The plight of Dan's phone, and some lyrics

I forgot to mention a funny thing the doctor said to me yesterday. She said, "Well. Elijah is short. But he is definitely not skinny." :) That's our boy.

Dan's poor phone. I'm pretty sure it starts swearing every time it sees Elijah coming. This morning Elijah pulled himself up to standing next to the end table, grabbed the phone and dropped into a glass of juice. Luckily the glass wasn't very full and the phone is ok. Then, Dan noticed that our cell phone bill was quite high this month. He looked into it and found that Elijah had spent $53 watching movies online. $53! That is like a million dollars to us right now.

I recently bought the Bullfrogs and Butterflies CD for Elijah. My dad bought me this record, along with my little white and red striped record player, when I was 5 and had chicken pox. I listened to that record about nine thousand times per week. Last week, before I had bought the CD for Elijah, I realized I was singing one of the songs from this album in my head. But, I hadn't listened to the songs in over 25 years! It's crazy how easy it is to remember words, as long as they are attached to a tune. As we listened to the CD, Elijah and I danced around the living room (my arms are still sore from this), and I still knew every single word from every one of those songs. Thanks for the record, Dad! It has obviously left a life-long impression on me.

The song that was in my head last week has a little boy and a little girl having a conversation in song. Although a bit cheesy, as are most kids' songs, I loved the message that was replaying itself in my head:

Boy: I don't ever want to grow up.
Girl: Why?
B: 'Cause you can't play, you gotta work all day.
G: I don't want to grow up, either.
B: Why?
G: 'Cause grown-ups get too busy to pray.
B: Pray? Bobby says praying doesn't help much.
G: Oh?
B: He says you gotta do it yourself.
G: Well God doesn't say that in the Bible.
B: The Bible?
G: The big black book on Mommy's shelf.
B: Oh yeah. Who's God?
G: He's my Father.
B: You mean your dad?
G: No silly. God's much bigger than my dad.
B: He is?
G: Yes, he made everything.
B: Everything?
G: He even made you.
B: Awwww. Where's God?
G: He's everywhere.
B: Everywhere?
G: Yes, everywhere.
B: Tell me, what does he do?
G: He takes good care of me and you.
B: Why?
G: Because he loves us.
B: But why?
G: I don't know, he just does.
B: Oh. Well I still don't really want to grow up.
G: Oh?
B: But if I do, I think I'll pray.
G: Oh.
B: 'Cause you know I know that He would help me, if God is really that way.
G: Well you don't have to wait until you grow up.
B: Oh?
G: If you want, you can talk to him, too.
B: Ok.
B & G: Thank you, God, because you love us. And for everything you do!

Genetics

Elijah had an appointment with his genetics doctor this morning. Again, we have confirmation that we have the most wonderful doctors on planet Earth. She, like the rest of his doctors, is amazing with our little boy. She performed a basic exam on him, checking reflexes, listening to his heart, feeling around on his body a bit, weighing, measuring. She noted the main anomalies Elijah was born with: a solitary kidney, a heart defect, hypospadias, a sacral dimple. She noted a few other, smaller things: small ear canals, a funny toe, a large head, short limbs, gross motor delays, speech delays.

She said that looking at him, he looks 100% normal to her. Sometimes she can recognize facial features that would indicate a specific genetic disorder, but she can't see anything obvious when she looks at his beautiful little face. She said, "He looks just like you, except with a big head!" :)

At this point, we don't know if all of these weird big things and weird little things have a genetic explanation or if they are all just a fluke. The testing that was done two years ago came back completely normal. Now the resolution of the tests is better than it was back then, so she wants to run them again to be sure the results were accurate.

She also wants Elijah to see a pediatric neurologist. He has very low muscle tone (hence the delayed gross motor) and it would be good to rule out any brain abnormalities as a cause for it. The neurologist may want to do an MRI of his head, so that may be in his future.

After we see the neurologist and after the results of the genetic screening come back (it takes 8 weeks to get results), we will go back to the genetics doctor and go from there!

