I like low-key

We have had a pretty low-key week. Elijah's cough gets a little bit better every day. He still coughs in the night here and there, but it's just something we've gotten used to (sadly). One of the things E's pediatrician said last week was that he is probably just going to be one of these kids who gets croup and the coughies constantly until he's five years old. Wonderful! It could be worse.. so, we'll take it without too much complaining..

Yesterday's crazy snow storm kept us from going to PT/speech. He did get his home PT visit on Wednesday, and that went well. They are always so amazed at how much information is in his little head that he just isn't able to express yet. They had some really good ideas for us to get him to communicate better that I'm excited to try.

We have a super fun weekend ahead of us. Tonight Dan and I have a babysitter coming over to sit with Elijah while he sleeps so we can go meet some skydiving friends for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It's been quite a while since we've seen some of them, so it will be fun to catch up. Tomorrow we are bringing the little man down to my sister's in the afternoon so we can go skiing for a couple hours. Back before I was a mama I used to ski all the time, so this is really exciting for me. It has been THREE YEARS since I've been on the slopes. That is way too long! I'm going to be all wobbly-legged and sloppy. Sunday will be a day of rest (since my old, weak legs will surely be sore), spent with my wonderful little family.. I hope you all have a great weekend!

p.s. My friend Cara's niece, Ellie, passed away this week after battling brain cancer for ten months. Please send up a little prayer for her family.. :(

Our 2008 Christmas party pic...this year minus Elijah...and look at how gorgeous my hubby is..

A few fun things

Elijah found another true love...the cute stuffed monkey from the last post (a birthday gift from Dan's mom). He holds it in front of him and stares lovingly at his face. He will occasionally kiss it or giggle at it. When I got him out of bed this morning he was gazing into Monkey's eyes with a huge smile on his face.

I was playing with Elijah yesterday when he did TWO new signs that I have never seen him do before. Of course, he won't do them again, but this just shows how much he's messing with me. He put his finger tips together and then pointed at his nose. This is the sign for more, so I said, "More nose?" He did it again, and I realized he was doing the sign for "owie," which is very similar. He had goopy snot all over his nose (yum) so I'm guessing he was telling me it felt weird and to please get rid of it?? It's my best guess. Then just a few minutes later I was singing a song that he listens to a lot. After I sang the part that goes, "Kitten, kitten, Kuh Kuh Kuh.." he pinched his cheek. I said, "Cheek? Ohhhh yes, kitty!" Pinching your cheeks like whiskers is the sign for cat. Wow, kid, you need to divulge all that you know. We haven't shown him the signs for "kitty" or "owie" in a very long time, so he has to have a ton of knowledge in that little head that he's just waiting to release.

Then later, he was playing with his letter magnets on the fridge. He crawled over to me and handed me the letter X and then said, "Kuh. Kuh." Close enough. Wow, he even knows what sounds letters make? Yes, he's definitely holding out.

This weekend he started occasionally pointing to me and saying, "Mama!" and to Dan and saying, "Dada!" Dan and I looked at each other a couple times like, WHOA! COOL!

On Saturday I heard him in the living room doing his usual alien-sounding babble. I peeked in and he had my phone up to his ear, blabbing away. He went on and on, then he said, "BYYYyyeeeee!" and pushed a button and set the phone down. I wish I had gotten this on video but the batteries were dead. It was so stinkin' cute.

We are TWO!

Dan and I took Elijah out for a birthday dinner last night. He loved his grilled cheese, as usual, and his chocolate oreo mousse, too. Then Elijah had a nice present for us...the biggest, poopiest diaper we've seen in a long time. When I set him down in the living room, I noticed some chunky looking things on the sleeve of my coat. Hmmmmm....it looked like throw-up, but there was no evidence that that had happened. I shrugged it off, and then I heard Dan say, "OOOoohhhhhh!! That's what it is!" Elijah had pooped up his back and shared it all with us! Thanks, little man! :) We threw him into the tub and then opened presents. He got some fun things and played with them for a bit and then it was time for bed. It had been an almost full week of daycare, and that always wears him down.


