Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Reflections on 2013

When I look back on 2013, I literally cannot believe it's been only a year.  I was looking through pictures from the year and I had to double check that these pictures were taken in January 2013 and not January 2012!  (I was barely pregnant in January 2012- it just blows my mind!)

He couldn't even sit up on his own!
Still taking a pacifier!
Taking baths in the kitchen sink!
Using the bumbo!
Just barely starting solid foods!
So I think I can safely say that a lot has happened this year.  And yet, when I sit down to write out the highlights, I can think of only a few.  Daniel switched jobs from DISH to Comcast, we bought a new house, and I guess that's about it.
Visiting his Dada at Comcast over Christmas
I think something that I am just getting used to is that when you are raising a child, the year seems so full of important events (Elijah eating solid foods, learning to crawl and then walk, starting to talk) and at the same time it can all be summed up in one phrase: "we raised our child."  I noticed the same thing when we would get together with friends after we hadn't seen them for a few months.  They ask "what's new?"  and all I could think was..... nothing.  We're just plugging along, raising our child.  And yet that means so much.  In the last month for example, Elijah's learned to say so many new words and signs.  He has demonstrated that he understands so much of what we say.  He uses utensils and dishes now instead of eating with his hands off of a high chair tray.  It's absolutely remarkable and yet completely predictable.



When I think about what 2014 has in store, I get pretty excited.  We have this beautiful new home to transform and make our own.  We just finished redoing the kitchen, which took much less time and turned out much more beautiful that I could have imagined.  We have big plans for the bathrooms and that's pretty high on our priority list.  And thanks to some very fortunate events, we actually have the money to do it soon!  And of course expanding our family is always in the back of my mind.  We are inching closer and closer to a plan.  And I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year I find myself pregnant.

The truth is that in 2013 many of our dreams came true.  I don't say that nonchalantly.  I have literally dreamed of becoming a mother for nearly 10 years and though Elijah was born in 2012, I think it's accurate to say that I really became a mother in 2013.  For a solid year I have been caring for this human being and in that time he has gone from an immobile blob to a toddler who runs to greet me when I pick him up from school, gives me hugs, brings me books to read and sits on my lap while I read them, gives me kisses when I ask (and when I don't!), laughs at silly things I do, and shows genuine love and affection for me as his mother.

Christmas Eve
At the Georgetown Railroad


Another huge dream of ours that was realized this year is our new home.  Daniel and I have been discussing the kind of home we want to live in ever since we graduated from college.  Our current home was a great starter house, but it definitely wasn't where we wanted to raise our family.  We really wanted something in a good school district, and in a nice quiet suburban neighborhood.  Just a few months ago, that dream seemed nearly impossible.  The fact that we had to save up such an enormous amount of money, on our current income, with one child's worth of expenses, was insurmountable.  Add to that the fact that we knew we wanted to have another child- which is always a considerable expense- and we felt that it would be a very long time before we could realize any of those dreams.  We had been saving our money aggressively, but then we found that we would have to choose- have another child, or move to our dream house.  We just couldn't afford both.  It was an incredibly difficult decision, and one that we never really came up with an answer for.  But through the incredible generosity of our family, and our own hard work and determination, we find ourselves here at the end of 2013 with our considerable savings in tact, and in our dream home.  Which means that another baby can't be far behind ;-)

To sum it up, 2013 was a year full of incredibly happy surprises.  There is nothing I would change about this year.  I have never been so full of happiness and joy than I am now.  And yet, I feel that 2014 can only get better!  I do have a few goals for this coming year:  I hope to gain clarity in my career path.  I don't necessarily need to move forward in my career- I just want a clearer picture and a clearer goal for that area of my life.  And I also want a plan for expanding our family.  Again, I don't need to necessarily get pregnant this year, but rather I would like a clearer plan for what we need to do to get there, and how much time that will take.  I don't think that's too much to get done in 365 days, right?

Santa pictures just because ;-)

I love Elijah's cheesy grin!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Moving

We are officially in our new house!  Everything this weekend went absolutely fantastic.  We took two trips in the moving truck, and with all our friends we got it done before 2pm.  We were so grateful to have everyone there to help us.
Uncle Aaron was a huge help!



There were some minor hiccups (we had to take the door off the hinge to get Elijah's crib out of his bedroom, and then take it apart to get it up the stairs in our new house) (oh, and the $450 sectional that we bought specifically to go in the basement didn't even fit through the doorway, let alone down the narrow stairwell to the basement) but overall it went much better than I could have imagined.  Elijah also did much better than I hoped.  We got his room set up just in time for his nap, and he went right to sleep and slept for nearly 3 hours.  Which gave us plenty of time to get things done!  While Daniel and a bunch of the guys went back to get another load, I started to unpack boxes.  My dad and brother got us all pizza.  We had time to eat and unpack the truck before Elijah even woke up.  Then one particularly awesome friend stayed 4 more hours to help Daniel install our new garage door opener.  My dad bought us all Maggiano's for dinner which was delicious.  My dad also spent Friday demoing what was left of the old kitchen.  So we have been without a kitchen at all (no sink, no dishwasher, no cabinets, no countertop) for 4 days.  Really the only thing I wish we had was a dishwasher or kitchen sink.  It's very difficult to clean Elijah's tray and bib without a kitchen sink.  But really it's a very short period of time that our lives will be slightly inconvenienced, so I can manage.

