I am so tired.

I have made two trips to Salem since I last blogged. The first trip was because my grandfather wasn't doing well and I wanted to see for myself how bad he was actually doing, and if it looked as it sounded get hospice set up for him.  Well he did look bad, and we ended up getting hospice set up the day we arrived with the help of an awesome nurse and his dr. (after a facility nurse had told my aunt we needed to take him to the ER on the weekend to get orders for hospice, don't even get me started on how ridiculous that is!)

My mom came over to Auburn and we drove down to Salem together. Wow are long car rides way more work with a little munchkin.  We had to pull over once because somebody was screaming, and then again because the other two somebodies had to go to the bathroom. But we made it in one piece!  My grandpa didn't even recognize us the first day we were there, but the next two days he at least opened his eyes and even remembered Eli, which was so special seeing as he has had pretty bad dementia and short term memory loss since long before Eli was born. 

The man patting Eli's head is Sam, Sam loves babies and wanted to hold Eli every time he saw him, melt my heart. 

Right before we went down to Salem my college friend I hadn't seen since my wedding, Michele, said she was driving super close to my house on her way from Portland to Canada where she is now living.  She is doing her internship as a large animal vet, and was going to move to Australia in a few days to finish it there.  She came over less than an hour after she texted and we got to catch up for a few hours, it was so fun, so random, and one of the huge blessings of being SAHM right now is being available!

Paul and I finally got down to his grandparents house so they could visit Eli, it had been more months than I can remember since they had seen him, it was so precious to see Nana leaving over and smothering Eli with kisses. 

Eli loves the fridge, and by loves I mean any time he hears it open he drops whatever he is doing to crawl as fast as he can and stand inside it. He cracks me up.  I had to move the soy and hoisin sauces because he likes to suck on them like a bottle!

This last month has really brought out the mischeviousness in Eli. Climbing in the dishwasher, taking food out of the fridge, climbing all the stairs, knocking over plants, tearing leaves from succulents, it pretty much never ends!  He also walks super well now behind a walker and he is so proud of himself for it!  I wish you ladies had instagram because I post a lot of photos and videos of him over there :) 

Eli and I tagged along to the Harvest festival in Seattle a few weekends ago.  Eli loved the band that was there (hence the huge smile) and loved seeing all the animal they had.  Both babies, Eli and his buddy Meli, slept the whole way too and from Seattle, it was a miracle! 

Eli practices brushing his teeth with me, he is getting so active and observant and he just keeps getting more and more fun!  He is also eating like a teenager lately, he still nurses the same but the amount of actual food he consumes is incredible!  I have started having his bottle with water in it all the time for him.  I just ordered some cups with straws and we are going to try that for him when he is sitting in his booster. 

We went out to breakfast at one of our favorite places, Sunrise Cafe, a few weeks ago.  We took along Eli's booster and bib and it was the best thing we ever did!  He enjoyed some of the amazing and HUGE omlet with us and he couldn't escape!  I don't know who designed the high chairs for restaurants but who made them so deep and wide, Eli can escape the seatbelt no problem.  McDonalds on the other hand has awesome high chairs, which I am embarassed to admit I know that.  I don't actually know the last time I ate anything besides a dipped cone there though, so thats a plus. :) 

Paul and I having a relaxing moment while Eli slept. Seems these are few and far between because Paul is always working or has something going on.  I can't wait for a more predictable schedule and normal life when he becomes a manager.  He has a manager interview in a few weeks and I am praying Gods will be done.  I have full confidence he will pass, but only if it's the Lords will.  I have peace God has a plan for us, and I will just ride the waves of whatever happens.  

Eli looks at Paul with such awe and wonder these days and I was so happy to have captured it while he was sitting on the bed.  I sure do love these two boys in my life, they definitely have me wrapped around their finger. :) 

I have still been loving bountiful basket, and Amber has been getting them lately as well!  I just order hers along with mine and drop it by, which means I get to see her almost weekly! :)  Amber can't have peppers though so I ended up with a TON of bell and chili peppers this last time.  I roasted them all in the toaster (convection) oven and froze them in half cup packs.  I am excited to have them available for lots of cooking this winter! 

I did Jamberry nails for the first time.  I have had them on for 1.5 weeks now and they are holding up so well!  They are more work to put on than the advertisements let on, but so cute and work so well.  I also could probably do my nails 3x from a package instead of the 1x I thought. 

