New Pics

In case you can't tell, Ella is underneath the basketball. One of Elijah's many attempts to play with his sister. She's getting tough!

I love the way he looks at her. He's a great big brother.

This is just Elijah being Elijah.

These couple of pictures were actually taken by a good friend of ours at our home when Ella was about four weeks old. Aren't they beautiful?!

Just wanted to post some recent pics of the family. Elijah is really becoming adjusted to Ella these days - instead of screaming at her when she crys, he will either check on her and try to help her or he has even become able ignore and tune her out! Great progress! He is very sweet with her and really has started smothering her with his affection - always telling her how much he loves her and how cute she is while rolling around/on top of her. He gets kind of crazy, but it's very sweet.

I also have to share what he told me yesterday out of the blue. He just turned and looked at me and said, "Mommy, you are my favorite, best mommy."

Ella is now 10 weeks old and really starting to talk more and smile a lot. She really responds a lot to Elijah's voice and face, which is really cute. She talks to both of us quite a bit through the day and is usually in a pretty good mood. She is always very happy and talkative first thing in the morning when she wakes up, which I love. The most difficult time we have is being in the carseat. She really tends to hate it after being in it for about 5 minutes. Elijah was like that too, though so it gives me hope that she will probably get used to it at some point.

So, in general, everyone is doing very well and we're enjoying our blessings together.

Little Tidbits of Life

I just wanted to share a few tidbits of our life over the past couple of weeks.




This is a picture of Rigaud. He is a pastor in Haiti that we hosted at our home for the weekend, and he and Elijah became instant great friends. It was so much fun to have him in our home and to learn from him and allow Elijah that experience and new friend!

Elijah saw a Blue Man Group bit on the Today show and he thought it was the coolest thing ever - because they were blue and playing the drums with paint splattering everywhere. So, later we decided to paint (I had long forgotten about the "blue guys") and Elijah decided he was going to become the newest member of the group. Seriously - that was his intention the whole time - to be a "blue guy." So, I had to take a picture of him.

I thought this was the cutest picture - Ella's little frog legs.

We found this strange disk in our back yard, apparently thrown over by a neighbor, and Elijah decided to wear it as a hat. I thought it was pretty funny because he looks like the paintings of baby Jesus with a halo over his head in all of those super-old paintings.

Elijah thought it would be a great idea to put his old, too-small boots on Ella, so he did. He thought it was pretty entertaining, and so did I. This was a game that lasted a good ten minutes!

And, finally, this is what I found when I came back in the living room after being gone for about two minutes. If you can't tell, Elijah had climbed into Ella's pack-n-play with her to hang out. He loves his baby sister.

Amazing Love

I love this picture and I just wanted to share it. I've discovered that an amazing thing happens with your kids. When they're born, you realize that you've never known how instant and unconditional love can be. But the truly amazing part is that with each day, as they get older, you realize that you have literally watched them grow and develop from day one as they become these little people, and you grow to love them even more and much deeper than you did the first day you met them. This love as a parent is truly a miraculous thing.

I didn't think it was possible to love Elijah more than I did the day he was born, but that love has grown immensely over the past three years. And then I was stunned and knocked off my feet with that same intensity in my sadness when Eveyn died. I never knew I could love so much with Elijah and I never knew I could hurt so much with Eveyn. And now, we have Ella.

The love and the capacity to love just grows and grows. I certainly don't love Ella any more than I love Elijah, but I think my ability to love has just gotten bigger with each kid. I feel like I can love better and freer now than when Elijah was first born. Does this make sense? Maybe my feelings also have a lot to do with going through the experience of losing a child and also going through the process of dealing with a long history of depression. I don't know - all I know is that I love my three children immeasurably more than I ever thought I could and the thought of having more makes me smile inside (but not yet). If the love seems to increase each time, I can't imagine not having any more. I'll let you know when the fourth comes along - but no big announcements here - like I said before, not yet!

It's Inevitable

Well, I swore I wouldn't allow it to happen, but Ella now has a little blanket that says Princess Ella (which I think is really cute) and this picture (which I think is absolutely adorable). So, I've realized something - there is a big difference between calling your little girl a princess and raising her like one. So, I'm no longer scared of the "p word" and I think my little girl looks beautiful in her tiara!

Sleep!

Ella has officially been sleeping through the night for a week now! Yes, that's right - Elijah slept through the night at five weeks old and now Ella is sleeping through the night at seven weeks old. I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for either having the skills to teach my kids how to sleep or for passing on the sleeping gene to them.
Anyone who knows me well knows that there are few things I like more than a very long night of sleep. I love, love, love to sleep. And now, I am ecstatic that I am getting to do it for 7-8 hours at a time each night! If it were not for my little early-riser, Elijah, I would probably be getting about 9 hours each night. But I suppose I shouldn't complain, should I? Not only am I getting a full night of sleep, but most of the time when Elijah wakes me up in the morning, it is with a sweet little voice that says, "mommy, can you please move over so I can lay down with you?" He will then lay in bed with me for the next 20-30 minutes trying to gently wake me up - because he also knows that I love to sleep. He has even learned a few tactics to try to tempt me out of bed once he gets bored: he gets my robe for me, brings me my cell phone and pulls the covers off of me. At some point when all of these tactics fail, his gentleness will subside and he will completely lose all patience with me, which pushes me to the point of guilt that makes me finally get out of bed.
I realize that by admitting these morning rituals I am making myself very vulnerable to criticism from others. However, I know that just because I am a mom that loves to sleep, that I cannot survive on less than seven hours of sleep, and that my two year old has to drag me out of bed in the morning, it does not mean that I am a bad mom. Besides that, this all takes place anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 am. It's not like I'm laying in bed with the covers over my head at 10:00. So don't try to make me feel bad about teaching my son some responsibility by having him help me start my day!
So, Vanessa, there is hope for you too! Just teach your kids from the very beginning that "mommy sleeping" is a normal part of their life, and be thankful that your kids will probably inherit the same great sleeping habits as you!
Sweet dreams everyone!