On the Road Again...

Ahhh...we're finally home after a LONG day of driving. We left Missouri at about 7:00 this morning, and we got home at just before 4:00 this afternoon. With a 4-year-old and a 2-month-old in the car, that is a VERY LONG DAY!!! We had to stop twice for me to feed Eli, but other than that, we pretty much drove straight through. We had a wonderful time in Missouri for the week!! We'll really miss Nannie and Paw Paw! It'll be good to have Hannah back into the routine, though--school is a great way for her to release all that extra energy! :) Anyway, we're glad to be back home, and back into our old beds. The goal for this week (starting tomorrow...) is to get Elijah to start sleeping in his crib rather than his bassinet, which he has just about outgrown. I think it'll be a much harder transition for me than for him! I'm just so used to having him right next to me! I bet he'll be more comfortable both because the mattress is more comfortable and because he can spread out more (he likes to "scoot.") Anyway, I'm off to bed. More later!

Oh! One more thing...check out my YouTube site. I just posted a new video, and there are several others that I've created in the past. Just go to http://www.youtube.com/ and in the search box type in teachermom29. That'll bring up my list of videos. Enjoy!

Mosquitos, Reading, Birthdays, etc.

A lot's been happening over the last couple days! Hannah came back from their trip to St. Louis with about 6 mosquito bites, 2 of which got huge!! They were both on her right knee, and they swelled up, got all hot and hard. They hurt so much that she was limping around--strange the didn't itch! We called the doctor who had us give her Benedryl and Tylenol, and she's better now.

Hannah and Elijah have been having fun playing together. Hannah loves to read to him, and they just play on the floor together with his toys in general. I love to watch--they're so cute together. He just watches her and smiles at her...it's very, very cute.

Today was my birthday--I'm 31 now! EEK! It was a great birthday--one of my best gifts was a T-shirt with the most recent portrait of Hannah and Elijah on the front of it. :) I also got a scanner that scans photographs, slides, and old film into a computer. I'm really excited about that, because it means that I can digitize all the old family photos that are on slides. I also got some great scrapbooking things, an iTunes card, a part of my Christmas village decoration, and lots of love. :)

Just Hangin' Out

Well, we've been enjoying our time in Missouri just relaxing and hanging out with Nannie and Paw Paw, as you can probably tell from these pictures! Hannah is having an active day today, though--Grammie and Gabah are taking her to St. Louis to the Arch and to the zoo! Sounds like the zoo will be lots of fun--they have lots of baby animals, such as a kangaroo, 5 tigers, a giraffe, and several others. I can't wait to see (and post) the pictures from that trip! I just hope she behaves! :) The rest of us are just hangin' here!

Brunch and Naps

We had a really nice day today! Connie and Cliff (Connie is Mom's 1st cousin) came over for brunch, and we had a wonderful ham and egg casserole, muffins, and fruit. We also had some time to just visit. In the afternoon, nearly everyone had a chance to take a nap. I went downstairs to sleep and left Elijah with Nannie. When I came up, they were both asleep, as was Paw Paw. It made for a priceless picture!!!

Football Saturday: Eli and Gabah

Here we are...in Columbia, Missouri! Today, Mom, Dad, and Paw Paw went to the Mizzou football game and watched them beat Buffalo 42-21. The rest of us "kids" stayed at home with Nannie. We went to Barnes and Noble to get a new "I Spy" book for Hannah and a couple new baby books for Eli to look at during tummy time and with Hannah. We also had Long John Silver's for lunch...a very rare treat for me since I don't live anywhere near one, and I've always loved eating there! (I'm crazy...I know...) :) When everyone was home this afternoon, Gabah and Elijah sat together in the recliner and watched some football. Elijah gave Gabah some great smiles, Gabah gave Elijah some awesome goofy faces, and they had lots of fun watching the games together. :)

Rolling Over and Playing With Hannah

10 weeks old...Elijah reached a milestone today--he rolled over for the first time!! (tummy to back) He was on his quilt looking at his book on his tummy with Hannah, and before we knew it, over he went!! He's also getting really good at lifting his head up! He and Hannah spent a good bit of time looking at that book together this afternoon! Tomorrow we spend the day driving to Missouri to spend the week at Nannie and Paw Paw's. :)

The Little Sleeper!