Our first night in the house was not very comfortable.  I didn't sleep at all.  I woke up very tired and grumpy at 5am Sunday morning.
First morning in the new house
We couldn't find one piece to the guest bed which it turns out is kind of important.  In the middle of the night my dad fell through the bed frame.  We heard a large crack in the middle of the night.  It scared me to death, but Daniel knew what it was right away so I calmed down and (sort of) went back to sleep.  Then, on Sunday night, we heard a large noise three separate times.  The first time it was the contents of an entire shelf falling off the wall and onto the floor.  The second and third times it was the bed collapsing under the weight of Jackson this time.  I hope he learned his lesson and won't jump onto any (human) beds anytime soon!

Jackson has had quite an adjustment.  I can tell he likes all the space we have in the new house, but we haven't been able to let him outside.  He got out accidentally on Friday night, and ran around for a while before coming back on his own.  Which is what we expected.  Since then we've let him off the leash twice and he's done the same thing.  So no big deal, he runs around for a while and then comes back. But we can't just let him run around the neighborhood loose like that.  We have taken him out for as many walks as we can manage, but it's been 5 degrees outside for a solid week!  So we aren't exactly excited to go outside.  He also won't poop, and rarely pees, while he's on the leash.  We ordered an invisible fence that will arrive tomorrow, so installing that is a big priority.  Once we get that set up we should be able to just let him out into the backyard without worrying.
Bundling up to go for a walk in 5 degree weather









Elijah is settling in very nicely!
Other than those minor issues, we are settling in very nicely!  We have only a few boxes left (besides all the kitchen supplies of course).  I am very surprised how far along we are in the unpacking and organizing.  We even had time to put up our Christmas tree and decorate the fireplace!  Every night I sleep better and better.  It is so unbelievably quiet and serene in our new neighborhood.  I just love it.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Elijah at 15 months

Elijah has finally started to say actual words!  I have literally been waiting for this time since I found out I was pregnant.  I think it is so adorable to hear tiny kids speaking.  They mispronounce things, and get things mixed up.... it's so cute!  For a few weeks, Daniel and I were concerned that Elijah wasn't really developing in his speech.  We've heard so many other one year olds that have lots and lots of words and as of a week ago he only had a few.  He could sign "more," "milk," and "all done."  he could shake his head "no," and had very few verbal words (yeah, dada, oh no).  Most of the time when he did speak, he was just mimicking us.  I talked with his pediatrician about it at his 15 month well check on Monday, and he said it's too early to be worried. He also said that we would likely see a huge explosion of language all of a sudden.  His teachers said that he was right on track for his age.  Well this week, I think we've witnessed that language explosion!  Just this week he has said "doggie" and "mo."  That's two new words in just a few days.  And he has this new thing where he goes "woooooow."  It's the cutest thing ever.  He is also signing much more reliably.  Our pediatrician told me that if I wanted to encourage his speech development, to encourage him to use the signs or words before I respond to his needs.  We started doing that Monday night and it has made a huge difference. We make him sign "more" before we give him more food, or "milk" before we give him his sippie cup.  I think being in the toddler class has helped too.  He is hearing all the other kids speak and it's helped his speech develop.

There are so many other new things he's learned.  He is pointing to things constantly.  Pictures in a book, things he sees out the window, to himself and to his dada.  It's a tiny window into what he's thinking about at any given moment and I just love it.  He is using utensils remarkably well.  Just in the past month he's gone from using them clumsily with our help, to almost not needing help at all.  Especially with something like yogurt or applesauce, he can dip his spoon in, scoop up the food, and put it in his mouth.  It's amazing to watch.  He also doesn't cry or protest anymore when I cut his nails!  Seems like a small thing, but it amazes me every time.  He is 25 lb 6 oz (at his 15 mos well check) which is the 84th percentile!  He's still our chubby little boy, and I love every one of his little fat rolls :-)

He is doing so much better in the toddler class.  Drop off gets easier every single day, and he hardly ever clings to me or cries when I leave.  When I pick him up he is happily playing as part of the group.  He does still have a few issues with drop off.  Right when we enter the room, he usually turns around and buries his head in my legs.  But it's fairly easy to distract him with toys and then he's happy to stay and play.

I'm concerned with how the adjustment will go after we move tomorrow.  I am assuming it will be difficult, and planning for the worst.  We are going to do our best to keep as much as possible the same.  His schedule, eating habits, napping place, we will try to keep consistent.  And I am also prepared to stop what I'm doing to give him a little extra attention and down time if necessary.  