Elijah had a tough time with the appointment, and of course with the blood draw that followed. They did nothing that hurt him while in the doctor's office and he was just a mess. His little face looked so scared. Even while the nurse was sitting and talking to us, he had his arms wrapped around my neck super tight. Every once in a while he looked up at me and gave me a PLEASE MAMA, NO! look.

By the time we left there I was swallowing back tears. If a harmless exam got him that worked up, I knew the blood draw would be bad. I sat him down in the waiting room and said, "Elijah, you're going to have to get a little poke now. It might hurt a little bit, but it will be quick, and I'll be with you." He understood at least the gist of what I had said because his lower lip came out and he let out a quiet little sad cry, then he gave me a hug.

Fear and anxiety were all over his face. I started thinking, is it better to save some of the anxiety and just spring pain on him? Or is it better to put it out there and tell him what's coming? My gut tells me to be honest about it, because that way he can always trust me to tell him if something is or isn't going to cause him pain. After seeing his little worried face, though, I just felt so sad for the fear he was feeling. I sat with him in the waiting room and I said a little prayer in my head. I prayed that the blood draw would go as well as a blood draw could go.

I heard his name being called and I looked up to see the lab guy who has always had great success with drawing blood from Elijah in the past. We have had some pretty bad blood drawing experiences, but both times we had this guy, he did a great job. I almost hugged him! He was like an angel standing there in front of me. I remembered that his name was Dan, so I said, "OH DAN!" Luckily he remembered us from previous hospital visits, so he knew I wasn't a total fruity lady. He did a really good job with Elijah. He got a vein on the first try (!!) and it didn't take long at all. Of course, Elijah wasn't having any fun, but my prayer was answered. It went as well as it could possibly have gone. THANK YOU, GOD!

So, overall a good appointment, minus some emotional trauma. Looks like we're a step closer to getting genetic answers, if there are genetic answers to get. Thanks for the prayers! xo

If you can look past the messy living room and pantless little boy, this is soooo cute...

I just love how he has to stop walking to do his cute little arm dance. And look, he is walking!



We had such a good weekend together. Minus the unnecessary yelling, which Elijah likes to do a lot, it was nice. We spent today with Dan's family, celebrating his dad's birthday. Saturday we christened our new grill and made some yummmmy salsa burgers and grilled veggies and potatoes. Elijah has been saying more words in the past few days and I love it. I think he is saying "all done" now (which comes out 'aahh duhh'). He spent the afternoon with his cousins and, although he didn't interact much, he did well with the attention.

We are anticipating tomorrow's genetics appointment. Ugh. I'm praying that it goes well. Dan has to work, so it's just me and the cute boy. We will let you know how it goes!

I'm off to relax with hubby a bit and then head to bed. I hope you all had a great weekend! xxoo

Ankle support and genes

At Elijah's PT session on Thursday, his therapist took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants and watched his legs, feet and ankles really closely as he walked around pushing a little grocery cart. After watching him for a while, she told me she thought it would be best for Elijah to get braces. His little ankles turn inward and his feet turn out and he doesn't bend his knees when he walks. He just isn't getting the support he needs in order to walk properly. She said we could wait a few months to see if it gets better, but really, why wait. She feels that giving him more stability with some AFOs (ankle foot orthotics) NOW could really help him learn to walk more quickly. And it is time. He needs to start walking here, soon.

Sometime in the next couple weeks we will see an orthotist, who will take custom molds of Elijah's feet and legs (should be a fun experience). Most likely the braces will need to go up his entire calf, but the orthotist will be the one to determine that. We are hoping that this will be a step toward getting our little man stable on his feet and walking. I think I just heard my back shouting for joy!

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

Elijah has an appointment with his genetics doctor on Monday. We haven't seen her since Elijah was in the NICU two years ago. Since our (perfect) little boy was born with a handful of anomalies, and since he is still delayed in speech and gross motor, there is a possibility that he could have a genetic condition to explain everything. They ran all of the basic tests when he was a few days old, and the results from those were normal, but those tests don't rule everything out.

