So thankful!

I am so very thankful for this precious little girl. Although being a parent is hard work, it is also the most incredible blessing too. Sometimes I think how simple and uncomplicated our lives were before kids, but I would never want to return to those days and miss the joys that raising a child brings. I feel like I haven't shared much about Miss Elliott lately, so I thought I would take today to share some things in her I am thankful for.

I am thankful for her excitement for life. The girl runs all the time (or her version of a run). She is never satisfied to sit still and is constantly exploring, constantly moving. Her new trick has been learning how to climb. The other day I turned around to find her standing on Truman's huge bin of food. Gulp. Visions of her crashing to the floor flashed through my mind as I realized we have entered a whole new stage of potential for injury. Elliott is not a huge talker but one of her favorite words is "wow" and she uses it OFTEN. Apparently there is a lot that "wows" her.

I am thankful for her independent spirit. She loves to do things on her own...feed herself, climb up stairs, I think she would change her own clothes if she could just figure out exactly how to do it. The reverse is she hates to do things she does not initiate, such as getting her diapers changed. It's funny to see such a small girl try to exert such independence (and have such strong opinions about things...that's putting it nicely).

I am so thankful to see her act more like a little girl and less like a baby. It's amazing how much she understands! I can tell she is actually comprehending what I tell her, whether it be what we're doing or when I give her simple commands. It seems like every day she is understanding more too. I can now get her to throw things away for me (the trick is getting her to leave other things in the trash), and I'm hopeful that by the time Baby Boy gets here, she'll be able to get a diaper for me. We'll see how that works. :)

I'm thankful for the moments she still needs her mommy. It warms my heart when she gives me kisses or lays her head on my shoulder or reaches for me when she gets hurt. Although she is a busy little girl, I always get to see glimpses of her sweet side.

Joyful independence!

We took these pictures about a month ago, but I feel like they show such a joyful side of her (especially since she is not smiling in so many pictures we take). She is truly our little miracle, and we are so blessed!

Preparation...

How is it possible that Thanksgiving is in 2 DAYS?? And that Christmas is in 1 MONTH??? I feel like I'm in a whirlwind of activity and time is flying by. And with each day that flies by, I keep thinking, how is it possible that our little baby boy will be here in 5 weeks or less? I had Elliott when I was 38 weeks 5 days so I realize there is a possibility he could come a little early. I'm not sure I feel ready. Don't get me wrong, this body is TIRED of being pregnant. Wow...not sure how women have like 10 kids. Pregnancy wears.me.out. I do love feeling baby boy move, and I love knowing he is growing, but this stage in the game is just uncomfortable and I would say I'm definitely more uncomfortable than I was when I was pregnant with E.

Part of me wonders if I am physically ready. The pain of birth is no surprise now...no mystery. I know it hurts...bad. Also, although I am uncomfortable now, I'm not sure I'm ready to be completely and utterly exhausted from waking up in the middle of the night. Newborn babies are SO sweet, but there is nothing like getting only small segments of sleep. We finally got baby boy's crib set up, but beyond that, I don't feel like I have much more ready for him. Poor guy doesn't even have a name yet!

Finally, I'm not sure I am mentally prepared to have 2 children. Elliott is at a super fun age as we get to see more and more of her little personality, but she also is at an age where I am constantly questioning how to be an effective parent. It's so easy to second guess how and what you do and wonder how to best raise them. What's going to happen when we throw in a completely helpless baby that demands our attention?

We are SO excited to meet our little guy, and I don't want to seem ungrateful. I am so thankful for this precious life growing inside me, but I definitely have had more emotions as his due date draws near. I think in some ways my fears stem from my desire to want to have all my "ducks in a row." I like to feel totally prepared, totally on top of things, and I just don't right now. It's probably just preparation for our lives with 2 kids, but it is hard for me to let go of the control.

Where we've been

Where do you even start when you've been gone for a greater than 2 week blogging hiatus? So much to share, especially since we were gone for most of this time. I'll try to make it brief, but I warn you, I decided to limit the words so I could post more pictures.

Elliott and I decided to make a girls trip to Texas to see my first niece/her cousin.

Isn't she precious?

We actually flew into Oklahoma City first so we got to spend a couple of nights with our sweet friends...

they even hosted a come and go party for us so we could see other friends since we weren't able to hang out with everyone one-on-one (of course I took no pictures of this event). Then we stayed a night with Kev's parents and E got some play time with her cousins

and Aunt Lisa.

No pictures with Uncle Seth! So sad!