My walking, climbing, crazy dare devil of a boy!  He has so much energy these days.  He just went through a growth spurt, which I am so glad is over.  He sleeps awful on vacation anyway, so combine being away from home for a week with a growth spurt and just getting over his second bout of croup, it meant I was up 3-4 times a night.  Paul went hunting and was gone for 5 nights so all the wake ups were on me.  Oh I was so tired! We are sleep training again this week and it is already getting better. Phew! 

Swinging at my parents house in the same swing my mom swung my brother to sleep in as a baby.  My brother is now 21!

While in Salem this last weekend for my grandpas memorial (he passed just a day after we left town, he knew we said our goodbyes) we went and visited my other grandparents.  Grandma Shirley loves being on the floor and playing with Eli even at 80 years old!  The only two times grandpa Bob has smiled in the last 6 months is when Eli has visited him. The power of a baby is incredible!   The guy on the right in the football picture is my grandpa that just passed away, he was such a stud!

Paul had the day off yesterday and we went to Flaming Geyser State park.  It is just about 15 minutes from our house, and we only stayed for about a half hour, but it was a fun family adventure, and Paul even agreed to a few family pictures! 

Eli made the rough transition from 3 to 2 naps this week so I am having to get  creative with fun things to keep him up between naps.  He used to only stay up 2 hours at a time, but started refusing his last nap of the day meaning he was up for nearly six hours before bed, um that was torture and he was super grumpy!  So I switched to keeping him awake for 3 hours at a time between naps and not only has he not refused a single nap, he also naps way better than he was.  It is also helping him sleep longer at night, still with wake ups that we have to pat him back down, but hopefully those will go away soon.  He now sleeps in till about 6:15 or 7am which is so so so much better than the 4 am that we did for a month! 

Hope all is well with you ladies! 

Happiness

Ahh! I wrote a whole thing about my birth story and then my computer died and I lost the whole thing! I'll have to write about it later.  I'll share some pictures for now.  About a month before Callum was born I got a smart phone and have been able to take a lot more pictures.

This is my sweet little boy, I just love watching him sleep.  He's so precious! We had a midwife appointment today and he is doing so well! He's gained 12 oz in the past 5 days and is now up to 8 lbs 5 oz.  We had been waking him up to feed in the night because I was worried about him gaining, but now I know he's totally fine and I can let him sleep more!

Five days after Callum was born we found out that he had a pretty severe tongue tie and upper lip tie. A pediatrician was able to cut the tongue tie initially, but behind it was another one and he said that it needed to be cut my laser.  Thankfully there is a dentist who specializes in this not too far from us and they were able to see us right away.  It was so hard to watch as they numbed his mouth, the hard part was after the procedure because his breathing sounded horrible.  The numbing had gone down his throat he couldn't control his saliva until it hit his windpipe and then he would cough it up.  Justin was so good at holding him.

The night after he got the revision was tough.  He hasn't ever latched because his mouth was so restricted, so I've been working on breastfeeding, but he gets fed by me pumping and a bottle.  That night he had trouble even taking a bottle and would get so upset when we tried to give it to him.  We ended up using a spoon to feed him.  Thankfully things have been slowly getting better since then.  Sometimes he forgets how to suck and gets frustrated with the bottle, but today has been really good.  After every feed we have to stretch the skin under his tongue and upper lip so that he doesn't reattach to where it was.  It's so hard because Callum cries and sometimes screams when we do it.  I also have tongue exercises I have to do with him so that it moves around more.  

On a happier note, we went to church last Sunday and had so much fun showing him off to all our friends!  He slept the whole time.  It was so fun to dress him up in dress clothes! 

Beatrix has been really good with Callum.  She gives him little licks on the head and cheek.  She doesn't seem to be jealous yet, so I'm hoping it continues to go well.

It was so fun to see Callum's cousin with him!  

This is from last night, I just love watching him eat and sleep.  It took about 10 minutes for him to start sucking on the bottle, I was so glad once he finally took it! 

Waiting for Baby

Yay I'm finally posting! Even though I don't post very much, I often think about how I need to post about things that I'm doing, and then it doesn't happen.  But it is today.