A lot of our little heart friends have genetic conditions, so please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I am in no way dissing on genetic conditions and your awesome little babies.. I am a bit nervous about the appointment. I know that's silly because even if Elijah has a hundred genetic conditions and sprouts nineteen extra toes, I will love him just the same. Maybe even more, because I'd have to give extra love to all of those toes. It's just, I don't want another label to put on my little boy. We have gone two years believing that Elijah has this, this and this "wrong" with him. At this point, it would feel weird to put another major thing on the list.

Here's the thing that calms me, though. If God made Elijah with a genetic condition, then that is a part of who he is and we will embrace it fully. Elijah is PERFECT. No matter what.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecchhhh

It's funny how perspectives and personal styles and perceptions of the world around us change over time. For the first time in a long long time, I dug down into the bowels of this blog and read a lot of the entries surrounding Elijah's birth and first surgery, both of which were about two years ago. I was reading through it as if someone else had written it, and I was so super annoyed by the writer. I kept thinking, who is this annoying woman? I used such cheesy, dumb words and phrases, weird punctuation, totally incorrect medical terminology (while acting like I knew what I was talking about), and everything was the most dramatic thing in the world. So, thank you, friends and family, for enduring the annoying writings of Megan and for sticking with us through that. I hope I am no longer like nails on a chalkboard. Actually, maybe I should be glad I am so annoyed by it. Maybe it just signifies positive change in myself. Or something like that.

There was a cute worthwhile thing I wanted to write about quick! Dan said he was listening to a song the other day at home that had the word "God" in it. After Elijah heard that word, he folded his hands in prayer. My heart turned into mush when Dan told me this.

Today is Friday! Have a great weekend!

Blankets and buckets

Before you call Child Protection Services on us, the bucket gave him plenty of room to breathe and we were watching him closely. :)


I had put the bucket on my head as a hat, and he insisted that I put it on his, too. I thought for sure he would freak out, but he thought it was the coolest thing.


I came home the other day to find that the boys had made a mini-fort in the living room. Elijah, being the security-loving fella that he is, TOTALLLY DUG IT. He loves having safe objects snugly surrounding him.


He's banging so fast on his drum that his arms are blurred! He really is so good with his hands. He handles the drumsticks surprisingly well.


Just getting done saying "BOB! (the tomato)" here. Check out the amazing blankie!

I ran across a blog a while back that deeply touched me. This family. Wow, they have been through a lot. They have lost six babies in utero, and have had a couple adoptions fall through at the last minute. They were blessed with a little boy from Russia, and love him to pieces, but they desperately want a sibling for him. They don't have the energy to attempt another pregnancy and they don't have the resources to fund another adoption. A few people have decided to help them out..

One of the generous companies helping them is called allyzabba.com. They make beautiful baby blankets, and they have agreed to give 30% of every order to this couple's adoption fund (you have to click on the above link in order to have a portion donated to the adoption fund. you can't just go in through their home page.). Let me tell you, these blankets are AMAZING. We bought one for Elijah, as seen in the pics, and it is the softest, most comfy thing I have ever felt. I'm tempted to buy one for myself!

If you're not in need of a baby blanket, you can also donate money to their fund through their blog.

I'm not pressuring anyone to help this couple. Everyone has different things that touch them and that move them to reach out. Only do it if it is in your heart.

I saw these two quotes on another blog this week and they perfectly fit what has been on my heart lately..

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” - Albert Einstein

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
- Gandhi


Look at that sweet boy. Mmmmm, I love him.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

The week is going well for us. Elijah's cough is much better finally. I recently read through some of the posts I've written in the past few months and I was reminded how much sickness this kid has endured this winter. Actually, it started way back in August. I have been praying so hard for a break for him this spring and summer. His poor little body certainly deserves it.

Elijah has started saying "uh oh!" this week. It's really cute. I first noticed it when Larry the Cucumber ran into a wall (on tv, he wasn't in our living room) and Elijah let out a string of concerned uh-ohs.

