Unexpected Blessings

When Elijah was two he was an incredible sleeper. A little snack, a bedtime story, his prayer and he was down for 12 hours straight. He would stay in his bed in the morning until we came and got him. Perfect, easy baby. One night though, he started fussing. I could hear him fidgeting around and definitely not sleeping. This wasn't unusual, but I usually would just roll over and both of us would be asleep within a matter of minutes. This night though, this night was different. Call it mother's instinct or God's prompting but I got up. Let me just say, for the record that I was pregnant at this time so being upright was not always the most pleasant. It turned out that his diaper had leaked, which turned out to be miraculous itself. If he hadn't been wet I would have given him a kiss and told him to go back to sleep. But he was wet so I had to turn a light on to change him. I had to move him to his changing table so I could clean him up. And because I hadn't just rolled over, because he was wet and I had to get him out of bed I saw that his lammy had gotten wrapped around his thumb. So many times and so tight that the end of his thumb was moving well past purple on it's way to black. I have no doubt that had I not gotten up, had his diaper not leaked he would have lost the tip of his thumb. It was 2:00 in the morning. At least 6 hours before I would have gone into his room to get him.

Two nights ago, after a completely normal night, I had just gotten Elijah to go to bed and plopped down on our bed to look at Bridgett on the monitor. Don-e was at training so I was planning on doing some last minute chores and relaxing. But Bridgett was making some funny noises. She's been in bed for about an hour and a half, and it wasn't unusual for her to wake up but she would usually put herself back to sleep. But she was making funny noises so I laid down on my bed to check on her. She started vomiting. Horribly, and as she was on her back she was choking on it. I've never run so fast. What would have happened if I had been doing the dishes and hadn't heard her? If I had just ignored the urge to check the monitor. She was swallowing so much that she couldn't even cry. Afterwards she was fine. We took a shower and cuddled for awhile and then she went back to sleep without any further problems. Except that it happened again last night. Only we had already gone to bed. Again, with the perfect timing, at about 11:15 I woke up and turned the display part of Bridgett's monitor on. She had just started throwing up again. She was on her back and choking. Don-e hadn't fallen asleep yet, he was messing around on his phone, and as I had just come out of a dead sleep I yelled at him "she's choking, GO!" and then followed as fast as I could without walking into a wall. She again, was fine afterward. She has a cold and is teething so I think the amount of mucus and drool she swallows when she is laying down is what is making her sick. But I don't usually wake up in the middle of the night. What would have happened if I hadn't? What if we hadn't held her upright so she could clear out her airway? But this night I did. I rolled over at the perfect moment to see her start to be sick. And we were there to pick her up and make it all better. And one night, a year ago I was there to unwrap a beloved lammy and kiss a booboo.

All I can say is God is good.

Pretty Girl

Bridgett is so close to crawling. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, back and forth. She wants so bad to be able to move around the house with the rest of us. But more than that though she wants to be able to stand. To pull herself up to be closer to us, more like her brother.

She will only eat a good meal of baby food for her daddy. She has no patients for the stuff if I try to feed her. But she loves bites of whatever I am eating, straight from my plate. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but she gums anything we put in her mouth like she's been chewing for years.

It already looks like she is going to have a bit of a temper. But if you look at where she came from that shouldn't be a surprise. But it is only on rare occasions we see a glimps of it. And it is usually frustration at herself, and not being able to do everything she wants to.

She is willing to go anywhere, do anything. Elijah was such, a laid back, easy baby that I keep waiting for her to turn into a monster child. I mean, nobody is lucky enough to get two perfect kids, right?

Stuck Together

Elijah stayed the night at his grandma's house last night. His 'old grandma' as he started calling my mom this past winter. She really did bring it on herself. She made a joke about being old to a very literal two year old. He will be three and a half next week.

Bridgett is very very close to crawling. She rolls and rolls and rolls to get where she wants to go, but is also pushing up onto all fours and rocking back and forth. She is also showing signs of wanting to pull up on things. She's seven months old today.

They get along so well. People with their stories and our pediatrician with his warnings had me very scared of what Elijah would become after the baby was born. He is nothing but a help with her. Bridgett will laugh for him better than she will for anyone else. Earlier this week I was rushing to put together a picnic lunch so we could go meet Don-e at a park on his break. B woke up while I was at it, but because she was talking and happy I left her in her bed. After a couple of minutes Elijah goes into her room, and a couple of minutes later I hear him call out, "Mom I'm stuck!" He's gotten his stool out of the bathroom and climbed into her bed with her.

Chocolate Bunny

This morning, shortly after he'd finished his breakfast Elijah comes up to me and tells me he's still hungry.

"Oh yeah? What would you like to eat?"

"Umm.. a chocolate bunny."

"What? A chocolate bunny?"

"Yeah. You know, like at Easter, when I found all the eggs and put them in my basket. And I ate a chocolate bunny."

"Well honey, chocolate bunnies only happen at Easter time, and it's not Easter time right now."

"Oh. Well then you're the chocolate bunny." he says as he gnaws on my arm.

Cute, right?

So Much

Have you ever seen anything more delicious? Me neither!

