're nervous but every excited about this step. It's taken us quite a while and it will feel so good to really have a place of our own. We're going out this Sunday afternoon with the realtor to see several places. We'll keep you waiting.

I hear that a new member of the Weaver family is on the way! We can't wait to hear the latest news from Texas!

I'll leave you with some photos of Ellie's birthday party. Thanks to Aunt Lisa for these!

I'm One! I'm One!

Can you believe it? It's here already!

Can you believe it? We made it!!!!

I looked back to find the post from this day last year, and can you believe it? There's no post from September 24! I guess I was busy or something. :-)

While I gave Ellie her birthday present about three weeks ago and her real birthday party is going to be this weekend, we did manage to celebrate today. We went to ELLIE's favorite restaurant - the Chinese buffet. She actually really does like it. There's plenty of food on the buffet that she likes, and she's a hit with the waitresses. They keep her so occupied most of the time that I get a nice, relaxing meal. Today, one of them asked how old Ellie is, and I told her that today was her birthday. She brought out a cute little birthday cake with ONE candle and played the birthday song over the P.A. system. There were lots of oohs and aahs throughout the restaurant! It was a great time. I'm glad I keep the little camera in my diaper bag.

Here's Ellie headed off to bed her first night as a one-year-old. Being one is hard work, you know!

A Few Photos

Ellie Experiences Grass

Ellie Experiencs the Slide

A Confession

Okay, if this blog is going to be a record of life at the Weaver Household, then it has to be accurate, right? So I have a confession...

About a month ago, I had a great idea for Ellie's first birthday present. I found out that Cabbage Patch Kids had released 25th Anniversary versions of their original dolls. Can you believe I had one of those originals? My mom tells me that for the Christmas CPKs were BIG, they ordered three dolls for me and received ONE just in time for the BIG day. :-) Cabbage the First ("Cabbage" is all I ever called her.), is still alive and well at Baba Helene's house , so when I learned of the new releases, I knew exactly what Ellie was getting for her birthday.

I poured over the cabbage patch for hours, flipping back and forth between adoption photos until I had made the very difficult decision of who would be joining our family. I placed our "order" and eagerly awaited her arrival. Finally, two weeks ago, she came. I could barely contain myself! Okay, here's the confession. I didn't contain myself. I looked at Joe and said, "I can't wait. Can we please wrap her up and give her to Ellie now?" Yes, it's the truth. One month BEFORE her birthday, Ellie got her present from us. But she was SO CUTE! Take a look at that photo! Even before she was removed from her box, Leatrice Marigold (Cabbage, as she is known) was loved. I have another photo of Ellie kissing her through the plastic. :-) Ellie gives her kisses and hugs and sleeps with her at night, and I couldn't be happier. Happy Birthday!

To keep our record accurate, I would be remiss not to mention that we spent Labor day morning (September 7) at the emergency room. Ellie woke up with a temperature of 104.3. I called our pediatrician who told us to take her in. She didn't have any other symptoms, and he wanted to check for a UTI. It was negative as was the chest x-ray, which, by the way, is absolutely TORTURE for an infant and her mother. We were told to give her Tylenol and Motrin to keep the fever down, be sure she had lots of fluids and bring her back if other symptoms developed. After about 36 hours she seemed fine. Who knows? Some kind of virus...

The only issue her illness has caused is a disruption of the beautiful sleep patterns we had finally developed. Gratefully, Ellie still goes to sleep easily, but since she was up several times for meds and nursing during those nights, she expects the Royal Treatment now during the wee hours. Tonight is the first night back to the routine of not getting her up out of the crib upon waking. She's not liking it. This post is being written between 11:30 p.m. and midnight as Ellie is crying. I've been going in every five minutes to reassure her, but not getting her up.... Ahhhh, she's asleep again. We went for about 20 minutes of real screaming. The last time I went in to hug her and put her back down, she whimpered and turned over, consigned to the fact that she wasn't going to get what she wanted. So it's a quick spell check for me and back to bed!

Love!

Miss Piggy

I don't have any explanation...