He is still calling everyone and everything "Dada." Last weekend he called the nice young man behind the counter at the grocery store "Dada" and sufficiently freaked the poor guy out. He looked at me with wide eyes like, I don't know what he's talking about!

He is consistently making the sounds for all of the letters of the alphabet. It seems like that's all he does, which is great! We have two sets of alphabet books, an alphabet toy with letter magnets, different letter magnets on the fridge, letters in the tub, and the alphabet/sound song that we listen to constantly. I think we've got the alphabet covered in our house! Right now his favorite letter is S. The other night in the tub, he frantically searched through all of the toys and letters until he found it, and then he held onto it tightly for the remainder of bath time as he said, "Ssssssssssss." Last week he had this same relationship with the letter R. OOooo, I just realized that S comes after R! If next week's letter is T..

Dan and I continue to listen to a lot of whining and yelling and fake crying. It's sooo hard to ignore this behavior after hours of listening to it, but asking him to stop sends him into even bigger fits of whining. It's tough for me because I don't get a whole lot of time with him during the week, and most of the time he just wants for me to be near him. I started a new thing last week where I go straight to Elijah when I get home from work (after kissing gorgeous hubby, of course). I play with him and give him my full attention for a minimum of 30 minutes before I start making dinner. This has maybe helped to decrease the whining a little bit, but not a ton. I want him to know that I love my quality time with him and that I make it a priority, but that there are unfortunately other things to be done in the house besides playing.

We had to say goodbye to our beloved tv this week. The cost to fix it would just be too much to make it worth keeping. Dan especially loved that tv, so he is extra sad. So that makes FIVE appliances that have died on us within the span of a few months. Old Fridgey is still hanging in there. He's the only thing left from the original batch of appliances in the house.

That's all for now. Thank you for checking in!

Weekend done so soon?

Beautiful boy


This was Elijah's toy area (half of our living room) this morning before clean-up. What a mess.


This is after clean-up. We threw one big bag of junk away and took another big bag to storage.


Drummin' away.


Sitting outside at our friends Ronda and Andrew's house. We spent the evening there last night and had a great time, as usual.


Sitting with the typical crossed legs.

PT and speech update

Last night at PT Elijah found a new love. CHEETOS! We have never fed him a Cheeto before, and I thought for sure he wouldn't eat the ones his speech therapist had set out for him. He typically does not like rough textures in his mouth (with the exception of that rice cake the other day). He hesitated when it first touched his lip, but he must have gotten a taste of the cheesy goodness because he persevered, and managed to gobble down the first Cheeto in about a half of a second. He wanted more, and could see the cup with more in it, so he reached and grunted and tried to crawl over the table to get to it. Of course, his speech therapist wasn't just going to give it to him. He had to ask for it, either through signing or talking. We all know he knows how to do the sign for more, but for some reason he is really stubborn about using this particular sign. It is maddening! Minutes ticked by, and he was getting more and more frustrated, as were we. He continued to refuse. Finally his therapist put her hands over his hands and did the sign for him, and that counted. She gave him another Cheeto. This repeated about 10 times. Toward the end, he would actually take her hands and put them over his so that she could sign MORE for him, WITH HIS HANDS. UGH! At least we found something that will be good motivation for him to speak and sign and try other things. Thank you, The Cheeto!

His PT has noticed in the past few months that Elijah appears to have some sensory issues. Most likely, the reason for the majority of it is due to his non-movement for the first 16 months of his life. The amount of oxygen in his blood was very low for a majority of that time, so he didn't have the energy to do much of anything. Now, after a year of having excellent blood-oxygen saturations and much more energy, he does not like to be moved into different positions too quickly and he avoids unique textures (in his mouth and by touch). His PT has been working hard with him to get him used to different textures and movements to correct some of these aversions by introducing him to a lot of new things to stimulate his senses. We have started each therapy session off with the swing. He goes back and forth, side to side, and in circles. This stimulates his vestibular system (inner ear) and seems to always help with the rest of the session. It seems like he doesn't mind being moved around as much when we do the swing first. They have also been introducing him to many new textures that he can put in his mouth and that he can feel with his hands and feet, hence the Cheeto. He doesn't care much for having wet gooey stuff on his hands or face and for having hard, rough stuff in his mouth. He wrinkled up his nose at a Twizzler yesterday! Whose kid is this?!