I must have been doing a good job of keeping Elijah awake and entertained during the day during the past couple days! Because for the last two nights he has slept almost entirely through the night!! Yesterday, he got up at 5 to eat, and then went back to bed until about 7:45. Today, he got up at 5:45 to eat, went back to sleep, and is still sleeping as I type this at 8:10. I think I can get used to this! Now, if I didn't have to get up to get Hannah ready for school, I could really sleep in! :) Ahh...the joys of having two adorable children. :) (And yes, I know you're not supposed to let them sleep on their tummies, but his doctor said that as long as there's nothing in his bassinet (blankets, etc.) then it's probably OK--and he sleeps so much better that way.) Also, FYI, Hannah is scheduled to have her tonsils out on Friday, October 10, and will have to be home for the entire week following. Yikes!!!

Necks

We went to see the ENT to talk about Hannah's tonsils and adenoids, and also to get her hearing evaluated. We've been getting really frustrated because she says "what??" A LOT, and she says she doesn't hear as well as she used to. Well, her hearing tested as normal. That doesn't seem consistent with "real life" to me, but the tests don't lie, I suppose! The main concern, though, is that she snores a lot at night, wakes a lot at night (her primary care doctor is worried about sleep apnea), has a sore throat in the mornings, and her primary doc says her tonsils are very large. So, the ENT looked at her, talked to us, and decided that her tonsils and adenoids need to be taken out. It's about a 45 minute procedure, very routine...we just have to be sure she drinks a lot of fluids afterwards. And she'll have to be home for a week, and her throat will obviously hurt. OH FUN. (For anyone who doesn't know, Hannah does not handle pain well, and lets EVERYONE know if something hurts.) So, now the surgery scheduler and I are just playing phone tag.


The other "necky" thing going on is that we went to the zoo today! ("Necky" because of giraffes...) It was Elijah's first time there! Of course, he didn't really get to see much... We all did get to hear the lions roar, though!


Hannah's favorite animal was the giraffe. There were two adult giraffes and one baby giraffe. The adults were being so cute today--they were nuzzling each other, and one was licking the other's neck later. (sounds pretty naughty in human terms, but you know...)




We also had fun riding the carousel and the train (Eli HATED the train whistle!) and, of course, seeing the other animals.

Hannah time

Hannah's been feeling pretty left out lately. Gee...I wonder why... ;) Well, today she got some extra attention. In fact, I put her to work! We did laundry together, re-did all the clothes in her dresser to change from summer to fall clothes, we cleaned her playroom (mainly her art desk which was a general catch-all for "stuff"), played "Sneaky Snake" (a fun puzzle-type game I used to have as a kid) and practiced piano together! Elijah spent a good bit of his day with Grammie and Gabah upstairs watching football! It was great to be able to spend the extra time with her--and her behavior really showed how much she appreciated it! She was so good today! By the way, I'm putting a picture on here of Hannah from her Storybook Ballet class on Thursday. Dad took her, so he e-mailed me the picture...they did the story of "Olivia Saves the Circus," which happens to be one of the favorites here, too. In case you don't know, Olivia is a pig, and always gets into mischief (and is very Hannah-ish). The books are black-and-white plus red and pink, which kindof explains the outfit. :) If you have never read an "Olivia" book, you really should. Or, better yet, listen to Dad read one! He's THE BEST!

Tummy Time and Nap Time

Elijah had a very fun (and cute) tummy time today! I actually got two very good pictures of him smiling, but the other one had too much light on it, and you have to see it larger to really "appreciate" it (it looks strange smaller). But these two turned out really cute. In the one where he's not smiling, he's still happy because he's looking at his favorite object, the ceiling fan. He LOVES ceiling fans. After spending some time exercising his cute little neck, he got tired and was ready for his nap. :)

Spin Me 'Round and Knock Me Down...