There is so much going on in life right now it's hard to know where to begin... Yesterday my little girl passed her three month mark. Unbelievably. She seems to be one of those babies that hits the 12 week mark and things become magically better. She's been sleeping through the night for several weeks now, but up until the last few days she has been a total pill with the process of actually going to sleep. She would fight and fight going to sleep at night, and almost never sleep during the day. The combination made for a grumpy little girl. I thought that maybe with as easy and laid back of a baby as Elijah was we were just getting our turn with a high maintenance baby, but since she's been sleeping better during the day she has become such a happy little girl! She is starting to figure out how to use her hands, which is so much fun. I think she may be starting the slippery road to teething, although I can not feel any little teeths yet. All in all our new little bundle is doing very well.

Elijah is doing amazing. A couple of weeks ago we started him at a preschool program. It is run out of a gymnastic place, so on top of the standard curriculum he gets to spend some time doing basic gymnastic moves. He comes home exhausted, which is awesome. We want to get him in their actual gymnastic program, but that will have to wait a bit.

As you probably guessed, we are doing some work on our house. A little bit more than some, actually. We're converting our garage into a master suite and adding room onto our kitchen/dining area. We will then open up what is our master bedroom now to make more of a great room area in our living room. Eventually we will add on a new garage, but all of this is being done in stages as we have the funds and a garage is on the bottom of the list. Don-e is doing all of the work himself, save for the little bit of help I can give around keeping two kids alive and some sporadic help from his Dad and friends. The man is amazing. I have no idea how he knows how to do so much. And he is doing all of this on top of his schoolwork and working full time and running a business. Talk about superman...

Not sure I have mentioned it here yet or not, but Don-e is going to be a fire fighter. That is what he is going to school for. He has tried to get into a couple of the smaller departments for towns around us, but his main goal is the Austin fire department. They will do their hiring the end of the summer. Keep your fingers crossed!

Just One

It is amazing how easy one kid is! Looking back on how I used to think having just Elijah was I want to slap myself. I had a dentist appointment today so he went to his 'school' for the day. Just having an infant, even one that is insisting on fussing during the day, is cake! Although I did not attempt to take her to my appointment. Her daddy got to spend his lunch hour with her. And I am happy to report that I still have no cavities.

In other exciting news, little butt there is seven weeks today. It's amazing how fast the time is going. But enough talk like that, everyone always says that so there is no need for me to keep repeating it...

She slept well last night again in her own room. I'm hoping we will have no need to use the cradle again! And, as I am behind on keeping updates here... at her last doctors appointment, which was her one month check up, she weighted 9 lbs. 2 oz and was 20 3/4" long. Both put her in the 50th%. We will go in the first part of May for her next checkup, and her first round of shots!

Three

We had Elijah's birthday party this past Saturday. It's hard to grasp that he is already three. Although sometimes it seems like he should be thirty. Like I've been a parent for forever!

It was a small party, with just the family and a few of his friends. He seemed to have a great time. He was completely spoiled, of course. He wanted a Thomas the Train party, which was really easy on me. Just lots of blue with some trains thrown in.

It seemed like everyone had a really good time!

In other exciting new, Tiny slept last night for six hours straight! But even more importantly she did it in her crib in her own room! Don-e and I are very excited about getting our room back. Not only for the obvious reason, but because we can't sleep with the ceiling fan on when she is in our room and getting too hot was giving us both nightmares!

Once again..

Goodness gracious, what a drama queen I am. I just read my last post, and I have to admit that with all the whining I was doing I don't even remember what was wrong. Next time I write something like that I hope someone slaps me.

Life has changed quite a bit since last fall. I have a daughter. Surprise! Well, anybody that actually reads this wont be surprised, but if anyone ever comes and reads this straight through, well than... Surprise!

Now... on to some house cleaning... I do, constantly, feel drawn to create with the written word. I love writing, would even like to write a novel one day, but I do not think this blog is the way for me to express myself creatively. I think that I may have failed at blogging so terribly because I have been looking to it to be my creative outlet. I don't have enough confidence in my writing to truly put out into the black hole of the internet what I really want to write. So, in saying all that I am changing how I look at this web page. So welcome to an online update of our life. That's it. If you aren't interested in what happens in our life, go some place else to find your entertainment. I will be your monkey no longer!

Today is March 28th. I am sitting on our back porch in almost 80

degree weather while Don-e mows our lawn. Both of my children are napping. (Miraculous, I know) This morning we went with Don, Michelle and Christian to a park where we m

et some friends for a community Easter egg hunt. Elijah and Thaelon, our friends kid, were super cute with their baskets. Typical boys they spent the

entire time before the hunt hitting each other with them.

Now, to introduce you to Bridgett Nicole Harris. This picture is from the day we brought her home from the hospital. She was born on March 2nd, 2010. Which makes her birthday 3-2-10. Only the smart people will figure out why that is awesome.

This picture is from yesterday. Maybe the day before. I don't remember. Some days are a little hazy as we don't always get a lot of sleep!

She is, in most ways an amazing baby. She still has her days and nights mixed up a little bit, but as she isn't even 4 weeks old yet I suppose I should cut her some slack. She eats good, and poops good and really I shouldn't complain about the sleeping thing because she already is getting much better at it. And, she sleeps like a champ during the day!

I do have to say that having two kids is a lot of work. Way more than double the work of one. But I love it. Elijah is amazing with her already and while we have had a few little issues, he loves her. He even calls her HIS baby. Seeing Don-e cradle our little girl in his arms is one of the sweetest experiences of my life. I have to say, with almost no bias, that our little family is pretty much perfect.