He still cannot stand on his own. We need to help him build up more core strength before he can do it by himself without holding onto anything. I would guess that walking is still at least a few months away. I keep thinking that maybe he will decide to give me WALKING as a birthday gift in July! That's four months away. I think that might be doable. Of course, if it doesn't happen by then, that's ok. We all know he will do it in his own time. We have exercised great amounts of patience, and we will continue to do so.

His speech therapist was really encouraged last night when I told her about all of the sounds Elijah has been making lately. It's a very good sign that he CAN produce every sound in the alphabet (or at least try...the l, r, x, y and z sounds are a little tough). Now we continue to work with him, and wait for him to decide when he is ready to unleash it all. This morning he said to me, "Baba bah bah," which in Elijah Language meant, "Mama is going bye bye." I'll take it!

The sweetest

The weather has been beautiful this week (above 40 degrees, that is), so every evening we have taken Elijah for a wagon ride after dinner. Only one night was warm enough for a longer ride, so the other nights we just walked around the block and got the mail. Two nights ago, after a short wagon ride, as Dan was pulling the wagon into the garage, Elijah gave me a sideways glance of disapproval. A second later he was a heaping mess. We have heard a lot of fake crying lately, but this was the real thing. He laid his head on Dan's shoulder for a solid couple of minutes and just sobbed. Apparently the wagon rides and being outdoors are a hit! Then last night after our short walk (because it was a bit windy and chilly), he looked sad when we pulled into the garage, but he didn't cry. I picked him up and carried him inside and I saw his bottom lip starting to come out. I used my mama distraction skills and with a huge smile on my face and my eyebrows raised high, I said, "DO YOU WANT TO TAKE A BATH?!" He adores his bath time, so he instantly forgot about being outside. After his bath, I put his jammies on and we were sitting in the living room playing. He crawled over to the banister and starting reeeeeeeaching up for his jacket. I took it off and handed it to him, and he handed it right back to me like, Put this thing on me, woman! I told him we were done with being outside for the night, but he could wear his jacket inside if he wanted to. I put it on over his jammies but didn't zip it up. He kept trying to close the front of it with his hands in hopes of magically fusing the zipper together. Then he pointed outside and looked at me hopefully. He wanted to go back outside so badly and Mommy was saying no. Mean Mama! It was really sweet, though, because he handled the emotions in such a big boy way. He did everything he could think of to appropriately let me know what he wanted, and when I said no, he didn't freak out. He just slumped his shoulders and looked down at the ground with disappointment. That made my heart ache enough to cuddle up with him while we watched an episode of Veggie Tales! Bob and Larry cure everything.

All night last night he repeatedly pointed at Dan and me and each of the Veggie Tales characters and said, "Dada!" Ummmmmm, no, Bob the Tomato is not your father. I think it's a good sign that he is finally pointing to people/characters and verbally labeling them, even if the labeling is wrong. Baby steps!

Oh, and when I got home from work Elijah was munching on a rice cake (what 2-yr-old likes rice cakes?). I brought him upstairs with me while I changed out of my work clothes and I turned around to see him trying to stick the rice cake into his belly button. Since that didn't work, he set the rice cake down and tried putting the corner of a piece of paper into it instead. That boy and his belly button.

p.s. His cough and snot flow are improving. PLEASE GOD, no more sickness for my little boy this winter!

WHINE wine wine

Aren't these the cutest shoes? They are very flexible (and expensive!) to help Elijah with walking. I just love the colors and how fun they are.

Oh my, we have heard our share of whining these past few days. If Elijah wants anything in the world that he doesn't get, we hear, UHH HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! It's something new for us, so we have had to really be on the same page about how to deal with this. So far, IGNORING it is best. Ugh. We haven't had a single dinner in the past week without at least two timeouts. It's ok, though. We are constantly being reminded how blessed we are. Our little boy has come such a long way and we love him so much. Normal toddler stuff is soooo welcome!