Pregnant.  I feel like this is my defining attribute at the moment.  I didn't really understand it when women talked about being sick of being pregnant until a couple weeks ago.  I've been blessed with an easy pregnancy and it's only lately that I've been feeling a bit done with it.  Mainly because I'm not as mobile or have as much energy as I would like to.  I also want to just hold our baby!  I know that God will bring this baby in his timing, so that has helped a lot.  I've had enough time to get everything ready, have I told you guys that I'm doing a water birth too?  We've had the tub for 3 weeks already.  I really hope I get to use it and don't end up going to the hospital.

Angela and Becca, I have you to thank for choosing the water birth.  Both of you had such positive experiences that I decided to go with it.  It's something I had thought of before, but knowing women that have actually used it and loved it is really reassuring.

 I don't feel tired of waiting for this baby yet.  It's helped a lot to have my mom here and keep me busy.  We do something everyday.  I haven't even had time to work on my last sewing project for the baby.  I want to make a new cushion cover for the rocking chair.  My plan is to start on it today, hopefully it doesn't take too long.

Here are a couple pictures of my mom and I visiting a historical mansion in Toronto last week.

It was a really hot day, but it was so nice to have my mom around to take care of me and buy me cold drinks when I was overheating.  

I do have to show off one project I finished.  I finally finished the baby quilt for my sister-in-law who is due end of October.  I really wanted to get it done before our baby came.  I gave it to her last week.

I was also really blessed to have a baby shower a week and a half ago.  My mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law spent a lot of time putting it together.  They spent all day Saturday cooking.  It was so fun to have a party to celebrate our little one coming! 

Two of my former students were able to make it out from Toronto, it was the first shower my Japanese friend had ever been to.

With my sister-in-law, Emily.

I have a midwife appointment today.  I'm curious what she'll say.  Two weeks ago she said the baby still had a lot of room to move around.  

Maybe next time I'll blog I'll have a baby-or not.  ha, I'm trying to be realistic.  I know babies can take their time sometimes.  I just want the baby to be here before the 11th because that's when my Dad is coming and I want my parents to have some time with the baby before they head back to the Philippines.  

just an update

Hi Everyone!

I don't have time or energy to add pictures to this post, I just thought I'd do a quick little update since its been a while since I have posted.

We just got back yesterday from a week vacation with Jeremy's entire family.  I am so happy to be home.  It was fun to go and I think Jeremy's mom was happy to have everyone there, but before we left for the trip, Jeremy said, "What do you think the family blow-up will be this time?"  I laughed and just told him to keep his mouth shut around his brothers and probably no arguments would happen.

Well, there was basically some sort of argument/family drama event every single night.  I got so little sleep some of the nights because of this, and we spent a lot of our time waiting around for people because half of his siblings don't really understand what it means to be somewhere at a certain time and are not considerate of people who are ON TIME.  Then they get mad at us because we didn't want to wait with our children for (i am not exaggerating) over an hour in 80-90 degree weather while they finally made it to wherever we were going.

Yeah.

So I'm happy to be home.

We did do some fun things, though.  We walked through the Lava Caves (almost 2 miles in the dark) and climbed Smith Rock (I carried Hailey almost the entire way, 2 and 1/3 mile over and then back again), and went to different parks for the kids to play.  The resort we stayed at had an awesome kiddie splash park and pool area, Hailey LOVED the water and wanted to swim all day.

The week before we went on a trip to the oregon coast with my sister and her husband, and that was awesome.  We spent all of our time outside on the beach, the kids proved to be awesome travelers (did great in the car and slept fine any where we put them) and it was really refreshing.  I have a bunch of pictures up on my blog from that trip if you want to see them. (http://beccaellis.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/oregon-coast-trip/)  Also, as soon as we got back from that trip, we had VBS up at the church and I taught the 4-5 year olds (although I also had a few 2 and 3 year olds, also).  It was fun, but I was exhausted at the end of the week and then had to pack up again for Oregon.

Shea starts up at his new preschool (here in Indianola) in a few weeks and I'm taking online classes again this quarter.  Also, I don't think I have shared anything about this, but I recently bought a new camera and I have connected with a doula in the area who I will be working with to offer free birth photography in exchange for experience at births and to build my portfolio.  I am super excited about this and have potentially 4 births from now through December that I could be at, including my sister's.  I also am doing a young woman we knew from Port Orchard (she was one of the teens we were working with when we lived there) who is pregnant and I am doing her maternity pictures in November.