Enjoying the chocolate mousse dessert

Today we had some family and close friends over for a little celebration. It was fun! Elijah wasn't so sure of his cake at first, but he ate a little bit of it. He loved the ice cream. At times he was a bit overwhelmed by all of the attention, but he did well. By the time everyone had left, he was an exhausted boy. He got such nice gifts....he is such a lucky boy!


LOVING the train set from Grammie P and Gramps...thanks guys!

Yesterday was E's 2-year well visit, and it went really well. His weight was in the 30th-ish percentile and his height was just under that. This is great news! His height had been at a plateau for a while, so this spurt eased some worries. Medically, he is doing great. He is progressing in many ways, although obviously "behind." I asked Dr. Judy about autism because of his seriously delayed speech and she thought NO. Yay! She thought that as long as he communicated somehow (pointing, signing, grunting, etc.) that he was probably ok. We will re-evaluate in six months. There were no other major issues. We have cardiology, urology and pulmonology in two months. Dr. J thought it would be a good idea to get in to see his geneticist soon to make sure there isn't something genetic going on with all the anomalies he has.


Bath toys, hmmmmm, look at my sweet double chin...

We love our boy so much. He brings such amazing joy to our lives. We are so happy and thankful for these two years. He has changed our lives immensely. Thanks for checking in. We are so appreciative of our amazing family and friends. xooxxo


New magnets!


Hanging out with sweet cousin Bella


Opening presents, yay!




I'm going in for a kiss with soft cuddly monkey (he even took him to bed tonight..)


Reading a new book


I know it's blurry, but I love this sweet face


BLOW!


Hmmmm, not so sure about this..


Try some!


Really?


Yummmm


Who put the hat on me?


What....


What is this?


Mmmmmm, I love my cousin Emma..

Two amazing years!

Before we had Elijah, I wondered if having a baby would interfere with life in a way that would make me want my baby-less life back. Dan and I love to travel and we love to get out and do fun things and I wondered if those things would come to a dead halt and make me sad. For a few months after Elijah was born our life was certainly put on hold, but that was to be expected. Turns out, once the newborn fog lifted, we were still able to travel and we still find time to get out and do things that we enjoy. And I must say, it is all much much sweeter now because we know to appreciate it in a way that we never knew before. Vacation before was fun. Vacation now is AMAZING. We have had to give up a lot of our spontaneity, but that is such a small price to pay for the new wonderful things that have spilled into our lives.

I'm so happy that we decided and were able to become parents. I could never have fathomed the weight of the following words before we had our little Elijah: The things I have learned! It's like I was roaming around the world half-blind before February 20, 2007, with half a heart and half a brain. I just wish I would have met Dan sooner so we could have twelve kids! I'm kidding.

Elijah, thank you for changing my life in the best way I could have ever imagined. Thank you for making me a better person. Thank you for showing me how fulfilling it is to live life with someone else's best interest as my first priority. I love you like crazy. Happy second birthday, sweet boy!

Ups and downs amidst the balance

It has been a weird day for me emotionally. Lots of things running through my head. Little Ellie isn't doing very well, and her family is under a lot of stress. Every time I think about them I start to cry. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Then thoughts of Elijah's birthday (tomorrow!) pop into my head and my mood swings to pure happiness and I get butterflies in my tummy. I start to cry again, but this time for happy reasons.

Then I think of something else that has been weighing on my heart that I'm having a hard time understanding, and I get sad again.

So it's been an emotional day. Tomorrow will be better, much better. I can't believe we will be celebrating our little boy's SECOND birthday! Time has gone so fast, yet we feel like we've lived a decade in that amount of time. We wrapped up some fun gifts for Elijah, so he will get to open those tomorrow night. I think we will take him out to eat after work as a little treat. Saturday we are having a few close friends and family over for a little celebration (that I haven't even begun to plan or clean for yet...yikes!).

Elijah has still been doing a lot of coughing. He isn't sleeping well still, so he's been pretty tired and whiny and clingy. He's still the cutest, sweetest little thing, though. And he is still MADLY IN LOVE with his new truck/cars. Like, obsessed.