Elijah is still sick and coughing, with a runny nose. Poor guy. It just seems to get worse for him every day. Today he woke up with a red right eye and I thought for sure daycare would be calling me at work. Thankfully it cleared up and I received no calls! We need this little boy to get better. He has endured a whole lot of sickness this winter.

He has been doing some cute things lately. For the past month or two Dan and I have been regularly sitting down to eat with him at dinner, so we have been praying before each meal. For the past few weeks Elijah has been folding his hands and refusing to eat until we say a prayer. Then, five minutes later, he will request another prayer. Then, a few minutes later, another one. It's so sweet, and we never hesitate to pray with him. Our sweet boy.

He can say the sound of every letter in the alphabet now. If I ask him, "What letter does 'Mama' start with?" he will point to the letter M. If I say, "Apple," he will say "Ah ah ah." He has been randomly pointing at me and saying, "Mama" (sometimes it comes out as "Baba"), and pointing at Dan and saying, "Dada." Then he points at Bob the Tomato and says, "Bob" (sometimes it comes out as "Mom"). :) It's coming. He really is progressing well with his speech.

Thanks for checking in on us. Have a great week, everyone. Hugs and love to you all...xoxo

Warmth finally

The weekend went so quick! How did that happen? Today it is supposed to get to 60 DEGREES, so I suppose I will welcome this Monday. We can't comprehend what 60 degrees must feel like!

Elijah has been a sick little boy. Again. He has another respiratory infection, along with some sort of bug that is just making him feel yucky. On Saturday night, while we were at our friends' house (icky timing), he threw up his dinner all over their chair and dining room floor. He hasn't thrown up again since then, but he just hasn't been himself and he is once again coughing a lot through the night and disturbing his sleep. I sure hope he gets a break with the sicknesses soon.

Anyway, despite getting sick, it was really nice to spend time with our friends Doug and Tammy on Saturday. They made us lots of yummy yummy food and they were such good company. We love and miss our skydiving friends so much! It's a good thing the season starts up soon.

Yesterday we recuperated from not getting much sleep Saturday night, and then went to scope out some grills. After replacing our broken dishwasher and microwave, we now need a major repair on our tv and we have to replace our broken grill. When it rains it pours! Not sure how it will all get paid for, but I guess it always works out, right?

I will take some pics tonight of us OUTSIDE, enjoying the lovely weather for the first time in ages. Aahhahhhhhh.... Have a good day!

Pain and joy

This week I have been thinking a lot about what we were dealing with last year at this time. It must be the longer days combined with the hope of spring, because these are the things that were present then. The weeks leading up to Elijah's second surgery were simply awful. His heart was so weak, and we saw much evidence of that. It was a very scary time. I hope to never experience fear like that again. It has taken a lot of work for me to deal with the anxiety that started around that time. It has gotten a lot better for me, and I am finally starting to feel like I'm a human again. There was a long stretch of time where I would constantly feel like I was on the verge of a full-blown FREAK OUT panic attack (thankfully that only actually happened once, and unfortunately my good friend Ronda had to witness it).

As I was thinking about the things we were dealing with last year at this time, I went back into the archives of this blog and read through all of the March and April 2008 entries. When I wasn't shaking my head at some of the annoying things I wrote, I was crying. They were tears of pain and tears of happiness combined. Elijah's health could not have been more frail then, but LOOK AT HIM NOW. This kid. He is amazing.

April 15th is no longer Tax Day for me. It is now the day my little boy was fixed. While other people may be stressing about this day, we will always be celebrating it with our whole hearts. Without the surgical repair Elijah received on that day, he would not be with us right now.

So with the coming of spring, I am sure the memories of last year will come a little more regularly, but I am ok with that. It is painful to think back, but all I have to do is look at my little miracle and be filled with joy about how far he has come.

Thanks for the table and chair, Grammie P and Gramps. They are wonderful!

