All wrapped up

Always the little helper, Ellie was pretending to fold this crib sheet when she discovered it was the perfect size for a little blanket to go around her toes!

"I'll just sleep right here!"

Church time again.  How cute are these boots?  A throw back from 2010 and Julia.

But upon taking a few steps in them it was determined she's not quite ready to walk in them yet!  Quick wardrobe change and smile and out the door we went!

Sisters

Double feature at mass on Sunday...the girls together with their matching shirts.

And lunch today was too cute - Ellie was so pleased with her new plate with sections for different items.  Today we had peanut butter sandwich, cantaloupe and I happened to have just made salsa so Ellie got chips.  I'm not sure she's ready for jalapeno in her diet quite yet!  Raise your hand if you think Mommy's salsa is way too hot!!!

Sunday Best

Ellie friends,

I am happy to announce a new feature here at Holey Ellie.

Thanks to generous family, Ellie's closet floweth over with cuteness!  Many cute outfits were given to her - especially the dressier type.

So for fun (and if I remember!) I'm going to try to take a photo every Sunday before mass to show off her new apparel.

Today's ensemble shows how big her heart is.

Ordinary

I appreciate the ordinary SO much more now due to the unordinary times we've been through.

So the first week of January was very, very, very ordinary.  And I would like to remember it.

I would like to read this in 20 years when I sit and worry that I didn't "stop and smell the roses". When I wonder if I savored the "little things".  When I ponder if I didn't appreciate being "in the moment".  The first week of January 2016 I can say that we did all those things.

We played with new toys without cleaning them up.

We had early lunches with four, even five items!! (Tuna sandwiches on homemade bread, grapes, fruit salad with more than two fruits, potato chips leftover from holidays and a piece of candy even!)

One by one we stopped by the couch throughout the day and snuggled under the quilt that still rests there.  When Mommy was the one laying down - books were brought to her to be read aloud.

We went outside multiple times a day.

We did science experiments, crafts and anything else that usually gets put off until "later".

Here's hoping when things pick up speed I can find ways to sneak some "ordinariness" into everyday life.

Happy New Year!!!

 

Christmas!

Wordless, Wonderful Day!!!

Glasses

A quick second for an anecdote from Ellie's life...

Last week I had all the kids at church for a Holy Day and leaving mass I had my hands quite full. Diaper bag, purse and a bag of toys and keeping everyone safe in the parking lot while holding an ever-growing Ellie.  I asked each of the kids to take a bag without thinking that I had barely tucked my glasses into one of the outside pockets of my bag.  All of the sudden Ellie starts motioning and making her noise (kind of like "Neeeeeehhhhh" on repeat) and pointing and trying to get my attention.  I was feet away from the car and turned to say "what do you see, a bird?" but I kept walking as I was ready to go home and get lunch on the table.

The time I spent looking for my glasses when I got home made me pause - I know I had them at mass!  So I texted my inside man who works at the church and was in charge of another mass in a matter of minutes and asked him if he could retrace my steps. I told him where I parked and what did he find?!  A pair of (luckily unscathed!) glasses!!!  Ellie saw them fall and watched them lying there on the ground as we slowly walked and drove away from them.

"Sorry Mommy, I notice things but I'm just not quite able to communicate all of what's in my mind right now.  But I'm working on it - it'll be worth the wait"!  Love, Ellie

Preparation

Happy December everyone!  By far this month is a favorite around our house.  The month is started off with a celebration of marriage - December 1st is the beginning of our journey as a little family.

This month was spent tying off loose ends from the fall - putting away paperwork and doubling up on some missed school.  But it was also a month of preparing and waiting for the wonderful celebration of Christmas!

Picking up the quilt the first week of December that I had started in the summer was very cathartic. I thought I was going to work on it all fall but the sewing machine did not get turned on those months.   Here is Ellie helping me lay it all out on the floor.