Aside from today's ups and downs, we have felt really balanced as a family lately. Dan and I have decided to start eating well and exercising regularly, and the good emotional changes that have come from these things have positively affected other areas of our lives, as well. We just seem to be more motivated and spiritual and consistent and positive and our moods have been better in general. I feel like I have the perfect balance of things in my daily life. Well, I'd replace some work time with Elijah time if I could, but that's not an option. Other than that, everything feels really good for us right now. Thank you, God!

Check back in this weekend for birthday pics!!

True love

A very generous new friend of ours who follows this blog, recently sent Elijah some really thoughtful birthday gifts in the mail. She gave him some very nice clothes and two toy trucks. His birthday isn't until Friday, but we let him open one of the trucks last night. Some sort of magic transpired the moment Elijah laid eyes on this thing. He was instantly IN LOVE. It's a truck that transports cars, so it has a ramp that opens up in two spots. It also came with three little cars that fit on top and inside of the transporter. With all those wheels and with the ramps acting as doors that can be opened and closed repeatedly, he was just in heaven last night. He even ignored Sid the Science Kid to play with it.



I knew there would be a scene at bedtime because I don't let Elijah take toys into bed with him because he won't sleep. When I told him it was time for bed, he scooped up one of the little cars discreetly and held it to his side like maybe I wouldn't see it. I tried to make a game of it and told him to put it inside of the transporter. He did it willingly, but then scooped it right back out and held it very tightly to his chest. I finally just had to take it from him and put it away, and of course he cried gigantic tears. Minutes later, well into Book #2, in a different room on a different floor of our house, he was still sporadically crying for his little car. He would be ok for a minute and then he would remember and let out a whiny, sad little cry. Mama is so mean!



Dan was home with him today and he said he thought Elijah might need rehab for his new addiction. It's fun to see him enjoying something so much. Thank you so much, Cecilia! You have been very generous with your gifts and as you can tell, you sent the perfect things. I'm excited to see how much he will love the other truck you sent to him!


We've been working on eating with a spoon and he is doing pretty well. Wow, things get messy, but that's ok...


Major slumping after standing for a while


Yummy Valentine cookie

Elijah's gross motor progress report.. He climbed a stair all by himself! We didn't see it happen. Dan was half way up the stairs and I was in the living room when I looked over and saw him playing in a kneeling position one stair up from the floor. He has accomplished one significant feat every week for the past couple months, so we're still on a roll. Our amazing kid!

His cough is pretty icky still. I just hate that every time he gets sick it lingers in his lungs like this. There is never anything to do except lots of nebs and patience, so that's what we are doing!

Coughy

On Friday afternoon, the lady who watches Elijah during the day called me at work. She was slightly worried about the fact that he kept crawling under the chair to take naps. This is definitely not like him, so I left work early to see him with my own eyes and make sure everything was ok. Turns out, he was just tired from all the coughing and all the non-sleeping, but it felt good to be with him when he was feeling so yucky.

Elijah spent the weekend doing much of the same...coughing and not sleeping very well. But! Dan and I were still able to get out on Friday night while my friend Debra stayed with the little man. Aaahhhhh, it was so nice. Saturday night Dan made us a yummy Valentine's Day dinner that we enjoyed in candlelight after Elijah was in bed: steak, salmon, baked potato and salad. We actually made it to church yesterday because the speaker was the person who married us almost three years ago.

A quick, super funny story.. When I picked Elijah up at daycare on Friday, one of the little girls who also goes there who is probably around four years old came up to me as I was putting his coat and shoes on. She said, "Are you Elijah's grandma?" UHHhhhh! Whoa! One day I'm told I look like I'm 18 and the next day I'm called a grandma!

I have some cute Elijah pics on our camera but I haven't downloaded them yet and the camera is just so far away. Sorry, I'm a slacker. Soon, I promise. Until then, here are some really ancient, really funny ones..


Dan at 6 months old. Check out the neck rolls! I wonder if he tripped over those things while trying to crawl.


