Christmas

I'm not going to write and post a bunch of Christmas pictures. There are a quite a few, but I was not feeling my best so there aren't as many as there could be and what's there isn't that great. They'll be up on snapfish soon - I'm going to make an effort to do that again.

Christmas morning was really good though, and Rowan had the best reactions. His face for almost every present that anyone opened looked like this:

The boy was excited.
We had fun. We played. We ate turkey. We played some more. It was good.
Eleri didn't do much, but she looked cute.

Longies by Cece of Knit Candy. Yes I bought some knitting. Hey, it was on sale, and I should support other knitters, right?
We're stretching Christmas out too. Tonight we made a gingerbread house. It's dairy free!

Tomorrow John and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. Sharon and Scott will stop by for lunch. And Mamaw is supposed to get here on Thursday since she missed Christmas. I love this time of year!

2 months old

It's hard to believe. Life with her on the outside of my body goes by so much faster than those last few weeks of pregnancy went.
She's a dolly. She's a very sweet little baby, and hardly any more evening fussy time. The non-dairy diet has really helped her a ton. I won't kid you - I hate it. But she's worth every bit of denial.
Maybe it's because I'm older. Maybe it's because I wanted her for a couple of years before I finally got to have her. But I'm really marvelling at these baby days. I love her toes, her grunts, her warm little lump status... She's everything a baby should be and more, and I thank God every day that he sent her to us.
But anyway. Here are her 2 months portraits. She's wearing the same outfit that she came home in. I'm just impressed that she still fits in it!

You are going to notice that I have a new toy

because the number of pictures is going to go up a bit.
Also, our old camera had focus issues, and baby smiles are fleeting and hard to catch.
But looky here!

The combo of new camera + Eleri being more generous with her smiles = WIN!
Isn't she cute? Lisa N. gave us the bow yesterday. Eleri wants more bows and some binkies for Christmas.

I forgot to tell you about our tiger

Rowan got a stuffed tiger from the Rainforest Cafe when we were in Vegas this summer. He named it Katamari (after a video game) and it's been his constant companion. Kinda reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes.
So when we went to the Holiday Express last Sunday night (sorry, no pictures of that. It was dark.) and they had face painting, Rowan jumped at the chance to get half his face painted like a tiger.
We would have gone for the whole thing, but at $5 a half...
He loved it. So much that John had to be careful doing his bath so the face paint wouldn't get washed off. He managed to keep it for a good bit of the next day too before it got smeared everywhere and we finally had to wash it off. There were tears involved and I had to promise to go to the library and get a book on how to paint faces.
He made a pretty good tiger though!

Learning the ropes again

Tommy and Fran got us a new camera for Christmas. We actually got it a day or so ago, but I've been studying the manual and then yesterday we spent all day at the mall for the annual visit to see Santa. No it doesn't take all day, but we have to spend time in the play area/germ pit playing with our friends too.
So anyway, last night I hauled it out for its inaugural run. It was night, and the room was poorly lit, and I had to use the flash, but I think we got something cute anyway.

And we did see Santa yesterday. The boys lied about behaving and put in their request for a Wii. I no longer have the threat to not take them to see Santa to get them to stop fighting, but I do have the supreme weapon in the pre-Christmas arsenal....

If they're really naughty. We go back to the big guy and they have to tell him what they did.
You wouldn't believe how well that works.

the lunch of the beast

Yep.

One cheeseburger happy meal with chocolate milk and fries.
One chicken nugget happy meal with chocolate milk and fries.

total:

$6.66

Also: it's love when you get happy meals for your little guy on his birthday and drive home with the smell of McD's fries all over the car, when you can't have any, because McD's has a dairy additive in their fries. Seriously. Fries. I'm stockpiling karma.

Taken out of context....

this could be alarming.

Today is Rowan's last day of school before his track break, so we needed to send in Christmas cookies for his teacher and the aide. So last night Rowan and I made cookies.
I was making the dough before dinner so it could chill and we could cut cookies after bath time.
Rowan didn't know what I was doing. He didn't really pay attention. He just knew I was in the kitchen.

Here's the thing. Our cookie recipe calls for 2 Tbsp of whiskey. Straight up whiskey.
He comes waltzing into the kitchen right after I opened it up and added it.

He takes a whiff. His eyes light up. And he says... "Hey that smells like Christmas!"

Yep. Whiskey smells like Christmas.

1 month old today!

It's hard to believe she's already a month old. And at the same time, it's hard to believe that she hasn't always been here.
Eleri is doing well. At our ped visit earlier this week she was 8lbs 15oz (almost what Niall weighed at birth - yeesh!) and she's starting to do much better since we added zantac to her world and removed all dairy from mine.
But enough of that. Y'all want pictures. From today:

And because it's cute

No baby ever got so much love from her big brothers.

Right before the big foody holiday

We get some depressing news. Eleri has reflux, and the most likely culprit is dairy in my diet.
So I'm off dairy. All of it. Even the dairy hidden in the bread, and cookies, and lunchmeat. yes! Lunchmeat has a dairy component. Go figure.
and nutella has milk in it
as does the "non-dairy" creamer for my coffee

It's a whole new world. But she's worth it.