Then we drove to Texas and spent a week with my parents (my dad was there too...promise).

My middle sister and her husband came up for the weekend so we got to see them too.

Hanging with Uncle Josh.

Checking Baby H out.

Did I mention I did all of this when I was 33/34 weeks pregnant with a 15 month old that weighs 26+ pounds? Not going to lie, all of the travel was slightly exhausting but TOTALLY worth it!

The flight to OKC was slightly traumatic...we missed our first flight due to poor time management and having E's diaper bag run multiple times through the scanner then eventually searched (I guess the snacks I brought looked suspicious). Definitely a bad start to an already potentially stressful day. Don't kid yourself, I was definitely that token pregnant girl walking through the airport bawling when I called Kev to tell him. Not my best moment. Things got better from there, and thankfully the missed flight only extended our travel time by a couple hours (which can feel like an eternity with a toddler).

The flight home from Amarillo was much more smooth even though we had one extra stop, and we only had one leg of the flight where a very large man sat in the middle seat so we had very little room in our seat by the window. Did I mention the plane was hot as well? Not a good combo for this girl. I packed new toys/stickers/coloring book, tons of snacks, put videos on my iPhone, but I hadn't thought through the fact that I can no longer bend at the waist. This probably made flying the most difficult because I had to rely on the people sitting next to me to get things for me. By the end of traveling, I wised up and put everything I thought we could potentially use in the seat pocket in front of me.

It was quite an adventure but we survived! It was pretty amazing to see Kev's face in Chicago though. Life is definitely easier with him! I'm just SO thankful we got to see Baby H! She is absolutely perfect and I'm just sad we don't live closer so we can see her more often.

Sick baby

This weekend we intended on being very productive, but all our plans were put on hold because Miss Elliott got sick. She was a little hoarse on Friday, but on Saturday, she developed a full blown croupy cough which of course sounds TERRIBLE, a snotty nose, and a low grade fever. We were planning on going to a pumpkin patch/corn maze with some people from church but it was pretty obvious at the beginning of the day, that was not going to happen. We had a forced rest, which was actually kind of nice, but would have been nicer if she wouldn't have been sick. We got to watch lots of Blue's Clues.

I HATE to see Elliott sick. It truly hurts my heart, and I would gladly take the illness on myself if I could. She has not been sick very often, and I am so thankful for that, but every time she does get sick, I kind of amaze myself at how poorly I respond. All my medical training goes out the window, I can't seem to think straight, I just hurt for her. It gives me a perspective at how difficult it must be on a parent for their child to be diagnosed with a chronic illness, or even something just more serious than a virus....to have to spend days, weeks, months in the hospital hoping and praying their child will get better. I don't know how they do it. We have 2 days where Elliott can't breath well, and I turn into a complete basket case. It also reminds me of how thankful I am for each and every day we get to spend with our precious daughter. She is truly a blessing from God!

I guess I feel emotional tonight. Can I just blame it on the pregnancy? :) So I feel like we're entering the week a little off, and Elliott and I are actually flying to Oklahoma...by ourselves...on Thursday. I'm just praying she is feeling better by then. I'm having flashbacks of our trip to Florida. A wonderful trip but I swore I wouldn't take another trip without Kev. Oh how quickly I forgot apparently.

I thought I would share a few pics of our other "child."

Truman with his splint.

Notice how much blue wrap is missing...hence the cone. Truman was not a fan, Elliott thought it was awesome.

Here is a picture of what it looks like now. Notice the gray blob attached to his right leg (it kind of looks like an extra appendage or something). That is what he has to wear for 8 weeks. It kind of reminds me of putty and you can see the screws poking into it. He licks it obsessively, which is slightly annoying (especially to Kev), but it's really hard to get him to stop. Oh the drama in our lives. :)

I'll leave you with this...because it's basically the cutest picture EVER! My two most favorite people!

Visitors and injuries

Life has been a little crazy at our household recently, evidenced by the my lack of posts. Kev had fall break last week so he was off the ENTIRE week. It was amazing! Definitely a perk of being in school again. Of course I was not off for fall break, but it was nice because he got to watch Miss Elliott all week. Then his parents came for a long weekend visit. We had so much fun showing them around our new "home," sharing some delicious Irish pub food together, and we laughed a lot.

Fun shot on campus. The gold dome is in the background.

Kev did a grandparents "photo shoot" on campus. Elliott *kind of* cooperated. Story of our life.

He got some cute pictures of E too.