Right now I feel like we are having a blast.  Elijah makes me smile and laugh multiple times every day.  He giggles incessantly.  Everything in the world is new and exciting.  The snow under his feet fascinated him.  When I showed up in his classroom to pick him up with a knit hat on my head, he thought it looked hilarious!  He laughed and tried to pull it off.  I put it on him and he thought that was even more funny!  Bathtime is a happy time again (partly due to Grandpa being here this week to visit and play).  Last night he discovered a bowl of M&Ms in the basement.  He started to play with them and we couldn't believe he didn't eat them.  We turned around for a minute and when we looked back, he was shoving them in his mouth and fast as he could!  He had chocolate smeared all over his face and on his sweater.  Daniel was saying "no! yuck!" and he just kept shoveling them in his mouth.  He has also started to bring books to us when he wants to be read to.  A particular favorite right now is "Snuggle Puppy."  I just love being his mom more than anything else in the whole world.  I don't know how I lived without him to give me so much joy every day.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Elijah's Second Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I'm hesitant to write that down, because I love a lot of other holidays, but every year when it comes around I'm pretty sure Thanksgiving is my favorite.  This year had some awful aspects (Elijah getting horribly sick), but overall it was pretty fantastic.  Like probably the best family visit we've had since Elijah was born.  So I can't decide how to characterize the trip.  I want to say that it was great and perfect and a blast, but there was the whole Elijah getting a fever and being horribly grumpy and sad for a good chunk of the trip.

On Wednesday, Daniel picked up Elijah from school.  He noticed that Elijah was very tired, which was weird because he took a great nap that day.  But I was happy to hear that because I wanted him to go to bed early since we all had to get up before 5am the next morning.  He went to bed a full hour early without a problem.  The next morning our plan was to get ourselves ready, get the car packed up, and then grab Elijah and put him right into the car where he would hopefully fall back asleep.  I wasn't optimistic that this would work, but hey guess what- it did.  Elijah went back to sleep within 10 minutes and slept for another 20 minutes until we got to the airport.

We got through security in record time. Somehow we were sorted into the TSA pre-check line which was about the awesomeset thing ever- shoes left on, liquids left in the bag, no line at all.  We got to the gate about 20 minutes before boarding started.

Once we were on the plane, we turned a movie on the iPad.  Elijah sat in my lap facing the iPad and before we even took off, he was asleep again.

I was pleasantly surprised, but still not concerned.  I figured it was because we woke him up so early, and maybe the white noise on the plane contributed a little bit.  30 minutes into the flight he woke up crying, but we were able to calm him down and he was fine.  He ate a good amount of fruit.  The flight went really quickly.  We went straight to Daniel's parents' house.  Elijah was okay, but pretty whiney and clingy.  Again, we chalked it up to the early morning, the chaos of getting on a plane and then ending up in a new environment with people he really doesn't know that well.  We went over to my parents' house and finally we put him down for a nap at 11:30am.  He slept.  And slept.  And slept.  3 hours later dinner was ready, so we decided to wake him up.  Again, not concerned.  We put him in the high chair with some sweet potatoes, turkey, and cranberry jello.  He didn't eat a crumb.  Nothing.  I figured he was groggy from the long nap, and brushed it off.  He played for a few hours, seeming to be totally fine.  He happily sat on his great grandma's lap and great grandpa's lap.  Around 5pm we headed back to Daniel's parents' house.  My grandma told me that she thought he felt warm.  I brushed it off.  When we arrived at my in-laws' house, he wasn't very happy.  He wanted to be held, refused to smile, and just seemed off.  But still, I chalked it up to the early day and new environment/people.  We put him in the high chair (again) with some thanksgiving food.  He didn't touch it.  He sat in the chair with his head slumped over to the side and a vacant stare.  I remember looking at him, and saying over and over "this is not right, this is not normal."  I felt him and he was hot.  It was scary.  Once we realized what was going on, everyone jumped into action.  Daniel started the bath.  I drove to Walgreens to get childrens' tylenol.  Evan and Kristy started to clean him up and undress him.  By the time I got back he was out of the bath and in his PJs.  Evan and Kristy read him some books and Kristy held him for the 3 minutes it took for him to fall asleep.  At 6:15pm.



He was up all night whining, whimpering, and crying.  Daniel ended up sleeping with him on the couch.

  When he woke up he was still very hot and didn't eat anything for the whole next day.  He was still whiney and clingy, and refused to smile all day.  His fever went away by late morning, but his appetite didn't come back at all.  He took another 3 hour nap.  It was so very sad.  We went to the park in the morning and he enjoyed that, but he nearly fell asleep in the stroller.

Finally on Saturday he seemed much more himself.  His grandparents finally got to see some smiles and spend some happy time together.



It is so amazing to see how happy our parents get when they are with Elijah.  He is such a loved little boy.  Everyone in the family can't get enough of him.  We are so lucky to have the amazing family we do.  Everyone was on their best behavior this weekend and we all had a fantastic time together.  Elijah was horribly sick, but for some reason that really didn't ruin the trip at all.  I was kind of glad that I was in Phoenix.  It kept me calm and distracted me.  This was only the second fever of Elijah's life, and this was by far the most sick he's ever been.  But I was able to respond appropriately without getting too freaked out and overreacting.  I was so glad to have lots of people willing to hold him because that's all he wanted for two solid days.  He didn't smile or laugh at all Thursday or Friday.  But on Saturday he made up for it.