So far today I've had peanut butter toast and a ham sandwich (Hormel natural meats are dairy free at least). I'm feeling a little deprived, so I'm researching how to make cornbread and pumpkin pie without involving the cows.

hair

back in the saddle

My first knitting since having the baby.

It's eating his brain!
Pattern: Brainmonster. Yarn: cheap wool ease. Kid: happy
Luckily the stars aligned and I got it done today, just in time for the cold weather tomorrow.

Just for Mamaw

Because she was irritated at the snaps on the diapers. ;)
Eleri wanted you to know that we're also kickin' it old school.

She still likes to eat every 2 hours, and thinks that 3-7am is time to make a lot of noise.
I am tired on a fundamental level. John takes her in the morning and gives me an extra hour of solid sleep. I think I leave the planet during that hour. It's essential.
We went to the grocery store yesterday. It was my first solo outing with Niall and Eleri. The blonde cashier with the blue eyeshadow came and got my cart and steered it into her checkout line even though I had waaaay more than 15 items. Eleri snoozed in her pouch the whole time, and Niall was his usuall niallating self. I had to remind him to not manhandle the merchandise about every 3 minutes. Par for the course. By the time we got home I was sweating profusely, but I had accomplished! wee!
Which reminds me, we've been watching a lot of The Sound of Music lately, since Rowan is learning some of the songs in his music class. The boys love the part where Rolf kisses Liesl and she yells WEEEEEE! in the rain. Cracks me up.

2 weeks

At the ped yesterday: 7lbs 9oz. 19.5 inches. She's growing!

:)

Fran: She's such a pretty baby.

Rowan: Ya. She's just like a movie star.

fresh

Well and happy.
Real update some other time.

37 weeks visit and pictures

Dear baby, Any time now.

37 weeks visit was this morning.
My BP was slighty up. 130something over 80something. Don't remember exactly.
No protiens or anything bad like that though, so no worries.
They put me on the monitor. The pixie looks good. And lo... there were contractions on the monitor.
Only 2, because they came 10 minutes apart and I was on there for about 20 mins total, but they were there.
I even felt one of them. Very mild but it made my face heat up.
It's very gratifying to see that little bump on the paper. Let's hope they are
doing something, and will come more frequently and get this party started.
Fluid levels are good, measurements good, see you next week.
Next visit is scheduled for Oct 27. I'd love to have the baby that day instead.
That was Dad's birthday.

anyway, here are pictures! As I said, it's overall time here now.
Nothing else fits!

Niall rewrites schoolhouse rock

He was singing yesterday...

"Lolly lolly lolly get your badgers here!"

Fr. Alex

I love our priest.
He's from Columbia so he can't vote, but he has been watching the election
with a very serious eye. He said that he will not advise us on who to vote for,
because that's not his job. (love him) But that since he's been asked the same
question over and over by the students (it's the University parish) he wanted
to tell us his thoughts.
He also warned us to keep in mind that he is from a country where politics
and religion are so tied together that it's impossible to separate them.
He fears any kind of tie of religion and politics, because what he grew up
with and what he knows is so corrupted.

It warmed my heart so much, that I wanted to share this with y'all: (paraphrased)

We can't define pro life in just one area. We have to look at life as a whole.
Pro life is not just abortion. You can't call that one thing pro life.
You have to take care of ALL life.
Do you take care of the poor? the homeless? the criminals? the elderly?
the war? the immigrants?
Life isn't just about the unborn. It's about all of us, and how we care for each
other, and how we take care of the world that we will leave to our children.

Not bad for a guy who still struggles with English.

babycrafts

Finished: the boppy.

almost finished: the coming home outfit. Need to weave in ends and put the cherry on the hat.

I'm going to go drink more of that raspberry tea.

---------------------------

Colleen passed on today. Her body is now at peace. Send prayers to her family, that they feel love and healing as they grieve. Thank you God for her life, and for those precious moments she got to spend with those she loved. We will still be holding the auction for her. I'll repost the link closer to the day.

Still here

Really, I wouldn't be stalking me yet. I'm pretty sure I have at least another week and a half left here. The house is coming together. The laundry has been conquered (as much as it can be. There is always more lurking). I have a few more things to knit and do, but mostly it's about trying to slog this body through the day.
I am incredibly, incredibly tired. I'm also prone to hormonal crying at least once a day. It happens.
The baby linens are washed. The crib is still in pieces - but we'll set that up when baby is here. She can sleep in the baby hammock which is all set up, washed, and waiting.
The carseat is washed and in the van. Not installed, but it's in there.
Diapers are washed, stacked and waiting. Clothes washed and put in drawers.

Things left to do:
- install carseat
- turn playroom into guest room for Mom and Fran for when they're here.
- make Halloween costumes for the boys
- pack bag for hospital
- knit
- try and sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time (not gonna happen but I can hope)
- try to bring some sort of order to our bedroom and the corner of despair (that corner by the treadmill where we put pictures, random boxes, and things we just don't want to deal with right now)

I laugh at whoever says "enjoy these last few weeks." So easy to say. I'm looking foward to lying on my stomach again.