Fishy fishy

On Saturday morning, Dan and I decided to have a fun, special day that Elijah would enjoy (us, too!). We went to Underwater World at the Mall of America to check out all the fishies. Judging by all the pointing and smiles, Elijah thought it was pretty cool. It is so much fun to see looks of happiness and awe on his face. There is nothing better. We went through the underwater tunnel twice because it was so cool. Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch. I remember going here a few years ago and thinking the food was average and leaving unimpressed, but this time was much different. The food, the service and the entertainment that put many smiles on Elijah's face were all excellent. There were a few large (fake) monkeys sitting by our table that would dance occasionally. Elijah wouldn't take his eyes off the biggest one. At times he thought the monkey was funny and at other times he wasn't so sure about him. He would do his little chicken dance every time the monkeys danced, and every time there was a rain storm, he would look around like, WHOA!


That big lumpy hairy glob is an octopus. We stood looking at it for a long time saying, EEeeeewwwww!

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and played and watched a few movies. Elijah was in a good mood. He was pretty clingy, but that has been typical lately. His cough is still lingering, but getting better. Because of daylight savings, his sleep times are suddenly perfect. Instead of sleeping from 6:30pm to 5:30am, he is now sleeping solidly from 7:00pm to 6:00am! That is perfect for us since Dan and I both work early, and now I will have a little more time with him in the evenings.


I love this. It looks like Mr. Starfish had too much to drink, so he's slumped on the couch, watching tv.

For the past month or so, Dan and I have been diligently exercising and eating well and it has improved so many things in our lives. It's amazing how we are motivated to take care of everything a little bit better when we are taking good care of our bodies. We feel more balanced as individuals and as a family. It's such a good feeling. One of the things we do every week is make two new healthy meals that we've never made before. We have made a few really yummy things in the past few weeks, but a few recipes in particular have stood out. I will paste them onto the bottom of this post in case you're interested in trying them out. I'm a little bit obsessed with healthy recipes right now. I think I have meals planned for an entire year.

Thanks for checking in on us! I hope everyone had a nice weekend...oxoxo


This was the awed look he had on his face the entire time we were in there.


This turtle was so cute. He was huge! It's weird looking at a turtle from underneath.


Sharky


More sharks


Elijah loved watching the stingrays.


Especially when they came up close like this.


Blurry, but look how entranced he is! That's a piece of cheese in his hand. He held onto it the entire time.


Elijah, Daddy, a shark and a piece of warm cheese.




Halibut with vegetables
(is it weird seeing a fish recipe after looking at all the fish pics? sorry fishies, but you're so yummy..)

Ingredients:

2 pounds halibut fillets (we couldn't find fresh halibut so we used mahi mahi and it was great)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil (we cut this amount in half to make it even healthier)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons capers
4 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

2. Wash halibut and pat dry. Cut into serving size pieces, and place in a 9x13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir together the olive oil, parsley, onion, celery, bell pepper, tomatoes, capers, and garlic; pour over the halibut.

3. Bake until halibut is slightly opaque in the center, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand for 10 minutes before serving.


277 calories per servings, with 6 total servings.





Healthy garden salad

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons red wine vinegar (we used 3 Tbsp)
3 tablespoons grapeseed oil (we used olive oil and only used 1.5 Tbsp)
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 limes, juiced
1 teaspoon white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (1 pound) package frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans)
3 cups frozen corn kernels
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. In a large serving bowl, whisk together the red wine vinegar, grapeseed oil, cilantro, lime juice, sugar, salt and garlic. Set aside.

2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the soybeans and boil for 3 minutes. Add corn to the boiling water and continue cooking for 1 more minute. Drain very well, and pour into the bowl with the dressing. Gently mix in the cherry tomatoes, green onions and black beans. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving to chill and blend the flavors.


252 calories per servings, with 8 total servings.

Eye goop

I'm trying on your ski goggles, Mommy!