Anyway, thats it for now.  I was finishing up a post on my blog for a local farm to table cafe I went and pictures for, and now I am ready to go to bed!  Jeremy is up watching the Huskies game with his parents, but Hailey is coming down with a cold and I think I am fighting it off, too.  I am so thankful Jeremy is off until Tuesday and we have nothing planned all weekend.

Busy couple of weeks

I worked 3 days out of an 8 day period, had two friends move from rentals to their first homes, my boy had/has croup, and sleeping through the night turned into waking twice a night while sick. 

The times when I think I would be getting grumpy I just think "this is motherhood, you will miss this, enjoy the moment".  When I don't feel like I can do it alone, and Paul is at work, I text a friend and get together. Chores can wait, sometimes just hanging out and enjoying the moment changes a downer day into one of the best days.  Eli is a social baby and is usually better when hanging out with people.  Oh and I am definitely getting him accustomed to taking naps anywhere and everywhere! 

My boy loves zucchini!  He chews all the meat off and just leaves the skin. Proud mama moment. 

 I have been wanting to go on a motorcycle ride on Paul's new bike since he wouldn't take me when I was pregnant.  It only took us 7 months but we took a half hour ride together while grandma and grandpa watched Eli.  I had worked that day and was tired, but it was so fun to get out and about with Paul!

Eli loves hanging out with our friends who have a little girl, Meli who is 4 months old.  They love each other, she stares at him and smiles, he grabs her foot, repeat, and repeat. It's adorable!

Eli and I went to help his other buddy Isaac and his mama pack up to move (they move today actually) and they have baby jail. I am a huge fan of baby jail!  I wish they had a portable one I could take everywhere with me to all the places I go that aren't babyproofed! 

Eli gets so excited when he sees me eating. He crawls over all excited like and super fast and stares and climbs on me till I give him a bite.  Baby led weaning at its finest. 

Since Eli had croup I hadn't been going swimming because I had decided to take him to the gym daycare, but didn't want to start him there while he was all mucousy and coughy. I finally get my booty there and the pool is closed!  So I swung into costco for some bread and ended up with this sweet outfit for Eli. Jeggins, camo vest, and a long sleeved grey onesie that isn't pictured. 

I made my own almond butter for the first time!  I am going to make peanut butter next.  Why oh why haven't I done this before? It is so easy.  Roast almonds, let cool a bit, put in food processor for about 7 minutes, add a pinch of salt and incorporate and voila, almond butter. 

This boy is going to keep me on my toys, he is already a dare devil at 7 months old. I can't wait till he can wheel himself around on this thing! :) 

Getting into the groove

I don't know why it took me so long to have Eli put himself down for naps. I just had to let him cry and go in every 10-15 minutes and now he puts himself down for nearly every nap. I used to nurse him down but lately he is awake through most of if not all of nursing. Or if he falls asleep he wakes right up. Anyway, he was skipping every single nap when meant there was a crazy mommy and crazy baby in the house. So I started leaving him in the crib for what should constitute a nap and he started falling asleep on his own. Win win. We are both way happier, and this has been going on for weeks now. I am also finally finding time to get things done around the house!  I found this grout paint that makes your grout look a million times better, like new really. I spent 3 solid days of nap times redoing all of our grout. I have gorgeous tile and very bruised knees to show for it. I also secured the rest of the tippable furniture to the wall today.  I have also started vacuuming every other day downstairs because I know a little boy who likes to crawl everywhere, and some cats who like to track litter everywhere. I am loving my house more and more now that I have been making these small changes. I also cleaned our shower doors with something called bio-clean. I can't remember if I mentioned this before but it is magical. Add a little (kinda a lot) of elbow grease and my shower doors look brand new, no more hard water stains that are 10 years old! 

I have no smooth transition. Straight to baby talk.  Eli has been semi approving of books more these days. He often wants to just chew on them and is not interested in me reading anything, but crawling and clinmbing, those are his favorites and he does it all day every day! 

My mom got me this awesome "my mom snaps" book as part of my birthday gift. It's all about the daily activities a kid is doing and how the mama snaps pictures all day long. I LOVE it! 

Eli got to meet my friends 4 week old niece. She was so sweet. It's crazy how fast you can forget how cuddly and sweet little ones are. I absolutely loved that stage but this stage is way more fun, that stage was sweet :) .