Little Dan at 2 1/2...sooo cute!


Apparently Dan was much more cooperative with the hair cuts than Elijah is. Wow, that is some nice wallpaper.


Little me, doing my favorite thing...eating!


My dad holding me (I wish his face hadn't been clipped out) when I was probably about 2. I think my smile and eyes in this pic look identical to Elijah's (see second pic from top in previous post).


I must have been writing an important letter to Santa.


This is one of my favorite photos of all time. That's my dad, stepmom, little brother and me when I was in high school. I love the repulsed and disgusted look on my face in contrast with my brother's carefree, happy one...and GEEZ MEGAN, roll those pants up just a little higher.


WHOA.

Piggy man

The good thing about giving Elijah steroids is that eating is suddenly not an issue. At all. Last night I put a tortilla with cream cheese "appetizer" in front of him while I was getting his dinner ready and when I looked over a minute later the whole thing was GONE. I'm thinking this is my opportunity to put spinach and brussel sprouts on his plate.

He is a cough monster right now, but this round isn't nearly as bad as it has been in the past. Unless something strange happens today, Dan and I are ON for date night tonight. I'm super excited! We have been really diligent about eating well and exercising for the past two weeks, so eating out sounds extra fun and yummy to me. THANK YOU SO MUCH, DEBRA, for offering to watch our munchkin! We appreciate this mucho.

I STILL haven't taken any new Elijah pics, so here are a few more from his younger days. Because he is so old now.


Before surgery #1...waiting for the anesthesiologist to come take my baby. :(


The cutest dragon I've ever seen. That smile melts my heart.


Eight months old. He was not fond of the pumpkin.


Ten months old. Reading a book at Grammie and Gramps' house in NC.


Story time with Grandpa before bed


Fishy face


One of my favorites


Couldn't you just kiss that face all over?

Mama knows

I spent the evening with Elijah last night while Dan was at his sister's house. When Dan got home I said, "High alert for croup!" I just knew it would happen. Sure enough, at 9:00 we heard the stridor through the baby monitor. It was a mild episode compared to previous ones, but it was still something to be concerned about. We got him into a steamy bathroom, gave him a racemic epi neb (LOVE this stuff!) and a dose of oral steroids. After all this, his breathing was just fine. He still has croup remnants, a cough and sniffles, but those things are manageable. We are following his pulmonologist's directions to the T because we want to make sure it goes away quickly. He will be taking oral steroids for the next few days (yuck) and high dose pulmicort nebs. So! Round 4 of croup for the '08-'09 cold season!

My friend Debra has very generously offered to come over and babysit Elijah tomorrow night so Dan and I can get out of the house for a bit, so hopefully the little man will be feeling better by then. Aside from our Asheville getaway, we haven't had a date night in a very long time. How sad.

Teeth and crusts

For a few months now, I've been waiting for Elijah's last four back molars to come in. I keep looking in his mouth wondering where they could be. I think I have been searching for them since the end of last summer, so it has been a while. The other day I did a quick tooth count, and...hmmmm, 20 teeth?! He already has all of his teeth?? I counted again and again, and sure enough! They are all there, and they have been there since at least August. E's pediatrician has always told us not to be surprised if he got his teeth later than usual considering all the other stuff his body has had to work through. Obviously this is not the case! And aside from maybe the first two teeth he ever sprouted, he has never shown a single sign of being bothered by teething. Those molars must have been a piece of cake for him. Tough kid!

Last night Elijah ate another wide array of foods....more chicken pot pie, pizza, veggies, bananas.. and he ate two entire HUGE pizza crusts.

Still no new pics, so here are some more oldies...


One of my favorite pics, taken at three months old. I just love that chubby neck.


Four months old


Five months old


Mmmmmmmm....I love smooching that soft, chubby neck..


Six months old, catching up on news..


Seven months old, another one of my favorites..


Remember Helmy? I feel Elijah's lopsided head every day and wonder if he'll be upset with us someday for not sticking it out with the evil helmet.


One year old. This is still his trademark sad face.