We have had a great week! Elijah got a little whiny toward the end of the week because I think he was just missing Mommy and Daddy. This morning before I left for work I could tell he just wanted a day with Mama. When I said goodbye, his lower lip came out and he looked so sad as he tried to give me a kiss at the same time. A few hours into work I received an email from his daycare provider. His eye seemed like it was infected. Dan was able to leave work early, thankfully, to take him to the doctor. It was just a goopy eye that needed cleaning. Everything was fine. I'm pretty sure he plans these things when he wants time with his parents. :)

I'm so happy knowing that I have an ENTIRE weekend of my boys ahead of me. We have some fun stuff planned for tomorrow, so I hope to take some fun pictures. Dan is spending the evening with a friend of his tonight, so Elijah and I are holding down the house. I'm heading to bed soon...I hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks so much for checking in on us. xoxoxo


He loves on Monkey every morning. All the time, actually. And I just love how cute he looks with his shirt off, with his cute little bare chest. Such a little man!


UMMMmmm, where is my belly button???

Spunky cuteness

Is my belly button still there?

All of the pics in this post were taken by our awesome friend Ronda, who generously offered to take Elijah's two-year pictures. Thanks Ronda!

Elijah has been super spunky this week. I think someone flipped on the Spunk Switch. He is crawling at lightning speed, absolutely everywhere, getting into everything. During the first 21 months of his life, when we thought he might not ever crawl, many people said to me, "Just wait till he's into everything and then you'll wish he hadn't started crawling." Well, those people were wrong. I have prayed so hard for "normal" stuff for him that I don't care how many times I have to run back and forth and around in circles. I LOVE IT.

Along with the spunk, there has also been a lot of whining. It really gets old some days, but again, it's another "normal" thing, so I really can't complain at all.

We've seen some good progress with speech development this week. He has started saying BOOOO and pointing at his stuffed bear, who is named Baloo (and who is also blue). I think that smart boy has caught on to the meaning of Baloo's name because he has started pointing at other blue things and saying BOOOO. He is also saying Mama and Dada a little bit more consistently. I mentioned none of this to his speech therapist tonight because she would have tried to work on these specific things with him and I'm afraid he would stop doing them. We don't ask him to say words or do signs at home anymore. We verbally label things and do some sign language as an example for him, showing no expectations for him to do it, and that seems to be a much more effective way of getting him to communicate. He does not like being told what to do.

He's still coughing, but it's not interfering with sleep too much anymore. We're still doing nebs twice every day.

We have a few little fun things planned for the weekend, so we'll hopefully have some more fun pics to share very soon..


I could just kiss on that beautiful face all day long.


Belly button happiness!










Monkey kisses.


Mr. Potato Head kisses.








He wasn't a happy boy when it was time to get out of this.

Blur

Wow, what a quick and busy weekend! Dinner with friends on Friday night was fabulous. It was so nice to see everyone after a long, cold, skydive-less winter (that is not yet over).

We spent Saturday morning with Elijah and then brought him to my sister's house. She conveniently lives two miles from my favorite ski resort in MN, so we drove over to Welch Village and skied for the afternoon. Aaaahhh, it felt so good to have skis on my feet again. We had a really fun day. The weather was perfect, low-twenties and sunny, the snow was fabulous and I even got to see some old friends of mine from when I worked there who I haven't seen in YEARS. We picked Elijah up at Auntie Lissa's when we were finished and went home and crashed. We were exhausted!

Yesterday we laid low, went to meet the gorgeous new little baby of some friends of ours, and had a nice quiet day together.

Elijah's cough is still hanging around, but it is getting better little by little. Yesterday morning he woke up with this level of energy that I have NEVER seen in him before. He was EVERYWHERE, all over the house, babbling like crazy, getting into everything.. My head was spinning! But, I loved it. I've prayed for this energy so many times in the past two years. THANK GOD for my spunky little energetic boy.

March is our last month of doctor freedom. In April we have cardiology, urology, pulmonology and genetics. It will be good to get them all over with, but I just hate anticipating the appointments. For now I'll focus on the March freedom and pray for an early Spring, too!

Have a good week, everyone! Thanks for checking in on our little monkey man.. xo