Happy Halloween

Xavier reaching out to Ellie's hand: "Wish you could come with us."

Ellie, a tiger, a tornado and a sheep enjoy a low-key, easy Halloween around our family-filled neighborhood.

Ellie hung out with us for as long as she could be free and then it got cold anyway :).

 

 

Now here is a tribute to all you air-guitar lovers out there...you know who you are.

 

Aunt Louise

Dear Aunt Louise,

I'm so sorry your beautiful house got flooded and some of your stuff probably got ruined.  Here's a big hug to you from me.  I'm so glad you're ok. 

Shots and Oreos

The three kids got their flu shots today.  Ellie's is next week at her check up.  They did great and proved one of my favorite expressions: "Anticipation is often worse than Realization".  Although it might have had something to do with looking forward to Chick-Fil-A for lunch afterwards.  And then coming home and having early Halloween candy delivered by a loved one was a nice amnesia tool. Oh and then a very benevolent goody bag came that included Double Stuff Oreos and sailed us right into bath time.  

Xavier and I playing Yahtzee while Ellie hangs out.

Keeping the multi-tasking skills sharp patting the baby while adding up scores. 

Goodnight Ellie!  Your momma ate way too many Oreos today!!!

 

P.S. - We are praying for our dear Aunt Louise in Hoboken, NJ with the weather!  Love to Aunt Louise, from Ellie Louise.

Good try

I was going to Ellie after hearing her begin to fuss and Julia beat me to her.  She was on the floor trying to calm her and even kissed her all over her face.

She said, "But I kiss-ed her Mommy." Then "You hold her."  Then she took the camera and took some pictures of her own.

Doing better

Sunday was much, much better for our girl.  She was more comfortable and cried way less.  I think she just needed some time with this guy :).  I think he needed it too.

 

 

 

 

Sleeping like her usual self, easily and in the middle of wild chaos.

The week

Ellie has been good healthwise but very fussy!  Maybe teething, not sure.  So our week can be summarized in a few photos.

Ellie being soothed in her 15 square feet of real estate.

Children making some kind of strange combination request for a snack.  My goal this weekend is to make chili - a Halloween week tradition. 

Learning our new surroundings and habitats of all kinds of creatures in our new home.  This spider landed on Xavier's NECK while I happened to be out there with them.  He handled it very well.  I handled it in my own special way of performing a stomping dance that made the nurse ask what was wrong when I came back in.  The picture doesn't do it justice - trust me.

 

Anyway, Ellie seems to be fine - just fussy and not really willing to take much by mouth.  Oh well, as we say.  Just taking each day as a day of growth and getting stronger - that is what we pray.

Feeding skills

This morning we got a call from our speech therapist saying she had a flat tire and could not make it today. Not a big deal, she'll come one other day this week. 

 

So to make up for her not coming, we decided to take matters into our own hands with the tool she left us.

 

Well, Ellie took things in her own hands.  

 

Hmmm...I kind of like this.

 

 What is this thing anyway?

 

Where did it go?

Wait a minute, which one of you crazy boys took my thing?

Seriously, was it you over there?

 

Look Mom, no hands!

 

What am I supposed to do now with it?

Let me think...

Is it a hair brush?

A microphone to sing sweet love songs?

Maybe a q-tip?

Maybe the comb again.

 

You guys want some of this over there?

Back to this?  I like my ideas better.

Jacob's interpretation upside down.

Xavier gives her a hat - and we're done.

Rest girl, you worked hard enough!

Goodnight!

 

Sunday things

Ellie doing Ellie's thing. 

5 and 3 year olds doing 5 and 3 year old things. 

Jacob eating "take out" from church breakfast.  

Men doing manly things.

 

Finishing up the last corner of filling the bedspread with the duvet for the first time this year.  Exciting!

Leaves hand delivered from Maine, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

 

Two sides to every coin

This morning the kids got news no kid ever wants to hear.  We all have to get a shot.

Ellie's pulmonologist easily convinced us (she has an arsenal of fun words she whips out) of the need to stay as well as possible this winter in our house.  So we're all getting a flu shot for the first time. 

Jacob wanted to know if we could get it today.

Xavier cried and yelled and made me remember my 8-months pregnant self on one knee in the bathroom of the pediatrician's office this March when he absolutely refused to get his vaccinations.  He finally did get them later.

Julia cried but didn't really know what she was crying about.

So I wavered as all parents do when they have these tough decisions but ultimately said it was best for Ellie  She is the littlest, the "least" strong of us.  One of the kids said "Ellie makes us do hard things".  I said Amen out loud.

Then Jeff came home with yet another bag full of food.  This time there was a box of cereal that has never graced our home before.  An uncle and a grandfather of the kids are Notre Dame graduates.  Another kind of leprechaun was in our kitchen tonight.

I hid the box of fortunate clovers, hearts, moons and stars and told them they did great with the "bad" news today.  Then I said, "but we must find the good, because Ellie has lots and lots and lots of good, more good than bad".  So we went on a hunt pretending we were spies "looking for the good".  I told them sometimes the good comes in different forms.  Tonight it was in our pantry.  We found it and had a lovely dinner of vegetable soup and cereal. 

I later had my own session of feeding therapy while watching Ellie sleep.

Eating help

Today we had our very first visit from an occupational therapist to our home!  It's through a free program to make sure every child gets the help they need.

When we first signed up, Ellie was like 10 days old and we knew nothing that we'd face quite yet. Today we sat on the floor in our home and played with her using oral tools and getting her interested in having things in her mouth. The therapist was a perfect match for our family - warm and kind and very fond of Ellie :). Let's hope Ellie is fond of the idea of eating!