And here she is doing a sweet little craft we learned in therapy - threading beads onto a pipe cleaner.  She really concentrated and with a little help she can get one on!   She's really starting to sit for longer and will try anything!

Here are the kids in front of a closet remodeling we did - we had some shelves put in and now we just close the doors at the end of the day rather than look at dresser drawers that won't close due to overflowing!

The boys' Christmas recital at a retirement community.

Xavier and Ellie playing together in the yard. Xavier was helping her put golf balls in her shirt :).

The third Sunday in Advent - the pink candle for JOY!!!

Julia was under the weather for a day or two so Ellie got to share "the spot" for all sick children...Mommy's side of the bed fully involved with all pillows.  When Ellie started being a little pig with the pillows you could hear Julia say "Ellie, Share!!!"  Hopefully pillows is all they shared.  So far no one else is sick!

And now with a week until the birthday of Our Lord...our four gifts wrapped up under the finished quilt.  I had to "wait" to make it while I did something very important.  Now that wait is over and we now wait for the birth of Jesus.

Ellie was insistent on including her gift bag in the photo.  The other night she saw me wrapping some things for family and just had to have a present!  So, in it currently is plastic bananas, the angel from the nativity scene and a matchbox car all wrapped up in tissue paper.  

 Just for fun I flipped the quilt over to get both sides.

And I love this picture so much...it's overflowing with so much love! I love Ellie and Xavier's hands...can you see the shape they are making?!   

 ALL OUR LOVE THIS CHRISTMAS!

Thankful!

Monday of this week we had no school. After a stressful few months, Mommy the teacher decided to cram in school by the 20th of November.  So the beginning of our week-long break was kicked off with a celebration thanks to our free Chick Fil A item of the month...TWO Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshakes.

Ellie is still under a year of being an eater!  It's something I've come to realize lately - her anniversary of being "PO" (per os in Latin for "by opening" meaning - her mouth) is coming up the week before Christmas.  In fact - throwback picture - here she is on December 4, 2013 - almost two years ago letting me put a spoon in her mouth with the Chick Fil A milkshake!!!

And here's the big girl now with her own straw cup suckin' down every drop!

"Mmmmmmm this is amaaaaazing!!!!!!"

"See, it's gone now. It was in my mouth and now it's not."

"You guys eat yours all up yet?"

"I wonder if I suck this way if I'll get more from the side of the cup."

"I just love eating!"

And here's the big eater at the kid's table at Thanksgiving!!!  What a different child she is from last year!  I can tell you this about her Thanksgiving preferences:  she stuffs turkey in her mouth, she feeds herself mashed potatoes quite well and she begs for more of Mommy's homemade rolls!  So fun to watch!!! And Mommy and Daddy got to sit on either side of her to help her eat and keep an eye on her.  Can I admit I like sitting at the kid's table?? :)

Thankful for so much this year!  Thankful she's eating, thankful she's healthy!!  Thankful for all the therapies we've benefited from and all the developing she's done just in the last nine months or so since she started walking.  I'm thankful she's still fairly portable (although heavy!) and we get to carry her at times like getting communion at mass or when she falls down and wants to be held.  She's a big girl and a little girl all in one!  Of course we're thankful to the moon and back about the insurance stuff resolving and are trying to reflect on that giant hurdle being behind us.  

We're thankful you continue to check in on little Holey Holy Ellie :).

Phone Call

Two weeks ago, the phone ran during lunch. I got up to get it and looked at the Caller ID and saw a very, very familiar number.  The extension of my contact during the insurance application over the past three months.


It had been exactly two weeks since the approval and I had just started to have normal days, not thinking about it day and night. 


I said hello and right away I said "what's wrong".  After my contact stopped laughing she said "Nothing, we got your thank you letter."  Phew!!!!! But then she said she was told to remind me that just because we got the approval doesn't mean we don't have to reapply and fill out all necessary paperwork again from time to time.  Someone that got the letter felt it was crucial to point out to me I would have to do this all again one day.  It's something I'm WELL aware of but I appreciated the caution they took in contacting me. 