Another thing that made this past week a little crazy is we had a major family injury. Kev and I went on a walk on Friday while Elliott was napping (Kev's parents stayed with her), and we decided we would take Truman so he could get a little exercise. Truman does not do the best on the leash, and so a lot of time we'll let him run off the leash and he does really well to stay with us. We were almost home, when a squirrel darted out across the street and Truman ran after him. A car just happened to be driving down the street at that exact time, and we watched in horror and complete helplessness as Truman got clipped by the car. It all happened in an instant, and it was terrible! Thankfully, he didn't go under the car, and as soon as he got hit he ran off the road. So to make a long story short, he broke 2 bones in his front leg, one bone went through the skin, he had to be put in a splint and then he had surgery Monday where they placed 6 pins in his bones. He'll have the pins removed in 8 weeks. They told us to make sure he doesn't run or jump and try to keep him calm. Really? They obviously don't know our dog. So that's all the excitement in our household. I'll try to do better about posting though.

The pacifier debate

I survived my first week at work! Yay! Actually, it went very smoothly. Everyone that I work with is extremely nice and helpful, and everything with childcare went great. I'm so thankful! The hardest thing about working was packing our lunches the night before. I have GOT to get more creative with what I pack for Elliott. Pretty sure peanut butter sandwiches are only going to work for so long. I feel like she has gotten a little more picky lately (I promise I'm not complaining), and she used to be better at eating more fruits and veggies. Lately, she will eat grapes, apple sauce, and maybe an occasional green bean. I think I'm going to have to become more sneaky at incorporating vegetables. The funny/annoying thing is if I put anything on her tray that she doesn't want, she quickly tosses it off. I hear ya loud and clear, Elliott, you don't like that. I always feel like it is her emphatic way of telling me, "I don't even want to look at the food, Mommy. Something better please."

Our big dilemma lately is when to take away the loved/hated pacifier. Weaning her from breastfeeding was a breeze, taking away bottles a cinch, but I literally cringe every time I think about taking her pacifier away. She has loved her pacifier from the beginning which has been a blessing/curse. I have been SO thankful for it many times, and always hated it just as many times. Lately, if she doesn't want to take a nap, she throws it out of her crib and then she definitely won't go to sleep. Drives.me.crazy. I also feel like taking it away will help her sleep better because there are definitely times she wakes up and I think she starts crying if she can't find it.

Originally, we had October as our goal month. In our thinking, she would be transitioned from the move, but then be without the pacifier long enough before the new baby comes to hopefully not regress. October seemed so far away when we made the plans, but now it's here...and the month is already half way over. This weekend is probably the best weekend to take it away because Kev is off all next week for fall break, but I keep second guessing myself. Is it really that important that we take it away now? Maybe we'll just prolong the sleepless nights, mental agony, crying child, until she's at least two. But I definitely don't think it will get any easier so why not just do it now. Oh the decisions. I can't decide if I should throw all her pacifiers (we're down to 3 anyway) away so I can't second guess myself, but then I may be sending Kev to Walmart at midnight to get a pacifier. Why can't this be easier?

Chicago

Oh Chicago. I must say you exceeded my expectations. I know much of that was due to the amazing company, perfect weather, and beautiful Fall colors, but I will happily visit you again and hopefully soon.

So like I said in my last post, we had such a wonderful time in Chicago over the weekend with our sweet friends David and Anna. David was an incredible tour guide since evidently he had been there with his family quite a few times. I actually lived outside of Chicago for a year when I was like 5 years old, and the only thing I really remember about the city was the aquarium which we visited when we first came. I really wanted to explore more but never really knew where to start. This weekend was the perfect start of our exploration of Chicago.

We started off the day with deep dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno. One word...AMAZING. Probably not the healthiest choice but totally worth the calories. We made up for the unhealthy meal by walking a ton.

Cute family pic!

We loved seeing "The Bean" in Millennium Park. It is made of 168 stainless steel plates welded together but there is no visible seems. It was pretty amazing.

Looking up in the middle of "The Bean."

Had to take a slightly awkward belly pic. Anna is almost two weeks behind me in her pregnancy. I LOVE that we get to be pregnant together, I just wish we still lived close.

The bean with "The Bean." She loved it...really.

We got to enjoy some delicious coffee at Intelligentsia. Yummy lattes. Aren't they pretty too?

We can't get enough of these Fall leaves!

I also made some great purchases at H&M to help extend my work wardrobe. It was a perfect day just entirely to short. Thanks again for visiting us David and Anna! Let's start planning for next year.