Paul and I went on our first childless date day and it was amazing. We still bought Eli some stuff but mainly we  went bike shopping to 3 different stores and did research. Then we went to lunch, got my free starbucks bday coffee and then walked 3 miles around greenlake in some amazing weather. It was a much needed 5.5 hour date while grandma watched Eli. And we got to see the blue angels because it was Seafair! 

Eli loved his first taste of vine fresh blackberries! There are lots of places close to home that have blackberries free for the picking. I made my first freezer jam with them!  

I had to go get a filling and a cleaning at the dentist and it turned into a 1.75 hour visit because of insurance logistics and stuff. This kind of thing would have annoyed me pre baby but I just enjoyed the time alone watching the news and fiddling on my phone while waiting for things!  I also didn't need to get numbed at all because the fillings were so small, which was awesome! I would way rather have them fixed now than in a few years when they are awful! 

My mother in law made me an awesome fruit tart for my bday, and the Celebrate is my favorite event additive I got from lisa leonard designs when she was having a sale :) 

My boy loves the bath, we take one every night almost even though he showers with me in the morning. 

My birthday bike with my main man! 

Amber teething necklace please work! 

Eli unfortunately caught his first cold (or has really bad teething congestion) and he is hating the nose frieda.  I have a humidifier running in his room and he has been napping more than ususal. Still just teeth buds and no teeth, which is fine by me. Love this little dude and hope he feels better soon. 

Not much news

Hello!  Not that much to report -

We went to Spain.  My Expert Sinner blog has all the details and a link to the photos if you haven't already seen them.

We received a bunch of info on that girl we were interested in adopting, and now the ball is in our court to decide if we want to continue pursuing her.  Oddly though, the social worker hasn't even looked at our homestudy, so it seems premature to send us this girl's entire life story and list of problems.  Very personal and private information to send to a couple when you haven't even read their homestudy.  But I guess they trust that we went through the licensing process so we must be all right?  Not sure.  Right now I'm waiting for Joe to decide whether to move forward or not so I can contact the social worker, at which point they will review our homestudy.  If they like us, then they'll bring the girl on board.  If she likes us, then she'll live in our home as a foster-adopt, and when it is determined she's a good fit, we'll adopt.  That is a lot of "ifs!"  The big "if" right now is Joe, who honestly hasn't been responding to my efforts to talk about it.

I think we may have found a home church. Faith Baptist in Kent.  A lot of families who used to go to FEPC go there now.  I am really excited to get involved.  I have missed being plugged in, especially since our Bible study ended.

I'm really frustrated with my inability to drive because I am bored out of my mind.  There are so many opportunities for ministry and social-ness that are out of reach.  Joe has off-and-on been researching cars for me because he wants to get rid of the Mazda...but we have different opinions about what car to get (I want heated seats for my legs and he says absolutely not; he wants to buy a truck in addition to a new car and I say absolutely not...).  And after we get the car we still have to get the hand controls, which also requires me to take some classes and, I believe, to retake the driving test.  It seems so far away!  As of next month it will be a year since I'll have driven.  September 17 last year was when we went to the ER because I woke up and couldn't walk.  It was after that I decided to stop driving.  November 1 I was diagnosed.  December 1 I started the medication.  I just remember all these dates because it was such a big change in my life.

I've plateau'd in physical therapy so my last session is next week.  Too bad my 2x/week sessions were the highlight of my week because, PEOPLE.  But I've really thrown myself into my home PT routine and I'm noticing a difference in my leg strength!  My main problem with doing it at home was, I'd try to do all my exercises at once and then I'd get woozy and headachy and blurry vision and I'd push through it so I could check it off.  But I made a check list where I do a couple sets and then I have to take at least a 5 minute break.  And I've learned to allow myself to stop in the middle of an exercise *as soon as* I start feeling weird.

I started grating my Fels Naptha on the smallest grater for laundry soap because I was getting tired of the little grated pieces mixed in with the powdered washing soda and borax.  It made a great powder, but it took forever and I was breathing it in and stuff.  So I looked up "How to avoid grating soap" and found this.  I have not tried it yet but I plan to.  I also started putting the soap through a sieve to make it pure powder!  I love it even more now!  And I'm pretty sure it'll dissolve in cold water, being so fine.

That's all I can think of.  Toodleoo!