What happened after I hung up the phone took me back in time.  Here's what played out when I walked back into the kitchen full of four children at the table:


Xavier: "Mommy, can I have a banana?"


Me in my head: Banana.  A banana?  How many bananas do we have left?  Wait, what time is it?  Are we eating a meal? What meal?  How much did he already eat? Ellie - how much has she eaten? Am I hungry?  How much did I eat?


Me out loud: "Hold on, I'll be right back."  I then found the nearest quiet place (the laundry room) and took a deep breath and said "This is nothing, this is nothing" and had a few coherent thoughts.  I walked back to the kitchen table. 


Me: "No Xavier you had enough fruit with lunch already, I'll give you all a banana at snack time before your soccer practice tonight." 


Back to normal again after a 2 minute trip to the past.  I was humbled at how worked up I got myself after that phone call, how automatic it was.  Writing a thank you letter was meant to be a good thing, so I'm still glad I did it.

Dentist

Ellie had her first dentist appointment yesterday!  Thanks to a patient hygienist and a 6-year-old big sister who entertained Ellie, the process was amazingly smooth!  

Ellie kept looking at Julia for her next "trick" with some toys from the treasure chest and the dental hygienist got in Ellie's mouth for about three seconds at a time!  The check up went great, no problems with her teeth at all whatsoever!  Love hearing that!

At the end she got a toothbrush that she did not want to part with!  She looks so relaxed!

A Happy Birthday to the first Eleanor today!  She is celebrating with the Saints but we are remembering her today.  Her son and her granddaughter Ellie share a birthday and Ellie's dad and her own birthday are three days apart.  That's a little cryptic for those outside the family! :)

Birthday

Happy Birthday to Ellie's daddy who prefers cookies to cake!

If you think Jeff is a good father when you see him in action with the kids, he's even better when no one is looking!  The one watching is his thankful, blessed wife who thanks God she's known him for 19 birthdays!

At our appointment in Atlanta a couple weeks ago as part of our documentation gathering, Jeff took Ellie on a much needed stroll during the paperwork portion of the visit.  Ellie loves her daddy so much and has just started sitting next to him on the couch while he's watching football!  SO cute!

It's official

How sweet it is to get a certified letter in the mail with GOOD news!!!!!  

Post Script

I'm about to walk away from the computer and I just realized something...

I typed the part about helping the children be who God made them to be this morning at 7:24 a.m.

The message from Father and the quote from St. Catherine of Sienna about being who you were meant to be was at 10:30 mass this morning.

God was with me this morning while I typed that, while at the same time already at mass where Father would read that, while at the same time already in the future knowing what's next for our family, while at the same time back with us during the past few months. 

He always was, is and ever will be.

Church

 A general belief is that going to mass (or any religious service) is not about what you get, it's what you give.  But from time to time there is a mass where you just connect on every level - the readings, the homily, the songs.  Mostly it depends on what's going on in your life.  Clearly God uses going to church as a way to bring you into his presence.  Today's mass was especially powerful for two reasons.

One reason was the gospel assigned to this Sunday.  Second was the fact that it was "All Saints" Day where we celebrate the holy people that lived holy lives (or not so holy, then turned holy) and have gone on to heaven before us.

For the gospel, it was the Beatitudes.  As the words were read I could relate to two parts.  Over the past few months there was some worrying and some searching. I guess you could say I've hungered and thirsted for righteousness and am now satisfied. I've mourned and am now comforted.

And Father quoted St. Catherine of Sienna who said "Becoming who you are meant to be will set the earth on fire."  It made me think of doing all these things for Ellie, going to all these places, filling out all these forms has been all geared toward helping her reach the full potential of who she is.  Helping her in the ways she needs sets my hearts on fire with love for her!!!