Hannah gets SO excited about getting new clothes, especially when they're dresses. And especially when the dresses are "twirly dresses." We've bought a lot of new clothes lately because of the change in season (and because she has grown yet again and moved up to size 5!!) One of our favorite places to buy clothes for her is Hanna Andersson. They have really cute clothes, and for some reason they fit for a much longer time than other clothes. They go by European sizing, too, which is interesting. So, we buy her clothes kinda big, but they tend to fit for over a year. And they look nice, but will last forever without falling apart, even when she wears them to school and on the playground and everything. (Man...do I sound like a commercial or what??) Anyway, this dress in the picture is the newest dress from there. It was kindof a surprise for her, and she was SO excited. It twirls and has matching ankle tights. It just screams "HANNAH!" So, because of one little dress purchase, we had a very happy Hannah afternoon yesterday, which lately has been a kindof rare occurance, especially on school days!

Elijah's Visit to the Doctor

Wow! Elijah has grown! He had his 2-month appointment today. He now weighs exactly 13 pounds (80th percentile!) and his height is 23 1/4 inches (55th percentile). Of course he is doing great--everything is moving along just fine! He didn't much enjoy the visit, though...he had to get three shots. Right in the thighs. Poor little guy--screamed during his shots, had some infant Tylenol, nursed, and is now wiped out on the couch. So, now I get to decide what I'm going to do while he's sleeping...will I do work around here (which is what I SHOULD do...) or will I take a much needed nap (which is what I WANT to do...)? Hmmm...we shall see... :)

Portraits

It's too bad that I don't have a digital version of the portraits we had taken today to post on here. We took Hannah and Elijah to get their portraits taken, and they turned out SO cute!! I was really amazed that we got ANY good ones of Elijah because he was just being so fussy! But, amazingly, we did! The goal of this session was to get a portrait of them together, so that's what we came home with (they have a $9.95 deal for lots of prints of just one pose). But there were some other great pictures that were taken and were just fun to see of the kids by themselves. The one we bought was absolutely adorable. I'm sure you'll see it. It's of Elijah laying facing the camera, and Hannah giving him a kiss on the forehead. It is such a sweet picture! Can't wait to share it with you!

Elijah's Frustrations

Poor Elijah is always getting so frustrated with things. New things will seem so interesting one second...then a few seconds later, they will have lost their charm and are just so frustrating!! Ah, the joys of being a newborn. :)

THE FIRST COLD DAY

OK...I'm getting ready to go with Mommy and Grammie to pick Hannah up from school right now, and I'm fairly content...

OK, this is interesting--I've been put into this very hot sweatshirt thing. Not sure what to think about this...

GET ME OUT OF THIS THING! (Or at least pick me up and stop taking my picture!!)

THE TOY

Check out this cool toy that Hannah showed me! And I can hold onto it!

Hey!! Do you see me?? I'm starting to need some attention here!!

HELP!!! I don't know how to open my hand to put this thing down!!!

Hannah's quotes

I swear...Hannah says the funniest things sometimes. She is so creative, and she's got a very active imagination. Here are some examples for you (I'm listing them from oldest to most recent)...
--I don't remember when she came up with these, but it was a good while back--probably last summer sometime (when she was 3). She has imaginary pets. Three cats named Whoop, Doop, and Della. And ten dogs--all named Lilly (we call them "The Ten Lillies"). And Babe the Pony. Now, we know that the pony's name came from a pony in Colorado. But the others? NO idea.
--Here's a bedtime story she told once earlier this year..."Some birds fly. Some birds don't fly. Some birds are dead." Good story, huh? :)
--A couple weeks ago, she was sitting down eating her lunch, and she said "Mommy? When I go to college, I'm going to be an artist. And when I come home from college, I'm going to be a princess." I hope she marries someone with a lot of money!!
--When we were in Missouri last week, Mom, Hannah, and I were driving in the car, and Hannah said "I can't decide what I want to be when I grow up. I either want to be a princess or a mom." When I asked her why she couldn't be both, she just said that she had to be one or the other. And she said that she had dreams at night about being those when she grows up. I so wish I could have a glimpse of her dreams!
--Tonight, I was getting really annoyed with her because she was purposely burping out loud. She then informed me that the sound was not her burping...it was the sound of her bones settling. Where in the WORLD did she come up with that one?
I can't wait to hear what she comes up with next!!